Don Procopio (review)

Bizet was twenty years old when he completed this comic opera as a recipient of the coveted Prix de Rome. The eminent directors of the Paris Conservatory, who had granted him the prize, expected a mass from Bizet but, rather defiantly, the young composer sent them a comic opera. The field was not unfamiliar to him, since his one-act operetta Le Docteur Miracle had already been brought to stage at Offenbach's own Bouffes-Parisiens theater in 1857.

In a letter to his mother, Bizet wrote from Rome: "I know my own capacities. I orchestrate well. . . . In my opera I have a dozen motifs, but real, rhythmic ones, easy to remember, and at the same time I have made no concession to taste. Next year I shall look for the motif in grand opera. That is much more difficult. But it is already an advantage to have found it in opéra comique."¹

Don Procopio was set to an old Italian libretto by Carlo Cambiaggio, which had been previously turned into an opera by Giuseppe Mosca in 1811. Both the text and the music are reminiscent of Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Donna Bettina, a smart and lively girl, is in love with Odoardo, a young officer. Her tutor, Don Andronico, plans to marry her off to the old miser Don Procopio. But, with the help of her brother, Don Ernesto (a Malatesta-like character), Bettina turns herself into an intimidating vixen and a spendthrift. Procopio flees from what appears to be an unpleasant situation, and Bettina and Odoardo are happily united.

The score of Don Procopio clearly bears the Donizetti-Rossini imprint, but Bizet's own musical personality is just as evident. Some of the music would reemerge in a different guise in his later operas (Les pêcheurs de perles, 1863, and La jolie fille de Perth, 1866), and the marcia (track 3) was borrowed from the last movement of the precocious Symphony in C Major. It is relevant, in this context, to remember that this exceptionally attractive symphony was written in 1855, shelved by its eighteen-year-old composer, and then lay forgotten for eighty years until Felix Weingartner resuscitated it in 1935, paving the way for its eternal fame. Dismissing the creations of Bizet's "student years" is, therefore, a misguided venture.

Nonetheless, Bizet seems to have ignored Don Procopio in his later years. He never wrote out the connecting recitativi, leaving us with a torso of eleven musical numbers, mainly ensembles and choruses. The vocal score was published by Choudens in 1905, and the opera was first staged in a French translation the following year with minor but apparently inappropriate recitatives by Charles Malherbe. There have been several recordings, among them a Russian one on Melodiya in 1962 and the more recent Bongiovanni GB 2043/44, based on the Malherbe revisions, but this live performance from Warsaw presents the original skeletal Bizet.

In the absence of recitative material (secco or accompagnato), the listener is left here without a sense of continuity. It is impossible not to like Bizet's music—most of it is perkily rhythmical, full of attractive melodies, and colorfully orchestrated. The few arias are brief and make their points easily. Conductor Talpain sets comfortable tempos for his soloists, but, even though his pacing for the ensemble episodes sounds right, the choral singers can barely keep up with the written lines. The soloists, mainly Polish, are adequate in vocal skills and acceptable though not quite idiomatic in their textual clarity. Except for a tendency toward shrillness, soprano Kaminska portrays a lively Bettina in her brief aria and in the bright Rossinian trio (track 4) with tenor Parchelm and baritone Pruvot. Parchelm sings a very attractive guitar-accompanied serenata (track 7), while Pruvot's handsome baritone is severely tested by a high tessitura that takes him into falsetto territory. His trio with Don Procopio and Don Andronico (track 9) is in the best buffo tradition but, unfortunately, none of the participants is up to Bizet's intricate writing.

In short, the cast offers a respectable approximation of the sparkle...