Olimpia
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Olimpia |
| Original title: | Olimpia |
Caroline Branchu as Statira, 1819 |
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| Shape: | Tragédie lyrique in three acts |
| Original language: | 1st version: French 2nd version: German |
| Music: | Gaspare Spontini |
| Libretto : | Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut |
| Premiere: | Version 1: December 22, 1819 Version 2: May 14, 1821 |
| Place of premiere: | 1st version: Salle Montansier in Paris 2nd version: Royal Opera House Berlin |
| Playing time: | approx. 3 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Ephesus , shortly after the death of Alexander the Great around 308 BC. Chr. |
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Olimpie (also: Olympie , German version: Olimpia ) is an opera (original name: "tragédie-lyrique") in three acts by Gaspare Spontini . The French libretto by Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut is based on Voltaire's play Olympie from 1761. The work was premiered on December 22, 1819 at the Paris Opera in the Salle Montansier , the German-language second version Olympia in Berlin on May 14, 1821 in the Royal Berlin Opera House .
action
The action takes place in Ephesus in Ionia.
first act
Antigone (Antigonus), King of Greece, and Cassandre, King of Macedon, are implicated in the murder of Alexander the Great. They were opponents in the war, but are now ready to make peace with one another. However, the slave Aménais represents a new obstacle to peace, because both kings want her to be a wife. Aménais is the unrecognized daughter of Alexander the great, Olimpie. Statira, Alexander's widow and Olimpie's mother, also lives under a different name than Priestess Arzane. Statira wants to prevent the planned marriage between "Aménais" and Cassandre and accuses the latter of the murder of Alexander.
Second act
Statira and Olimpie reveal their true identity to each other and to Cassandre. Olimpie defends Cassandre against Statira's allegations, claiming that he saved her life. Statira cannot be convinced of this and seeks revenge with the help of Antigone and his comrades in arms.
Third act
Olimpie is torn between daughter duties and her love for Cassandre. Cassandre and Antigone's troops attack each other and Antigone is struck down. Shortly before his death, however, he confesses that he himself was responsible for Alexander's death and that Cassandre was innocent. Now the road to marriage is paved for Cassandre and Olimpie.
Work history
The stage design for the Paris premiere on December 22, 1819 came from Ignace Eugène Marie Degotti and Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri , the costumes from Auguste Garneray and the choreography from Pierre Gardel . The conductor was Rodolphe Kreutzer . Louis Nourrit (Cassandre), Henri-Étienne Dérivis (Antigone), Caroline Branchu (Statira), Louise-Marie-Augustine Albert (Olimpie) and M. Bonet (Hierophant) sang . A total of 61 singers and 76 dancers in the first act took part in the performance. Despite the enormous effort, the production was a failure. While the premiere was still 7,836 francs in the coffers, the crowd decreased with each performance. The seventh performance on January 12, 1820 only fetched 2,135 francs. The opera was then canceled.
Spontini then revised his opera for the performances in Berlin together with ETA Hoffmann , who created a German translation of the libretto for the occasion. This version was successfully premiered at the Royal Opera House on May 14, 1821. Here Carl Adam Bader (Kassander), Heinrich Blume (Antigonos), Anna Milder-Hauptmann (Stateira) and Josephine Schulze (Olimpie) sang the leading roles . The German stage design came from Karl Friedrich Schinkel .
A third version was played again in Paris on February 27 or 28, 1826, this time in the Salle de la rue Le Peletier of the Paris Opera . Laure Cinti-Damoreau (Olimpie), Branchu (Statira), Adolphe Nourrit (Cassandre) and Dérivis (Antigone) sang .
layout
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Spontini demands a very large orchestra for the olimpie (the ophicleide was used here for the first time ) and other spectacular effects. In the finale of the Berlin version, Cassandre appeared riding a real elephant, and two elephants were allegedly brought in for the Paris performance. Like Fernand Cortez , the work anticipates the future French Grand Opéra in some respects .
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up of the third version of the opera from 1826 contains the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : piccolo , two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , three bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones
- Timpani , drums : bass drum , cymbals , triangle , tam-tam
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music behind the scene: four horns, two trumpets, trombones, bell
- Incidental music on the scene: four trumpets, two horns, bass trombone, ophicleide, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, triangle)
In addition to the elephant already mentioned, the triumphal march of the third act requires 24 trumpets and 14 other instruments.
Total recording
- Olympics. Lyric tragedy in three acts . Olimpie: Júlia Várady ; Statira: Stefania Toczyska ; Cassandre: Franco Tagliavini ; Antigone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau ; Hierophant: George Fortune ; Hermas: Josef Becker; RIAS Chamber Choir , Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin , Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin , 1987. Munich: ORFEO Internat. Conductor: Gerd Albrecht .
literature
- Charles Bouvet: Spontini. Paris 1930
- Hans Engel: Wagner and Spontini. In: Archives for Music Science. Volume 12. 1955
- Dennis Albert Libby: Gaspare Spontini and His French and German Operas. Dissertation Princeton 1969
- Paolo Fragapane: Spontini. Bologna 1954, new edition: Florence 1983
Web links
- Olimpie : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Olimpie, tragédie lyrique en trois actes. French libretto (1826). Digitized at Gallica
- Olimpia (German), Berlin 1821, first print of the translation by ETA Hoffmann. Digitization of the Munich digitization center
- Historical performance material of the Munich Court Theater in the Bavarian Library Association
- Olimpie , Play by Voltaire, 1763 edition. Digitized from Google Books
- Olimpie (Gaspare Spontini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Anno Mungen : Olimpie. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 5: Works. Piccinni - Spontini. Piper, Munich and Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , pp. 779-782.
- ^ Spire Pitou: The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers - Growth and Grandeur, 1815-1914 M-Z. Greenwood Press: Westport / London 1990 ISBN 0-313-27783-4 , p. 967.