Marguerite Olagnier

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Marguerite Olagnier

Marguerite Olagnier b. Joly ( 1844 - September 12, 1906 in Paris ) was a French opera singer , writer , composer and theater director . Her main work is the exotic opera Le Saïs , which premiered in December 1881.

life and work

Olagnier sang at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, married Eugène Olagnier and accompanied him to Egypt . Presumably there she wrote both the libretto and the music for her opera Le Saïs . She also wrote two other operas, which were never performed, and a number of songs. She was also the director of the Théâtre de l'Oratorio .

Le Saïs

Her main work, the exotic opera Le Saïs with the subtitle Conte arabe en quatre actes , for which she wrote both the text and the music, was premiered in December 1881 at the Parisian Théâtre de la Renaissance . At that time the theater functioned mainly as an operetta house. The tenor Victor Capoul , who organized the production, probably also directed and sang the main role of Naghib, played a major role in the premiere. Various authors emphasize that Olagnier put female desire in the foreground in her opera and, with this intention, also wanted to set a counterpoint to the French operatic tradition in which the central characters were chosen by choosing Capoul, who was known and sought-after as a woman friend desirable or worth protecting women were occupied.

Extract from her Habanera from 1896:

Original version

Charmeresse étrange,
Ton parfum d'orange
Embràse mes sens
De désirs ardents.

L'épée était vierge,
Longue comme un cierge ...

translation

Strange charm,
your smell of oranges
Set
fire to my senses With a burning desire

The sword is virgin,
long as a candle ...

Olagnier also corresponded with the composer Henri Maréchal .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, Sir George Grove, Waldo Selden Pratt: Grove's dictionary of music and musicians: Volume 1 1922.
  2. ^ Oxford Index , accessed September 16, 2016.
  3. ↑ Karen Henson: Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteenth Century , Cambridge University Press 2015, pp. 157–158, online: [1] accessed September 15, 2016.
  4. ^ Lettre de Marguerite Olagnier à Henri Maréchal, Paris 1875
personal data
SURNAME Olagnier, Marguerite
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joly, Marguerite (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French opera singer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 1844
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1906
Place of death Paris