La Basoche
The two men were lifelong friends and had collaborated once before, on Les Premières armes de Louis XV (1888), a revised version of an opérette by Firmin Bernicat.
[n 3] When Carte withdrew the piece, several newspaper critics, including Bernard Shaw in The World, condemned the British public for its failure to support so outstanding a work.
The critic of The New York Times stated that "for the music, warm words of praise may be spoken", but thought the genre was "far too unfamiliar on the local stage" and Ryley ill-suited to the part, "not as funny as one could have wished.
[23] Reviewing the original production, Les Annales du théâtre et de la musique commented that Carré's libretto was good enough to be presented as a straight play, without music, but that Messager's score lived up to it – "light and vivacious" – everything needed to maintain a place in the repertoire of the Opéra Comique.
[24] The critic in Le Ménestrel praised Carré's imagination, though finding an excess of fantasy and some loose construction in the piece; he thought Messager had composed a major score, of which the first act contained the finest music.
[25] In La Nouvelle Revue, the critic Louis Gallet praised the finesse, delicacy and spirit of the score, and hoped the success of the piece would encourage the Opéra-Comique to promote further comic operas, a genre that it had neglected of late.
[15] The Observer, like The Era and The Times, predicted an exceptionally long run for the work; its reviewer commented that the score showed Messager as "a master of his art – endowed with the gift of melody and guided by a refined taste".
[27] The Times thought the opera "a work of very great beauty and charm", though its reviewer teased Messager about a few conspicuously Wagnerian passages where "the influence of Die Meistersinger is felt to an extent that is almost absurd".
[4] The Daily Telegraph commented that the composer had a rare gift, and that "the connoisseur can hear La Basoche for the charm of its scholarship, and the average opera-goer can enjoy it for its tunefulness".
[30] In 1995 The Times's music critic, John Higgins, judged La Basoche to be "inspired" and – despite "a twaddly plot involving British royalty" – "one of Messager's most substantial pieces".
A complete performance of the score was broadcast by the BBC in 1930 using the English version by Harris and Oudin, with a cast headed by Maggie Teyte and Frank Titterton, conducted by Percy Pitt.
[32] A complete French radio broadcast of July 1960, with Nadine Sautereau, Camille Maurane, Irène Jaumillot and Louis Noguéra, conducted by Tony Aubin, was subsequently issued on CD.
Extended excerpts were recorded in 1961, featuring Liliane Berton, Nicole Broissin, Henri Legay and Michel Dens, conducted by Jacques Pernoo.
