L'étoile (Opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The star |
| Original title: | L'étoile |
Drawing by Félix Régamey |
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| Shape: | Opera buffa in three acts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Emmanuel Chabrier |
| Libretto : | Eugène Leterrier and Albert GF Vanloo |
| Premiere: | November 28, 1877 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris , Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens |
| Playing time: | 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Capital of the Kingdom of 36 Kingdoms |
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The opera L'étoile (German: Der Stern , Sein Stern or Das Horoskop des König ) is a three-act opera buffa by Emmanuel Chabrier . The text is by Eugène Leterrier and Albert GF Vanloo.
With L'étoile , Chabrier succeeded in creating a historical model work of musical humor. Because of his achievements, he was called the new Offenbach by the composer Reynaldo Hahn . He succeeded in creating an unmistakable archetype of musical comedy that subsequently found little successor. As a result, this work has become little known and has rarely been performed.
music
The opera, which is seldom played, can partly be attributed to the Offenbach tradition. The entire work is characterized by a score worked out with precision and care .
action
first act
King Ouf I. is the ruler of the "Kingdom of 23 Kingdoms". Every year he delights his people on his birthday with an execution. Although he mingled with the crowd this year to find a delinquent , his search was unsuccessful. He cannot find guilty parties in his kingdom and is desperate.
Ouf I. intends to marry Princess Laoula from the neighboring kingdom. This could improve the strained relations with the neighboring country, which are so bad that even war does not seem impossible. He asks his court astrologist Siroco what the stars say about the intended connection. To make sure that Siroco is telling him the truth, he explains to him that he, the ruler, had decreed in his will that his astrologer should die a quarter of an hour after his - Oufs - death.
Laoula is already in Ouf's realm. She is accompanied by the ambassador, Prince Hérisson von Porcupine, his wife Aloès and the secretary Tapioca. The four pretend to be traveling salesmen. In front of the embassy, Laoula meets the peddler Lazuli, who fell asleep there and had already dreamed of her. They both fall in love. When King Ouf I. meets Lazuli by chance, a battle of words ensues in which Lazuli slaps the king twice. Ouf has finally found a victim for the desired execution.
On the day of the execution the people are gathered and Ouf announces that Lazuli is to be impaled. He has to sit on a chair and is supposed to be pierced by a stake. The crowd cheers when Lazuli sits on the chair. The moment the torture began, the court astrologer asked the king to call off the execution, as the stars said that Ouf's fate was closely linked to Lazulis: twenty-four hours after Lazuli's death, the king would also die. Ouf interrupts the execution immediately and takes Lazuli to his palace in order to better monitor him and his - as long as possible - life.
Second act
Lazuli is treated like a prince in the palace, but feels locked up and wants to flee. Ouf is preparing to marry Laoula, believing that Lazuli's mistress is Aloès, Hérisson's wife. This helps Lazuli and Laoula to escape. The news that the two fugitives were shipwrecked and only Laoula survived makes Ouf I. and Siroco desperate.
Third act
Lazuli has disappeared, only his hat was found on the water. Enter Hérisson with Laoula, who hurries off again to find her lover. Lazuli appears, promises the princess a better kidnapping and hides again from Ouf and the court.
Ouf got desperately drunk and tried to persuade Laoula to marry him: the marriage wouldn't last long. Then the bell sounds, which indicates Ouf's last hour. When the bell falls silent again, the ruler realizes that he is still alive and that Siroco's horoscope is wrong. He is so relieved about this that he not only forgives the false fortune-telling Siroco, but also accepts the Lazuli, who have since been picked up, and connects them with Laoula.
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also piccolo ), oboe , two clarinets , bassoon
- Brass : two horns , two pistons , trombone
- Timpani , drums : triangle , cymbals , bass drum , drum, glockenspiel
- Strings
- Incidental music: flute, oboe, clarinet, clock bell, two violins , viola , violoncello
Work history
The premiere took place on November 28, 1877 in the Parisian Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens . The musical direction was Jean-Léon Roques; Directed by Charles Comte. The actors were Daubray (King Ouf I and Patacha), Paola Marié de L'Isle (Lazuli), Berthe Stuart (Princess Laoula), Scipion (Sirocco), Alfred Jolly (Hérisson), Luce Couturier (Aloès), Philippe Jannin ( Tapioca and Zalzal), Camille Adrienne (Asphodèle and Zinnia), Henriette Blot (Oasis and Youka), Esther Blanche (Adza and Koukouli) and Pecheux (police chief).
The audience knew little more about the composer than that he was an admirer of Richard Wagner , which at that time classified him as a composer of “inaccessible and boring music”. Nevertheless, the audience was amused. The critics spoke of the composer's boldness and originality. Despite some favorable reviews, the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens discontinued its work after the 48th performance. Officially, the premature end was justified with the illness of an actor.
A version changed in numerous passages was shown on August 18, 1890 on Broadway and performed there under the title The Merry Monarch . Closer to the original was the version presented in London on January 7, 1899 in London's Savoy, which was called The Lucky Star and reached 149 curtains. It is noteworthy that in the performance no reference was made to Chabrier, but Ivan Cardyll was named as the person responsible.
L'étoile was first performed in Brussels in 1909. The performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris during the German occupation on April 10, 1941 is remarkable .
On the 90th anniversary of the composer's death in 1984, a performance of the opera took place in the Opéra-Comique. The Opéra de Lyon showed further performances in the 1980s. In November 2006, the Zurich Opera House presented L'étoile in the original version in French with German subtitles.
In 2010 the piece was performed in French at the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin. At the same time, the project “STERNZEIT-F: A: S - Children's Opera in Lichtenberg” took place as a cooperation with Caritas , in which over 120 children aged 8 to 13 years Chabrier's opera both in the State Opera and at other Berlin venues presented.
In 2011 the piece was performed in French at the Frankfurt Opera , in 2012 at the Augsburg Theater and in 2014 at the Amsterdam Opera in a production by Laurent Pelly .
literature
- Charles Osborne: The Opera Lover's Companion. Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-12373-9 , pp. 85-86.
Web links
- L'étoile : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (French), Paris 1877. Digitized in the Internet Archive
- Action by L'étoile (Opera) on Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently not available
- "Discover opera" broadcast on Arte on October 9, 2011 ( Memento from December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Website chabrier.emmanuel.free.fr , dedicated to Emmanuel Chabrier , accessed on 6 December 2014.
- Sternzeit F: A: S - Children's opera in Lichtenberg , accessed on December 6, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ^ Josef Heinzelmann : L'Etoile. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , 533.
- ↑ November 28, 1877: "L'étoile". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
- ↑ a b c Richard Traubner: Operetta: A Theatrical History. 2., revised. Edition. Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-96641-8 , p. 111.