BRU ZANE TO RELEASE WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF DELIBES’ JEAN DE NIVELLE, THE LATEST IN THEIR AWARD-WINNING SERIES OF RARE FRENCH OPERAS
György Vashegyi conducts the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, with soloists including Cyrille Dubois and Mélissa Petit
Release date: 23 October 2026
Bru Zane’s latest release in its series of landmark recordings of rare French operatic gems that are worthy of rediscovery or reevaluating is Delibes’ opera-comique Jean de Nivelle. Conducted by György Vashegyi with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, this world premiere recording features a cast of world-renowned soloists starring Cyrille Dubois and Mélissa Petit.
Jean de Nivelle will be released on Bru Zane on 23 October in a bespoke 3-CD set with 188 pages of text and libretto in both French and English. The album will also be available on all digital music platforms.
Best known for his opera Lakmé and his ballet Coppélia, Delibes (1836-1891) composed many works that warrant performances and exposure to a global audience. Bru Zane’s new edition of Jean de Nivelle illustrates how the opera is a significant milestone in Delibes’ career. Premiered in Paris in 1880, three years before Lakmé, it is an accomplished, ambitious and powerful work which enjoyed success as far afield as Brussels, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna.
Under the influence of Offenbach, Jean de Nivelle explores comic devices that contrast seriousness and the burlesque, and the porous boundary between comedy and drama. The libretto blends political intrigue, thwarted love, folk and satire of the powerful.
The orchestration, inventive without over-elaboration, is distinguished by rich timbres and consistent clarity of expression. Camille Saint-Saëns called the score “exquisite; it disdains the banality of facile effects, constantly seeks and finds novelties that both charm and interest the ear, plays around the voices yet never to their detriment…in short, it is perfection”. Contemporary critics also praised the strokes of harmonic originality and the skilfully maintained musical flow which give the work a stature worthy of grand-opéra.
Jean de Nivelle also impresses with its vocal writing. The number of solo protagonists and the variety of their vocal ranges show a keen understanding of the resources of the human voice. These include the light, agile soprano of Arlette (Mélissa Petit), and a lyric tenor for Jean (Cyrille Dubois), a complex and nuanced hero.