Les voyages de l'Amour
| Opera dates | |
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| Title: | Les voyages de l'Amour |
Title page of the libretto (later edition), Paris 1736 |
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| Shape: | Opéra-ballet in a prologue and four acts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Joseph Bodin de Boismortier |
| Libretto : | Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère |
| Premiere: | April 26 or May 3, 1736 |
| Place of premiere: | Académie Royale de Musique , Paris |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ¼ hours |
| people | |
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prolog
first act
Second act
Third act |
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Les voyages de l'Amour is an opéra-ballet (original name: "Ballet") in a prologue and four acts by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (music) with a libretto by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère . It premiered on April 26 or May 3, 1736 at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris.
action
prolog
Cupid's Gardens on the island of Kythera
In the company of graces and sensuality, l'Amour rests on a bed of flowers while his entourage praises the power of his lucky weapons with song and dance (chorus: “Triomphe, Amour”). The messenger of spring Zephire advises him to get to know love and its delights (Zephire: "Vous à qui deux beaux yeux assurent la victoire" - L'Amour: "Chantez, formez toujours le concert le plus tendre"). L'Amour has no interest in fleeting flirtation; it would just form an eternal bond. He doubts, however, that he has the ability to ensure constant love in return: His power ends when it comes to his own heart. Zephire thinks that his charms would be enough. Together they leave Kythera to search the villages, the city and the royal court for a suitable woman (L'Amour / Zephire: “Partons, abandonnons Cythère”). The others wish them success (chorus: “Partez, volez à la victoire”).
First act: “Le village” - The village
A meadow
Scene 1. Disguised as shepherds, l'Amour and Zephire are in a rural area where l'Amour is courting the shepherdess Daphné under the name Sylvandre. She returns his feelings, but is still reluctant to give in to them. Zephire does not believe that she can withstand l'Amour for long (Zephire: "Dieu séducteur"). At least she promised him a meeting before the upcoming village festival. L'Amour is also confident that they can win them over. He then wants to test her loyalty by leaving her alone for a while while he walks through town and court.
Scene 2. The highlight of the festival is a singing competition in which the winner is to receive a prize from Daphné (Daphné: “Du berger qui sera vainqueur”). This continues to be cautious about L'Amour. She warns him of the consequences of the love that has already caused many tragedies.
Scene 3. As referee, Thersandre opens the competition dedicated to Cupid, the price of which was donated by the goddess Venus (chorus: “Pour meriter les dons de l'immorteille”). The shepherd Hilas (Hilas: "Si nou voyons dans ce séjour") makes the start. After a rondeau for the shepherds and shepherdesses, l'Amour sings his own contribution (L'Amour: "Charmant vainqueur"). He's so successful that nobody else wants to step forward. Thersandre gives Daphné the prize, a crown of myrtles, which she presents to l'Amour. Everyone praises the winner (Thersandre, shepherds and shepherdesses: “Berger, jouissez de la gloire”).
Second act: “La ville” - The city
A desolate wasteland, in the background the sea on one side and a grotto on the other, the simple abode of an astrologer
Scene 1. In the city, l'Amour advertises under the name Alcidon for the bourgeois daughter Lucile. In his opinion, this reacts too strongly to his flattery. To test her loyalty, l'Amour sent her incognito presents. He knows that she will ask the fortune-teller about the identity of the sender and prepares him for it (fortune-teller: “Il est malaise qu'une belle”).
Scene 2. Lucile approaches the grotto with her friend Beroé. She confesses to her that the gifts of the stranger appeal to her. She loves Alcidon, but would leave him for a better match. Beroé advises her to forget her scruples (Beroé: “Pourquoi rougir d'être volage?”).
Scene 3. For his interrogation, the fortune teller conjures up the spirits of the four elements: gnomes , sylphs , undines and salamanders . He then announces to Lucile that she is loved by l'Amour.
Scene 4. Lucile decides to ditch Alcidon to turn to l'Amour. Suddenly the wasteland turns into a lovely garden. Beroé sees this as a sign of l'Amour's favor.
Scene 5. L'Amour's entourage presents Lucile with a beautiful necklace (L'Amour's entourage: “Portez la chaîne la plus belle”). She is now determined to remain faithful to this God (Lucile: "Ah! Qu'il soit sûr de ma constance").
Scene 6. Supported by Beroé, Lucile tells Amour, who is still disguised as Alcidon, that she renounces his love and that he should forget her. Thereupon l'Amour reveals himself to her. The stage turns back into wasteland and Lucile realizes that she has driven l'Amour away.
Third act: “La cour” - At the court
A hall decorated for a festival in the palace of Augustus
Scene 1. As the Roman courtier Emile, l'Amour has apparently conquered the heart of Princess Julie , the granddaughter of Emperor Augustus . However, he suspects that at the same time she gives in to the poet Ovide's wooing .
Scene 2. To learn more about his relationship with Julie, l'Amour congratulates Ovide on his success with women. Ovide boasts of his loving arts that even Cupid could learn from. But he doesn't believe in loyalty. He reveals to l'Amour that he has also already conquered the princess. Since she wanted to keep it quiet, he would meet her in disguise at the upcoming festival (Ovide: “Mon bonheur serait imperfait”).
Scene 3. At the beginning of the mask festival, the choir praises Amor and Foolishness (choir: “Suivons l'Amour et la Folie”). A mask wearer celebrates Cupid's fame (mask wearer: “De l'Amour chantons la gloire”).
Scene 4. Ovide and Julie meet for their rendezvous, masked. Emile / L'Amour intervenes and accuses Julie of cheating on her loyal admirer with Ovide. Julie does not deny anything, takes off her mask and ends her relationship with Emile.
Scene 5. L'Amour decides to return to his shepherdess. It is simple, but true.
Fourth act: “Le Retour” - The return
The palace of l'Amour
Scene 1. A group of Zephyrs in the wake of Zephire carries the sleeping Daphné on a cloud into the palace.
Scene 2. Daphné wakes up to the sounds of a gentle symphony (Daphné: “Doux sommeil, qui suspends les maus des misérables”).
Scene 3. Zephire explains to the astonished Daphné where she is and that a happy fate awaits her. Daphné has only one wish: she would like to see her beloved Sylvandre again. Zephire claims that Sylvandre has left her and will shortly be married in this place; l'Amour will, however, offer her consolation (Zephire: "Étouffez désormais").
Scene 4. L'Amour appears in the form of the shepherd Sylvandre, accompanied by cupids disguised as shepherds, games and amusements that celebrate the lovers (cupids: "Célébrons les amours d'un fidèle berger"). When Daphné accuses her lover of his infidelity, l'Amour reveals himself to her. Everyone celebrates the upcoming wedding (Cupids: “Vole Hymen, reviens à Cythère”).
layout
In his ballet opera Boismortier largely dispenses with the secco recitatives that have been known in France for some time . In addition to the five-part string ensemble, the line-up includes a number of wind instruments, which are often used in concert and mostly in pairs. An oboe accompanies Zephire's aria “Vous à qui deux beaux yeux assurent la victoire” (prologue), solo flute and violins play in l'Amour's answer “Chantez, formez toujours le concert le plus tendre” (prologue), a musette in Hilas' competition entry "Si nou voyons dans ce séjour" (I: 3). L'Amour's subsequent Air en rondeau “Charmant vainqueur” (I: 3) is particularly skillfully orchestrated. The incantations of the fortune teller (II: 3) are characterized by almost symphonic orchestral effects. Daphné's slumber aria “Doux sommeil, qui suspends les maus des misérables” (IV: 2) is accompanied by flutes and muted strings.
Work history
Les voyages de l'Amour is the first of three ballet operas by French baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier , which were premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris. This was followed by Don Quixote (1743) and Daphnis et Chloe (1747). The libretto is by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère . Voltaire praised it in a letter to Berger on April 5, 1736 as "full of graces and spirit" ("plein de grâces & d'esprit"). François-Joseph Fétis erroneously attributed the ballet opera to the composer Jean-Baptiste Niel.
According to the title page of the score, the first performance took place on April 26, 1736. The printed libretto of a later version, however, mentions May 3, 1736. Both dates can be found in the literature: The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives the earlier date, while Spire Pitou gives the later. The singers were Pierre Jélyotte (L'Amour), Louis-Antoine Cuvelier (Zephire), François Le Page (inhabitant of Kythera), Marie Pélissier (Daphné), Jean Dun (Thersandre), Claude-Louis-Dominique de Chassé de Chinais (fortune tellers and Ovide) and Marie Antier (Julie) with, as dancers Marie Sallé and Antoine-François Dangeville.
There were a total of 18 performances in 1736. To help improve the apparently meager success, the librettist wrote a new second act (June 4, 1736) in which Adherbal l'Amour asks for help in winning Dircé's favor and l ' Amour punishes their indifference to their admirer. An alternative third act was never performed. In it, the princess rejects Amour, disguised as Emile, in order to enter into a relationship with the emperor out of lust for power. The annoyed Amour lets her plans fail and decides to return to Daphné.
The roles of l'Amour and Zephire were sung by tenors and haute- contres, respectively, at the premiere . In the as Op. 60 published score, however, these parts are in the treble or soprano clef. This, as well as some other evidence, suggests that Boismortier actually intended them as soprano roles.
More recently, the work was only played in concert on November 17, 2019 in the Herne cultural center as part of the days of early music in Herne . It was a co-production with the Zsolnay Heritage Management, the Center de musique baroque de Versailles (which created the performance material) and the Orfeo Music Foundation. The soloists were Chantal Santon-Jeffery (L'Amour), Adriána Kalafszky (Zephire), Katia Velletaz (residents of Kytheras, Hilas and Lucile), Judith van Wanroij (Daphné), Lóránt Najbauer (Thersandre, fortune teller, Ovide) and Eszter Balogh Shepherdess, Beroé, Julie). The performance was streamed on radio WDR 3 and then made available as a video on the Internet.
Recordings
- November 17, 2019 - György Vashegyi (conductor), Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir.
Chantal Santon-Jeffery (L'Amour), Adriána Kalafszky (Zephire), Katia Velletaz (residents of Kytheras, Hilas and Lucile), Judith van Wanroij (Daphné), Lóránt Najbauer (Thersandre, fortune teller and Ovid), Eszter Balogh (shepherd and Julie).
Video; live, in concert from the Herne cultural center .
Radio broadcast and video stream on WDR 3 .
Digital copies
- Score, Paris 1736. Digitized by Gallica
- Libretto (Italian), Paris 1736. Digitized by Gallica
- Libretto (Italian), Paris 1736 (with the second version of the third act). Digitized at Gallica
- Arias and Arietten, Paris 1737. Digitized by Gallica
Web links
- Les Voyages de l'Amour, Op.60 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Video stream of the performance in Herne 2019, part 1 and part 2 in the WDR media library, available until November 17, 2020
- Program book (PDF) and song texts (PDF with French and German libretto) for the Days of Early Music in Herne 2019 on the WDR website .
- Werner Häußner: Review of the performance in Herne 2019 in Online Merker, November 18, 2019
- Thomas Molke: In search of love. Review of the performance in Herne 2019 in Online Musik Magazin
Remarks
- ↑ The passages of the inhabitant of Kythera listed in the score are assigned to Zephire in the libretto of 1736.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Voices according to the cast of the performance in Herne 2019 and the information in the program book.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Bernd Heyder: “Good entertainment!” In: Program book of the days of early music in Herne 2019, pp. 87-89 ( online, PDF on wdr.de).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Spire Pitou: The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers - Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815. Greenwood Press: Westport / London 1985, ISBN 0-313-24394-8 .
- ^ Graham Sadler: La Bruère, Charles-Antoine Le Clerc de. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ Vivien Lo: Niel [Nieil, Nielle], Jean-Baptiste. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ "Niel". In: François-Joseph Fétis : Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. Volume 6, p. 321 ( digitized on Gallica ).
- ^ Philippe Lescat: Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ a b Days of Early Music in Herne 2019 on the WDR website , accessed on November 24, 2019.