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A French Curiosity Blossoms in the Black Forest Bad Wildbad
Königliches Kurtheater
07/22/2026 - & July 26, August 1, 2026
Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin: Le Mariage en poste
Juliette Amirault (Alice), Dmytro Voronov (Le Marquis de Boiscivry), Erwan Fosset (Le Comte Emeric)
Mattia Torriglia (pianist), Andrés Jesús Gallucci*/Gianluca Ascheri (second pianist), Eleonora Calabrò, Jochen Schönleber (stage directors), Jochen Schönleber (sets), Eleonora Calabrò (costumes), Marcel Hahn (lighting)
D. Voronov, J. Amirault, E. Fosset
(© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)
Having attended many of Europe’s leading opera festivals over the years, I finally discovered one that had long eluded me: the Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival. I confess that I had approached it with a measure of scepticism. Another Rossini festival inevitably invited comparison with Pesaro’s illustrious Rossini Opera Festival, whose artistic standards remain formidable. Yet Bad Wildbad quickly dispelled such reservations. Nestled amidst the idyllic landscape of the northern Black Forest, the elegant nineteenth-century spa town provided an enchanting setting, while the festival itself revealed an enterprising spirit that extended far beyond the expected celebration of Rossini’s masterpieces.
Founded in 1989 under the artistic leadership of Jochen Schönleber, the festival took as its inspiration Rossini’s stay in Wildbad in 1856, when the composer sought relief for his ailments at the celebrated thermal baths. Rather than merely exploiting this historical anecdote, Schönleber transformed it into the catalyst for one of Europe’s most adventurous bel canto festivals, championing forgotten operas, critical editions, young singers and imaginative programming. This year’s edition once again demonstrated that admirable curiosity by juxtaposing Rossini’s familiar works with neglected repertory and introducing a new strand devoted to French bel canto.
Among its most intriguing discoveries was Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin’s delightful salon opéra Le Mariage en poste. Today remembered chiefly as a distinguished musicologist, folklorist and librarian at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Weckerlin (1821‑1910) also composed a considerable quantity of vocal music. His connection with Rossini proved more than incidental. After marrying Fanny‑Marie Damoreau, daughter of the celebrated soprano Laure Cinti‑Damoreau—the original interpreter of many of Rossini’s great French heroines—Weckerlin entered the composer’s circle and became a regular participant in Rossini’s celebrated musical Samedis soirs in Paris, where Le Mariage en poste was eventually performed in 1859.
Written for salon performance with piano accompaniment alone, the work perfectly suited the intimate dimensions of Bad Wildbad’s charming Königliches Kurtheater. The festival has long cultivated this repertoire, previously exploring the salon operas of Giuseppe Balducci (1796‑1845) and Manuel García (1775‑1832) before turning this season towards nineteenth-century French bel canto. Such works not only provide audiences with genuine rarities but also offer welcome opportunities for emerging singers to develop their theatrical instincts in chamber‑scale surroundings.
The plot unfolded with irresistible charm. The overbearing Marquis de Boiscivry intended to marry his daughter Alice to the wealthy Comte Emeric, whom neither father nor daughter had ever met. During a stop at a rural post station, however, the prospective bride and groom independently decided to travel incognito, each wishing to assess the other without the burden of social expectations. The resulting misunderstandings, disguises and romantic reversals anticipated the sophisticated marital comedies that Georges Feydeau would later perfect during the Belle Epoque. Although Weckerlin’s work predated Feydeau by several decades, its rapid‑fire exchanges, concealed identities and ironic observations on arranged marriages already pointed unmistakably towards that distinctly French comic tradition.
Jochen Schönleber and Eleonora Calabrò staged the piece with admirable lightness of touch, resisting any temptation to modernise or overcomplicate its modest dimensions. Their most ingenious theatrical invention came before the story had even begun. Because Weckerlin’s original manuscript called for two pianists during the introduction, the directors transformed this practical detail into a delightful comic prologue. As Mattia Torriglia entered to acknowledge the audience, Andrés Jesús Gallucci was already seated at the piano. After a silent dispute over who should accompany the performance, the two briefly shared the keyboard until the suspicious Marquis, convinced that the musicians were highwaymen, drew his pistol and fired. Gallucci dramatically collapsed and was escorted offstage, allowing Torriglia to continue the remainder of the evening alone. The joke established precisely the playful tone the work required and returned amusingly in the opera’s closing moments.
Throughout the performance Torriglia proved an ideal musical partner. His elegant, stylish playing demonstrated considerable sensitivity to the singers while his own comic participation in the action remained discreet and thoroughly engaging. Whether reacting to Alice’s complaints about her travelling attire or becoming an unwitting victim of the Marquis’s trigger‑happy paranoia, he displayed impeccable theatrical timing without ever distracting from the performers.
The production wisely allowed the story to unfold without unnecessary embellishment. As in every opéra-comique, spoken dialogue occupied a substantial portion of the evening and occasionally threatened to impede the dramatic momentum, particularly for spectators dependent upon the surtitles. Yet the dialogue remained integral to the genre’s conversational charm, and the succession of graceful musical numbers more than compensated for any temporary loss of pace.
Essential to the success of such a dialogue‑rich work is a cast of native French speakers—or at the very least, artists possessing complete fluency in the language. Here, dramatic instinct proved every bit as indispensable as vocal accomplishment. The three young singers, all members of the BelCanto Academy, formed a remarkably cohesive ensemble. Juliette Amirault was an enchanting Alice, her idiomatic French bringing complete naturalness to both the spoken dialogue and the musical numbers. Endowed with a warm, luminous soprano and an elegant sense of phrasing, she captured the heroine’s intelligence, wit and quiet independence with irresistible charm. It became entirely plausible that Emeric should abandon all thoughts of an arranged marriage in favour of the captivating young woman he believed to be nothing more than the innkeeper’s daughter.
Erwan Fosset proved an equally engaging Emeric. His supple, lyrical tenor possessed an appealing sweetness that perfectly suited the character’s romantic idealism, while his duets with Amirault revealed voices of complementary colour and refinement. Together they created a thoroughly convincing young couple whose mutual attraction blossomed with unaffected sincerity.
As the pompous Marquis de Boiscivry, Dmytro Voronov employed his sonorous bass to excellent comic effect. Avoiding caricature, he portrayed the overprotective father with just enough bluster to expose the absurdity of his authoritarian certainty. His impeccable sense of timing ensured that the character remained amusing rather than merely overbearing.
Le Mariage en poste may not aspire to the theatrical genius of Rossini, Offenbach or Lecocq, yet it offered a fascinating glimpse into a largely forgotten corner of nineteenth-century French musical life. Its graceful melodies, elegant wit and intimate scale made for an utterly charming seventy-five minutes of theatre. More importantly, its inclusion demonstrated precisely what distinguished the Rossini in Wildbad Festival from so many of its counterparts: an unwavering commitment to discovery. Rather than simply revisiting familiar masterpieces, the festival continued to illuminate neglected pathways through bel canto history, reminding audiences that the repertoire still held many treasures awaiting rediscovery.
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