Les Boréades

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Work data
Title: The Boreads or the Triumph of Abaris
Original title: Les Boréades ou le triumph d'Abaris
Shape: Tragédie lyrique
Original language: French
Music: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Libretto : Louis de Cahusac
Premiere: July 21, 1982 (scenic)
Place of premiere: Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
Place and time of the action: Kingdom of Bactria in mythical times
people
  • Alphise, Queen of Bakrien ( soprano )
  • Sémire, her confidante (soprano)
  • Borée (Boreas), god of the north winds ( Bass )
  • Borilée (Borileas) and Calisis, his sons ( baritone and tenor / Haute-Contre )
  • Apollo , god of light and symbol of the French king (baritone)
  • Abaris , his son (tenor / haute-contre)
  • Adamas , Apollo's high priest (bass)
  • Polyhymnia , muse of music (soprano)
  • Cupid , a god of love (soprano)
  • Entourage of the queen, priests, people, graces , nymphs , winds, zephyrs ( choir )

Les Boréades ( The Boreads ) is the last opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau . The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac . The opera has five acts and was composed in 1763, a year before Rameau's death. The opera was premiered in London in 1975 (concert) and in 1982 in Aix-en-Provence (scenic).

action

At the heart of the opera is the love between Alphise, Queen of Bactria , and Abaris, the subordinate assistant to the chief priest of Apollo. This love is so sincere that all social differences and social conventions are broken. Alphise even gives up the throne to be with her lover. The libretto wearing Masonic elements and includes ideas of the French Revolution.

Performance history

The rehearsals for the preview of the opera in Choisy were canceled after a month, although they had been commissioned by the Académie Royale de musique on the occasion of the Peace of Paris . Instead, an opera by the composer Benjamin de Laborde ( Isméne et Isménias ) was performed. On the one hand, the causes could be the (presumed) ideal content of the libretto - the somewhat revolutionary ideas of equality and a woman who realizes herself (“C'est la liberté qu'il faut que l'on aime”, dt. “Freedom must love ”) - on the other hand, simply lack of money, intrigues (as the musicologist Sylvie Bouissou suspects; because Benjamin de Laborde was considered a lover of Madame de Pompadour ) or technical problems of the singers and the orchestra.

The opera was rediscovered in the second half of the 20th century. In 1974 the work was first performed in concert by John Eliot Gardiner in London . The scenic premiere of the opera took place in Aix-en-Provence in 1982 during the festival , again under the direction of Gardiner. After that, the popularity increased considerably along with the rediscovery of baroque incidental music. In 1999 Simon Rattle performed the opera at the Salzburg Festival . In 2003 the Opéra National de Paris followed with a production by Robert Carsen under the direction of William Christie as conductor. There is a DVD of this performance. In 2004 there was a production by the Zurich Opera House under the musical direction of Marc Minkowski .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sylvie Bouissou: Jean-Philippe Rameau. Musicien des Lumières. Paris 2014, Chapter XX; and Chapter IX: Tableau des commandes en lien avec un événement de la vie de cour .
  2. ^ Sylvie Bouissou: Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les boréades: la tragédie oubliée. Collection de musicologie, Verlag Méridiens Klincksieck, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-86563-300-4 , page 82.
  3. ^ Reviews of the 2004 performance in Zurich