Le Chalet
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Le Chalet |
| Shape: | Opera |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Adolphe Adam |
| Libretto : | Augustin Eugène Scribe and Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier (Mélesville) |
| Literary source: | "Jery und Bäteli" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
| Premiere: | September 25, 1834 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
| Playing time: | ≈1 hour, 30 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | Mountain hut in the canton of Appenzell during the Napoleonic Wars |
| people | |
Choir : soldiers, farmers and peasant women |
|
Le Chalet , German: Das Chalet (Die Schweizerhütte) , is a comical opera in one act by Adolphe Adam . The libretto is by Augustin Eugène Scribe and Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier ( Mélesville ), based on the Singspiel Jery und Bäteli by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .
meaning
In France, this work was Adolphe Adams' most successful opera in the 19th century. It was performed a thousand times at the Opéra-Comique up to 1873 and including the last new production in 1922 there a total of 1547 times. In other countries, too, the opera was on the program for decades. Gaetano Donizetti arranged the French libretto and set it to music under the title Betly ossia La capanna svizzera .
The importance of Le Chalet is linked on the one hand to the fact that Adolphe Adam used material from his cantata , which received the 2nd prize of the Prix de Rome in 1825 , and on the other hand to the theatrically perfect libretto by Skribe and Mélesville.
Instrumentation
Piccolo flute , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , cornet , trumpet , 3 trombones , timpani , percussion ( bass drum , triangle ), strings
Incidental music: trumpet
action
In a mountain hut in the Swiss canton of Appenzell:
Daniel made the wedding preparations with Bettly, who has so far rejected all of his proposals. Since they played a prank on him and faked Bettly's consent with a fictitious letter, his hopes prove to be in vain this time too. In the hut, a group of soldiers has taken up quarters, whom Daniel in his desperation wants to join. He also gives the dismayed Bettly his will with the marriage contract that has already been prepared.
Bettly's brother Max, whom the sister did not recognize, is also among the soldiers and tries to get them to agree to a connection with Daniel. When Max kisses his sister to thank him for good food, the jealous Daniel challenges him to a duel. Bettly tries in vain to dissuade Daniel from his decision to join the soldiers. Max, however, gives Bettly to understand that he would not duel with any married man to get her to connect with Daniel, whereupon she immediately claims that Daniel is already married.
Daniel asks God for help because he still believes that he will have to duel with Max. Bettly, who had initially tried to present her consent to the marriage with Daniel as a joke, gives up her resistance to a connection with Daniel at Max's insistence and signs the marriage contract. Now Max also has to identify himself to his sister because Bettly makes the validity of the marriage contract dependent on her brother's signature.
literature
- Piper's Enzyklopädie des Musiktheater , Volume 1, Ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Research Institute for Music Theater of the University of Bayreuth under the direction of Sieghart Döhring, ISBN 3-492-02411-4
Discography
- 1957: Live recording without dialogues, choir and orchestra Lyrique de l'ORTF, UORC music 314 (1 LP)
- 1965: recording without dialogues, Orchester Lyrique de l'ORTF, Musidisc 201942 (1 CD)
Web links
- Le Chalet on operone.de , accessed on July 14, 2016