As chance would have it, the day the Paris cathedral reopened was also the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s birth. To mark the occasion, his “Messe di gloria” was performed at Metz’s Saint-Etienne cathedral on November 29.

The last descendant of a long line of organists in his home town of Lucca, Puccini, only twenty-two, wrote a religious work with this Mass, heralding one of the motifs that runs through his operas, as in “Tosca,” “La Fanciula del West” and right up to his final “Turandot.” As with his minor works, Puccini drew on the themes that would be reused in more elaborate ways in his operas. Motifs from “Le Villi,” “Edgar” and, above all, his first real success, “Manon,” were born in this Mass.

Listening to the way Puccini balanced the voices, it’s a pity he didn’t use choruses more often in his operas. Admittedly, “La Fanciula del West” and even “Turandot” are not devoid of them, resulting in anthology pieces such as the first act of “La Fanciula del West,” during which the miners arrive at Mini’s bistro, and the great choral mass surrounding Calaf’s “Nessun Dorma” in “Turandot,” but “Tosca,” “La Bohème” and even “La Rondine” are operas of individuals, not masses.

The choir was not only the most important part of the concert, but also the most enjoyable. Nathalie Marmeuse‘s musical direction revealed the composer’s great sense of balance between men’s and women’s voices, particularly during the “Sanctus,” the “Agnus Dei” and, of course, the final “Gloria.”
Nevertheless, this concert was unlucky. First of all, it was played next to the Christmas market, and above all its loudspeakers, whose sounds penetrated the thick walls of the cathedral. Secondly, the orchestral part was reduced to two pianos by Ludovic Thirvaudey, thus losing the original power of the work and requiring the instrumentalists to struggle against both the noise from outside and the large sound space to be covered.

Bertille Montsellier’s and Sergey Volyuzhskiy’s fingerings were certainly vigorous, but they didn’t quite manage to reach the back rows, and so appeared only sporadically over the course of the concert. Nonetheless, if this reduction necessarily lost the orchestral colors intended by Puccini, it nonetheless made it possible to follow the designs, lines and currents of the score, like a Tiepolo painting reduced to charcoal or sanguine. What’s more, the cathedral itself was not acoustically ideal.

The piano, once again, but also the solo voices did not come across well. Last but not least, tenor Julien Dran and baritone Jean-Vincent Blot constantly paced back and forth between the front and right of the choirs, interrupting the flow of the concert with each movement. The high volume of the cathedral required the soloists to push their voices, which damaged their natural voices.

Baritone Jean-Vincent Blot’s voice didn’t come across too well, even in the opening “Kyrie,” but at times, as in the “Sanctus,” it hinted at its mellowness, albeit stifled by effort. Julien Dran, the tenor, made himself better heard, keeping a very appreciable metallic sheen, like a sword emerging from its scabbard, during the “Credo” and “Agnus Dei,” but there too pushed to its limit.

All in all, it was a highly enjoyable evening, despite the difficult conditions of the concert, thanks to the high quality of the chorus and the promising vitality of the young Puccini, who will continue to gain in depth and dimension in his operas.