LOUISE (Charpentier) Aix-en-Provence 2025 Elsa Dreisig, Adam Smith

LOUISE  by Gustave Charpentier
Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France
July 2025

CAST

Louise: Elsa Dreisig –
Julien, Le Noctambule: Adam Smith
La Mère, La Première d’atelier. Sophie Koch
Le Père, Le Chiffonnier: Nicolas Courjal
Un Marchand d’habits, Le Pape des fous:  Grégoire Mour:
La Balayeuse: Annick Massis
Irma: Marianne Croux
Gertrude: Carol Garcia
Camille: Karolina Bengtsson
Madeleine: Marie-Thérèse Keller
Marguerite, La Laitière: Julie Pasturaud*
Élise, La petite Chiffonnière: Marion Vergez-Pascal
Suzanne, La Glaneuse de charbon: Marion Lebègue
Blanche, La Plieuse de journaux: Jennifer Courcier
L’Apprentie, Le Gavroche: Céleste Pinel
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Conductor: Giacomo Sagripanti
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon, Banda Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée
Chœurs de l’Opéra de Lyon, Children’s choir Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône Banda Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée
Chorus Master: Benedict Kearns, Samuel Coquard
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Stage Director: Christof Loy
Stage Designer: Etienne Pluss
Costume Designer: Robby Duiveman
Lighting Designer: Valerio Tiberi

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Louise is a “musical novel”, or “roman musical”, in four acts and five scenes by Gustave Charpentier. It can be considered an opera. The composer himself penned the French libretto with contributions from Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and the inspiration of the surrealists. It is an atmospheric story of working-class life in Paris, with the city itself invoked along the way: young Louise, a seamstress living with her parents, loves Julien, an artist; she desires freedom, associated in her mind with him and the city. (Charpentier would later write a sequel, the opera Julien, describing the artist’s aspirations.) Musically the work is considered an example of verismo, and marks the beginning of naturalism in French opera.

Synopsis

Act 1
The Parisian home of Louise’s parents

Louise has fallen in love with her neighbor, Julien. At the opening of the opera, they recall how they met. Louise’s mother interrupts them and vocally expresses her disapproval of Julien. The exhausted father comes home from work and his wife and daughter implore him to quit the taxing job. However, he feels that it is his responsibility to provide for his family. At supper, he reads a letter that Julien left in which he proposed marriage to Louise. He is indifferent, but the mother is livid and, when Louise stands up for Julien, she slaps Louise across the face. The peaceful father asks his daughter to sit with him and read the paper. As she reads about springtime in Paris, she breaks down and cries.

Act 2
Scene 1: A street in Paris

It begins with a prelude that suggests dawn in Paris. The curtain rises to a bustling scene where people go about their daily routines and comment about life in general. The Noctambulist enters and calls himself the spirit of the Pleasure of Paris, and then leaves with the daughter of a ragman. Julien appears with a group of fellow bohemians to show them where Louise works. He tells them that if her parents do not consent to marriage, he will carry the girl off. Julien and his companions go off and he sings that the medley of sounds around him is the voice of Paris itself. Louise and her Mother arrive at the dressmaking store where Louise works (her mother brings her to work everyday). When the mother leaves, Julien returns. Louise tells him she loves him, but she loves her parents too much to leave them. He tries to persuade her to run off with him and she finally agrees to do so soon.

Scene 2: Inside Louise’s place of work

Louise is being teased by the other seamstresses for being in love. A band is heard outside and Julien sings a serenade. The girls admire him for his looks and voice. Louise quietly slips away – to run off with Julien.

Act 3
A cottage overlooking Paris

The act opens with the opera’s most well known aria, “Depuis le jour”; the lovers have moved into a cottage overlooking Paris and in the aria she sings of her happiness with her new existence and with her lover. A long love duet ensues in which they sing of their love for each other and Paris. Many Bohemians enter and crown Louise Queen of Montmartre. The Noctambulist presides as the King of the Fools. Louise’s mother appears and the festivities end. She tells Louise of her father’s illness and that her father creeps into Louise’s room in the middle of the night, even though they agreed to regard her as dead. Even Julien is moved, and he lets Louise leave on the promise she will return whenever she wishes.

Act 4
The Parisian home of Louise’s parents

The father has regained his health and spirits. He is working again, but has come to accept poverty in a philosophical way. His recovery can be attributed to the return of Louise, whom he takes into his arms and sings a lullaby. She is not comforted and longs to be with Julien again. A merry waltz is heard outside and Louise takes it up, singing madly of love and freedom. Her parents are shocked and her father becomes increasingly angry. He shouts at Louise and demands that she leave; if that is what she wants, let her go and dance and laugh! He begins to attack her, but the mother stands in the way. Louise runs from the room to go back to Julien. Only then does the father realise what he did. “Louise, Louise!” he calls. She is gone and in despair he shakes his fist at the city that stole his daughter, “Paris!” he moans and the opera closes.

Quoted from Wikipedia