FULL ALEXANDRE BIS (Martinu) Ramat Gan 2017 Anastasia Klevan, Dana Peleg, Alexander Yagudin

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Alexandre bis or Alexander Twice or in Czech: Dvakrát Alexandr  
• Composer: Bohuslav Martinu  
• Libretto: André Wurmser    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: "Olev" Theatre Ramat Gan, Israel, Little Opera Production  
• Recorded: December 2017
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Anastasia Klevan, Dana Peleg, Alexander Yagudin, Aviram Freiberg, Lior Inbar
• Conductor: Aviv Ron  
• Orchestra: Israel Chamber Orchestra Ramat-Gan  
• Stage Director: Neta Amit Moreau  
• Costume Designer:   
• Lighting Designer: Zachi Carmel  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Ariel Weiss  
• Date Published: 2019  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Alexandre bis (Alexander Twice; in Czech: Dvakrát Alexandr) is a surrealist comic opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů, (H. 255), composed in 1937 to an original libretto written in French by André Wurmser.

The opera was intended by Martinů, who was then living in Paris, for performance at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937. However, various delays (including the intervening World War II) prevented its performance during the composer’s lifetime.

Synopsis
The opera takes place in a bourgeois salon in Paris around 1900. The maid Philomène is cleaning and complaining about her life. The husband Alexandre, bearded, asks Philomène to bring in a suitcase and secretly leaves, allegedly for the station, crossing his cousin of the same name from America. Alexander’s portrait on the wall is outraged by the game of betrayal. Oscar, a man Armande had met on holiday, comes to visit her. He is dressed in sportswear and offers her a lesson in cycling. Armanda rejects his courtship, pointing out that she is polite and respectable. Oscar leaves.

The beardless Alexander-cousin arrives and explains that Alexander-husband has gone away. Armande falls in love with him at first sight and submits to him, which displeases the painting of Alexander and the maid Philomène. Armande then has dreams full of remorse. In the first dream, both Alexanders kill each other. In the second, the goddess of marriage, played by Philomène, condemns Armande and she is abducted by demons – bearded dancers. In the third, the suitor Oscar appears and dances with Armande on roller skates.

In the morning the maid Philomena cleans up in the salon and complains about her life. Alexandre-husband enters, without his beard, and says goodbye to Armande before leaving for the office. During the farewell, he discovers that his wife has also changed. After his departure Oscar enters. To his surprise, this time Armanda accepts his invitation for a cycling lesson. The portrait of the husband is left alone and expresses the moral – that it is best if a husband does not tempt his wife.

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