Jules Massenet - Cherubin - - -

Beautiful, colorful, rich, elegant costumes. Stunning , catchy scene effects. Excellent stage lighting. Absolutely worth watching. Based on a play by Francis de Croisset, with thanks to Beaumarchais and Mozart, Massenet’s portrait of the randy young Cherubin is lovingly, even sentimentally, drawn. The main character is a 17-year-old army officer, far enough advanced in his career to have his own richly appointed chateau. Like Beaumarchais’s and Mozart’s girl-crazy adolescent, he wants to make love to whatever female he is near, and generally succeeds. Cherubin is capable of carrying on at least four affairs simultaneously: with a countess, a baroness, a famous Spanish dancer and a peasant girl (who at the end wins his eternal love, at least for the moment). Massenet suggests, however, that Cherubin is headed toward a career as a conquest-cataloguing libertine by quoting a bit of ’’Don Giovanni’’ in the romantic finale. Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume Director and ch