Le char
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| Original title: | Le char |
Score excerpt, title page |
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| Shape: |
Opéra-comique in one act and eight scenes |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Émile Pessard |
| Libretto : | Paul Arène Alphonse Daudet |
| Premiere: | January 18, 1878 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris Opéra-Comique |
| Place and time of the action: | Macedonia, courtyard of a royal estate |
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Le char (The Chariot) is an opera-comique in one act by Émile Pessard , which premiered in 1878 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The libretto is by Paul Arène and Alphonse Daudet .
Overview
The plot of the opera is based on a French verse tale from the 13th century, which goes back to an older Arabic variation. Alexander (the Great) neglects his affairs of state over love for a woman. His teacher Aristotle reminds him of his duties, and Alexander withdraws from his lover. When she learns the reason for her neglect, she falls in love with the teacher and drives him to serve as her mount. Alexander catches the teacher doing his ridiculous love service, and both have to recognize that love wins over everyone and everything. The anecdote of Aristotle as a riding horse found numerous adaptations in literature and art, mostly under the title Aristotle and Phyllis .
The starting point of the plot is the "lying down" of Alexander. ( Hartmann von Aue coined this term in his verse tale Erec , in which the hero hardly gets out of the marriage bed after his wedding.) The well-meaning old teacher believes he has long been weaned from love and can therefore easily call his master to order. But he does not reckon with cunning and power of women, which make the old man look ridiculous and lead to the fact that the beloved woman wins back her lover. The delicious anecdote offers the reader not only light morals but also the pleasure of seeing two greats reduced to normal proportions: the great Alexander, who is overwhelmed by love, and the noble philosopher, who is taken by surprise by passion.
The plot of the opera differs in some points from that of the medieval story. Alexander is not a king who neglects his affairs of state, but a prince who lets his student duties slip. He is on fire for the slave Briseis, who longs for her Gallic homeland and does not return his love. The old Aristotle turns out to be a rival for the favor of the beautiful slave, but he does not serve her as a mount, but as a draft animal of a chariot. In the end it is not love that wins, but the slave's will to be free, who is released by the prince to her beloved home.
action
Location: Courtyard of a country estate belonging to King Philip in Macedonia .
Prince Alexander , the grown-up son of the Macedonian King Philip, is taught arithmetic by the philosopher Aristotle . A lively student-teacher banter develops between the two:
"" 2 x 3 = 6, 2 x 6 = 13. "-" Oh prince, count your pebbles. 2 x 9 is how many? ”-“ 16 ”. - “By Jupiter! Where are you with your thoughts? ”-“ Certainly love has clouded my brain since I saw this new slave who looked at her reflection in the well. I'm only thinking of seeing her again. ""
The arithmetic lesson continues, and Alexander desperately: “Oh, these numbers, how I detest them! Do you have to sit at the table of Pythagoras on such a beautiful day when your heart is full of love? "
Suddenly Briseis arrives, the “immortal Venus”, whose silver smile Alexander can no longer get out of his head. While Briseis is wringing out her laundry at the fountain, the two men half-heartedly continue their arithmetic lesson and send covetous glances at the beautiful laundress. They ask her about her origins, but contrary to what the men believe, she does not come from a rich, warm country, but from Gaul, a "land of fog and great forests", and the wealth of her homeland is not precious stones, but those splendid girls in the country. Since neither of the two men wants to leave the other alone with Briseis, they unwillingly go for a walk together.
Left alone, Briseis ponders her existence as a slave. She can hardly save herself from admirers, and the dearest of all is still Alexander, but only those who bring her back to her misty homeland will win her heart. While Aristotle is delivering learned speeches under a statue of Cupid, Alexander returns to Briseis unnoticed. To please her, he offers to help her hang up the laundry, and he succeeds in robbing the reluctant a few kisses.
When Aristotle discovers that his pupil has got away from him and is practicing “adding kisses” instead of numbers with the beautiful young woman, the envious philosopher wants to write a letter to King Philip and send Briseis into exile in Scythia. Alexander fears his father's punishment, Briseis their banishment, but she develops a plan to dissuade the jealous old man from his plan.
The languishing old man believes his chance has come and is now making advances to Briseis. She lets him fidget for a while before she admits a secret dream that she has long dreamed of driving around in a chariot. A carriage happens to be in the courtyard, and Briseis asks the love-hungry old man to unceremoniously harness himself for lack of a horse and drive her around. Aristotle hesitates for a moment, but then obeys and carts her through the courtyard. Alexander, who is watching everything, jumps into the car with Briseis, and Aristotle, astonished at the double burden, turns around and realizes that his own pupil has witnessed his humiliation. Briseis, however, the involuntary victim of the two gallants, gains her freedom because she promises to keep silence from King Philip about what has happened. King Philip approaches, Aristotle and Alexander quickly resume lessons, and the king seems extremely satisfied with his son and teacher.
Emergence
The authors of the libretto refer to a swank from the 13th century (Lai d'Aristote), which in turn is based on an old Arabic swank (Le vizir sellé et bridé). In these tales, Aristotle is used as a mount, in a comic opera (Aristote amoureux ou le philosophe bridé), published a century before Le char , he has to drive Alexander's lover around in a chariot, a motif that Le char adopted. Victor Hugo also took up the motif of the Ride of Aristotle. The poem's verse, in which he relishly quoted the anecdote, was prefixed by the authors to their libretto as a motto.
Le vizir sellé et bridé
The fable of the strictly moral adviser who, humiliated for the mount, feels the power of love on his own body, seems to go back to an Arabic quaver that was passed down orally and recorded by an Adjaïbel measer. It was published in French in 1772 under the title Le vizir sellé et bridé ( The vizier with saddle and bridle ).
“A young sultan forgets about state affairs because of his passion for women. After a warning from his vizier, he withdrew from women. An Indian slave wants to expose the vizier as a hypocrite and makes the old man fall in love with himself, so that he serves the slave as a mount, saddled and bridled. The sultan, who catches the vizier doing his love service, is indignant: “Look at you, venerable Mr. Moral Guard, you are a real fool for such a strict moral apostle.” The vizier replied with quick action: “Let this example be a lesson for you. My foolish metamorphosis shows you perfectly what danger love harbors. ""
Lai d'Aristote
Around 1220, based on the Arabic model, the old French verse Lai d'Aristote was created , which despite its title is more of a sway than a courtly Lai . The poet of the Schwank was Henri d'Andeli or Henri de Valenciennes .
“On his campaigns, Alexander the Great also conquered India - and a beautiful Indian woman conquered him. His love for her makes him forget everything until his old teacher Aristotle reminds him of his duty and he lets go of his girlfriend. When she finds out who she owes this to, she seeks revenge. She asks Alexander to lie in wait and taunts with Aristotle in front of his eyes until he is finally ready to serve her as a mount. Alexander arches with laughter, and Aristotle is seized with deep shame. He must realize that "love wins over everything and will win as long as the world lasts". "
Paul Arène and Alphonse Daudet added a dedication to their libretto in which they paid respect to the author of the Lai d'Aristote for his courage in being the first to ridicule the venerable philosophers:
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Au vieil auteur du Lai d'Aristote |
This
disrespectful work is dedicated to the old author of the Lai d'Aristote |
Aristote amoureux ou le philosophe bridé
In 1780, the comic opera Aristote amoureux ou le philosophe bridé ( Aristotle in love or the philosopher in a bridle ) premiered at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris , a hundred years before Le char, in which Aristotle also appeared as the draft animal of a chariot instead of a mount.
"Orphale, Alexander's lover, does not use Aristotle as a riding horse, but as a draft horse: he has to pull her around in a chariot and endure the compassionate ridicule of court society and his former pupil:" If you were still a child, it would be ' it may be forgivable. But a wise man! A teacher! An Aristotle! ”But the knowledge gained reconciles Aristotle with the world:“ Forget the ruse that finally opens my eyes to the ruling power of the smallest of all gods. ”"
Victor Hugo
The authors of Le char prefixed the libretto with a stanza from the poem Post-scriptum des rêves ( PostScript of dreams ) by Victor Hugo from 1859 as the motto . While the poet regrets the time he has wasted on dry book wisdom, a black dwarf appears to him in his dream, who gives him good advice in Latin for a joyful life. A stanza is dedicated to the amorous Aristotle and his mountaineering services:
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Ô sages, comme vous rampâtes! |
Oh wise men, what creeps you were! |
literature
- Henri d'Andeli: Le lai d'Aristote. Publié d'après le texte inédit du ms. 3516 de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, with an introduction by A. Héron. Rouen: L. Gy, 1901, online . - Old French.
- Alphonse Daudet: Oeuvres complètes / Théâtre; 3. Le char. Jack. Sapho. Numa Roumestan. Paris: Houssiaux, 1901.
- M. Le Grand: Fabliaux ou contes du XIIe et du XIIIe Siecle , Volume 1. Paris: Onfroy, 1781, pages 214-231, online . - French prose translation of the old French original #Andeli 1901 .
- Le char. In: Robert Ignatius Letellier: Opéra-Comique: A Sourcebook. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp. 605-606, online .
- Adjaïbel Measer: Le vizir sellé et bridé. In: Denis-Dominique Cardonne: Mélanges de littérature orientale, traduits de différens manuscrits turcs, arabes et persans de la Bibliothèque du Roi , volume 1. Paris: Delalain, 1772, pages 16-21, online .
- Émile Pessard: Le Char, opéra-comique en un acte, poëme de MM. Paul Arène et Alphonse Daudet, partition réduite pur chant et piano par L. Soumis. Paris: Alphonse-Leduc, 1878, online .
- Augustine Piis; Pierre Yves Barré: Aristote amoureux ou le philosophe bridé. Opéra-comique, en un acte & en vaudevilles. Représenté pour la premiere fois par les comédiens italiens ordinaires du roi, le vendredi 11 août 1780. Paris: Vente, 1780, online .
Web links
- Le char : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Footnotes
- ↑ #Measer 1772 .
- ↑ "Ah, ah, grave censeur, vous êtes bien fol pour un moraliste si austère."
- ^ "J'ai joint l'exemple au précepte; cette métamorphose bizarre vous apprend combien l'amour est à fuir. "
- ↑ #Andeli 1901 , #Le Grand 1781 . See also: Lai d'Aristote .
- ↑ "Amour vainc tot, et tot vaincra, tant com li monde durera."
- ↑ Name of Aristotle after his place of birth Stageira .
- ↑ #Piis 1780 .
- ^ "Si vous étiez encore enfant, cela pourroit passer peut-être. Mais un savant! Corn and Pedant! Mais Aristote! "
- ↑ "J'excuse la ruse / qui m'ouvre enfin les yeux / sur le pouvoir impérieux / du plus petit de tous les Dieux."
- ^ Post-scriptum des rêves .
- ↑ Campaspe : Name of Alexander's lover, otherwise mostly Phyllis .