Sourire
verbe
Prendre une expression rieuse.
Témoigner de l'amitié à quelqu'un par une expression amicale.
Être agréable, en parlant des choses
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Le cœur se partage
il est comme l'orage
On y cherche abri
On y attend la nuit
Ruissellement bu de l'intérieur
Voix douces comme la mousse
Deux visages remplissent la pénombre
Leurs mains cherchant leurs mains
Dressées
Comme le sont les racines rieuses
Ô cible de ses beaux yeux
Son sourire qui hameçonne la lumière
La mer qui se retourne sur ses pas
Il a dit
Il s'est entendu lui dire
"Comme il fait bon dans les yeux qui croisent
un moment la douceur de toi"
jacques dor
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Do you have any more information about the Michel Carré/Paul Collin "Sleeping Beauty" opera? I had never heard of it until now.
I knew you were gonna ask ;)
And don't worry you're not the only one, I just heard about this very obscure thing today while doing my early post! In fact, when you go check the Wikipedia articles of both Michel Carré and Paul Collin, you find nothing about any potential work on a "Sleeping Beauty" production... The piece is however evoked, described and link when you go check the Wikipedia page for the fairy, Urgèle.
Now the source for this Wikipedia paragraph is actually a double link to two articles stored by Gallica - the online archive of the BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale Française, National French Library).
The first link is here.
This article is from a newspaper called "Les clochettes algériennes et tunisiennes" (Algerian and Tunisian bells) from the 10th of January 1904. It was a Franco-Algerian newspaper about literature, humor and commercial business published every sunday. In the "Theatrical Week" segment you can read that an "opéra féerique" (fairy-opera, "or so claims the poster" adds the journalist) had its premier at the Municipal Theater: La Belle au Bois Dormant, Sleeping Beauty by Michel Carré and Paul Collin with music by Charles Silver (who received a Great Prize of Rome).
There is a recap of the plot that goes as such. Princess Aurore (Aurora, played by Mme Rigaud-Labenz) was recently born, and her five fairy godmothers (Primevère, Rieuse, Brillante, Sensible, Prudente - Primrose, Laughing, Shining, Sensitive and Careful) call upon her health and happiness. The King, pleased, invites them to a copious feast, but suddenly arrives the wicked fairy Urgèle (played by Mme Corot). Angry at having been excluded of the christening, she casts a curse: if the princess falls in love when she is twenty years old, she will die. We jump sometimes later, before the twenty years are passed - the princess Aurore is wandering, sad and dreaming, in the palace's garden, but her father's reassurance that once she goes over her 20th year without falling in love she will be free from the curse convinces her to not take part in the various games and entertainments of her young female companions. However the Wandering Knight appears (played by M. Broca) - welcomed by the king, he finds himself alone with Aurore. He is very openly in love with her, but when she answers favorably to his advances, she falls in a deep sleep as well as all the inhabitants of the castle.
A hundred years later, arrives the Prince (also played by M. Broca) - as he arrives in a forest he learsn from a peasant woman named Jacotte (Mme Stéphane), wife of the peasant Barnabé (M. Vialar) that the castle he sees on the horizon contains a princess who will marry anyone that is able to wake her up. The prince recalls that one of his ancestors told him that, once he had kissed a princess and she had immediately fallen asleep. Barnabé, overhearing the Prince revealing this secret, decides to go wake the princess and become king - but he is too afraid by the forest at night when he tries to go to the castle, and after stumbling over a rod/bundle of wood, it suddenly lifts itself in the air, carrying Barnabé with it (think of a witch's broomstick). Right after Barnabé was carried off in the air, the Prince enters, still thinking about the princess, and in the fog he sees Aurore that calls for help and tells him she loves him. He immediately rushes to the depths of the wood. Meanwhile Urgèle, in her cavern/grotto, calls against the Prince all the spirits of evil, while the flying piece of wood drops Barnabé right next to her. Urgèle puts Barnabé in a royal suit and sends him wake up Aurore, while suddenly, in a flashing light, Primrose appears saying "Aurore will be free, the times are over!" - which turns Urgèle's grotto into a celestial dome filled with springtime flowers, benevolent spirits and butterflies. Despite many obstacles ("flames, monsters and gnomes"), the Prince wakes up Aurore with a kiss on the forehead. All the servants wake up, and the two young royals exchange love vows. The old royal garden becomes green and alive again, and the good fairies appear, with laying at their feet the wicked fairy, vanquished.
After this recap of the plot, the critic-journalist tells their opinion. They point out that "apparently" it was a success in Marseille and Lyon, while it is currently played in Alger at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. According to the reviewer, its success is due to the "scenic and féerique" part of the work, "because, in truth, the music is too rudimentary. It is a musical dictation carefully written by an applied student, without any spelling or grammar mistakes. M. Silver is a Prize of Rome, which means he knows the technique of his art in a deep way. Unfortunately, he is missing something that is not demande for the examinations: inspiration. Not everybody can have genius, but M. Silver reveals himself as a beginner talent who under-uses his own work. Among four acts and one prologue, not one dominant moment, not one spark that makes the well-tooled orchestra alive. The author aimed at a too great simplicity, and comes off with a too-great naivety. And yet isn't the musical formula smoothly handled by M. Silver the best way to strongly express spontaneous feelings?"
The reviewer than says the actors really did their best to portray the characters - Mme Rigaud-Labenz and M. Broca were, "as usual" a triumph and only deserve a flood of praise - while the other characters were "episodic", and were "correctly held". In conclusion "the staging was very entertaining, and the play deserves to be seen". And the reviewer's name is "Frontin"
[As a personal note, the sources keep oscillating between calling this an opera and a theater play... In fact, Frontin clearly seems to call this a play, even pointing out with some irony that the work claims itself to be an opera.]
As for the other article, given this is already quite a lot, I will add this into a reblog.
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