9 November 2025

Scoring: fl.picc.2ob.2cl.2bn-2hn.2tpt.tbn-timps-strings

Duration: 7’

Date: 1827

Availability of performing materials: ms score on IMSLP https://imslp.org/wiki/Le_loup-garou_(Bertin,_Louise); engraved score and parts available from https://www.helenthomas.uk/

Bertin (1805-77) was Parisian composer, poet, librettist and painter. She was a younger contemporary of Berlioz, a pupil of Fetís and Reicha, and acquainted with Rossini.  She was the first French composer to set Goethe’s Faust as an opera and the first woman of the 19^th century to have an opera performed at the Opéra de Paris. Indeed, it was the 2024 recording of her third opera, Fausto, by Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset on the BruZane label that led me to punch her name into the IMSLP website. There I found a scan of a German manuscript copy of her second opera Le Loup-Garou (Der Waehrwolf/The Werewolf), an opera comique inspired by the fairy tale, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ with lashings of mistaken identities. I transcribed this manuscript using Sibelius to create a set of performance materials for the Overture.

The Overture beings with a series of arresting G minor chords followed by a dramatic dominant 7^th which then comically dissipates into a gentle, andante flute melody and pizzicato accompaniment. This second introductory passage, periodically interrupted by tutti ff chords and hunting motifs, finishes with another V7 chord and pause bar. The Overture ‘proper’ begins with a Presto in G major but the harmonic language of the subject material is very basic and almost entirely restricted to sequences of tonic, dominant and subdominant chords. The energy of this music comes from lots of ornamental acciaccaturas in the first violins and numerous syncopations. A secondary subject group is introduced with a naïve melody in oboe and flute that gradually (laboriously?!) builds in the manner of Rossini to an inevitable climatic point and then comically deflates in a throw away codetta. These two subject groups are then re-worked at some length until we reach the final cadence which concludes with an exaggerated, fourteen bars of tonic repetition.

There were two main challenges when rehearsing this piece. The first was to select a tempo that was practical enough to allow the acciaccaturas to be playable but that would also be quick enough to (i) allow us to make the syncopations ‘bounce’, and (ii) create a sense of drive through the repetitive passages. This tempo had to be negotiated with the Violin 1 section and it was agreed that some players could leave out the acciaccaturas on the second and third beats of the relevant bars which worked fine. The second challenge was to find a convincing interpretation for the piece which, like the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, I assumed to be ‘knowing’, overblown pastiche rather than inept! I researched the opera plot and tried to persuade the players of a narrative within the Overture. We worked on holding back dynamics so that they could culminate over the lengthy, repetitive passages and we tried to make the most of dramatic rests and pauses by observing them physically as well as sonically.

At the concert, the audience reception was very positive, especially given our qualms about the piece. The additional adrenalin amongst the orchestral members and myself on the night of the concert meant that the tempo was a tad brisker than negotiated and the consequent sense of risk seemed to suit the mood and plot of the piece.

In retrospect, I would consider re-programming this piece for a Halloween-themed concert or as an interesting pairing with some German ‘supernatural’ works such as Weber’s Der Freischütz or even Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.