Une éducation manquée

After being bowled over by L'étoile, also by Chabrier and with a great production on DVD, I was very much looking forward to Une Education Manquée and this production and didn't find them as good. The operetta itself is lovely, it's shorter and simpler but with just as much fun and charm as L'étoile and the music is beautiful, but the production while quite good still is one of the lesser Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne revival productions.

The production's chief problem is that it looks very primitive, after seeing Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne's productions of Saint-Saens' Henry VIII and Thomas' Le Songe d'une nuit d'été their Une Education Manquée is one of their less visually pleasing productions. The sets are simple but lack elegance and are very drably lit, which is kind of the opposite effect you want from an operetta production. Technically, it is not one of the better-looking DVD Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne productions, the production is very nicely filmed but the picture quality lacks colour and the sound sometimes is not very well-balanced with some occasional straining the ears in order to hear the orchestra properly.

However, the costumes are very handsome, are well-suited to the period and flatter the performers. The staging is a winner on all levels, Une Education Manquée is short at just forty seven minutes and much is done to make those forty seven minutes engaging. Some of the production is very funny, and never any less than that, the charm is sustained throughout, the story is always clearly told and fun and it has the right lightness of touch and emotional impact, the melodrama being quite moving. The music is beautifully and stylishly played by the orchestra, who are led with very capable hands by conductor Michel Swierczewski. The cast is small, but all play very well, with Mary Saint-Palais giving a very sweet performance, Franck Cassard has a nice ring to his voice and is dashing and never stiff and Philippe Forucade sings with resonance and manages to make a potentially annoying character amusing.

Overall, a fun and charming production let down by some primitive and less than appealing production and technical values. 7/10 Bethany Cox