Georgette Bréjean-Silver - Massenet: Manon - Qui dans la bois (Fabliau)
Georgette Bréjean-Silver sings an aria written especially for her by Jules Massenet to be included in his opera "Manon" as a replacement for the "Gavotte": "Oui, dans les bois," known as the "Fabliau." It is heard here on a French Fonotipia, recorded in 1905.
From The Grove book of opera singers:
Bréjean-Silver (Bréjean-Graviére], Georgette [née Sisout, Georgette-Amélie]
(b Paris, 22 Sept 1870; d after 1951). French soprano. She studied at the Conservatoire and made her début at Bordeaux in 1890. She joined the Opéra-Comique in 1894, making a strong impression as Manon, which remained a favourite role; Jules Massenet wrote the 'Fabliau' (as an alter-native to the gavotte in Act 3) for her to sing at a performance in Brussels. She appeared in Manon and Lakmé at Monte Carlo the following season, adding Les pêcheurs de perles and Guillaume Tell a year later. At this time she sang under the name Bréjean-Gravière, changing it on her marriage to the composer Charles Silver, whose opera La belle au bois dormant provided her with another leading part. She also appeared as the Fairy Godmother in the première (1899) of Massenet's Cendrillon. On retirement she taught in Paris, having made some recordings in 1905 and 1906. Though a trifle shrill, they show exceptional accomplishments and hint at the possession of a charming manner.
From Massenet by Demar Irvine:
On 16 September, Massenet wrote to Heugel from an unnamed city [Bordeaux?], where the opera being mounted [Manon ?] was receiving a “first-rate interpretation” with “Mile Graviere.” Georgette Brejean (born 1870) had been engaged at Bordeaux in 1890, where she married the theater director Graviere. Her second husband (1900) was the composer Charles Silver, Prix de Rome of 1891. The name of Mme Brejean-Graviere, later Brejean-Silver, crops up from time to time in the annals of Massenet performances. For Brussels, the composer wrote for her a bravura Fabliau to replace the Gavotte in Manon. In his letter to Heugel, Massenet was worried about attempting Manon at La Scalar despite the admirable acoustics, he is convinced that the work would be lost in the great hall; also, it is a mistake to restore the cuts, as they are planning to do.14 In fact, when Manon appeared at La Scala on 13 January 1895, it was given only twice. Revived there in 1906, and sporadically thereafter, the work attained only fifty-six performances up to 1963.
[...] The dedications suggest, indeed, that the songs were like little album leaves addressed to the composer’s interpreters and friends. Thus, La Chanson des levres was for Georgette Leblanc, and Chanson pour elle for Mme Brejean-Graviere. To Reynaldo Hahn was dedicated Petite Mireille; to Mme Henri Heugel, Regard d’enfant. And so on. The roster of dedications serves as an index of Massenet’s esteem and affection for his many friends and associates, who would have been flattered at even such small attentions from the maitre.