Landmark-III- Châtelet 7.IV.2010Treemonisha, Grace, Adina, Willard and Scott Joplin.

Applause!

Last smile to us before leaving, no hurry very smart and beautiful after the show.

Grace 's smile is a wonder!

Aïda from Marseilles 2008 .

Aïda from Marseilles 2008.
I was going to write as a title 'Amazing Grace' and then I thought it must have been said and written thousands of times about her, the first black lady singer to sing in Bayreuth and Paris.
I had to be at this show in Paris. Grace started as a mezzo and then having the 'voce' we all know if we have followed her, she then sang soprano roles and now goes back to her mezzo range. She always had fantastic natural easy tops and warm low range tones. I love her type too, she belongs to my voice 'family' and who could (or can) sing Eboli as she did? Her Aïda, which I saw in 1999 in Marseille, was grand; then I had the joy to see the young and beautiful Adina Aaron who is Treemonisha and was Aïda at the opening of the 2008-09 season at Marseille opera house. I loved her performance and she made a triumph that day. Here she is at the curtain calls.
Tremonisha, the unique opera written by Scott Joplin and never performed when he was alive poor and desperate, has had a triumph in Paris. Last night was the final show . I saw the Wed 7th one and absolutely loved it. The encore was like a fête. When it started, the whole cast was dancing and singing the well-known ragtime 'marching onward'joined by the audience clapping and singing. (The tune is catching and gives you happiness, which is what is required at the time being) It lasted more than fifteen minutes, sheer shared happiness with audience and artists together. Wherelse can this kind of happy communion happen? At church; but I do not go to church so somehow opera houses are a kind of churches...
It is possible to read, here and there on the French opera forums, criticism about the poor content of this libretto, and also the simple type of music. This is beyond my scope and as it is I think the piano arrangements made by Scott Joplin are terribly difficult and the rhythm is so hard to catch. As for the story, it is a tale about emancipation and education, not far from the end of Slavery. I am neither American nor black, but I appreciate this tale and this music as an early testimonial of a musician and poet who did not want to make people cry more than they already did because of their daily poor human life conditions, so it is in the tradition of 'laughing to keep from crying' as Langston Hughes wrote later.
Treemonisha is the only one in the village to know how to read, therefore she is admired and is chosen to be the head of this cotton farm group of villagers . The cotton song is really nice and soothing, the banjo player joined the five male singers a bit like in the minstrelshow tradition; there are wordplays and funny sounds 'hi-hou' from the bags o' luck seller, the conjure -man who will kidnap Treemonisha because she does not believe in this crap, silliness is pointed out and mocked , like in children's tales, but the music and the dances make it worth it with the three ragtime numbers at each end of acts which really set fire to the audience, especially end of II act:'Aunt Dinah has blown the horn'and of course the last one when Treemonisha sings her 'real slow drag' So this is it, even if the dramatic tension is not the best one, the singing, dancing and music are just like a rave and I am still humming the tunes and thinking about that beautiful cast: they all made a solo dance at the encore, and even Grace danced with Willard , amazing Grace really!
As for Adina Aaron her three sharp notes at the end and her swinging tune rocked the house down. Steady applause and cheerings for a quarter of an hour !
Paris discovered Scott Joplin's unique opera and made it worth it with this great cast of singers , dancers, musicians. Grace Bumbry will sing opera again after this Joplin revival, La Dame de Pique in Vienna next season.
Adina Aaron told us she will be back on Marseilles opera stage in two seasons, and she loves Marseilles!
I had to go to Paris and see Treemonisha because of my young days spent reading American Literature and particularly Langston Hughes. I could not help thinking of the links to draw between the musician and the poet, in the same boat for the People: 'Marching onward' links to the terrific optimism expressed by Langston in many poems, such as this one which is a summary of Black History as he lived it.Freedom's Plough
All that makes it the best artistic experience I have had for a long time.