Nadia Boulanger, remembered primarily as a hugely influential teacher of neoclassicism, also harboured ambitions as a composer early in her career. Those ambitions largely faded after the deaths of her sister Lili and her mentor Raoul Pugno in the early 1920s. However, before that, she collaborated with Pugno on an opera titled La Ville Morte, which has now been revived in its first-ever recording.
The four-act opera, based on a play by Gabriele D’Annunzio, was scheduled to premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1914 but was cancelled due to the outbreak of the First World War. The work survived only in vocal score, and for this recording—taken from performances in New York last year—it has been minimally orchestrated for an ensemble of 11 players.
The story, set among the ruins of Mycenae—the ‘dead city’ of the title—revolves around a tangled tale of love, lust and ambition among a quartet of archaeologists. Musically, the opera references Wagner, Fauré, and most notably early Debussy. Despite these influences, the work struggles to cohere dramatically, running out of steam before the short final act.
Conductor Neal Goren leads the Talea Ensemble and a hard-working cast of four, including soprano Jennifer Williams and baritone Nicholas Masters. Their efforts, while commendable, cannot fully overcome the work’s inherent dramatic flaws. The recording, released on Pentatone, offers a rare glimpse into Boulanger’s compositional voice.
