FULL La chanson de Fortunio or Fortunio’s Song (Offenbach) St, Natick MA 2026 Nate Dyer, Ruth Anne Sowa, Sean Haynie, Leonora Steward

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: La chanson de Fortunio or Fortunio's Song  
• Composer: Offenbach Jacques  
• Libretto: Ludovic Halévy, Hector Crémieux    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Keiter Center for the Arts, St, Natick, MA, Walnut Hill School for the Arts  
• Recorded: April 11, 2026
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Nate Dyer, Ruth Anne Sowa, Sean Haynie, Leonora Steward, Chenxi Cao, Mancy Li, Sharon Wei, Fiona Miao, Margo Fan
• Conductor: David Feltner  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director: Teresa Winner Blume  
• Stage Designer: Mike Micucci  
• Costume Designer: Danielle Domingue-Sumi  
• Lighting Designer: Mike Micucci   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Walnut Hill School for the Arts  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  La chanson de Fortunio (The Song of Fortunio) is a short opéra-comique in one act by Jacques Offenbach with a French libretto by Ludovic Halévy and Hector Crémieux. The music was composed within a week, with a further week being spent in preparations for the production. Its success was welcome after the failure of Barkouf a fortnight earlier.

  Taken as a whole, this operetta has never formed part of what may be termed the standard repertoire, but despite this, and especially during the period prior to the First World War, the title song remained extremely popular as a recital item, and indeed the writer of Offenbach’s obituary in The Times considered the song itself to be one of his best compositions along with Orpheus in the Underworld and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein – with La belle Hélène following behind these “at some distance”.

  Offenbach had composed music for the song of Fortunio in act 2, scene 3, of Le Chandelier by Alfred de Musset for a revival of the play in 1850 at the Comédie-Française and this was published (by Heugel) as part of Offenbach’s collection of songs Les Voix mystérieuses in 1853, and taken up enthusiastically by the tenor Gustave-Hippolyte Roger in his concerts. The librettists based their one-act La chanson de Fortunio around this song – with the story as a sort of sequel to the original play, the melody of the song being heard in the overture.

  Synopsis

  Place: The garden of Fortunio’s house in Lorraine
  Time: Seventeenth century
  Maître Fortunio, an elderly lawyer, is married to a young and attractive wife (Laurette).

  Many years ago, when he was a young clerk, Fortunio had seduced the wife of his employer with the help of a particularly alluring song which he used as a means of charming her. Fortunio still recalls this episode, and he begins to suspect that his own young wife might be carrying on a clandestine affair. And indeed, his second clerk Valentin has fallen deeply in love with Laurette, although the young man’s timidity has so far prevented him from declaring his passion.

  Fortunio accuses his wife of infidelity and resolves to dismiss Valentin from his service. In the meantime, however, the clerks have discovered the old song, and when they begin to sing it, Fortunio realises that his hypocrisy has been exposed. The song has lost none of its efficacy, as is proved when all the clerks suddenly and miraculously acquire new girl friends.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

   

  (Visited 47 times, 1 visits today)