Anacréon

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Work data
Title: Anacréon
Shape: Acte de ballet
Original language: French
Music: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Libretto : Pierre-Joseph Bernard
Premiere: May 31, 1757
Place of premiere: Paris Opera
Jean-Philippe Rameau

Anacréon is an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau . It was first performed on May 31, 1757 as part of a revised version of the opera ballet Les surprises de l'Amour at the Paris Opera . It has the form of a one-act acte de ballet . The libretto is by Pierre-Joseph Bernard .

Rameau had written an opera with the same title in 1754 . The earlier work had a libretto by Louis de Cahusac and an entirely different plot. Both are linked to the figure of the ancient Greek poet Anakreon . The second anacréon was composed to be the third overture to a revised version of Rameau's opera ballet Les surprises de l'Amour ("The Surprises of Love"). The allegorical prologue of the work originally staged in 1748, which at that time still referred to the Peace of Aachen , was no longer relevant when it was revived in 1757. This meant that the work only contained two overtures, so that a further plot of about the same length as the prologue had to be written. The revised Les surprises de l'Amour was a great success. Anacréon was also performed as a separate work in 1769 and 1771, after Rameau's death.

occupation

role voice First performance May 31, 1757
Anacréon Bass baritone Nicolas Gélin
L'Amour soprano Marie-Jeanne Lemière
La Prêtresse de Bacchus soprano Mlle Davaux
Agathocle Tenor (haute-contre) François Poirier
Euricles Tenor (haute-contre) Monsieur Muguet

Summary

The easy plot involves a dispute over the relative merits of wine, symbolized by Bacchus , and love. The maenads , followers of Bacchus, claim that they are incompatible and threaten the poet Anakreon, who has a contrary view. The dispute is resolved in Anacréon in favor of L'Amour ( Cupid ).

Recordings

literature

  • Cuthbert Girdlestone: Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work . Dover: New York 1969 (paperback edition)
  • Amanda Holden (Ed.): The New Penguin Opera Guide . Penguin Putnam: New York 2001 ISBN 0-14-029312-4
  • Jean-François Labie: Booklet notes to the Christie recording .
  • Spire Pitou: The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers - Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815 . Greenwood Press: Westport / London 1985 ISBN 0-313-24394-8
  • Graham Sadler (Ed.): The New Grove French Baroque Masters . Grove / Macmillan, 1988

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the unabridged French libretto, cf. Jean-Philippe Rameau - Le Site , page: “Anacréon” .
  2. ↑ Booklet notes on the William Christie recording ("Rameau: Anacréon - Les arts fleurissants").