Angélique (opera)

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Opera dates
Title: Angélique
Shape: Farce in one act
Original language: French
Music: Jacques Ibert
Libretto : "Nino" (Michel Jean Veber)
Premiere: Théâtre Bériza (Théâtre Fémina), Paris
Place of premiere: January 28, 1927
Playing time: about 50 minutes
Place and time of the action: a port in France, indefinitely
people
  • Boniface ( baritone )
  • Charlot (baritone)
  • the Italian ( tenor )
  • the Englishman (tenor)
  • the negro ( bass )
  • the devil (tenor)
  • Angélique, Boniface's wife ( soprano )
  • 1st gossip (soprano)
  • 2nd gossip ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Men and women from the neighborhood (speaking choir)

Angélique is an opera (original name: "Farce") in one act by Jacques Ibert (music) with a libretto by "Nino" (actually Michel Jean Veber). The premiere took place on January 28, 1927 at the Théâtre Bériza (Théâtre Fémina) in Paris.

action

The action of the opera takes place in a French port in front of Boniface's house and china shop "Au Bonheur Fragile" ("The fragile happiness"). His neighbor Charlot's house is across the street. Boniface is married to the young and beautiful Angélique, who has been making his life hell for some time. She berates and hits him. When he complains to Charlot of his suffering, Charlot advises against a divorce. It would be much better to just sell it to the nearest tourist, even if it no longer has much value. Charlot promises to take matters in hand. He speaks to Angélique and actually persuades her that it would also be an advantage for her if she were sold. Then he hangs a sign in front of the door that reads "Woman for sale". The neighbors watch this skeptically. Two gossips side with Angélique and claim that Boniface mistreated Angélique.

The first prospective buyer is an Italian. Angélique greets him with a seductive vocalise, and you quickly come to an agreement. But Boniface is too early to be happy about his wife's departure. The Italian brings them back after a short time, because Angélique has passed him on too badly. Charlot puts the sign up again - time for more comments from the neighbors. An Englishman appears next. Charlot introduces him to Angélique's assets and is able to sell them again. His happiness is also short-lived. Angélique returns and is offered for sale again. Again the neighbors comment on the event. The third prospect is an African ("the negro") looking for a bride. Charlot asks him how much he would normally pay for a woman in his home country - and asks double the amount for Angélique. The African takes it, but is no better off than his two predecessors.

Boniface is desperate that he simply cannot get rid of Angélique. He wants her to hell. This wish is promptly fulfilled: the devil personally picks up Angélique. Boniface, Charlot and the neighbors celebrate happily - but the devil also brings Angélique back. Now Boniface desperately wants to take his own life. But Angélique has changed. Suddenly she is meek and declares eternal love to Boniface. He takes them up again. Everyone cheers. At the end, however, one hears Boniface's voice: "It is still for sale."

layout

The farce belongs to the genre of melodrama , as it was customary in France at the beginning of the 20th century - but not in the lyrical variant to which Igor Stravinsky's melodrama Perséphone , for example, belongs. Instead, Ibert's work is in the tradition of the operettas by Jacques Offenbach or Charles Lecocq due to its high proportion of spoken text . There are twenty spoken scenes and eleven musical scenes. The neighbors' rhythmic chorus, accompanied by brief orchestral interjections, serves as a transition between the vocal pieces.

The harmony is characterized by “wrong notes”, bitonality and a continuous rhythmic “drive”. The individual persons are characterized by allusions (parodies) to other music games. The music when the Italian performs is reminiscent of the opera buffa of Gioachino Rossini , while that of the African is reminiscent of jazz and oriental music. The arrival of the devil, like that of Méphistophélès, is heralded in Berlioz ' La damnation de Faust by a fortissimo beat of the orchestra. Charlot's texts parody works by Corneille and Racine.

With her easily comprehensible melodies over an often dissonant accompaniment and her lively dance rhythms, Angélique was regarded by the music critic Ulrich Schreiber as the “rebirth of the old vaudeville in the style of the contemporary music hall ”. Ibert himself thought a lot of his opera, which he described as innovative. He once wrote that he had pushed the voices to the limit of their possibilities and had not spared the orchestra in order to achieve the maximum result with a minimum of instruments.

Instrumentation

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

Work history

For his Farce Angélique , Jacques Ibert worked with his brother-in-law Michel Jean Veber, known as "Nino", who had previously written the libretto for his first opera Persée et Andromède . The draft text with the title Femme à vendre was created in 1926 for the Théâtre Bériza in Paris. He was accepted by the management of the theater. The libretto and composition were then written in a short space of time between February and May 1926.

At the premiere on January 28, 1927 in the Théâtre Bériza (Théâtre Fémina), Angélique was combined with Robert Siohan's opera Le baladin de satin cramoisi (libretto: René Morax). Marc Ducros (Boniface), Edmond Warnéry (Charlot), Max Moutia (Italian), Steward Parker (English), Robert Marvini (Negro), Palauda (Devil), Marguerite "Magali" Bériza (Angélique), Germaine Dubourdonne (1 Gossip) and Rose Daumas (2nd gossip). Vladimir Golschmann was the musical director, Xavier de Courville directed, and Ladislas Madgyès was responsible for the set. The performance was very well received.

Angélique developed into Ibert's most successful opera. It was usually combined with other one-act plays. A resumption at the same house took place on November 21, 1928 under the musical direction of Gaston Poulet. On June 2, 1930, the work was taken over by the Opéra-Comique (conductor: Albert Wolff , set and costumes: René Moullaert, staging: Georges Ricou). There it stayed on the program for a long time and had a total of 110 performances by the end of 1972.

Other important performances were:

Recordings

  • Jan. 25, 1954 - Tony Aubin (conductor), Orchester Lyrique de l'ORTF Paris, Chœurs du Radio France.
    Lucien Lovano (Boniface), Roger Bourdin (Charlot), Pierre Giannotti (Italian), Serge Rallier (English), Jean Vieuille (Negro), Marcel Génio (Devil), Géori Boué (Angélique), Gisèle Desmoutiers (1st gossip base), Yvette Darras (2nd gossip).
    Live, in concert from Paris.
    BOURG LP: BG 3010 mono (1 LP).
  • 1994 - Reinhard Schwarz (conductor), Manfred Schnabel (production), Babelsberg film orchestra , Rheinberger citizens.
    Thomas Bauer (Boniface), Lorenzo Carola (Charlot), Victor Gaviola (Italian), Christoph Strehl (English), Stefan Stoll (Negro), Alexander Pfitzenmeier (Devil), Karine Bergamelli (Angélique), Christina Gahlen (1st gossip base), Ulrike Andersen (2nd gossip base).
    Video; live from Rheinsberg; complete, German version by Manfred Schnabel and Marie Pappenheim .
  • March 1996 - Yoram David (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Teatro Massimo Bellini di Palermo.
    Carmelo Caruso (Boniface), Luis Masson (Charlot), Bruce Fowler (Italian), Max René Cosotti (English), George Hawkins (Negro), Renzo Casellato (Devil), Gaëlle Méchaly (Angélique), Patrizia Orciani (1st gossip base) , Tiziana Tramonti (2nd gossip base).
    Studio recording; Completely.
    Fonit Cetra CD: PST 7001833, Warner Fonit 8573-83513-2 ZS (1 CD).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Michel Pazdro: Angélique. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 138-140.
  2. ↑ a b Angélique on operamanager.com (Italian).
  3. ↑ a b c Richard Langham Smith:  Angélique (ii). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  4. ^ Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. 20th Century II. German and Italian Opera after 1945, France, Great Britain. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1437-2 , p. 482.
  5. ↑ Angélique. Library record of the Bibliothèque nationale de France , accessed on May 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ January 28, 1927: "Angélique". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  7. ↑ Œuvres Lyriques Françaises on artlyriquefr.fr, accessed on May 5, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b c d Horst Seeger : The great lexicon of the opera. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978. Special edition for Pawlak, Herrsching 1985, p. 35.
  9. ^ Michael Kraus : The musical modernity at the State Operas of Berlin and Vienna 1945-1989. J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-04352-8 , p. 385 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  10. ↑ Angélique on October 2, 1970. In: Program archive of the Vienna State Opera , accessed on April 4, 2018.
  11. ↑ a b c Jacques Ibert. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.