Gilles Thomas

Comment être un père quand on arrive vingt ans après ?
Pour soigner ceux que l'on oublie trop souvent, Thomas a vécu des années dans un village perdu en Inde. Lorsqu'il apprend que la femme qu'il a autrefois quittée a eu une fille de lui, ses certitudes vacillent. Il lui a donné la vie, mais il a moins fait pour elle que pour n'importe quel inconnu. …

Thomas's Le songe d'une nuit d'ete is not, as one might expect, a setting of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. What it is, however, is a fantasie lyrique in which the characters of Shakespeare, Elizabeth I and Sir John Falstaff all play a part. Apart from the delightful overture and the exquisite tenor aria, "Ou suis-je," the music is perhaps not as memorable as that found in Thomas's other operas such as Hamlet or Mignon, but it is not without its gossamer charm. The production (taped on May 7, 1994) was mounted to celebrate the opening of Le tunnel sous la Manche (the Channel tunnel that now links England and France). In fact, the opera ends with Shakespeare and Elizabeth I walking slowly towards the entrance of the Chunnel–presumably on their way to France. Next to the modest set designs, the costumes (provided by the Royal Shakespeare Company) look more than opulent…

The performances are uniformally excellent – a splendid cast, with a marvellously affecting Fiordiligi in Charlotte Margiono, Thomas Hampson as superb as ever as Don Alfonso, and a particularly beautifully sung Ferrando. Deon van der Walt - it is worth hearing. The Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera have very little to do but their reputation does precede them. The true consistent glory is in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Not a group that does a lot of operatic work, they nonetheless have no difficulty in bringing all the polish and intense musicianship for which the orchestra is famous. Under the direction of Harnoncourt, with whom the RCO have worked frequently over the years, this recording shows that the Amsterdammers continue to deserve their reputation as one of the world’s very greatest ensembles.