Le Temple de la Gloire (Voltaire)

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Data
Title: Le Temple de la Gloire
Genus: libretto
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1745
Premiere: November 27, 1745 in the Grande Écurie
Place of premiere: Versailles
people
  • First act:
  • L'Envie
  • Apollo
  • A muse
  • Demons , from the entourage of envy
  • Muses and heroes , from Apollo's retinue
  • Second act:
  • Lidie
  • Arsine , Lidie's confidante
  • Shepherds and shepherds
  • A shepherdess
  • A shepherd
  • Another shepherd
  • Bélus
  • Captured kings and soldiers of Bélus
  • Apollo
  • The nine muses
  • Third act
  • The high priest of glory
  • A priestess
  • The choir of priests and priestesses of fame
  • A warrior from the retinue of Bacchus
  • A bacchante
  • Bacchus
  • Erigone
  • Warriors, Egyptians, Bacchants and Satyrs
Jean-Michel Moreau : Illustration for le Temple de la Gloire, 1785

Le Temple de la Gloire (The Temple of Fame) is a libretto for an opera-ballet in three acts by Voltaire, written from April 1744 onwards . The piece set to music by Jean-Philippe Rameau was premiered on the occasion of the festivities for the victory celebration of the Battle of Fontenoy on November 27, 1745 in the Grande Écurie of Versailles .

action

The action takes place in the den of Envie ( resentment ) and the neighboring temple of fame. The first act acts as a prologue. The resentment wants to destroy the temple of fame with the demons, but is repulsed by Apollo and the muses . In the second act, negative valued winners are presented: the unjust, bloodthirsty Belos and the unjust, instinctual Bacchus . The third act praises Trajan as a wise and enlightened winner. His righteous, noble action transforms the temple of glory into a temple of general happiness .

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire was temporarily in the king's favor in 1745 and 1746 . After the success of La Princesse de Navarre , he was appointed by the king on April 1, 1745 as the official Historiographe de France . Voltaire regarded this honorary position as "pompous bagatelle". In 1749, King Voltaire allowed Voltaire to continue to hold the title personally, but to sell the associated office for 53,000 livres. His unusually enthusiastic and patriotic Poème de Fontenoy (1745) on the victory at Fontenoy saw numerous editions. With Le Temple de la Gloire , Voltaire returns to the basic attitude of a distanced philosophical view of events.

Performances and contemporary reception

The first performance of the Opéra-ballets took place on November 27, 1745 in Versailles in the theater built by the Slodtz brothers in the old stables , the Grande Écurie . Voltaire's text, however, appears to have been heavily criticized after the Duke of Luynes' memoirs . The success of the piece was largely based on the music of Rameau. Voltaire was invited to the king's table that evening, but he did not exchange a word with him. According to Condorcet , Voltaire committed a faux pas in which he addressed the king personally with the words: "How did Trajan like it". However, as a token of appreciation for the performance, Voltaire and Rameau were appointed Gentilhommes ordinaires de la Chambre du Roi . The official appointment to the gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi , combined with an annual pension of 60,000 livres, followed on December 1, 1745. Then the Opéra-ballet was given thirty times in Paris.

Going to press

The text of Le Temple de la Gloire in five acts was published in 1745 by Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard fils in the royal print shop in the Louvre with book decorations by Pierre-Antoine Baudoin (1723–1769). Part of the edition is accompanied by a satirical copper engraving on page 3 before the first act , depicting Voltaire's literary enemy Pierre-Charles Roy , scourged by four centurions . Voltaire has repeatedly truffled editions of his plays with graphic failures against his opponents. The three-act revision with a prologue was printed in 1746 on the occasion of the re-performance in the Théâtre de l'Académie royale de musique on April 19, 1746.

First editions

  • Le Temple de la Gloire, festival donnée à Versailles, le 27th November 1745 , Paris, Jean-Baptiste Christophe Ballard, 1745, 4 °, VIII, 48 pp. Online
  • Le Temple de la Gloire, festival donnée à Versailles, le 27th novembre 1745. Remise au Théâtre de l'Académie royale de musique le 19th avril 1746 , (Paris), Jean-Baptiste Christophe Ballard, 1745, 4 °, VIII, 39 S. online

literature

  • Catherine Kintzler: Rameau et Voltaire: les enjeux d'une collaboration orageuse , Revue de musicologie, 1981, 2, pp. 139–166.
  • Marie-France Béziers, Philippe Beaussant: Temple de la gloire (Le) , in: Rameau de A à Z, N ° 35, 1983, pp. 322-324.
  • Manuel Couvreur: Le Temple de la Gloire , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 229.
  • Siegfried Detemple: The Princess of Navarra , in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 73 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Manuel Couvreur: Le Temple de la Gloire , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 229.
  2. ^ Theodore Bestermann: Herr und Gelehrter (1742–1746), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 233.
  3. ^ Siegfried Detemple: The princess of Navarra , in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 72.