L'étoile you north

This article deals with the opera by the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, on the long-distance train of the same name between Paris and Amsterdam, which was operated from 1927 to 1995, see Étoile du Nord .

Work data
Title:	The North Star
Original title:	L'étoile you north
Title page of the piano reduction, Paris 1854
Shape:	Opéra-comique in three acts
Original language:	French
Music:	Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto :	Eugène Scribe
Premiere:	February 16, 1854
Place of premiere:	Opéra-Comique , Paris
Playing time:	about 3 hours
Place and time of the action:	Finland and St. Petersburg, 1702/1703
people
Péters Michaeloff, carpenter, actually Tsar Peter of Russia ( bass ) George Skawronski, carpenter and village musician ( tenor ) Catherine , his sister ( soprano ) Prascovia, his bride (soprano) Danilowitz, confectioner (tenor) Gritzenko, a Kalmuck (bass) Master Reynolds, innkeeper (bass) General Tchéréméteff (speaking role) Colonel Yermoloff (bass) Nathalie and Ekimonna, sutlers (2 sopranos) Ismaïloff, a Cossack officer (tenor) Two workers (tenor, speaking role) Soldiers, recruits, carpenters with their wives and children, villagers, Kalmyks, village musicians, girls and boys as wedding guests, sutlers, soldiers of various ranks and branches of service, women in cadet or recruit uniform, peasant women, ladies and gentlemen at the Tsar's court, ladies of honor ( choir , Extras)

L'étoile du nord (German: The North Star ) is an opera comique in three acts by the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer . This work was written between 1849 and 1854 and had its world premiere on February 16, 1854 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris . In a modified second version, this opera premiered on July 19 of the same year at the Royal Opera House in London .

For this work Meyerbeer used six numbers from his Singspiel Ein Feldlager in Schlesien . Ludwig Rellstab translated the libretto by Eugène Scribe in the same year, and in late 1854 was the opera are brought in Stuttgart on stage.

action

first act

Village near Wiborg

Disguised as a carpenter under the name Péters Michaeloff, Tsar Peter meets Catherine, the sister of the carpenter George Skawronski. But before he can explain himself to her, she disappears. A little later Tsar Peter learns that Catherine, disguised as a soldier, is doing military service for her brother George.

Second act

Russian camp

The military band practices; one hears marches and songs. Soldiers exercise, and camp life is colorful. Suddenly a recruit (Catherine) rushes into the camp and reports of a conspiracy against the Tsar. Warned in good time, he can put down the revolt and arrest the ringleaders.

Third act

Tsar's Palace in St. Petersburg

Tsar Peter believes Catherine is dead. But apparently she's gone mad. They are brought to St. Petersburg and Tsar Peter leads them into his garden. There he had the village near Wiborg - where he first met Catherine - rebuilt. When Catherine becomes aware of this, she comes to her senses again. Now the tsar appears in his carpenter's costume and she immediately recognizes him as her lover and throws herself into his arms. He can now, reassured, identify himself as the tsar and propose to her.

Instrumentation

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

• Woodwinds , two piccolos , two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , two bassoons
• Brass : four horns (also horns à pistons), two trumpets (also trumpets à pistons and cornets à pistons), three trombones
• Timpani , percussion : bass drum , cymbals , drum, military drum, tambourine , triangle
• Two harps
• Strings
• Stage music on the scene: four piccolo flutes, four small clarinets in F, five cornets à pistons, two trumpets à pistons, three baryton sax horns , four drums
• Stage music behind the scene: two flutes, two small sax horns in Eb or small bugles or trumpets à pistons, four cornets à pistons, three trumpets à pistons, baryton saxhorn or tenor trombone, bass saxhorn or bass trombone or ophicleide , double bass saxhorn or bombardon or ophicleide, military drum, two bells in d, cannon

literature

• Leo Melitz: Guide through the operas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1914, p. 201.
• Horst Seeger : Opera Lexicon . Heinrichshofens Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1978, ISBN 3-7959-0271-1 , p. 182.

Web links

Commons : L'Étoile du Nord (opéra)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• L'étoile du nord : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• L'ètoile du nord. Libretto (French), Paris 1854. Digitized at Google Books
• La stella del north. Libretto (Italian), Florence 1856. Digitized in the Internet Archive
• L'Ètoile du nord (Giacomo Meyerbeer) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
• Discography of L'étoile du nord at Operadis

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sieghart Döhring : L'Etoile du nord. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 4: Works. Massine - Piccinni. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-02414-9 , pp. 152-155.