<<  -- 5 --  Roderic Dunnett    IN FESTIVE MOOD

Most importantly of all, Koering scored one spectacular coup. He was successful in tracking down -- in a Swedish auction house! -- and purchasing the manuscript of a virtually unheard-of opera, Fiesque, by Edouard Lalo (1823-92). 'To all intents and purposes it was lost, totally disappearing from the repertoire -- simply because it never entered it. Imagine that! A new opera by Lalo! Incroyable! Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys (premièred at Paris's Opéra-Comique in 1888) is done very much in France, it's a fine work, and much admired. It's part of our repertoire here. But Fiesque, his first opera, was, it seems, never performed in his lifetime; and it has remained unknown till now.'

'Paris in the mid to late 19th century heard literally hundreds of operas by 19th century composers of lesser stature; but the suppression of Fiesque is frankly a scandal. Lalo made his name as a song composer, and as a violinist and viola player. His interest in opera dates from 1865, the time of his marriage. He submitted Fiesque, to a libretto by the well known political writer Charles Beauquier, for a competition in 1868 and won third prize after two composers called Phillipot and Canoby, both of whom later disappeared without trace from music history books.

'Having failed to secure a performance at the Paris Opera or in Brussels -- any hopes faded amid the political upsets of 1870-1 -- he finally resigned himself to its never been staged and recycled parts of it in his late works, the Symphony in G minor, the Divertissement for orchestra, various choruses and in Néro (Neron), a 'Pantomime' staged in 1891 but never heard since.'

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