Messager had several careers. His early success as a composer of oper-ettas was crowned by the triumph of Véronique in 1898, the year he became music director of the Opéra Comique, where he conducted the première of Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902. Years as music director at Covent Garden and the Paris Opéra followed. Although he continued to write for the stage, notably with Fortunio (1907), it was at the age of 65 that he once again started to produce a stream of light operas, beginning with Monsieur Beaucaire (1919).

These two CDs celebrate the two major eras of Messager’s creativity, with recordings made mostly in the 1920s and early ’30s. Although there are recordings by at least two of the original interpreters of Véronique (Anna Tariol-Baugé and Jean Perier), they are not represented here; what we have are extracts recorded in 1929, the year of Messager’s death. These are mostly conducted by Jean Lenoir and feature Lemichal du Roy in the title role, singing with great gusto. She has a nice way of holding back from the melody to add tension to her solos. Robert Burnier is Florestan, and he sings ‘Adieu, je pars’, when he reads Véronique’s letter of farewell, with charming emotion. There is also Edmée Favart in ‘Petite dinde!’ and Willy Clément with a second letter-song.

Véronique is still the most often performed and recorded of Messager’s works, so it will be the songs and duets from lesser-known pieces that appeal here. The original casts of Passionément (1926) and Coups de roulis (1928) are contrasted with some cover versions of the big numbers by Edmée Favart, Louis Arnoult and Germaine Féraldy – bigger names than René Koval or Marcelle Denya. These late musical comedies are slight, but ‘Ce n’est pas la première fois’ from Coups de roulis, sung by Robert Burnier, is one of Messager’s most affecting arias.

Monsieur Beaucaire was composed for London, with Dame Maggie Teyte as ‘Lady Mary Carlisle’. She used to tell the story of how Messager summoned her a couple of days before the try-out in Birmingham and presented her with the song that became the show’s big success, ‘Philomel’. In the French version this becomes ‘Rossignol’, and is sung here very well by Georgette Simon.

Among rarities and curiosities, there is the then 80-year-old Lucien Fugère in an aria from La Basoche, which he had created in 1890, and Melle Yoschiko Miakawa in the waltz song from Madame Chrysanthème, Messager’s 1893 version of what later became Madama Butterfly. (Miakawa was the Opéra-Comique’s Cio Cio San at the time this recording was made in 1931.) Georges Thill and Louis Arnoult offer ‘J’aime la maison grise’ from Fortunio, and in addition to Yvonne Printemps’ well-known and often-reissued numbers from L’amour masque, there is Pierre Darmant, one of the original ‘deux amants’ singing the tango ‘Valentine a perdu la tête’.

CD 2 wittily opens with Mlle Printemps’ exclamation ‘Mon dieu, que c’est bête, les hommes’ and ends with Marcelle Denya announcing ‘Les hommes sont bien tous les mêmes’. There are no texts, but short synopses of the various works, and several evocative photographs. All the transfers seem very bright and clear, despite one or two moments of ‘blast’ from the old discs. A treat for any devotee of opérette from the Belle Epoque to Les Années folles.