Le roi carrot
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| Title: | King carrot |
| Original title: | Le roi carrot |
Henri Meyer: Le roi Carotte , 1892 |
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| Shape: | Opéra-bouffe-féerie in four or three acts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Jacques Offenbach |
| Libretto : | Victorien Sardou |
| Literary source: | ETA Hoffmann : Klein Zaches called Zinnober and The King's Bride |
| Premiere: | January 15, 1872 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre de la Gaîté , Paris |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | in Krokodyne |
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Le roi Carotte (German: König Karotte ) is a comic opera ("Opéra-bouffe-féerie") in four or three acts by Jacques Offenbach with a libretto by Victorien Sardou based on the fairy tale Klein Zaches called Zinnober and the story Die Königsbraut von ETA Hoffmann . The premiere of the first version took place on January 15, 1872 in the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris.
content
Guided by his good genius, the exiled prince travels through space and time, visiting Pompeii before the city was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius , and learning from the ants the importance of hard work. Meanwhile, the repulsive carrot regime has proven a hundred times worse than that of its predecessor. After another revolution, the prince regains his throne and carrots and his bunch of vegetables are swallowed up by the earth.
There is no doubt that the main character, Monarch Fridolin, was an alter ego of Emperor Napoleon III. is. He is deposed (the librettist Sardou had realistically assessed the course of history) and is replaced by a carrot that has become human and its plebeian followers of carrots and beet roots, by which the radicals are meant.
Locations (first version)
During the rehearsal phase, the division of the pictures was apparently changed and their number increased significantly. The following breakdown is based on the information in Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater .
first act
- 1st image: "The Brasserie": promenade in front of the walls of Krokodyne
- 2nd picture: "Rosée-du-soir": attic of the sorceress Coloquinte in the tower of the old castle
- 3rd image: “The armor”: ancestral hall of the castle
- 4th image: "The Coloquintes conspiracies": vegetable garden
- 5th image: "King Carotte": Gardens of the residential palace with festive lighting
Second act
- 1st image: "The Farandole": Courtyard of the "Au Coq de Hongrie" hostel
- 2nd image: "Quiribibi": study of the magician Quiribibi
- 3rd image: "The ruins": Pompeii
- 4th picture: "Pompeji": the blooming ancient Pompeii
Third act
- 1st image: "The Ring of Solomon": Hall in Carotte's palace
- 2nd picture: "The four-leaf clover": dark forest
- 3rd picture: "The ants": the inside of an anthill
- 4th image: "The Insects": wonderful landscape
Fourth act
- 1st image: "The monkeys": jungle
- 2nd picture: "The desert": forest area withered by the sun
- 3rd image: Hall in Carotte's palace
- 4th image: "The Revolt": Krokodyne market square
- 5th image: "The vegetable garden"
- 6th picture: magnificent palace with living caryatids
Scenes (abridged second version)
first act
- In front of an inn, outside the city wall
- A room in a tower
- The royal palace or its garden
Second act
- The study of the sorcerer Quiribibi
- The ruins of Pompeii
- Pompeii before its destruction
- The royal palace
- The realm of insects
Third act
- The royal palace
- A market place
- The royal palace
layout
orchestra
According to Choudens' performance material, the orchestral line-up includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : two horns , two pistons , three trombones
- Timpani , percussion : large drum with cymbals , snare drum , triangle , tambourine , tambour de basque , bell in d
- Strings
- Incidental music : not specified
music
The highlights of the score are the finals: the first contains a musically composed sneeze fit and a chorus of turnips and cabbage, the second a great number for ants and other insects, while the third musically represents a revolution (the revolutionary choir is a veritable hit). There is also the dreamy aria by Rosée du Soir, the famous Valse des Rayons, a solemn quartet in Pompeii and a strange number about traveling by train.
Work history
Offenbach, his librettist Victorien Sardou and the director of the Parisian Théâtre de la Gaîté signed the contract for Le roi Carotte in October 1869. The libretto is based on the fairy tale Klein Zaches called Zinnober by ETA Hoffmann and his story The Royal Bride from the Serapion Brothers . There are different traditions about the history of its origin, which are mostly doubtful. Due to the political events of that time, the premiere had to be postponed for more than a year.
The first performance took place on January 15, 1872 in a splendid setting. The vocal line-up included Zulma Bouffar as Robin-Luron and Anna Judic as Cunégunde. Despite the high entrance fees, the production was a great success. The work was canceled after the 149th performance. Apparently they wanted to avoid a bonus of 15,000 francs for the authors, which would have been due for the 150th performance.
- Costume sketches
Roi Carotte, 1872
Ballet of the insects
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This comic opera by Offenbach was performed frequently in Paris and elsewhere in the 19th century, but was one of Offenbach's most neglected scores in the 20th century. In 2016, Le roi Carotte in the production of the Opéra de Lyon under the direction of Laurent Pelly received the International Opera Award in the category Rediscovery.
In 2018 the Lower Saxony State Opera in Hanover brought out a successful production staged by Matthias Davids .
Web links
- Vocal score (Choudens)
- Libretto (french)
- Work information from the publisher Boosey & Hawkes
- Work information (French) on operette-theatremusical.fr
Remarks
- ↑ Some smaller parts have different names in the libretto than in the piano reduction.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Josef Heinzelmann : Le Roi Carotte. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 4: Works. Massine - Piccinni. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-02414-9 , pp. 557-560.
- ^ Albert Gier : Paris, the railway and the turning necks. Marginal notes on Jacques Offenbach's Roi Carotte. In: BAT - Bulletin of the Archives for Text Music Research. No. 36, December 2015, p. 37 ( online, PDF ).
- ↑ King Carrot. In: de.schott-music.com. Schott Music , accessed November 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Manuel Brug: Sami ratatouille instead of crunchy vegetable satire: Offenbach's "King Carrot" for the first time in a new version in Hanover. In: classic. welt.de . November 6, 2018, accessed November 27, 2018 .