Parents Beware: Opera Can Be Dangerous!

Please do not allow your children to listen to the opera on Saturday afternoons on CBC Radio Two.

Let us hope none did, especially none who understand French, last Saturday, when the CBC presented Une Éducation Manquée by Emmanuel Chabrier. The first performance at the Paris Opéra-Comique, conducted by Roger Désormière, was in 1938, and it reached its 50th performance there in April 1946.

Canada is not France.

One must assume that the CBC deliberately chose this insidious operetta in its systematic effort to subvert Family Values.

The synopsis tells all.

Scenes 1 and 2

Arriving directly from their (teenage) wedding, the young Count Gontran and his wife, Hélène, are both expecting some adult advice for their wedding-night from whoever is prepared to give it. Pausanias, Gontran’s tutor, arrives. Slightly tipsy, he begins to talk to them but does not get very far, because, as he explains in the song “Ce vin généreux,” he has had twelve glasses of Vin de Roussillon. But Gontran’s grandfather, who is ill and can’t come to talk to the young couple, has sent them a letter.

Scene 3

Alone, Gontran reads the letter (in song), which ends by saying that there is nothing Gontran’s grandfather can teach him. Gontran hastily pens a letter to Pausanias, asking him to return and finish what he began but was unable to complete because of “Ce vin généreux.”

Scene 4

Hélène enters, and it turns out that her aunt’s advice was simply to be kind and obedient to her husband. In a duet, “Eh bien, ma chère,” they exchange kisses but after a while realize that there must be something more to being husband and wife.

Scenes 5 and 6

Gontran complains that Pausanias was engaged to teach him all that a man should know about life. In a buffo duo, “Après vous avoir saturé d’hébreu,” Pausanias insists that he has taught Gontran Hebrew, Hindu, algebra, chemistry, Greek, trigonometry, metaphysics, therapeutics, mechanics, dialectics, aesthetics, statistics, mythology and metallurgy. Gontran insists “That’s not enough!” Finally, Pausanias admits that he doesn’t know – it wasn’t on the curriculum. But he promises to find out and return immediately.

Scenes 7 and 8

Gontran curses his tutor, but, as a storm gathers, confesses his frustrated feelings to the audience. “Lorsque le ciel.” There is a thunderstorm. Hélène rushes into the room, her nightdress undone, and explains that she is really frightened of thunder. Gontran is struck by how attractive she looks and tells her the best way to remain calm in a storm is to come closer. As they sing the duo, “Faisons-nous petits,” they kiss more and more passionately.

Scene 9

As they are about to discover the answer to their question, Pausanias returns. Gontran orders him out – asking the indulgence of the audience – when the curtain falls.

Thanks are due to Charles Small, a prominent guardian of virtue, known to readers as “curmudgeon,” who drew our attention to the CBC’s latest outrage.