Pandore

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Data
Title: Pandore
Genus: Opera libretto
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1748
Premiere: February 14, 1767 at the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs
Place of premiere: Versailles
people
  • Prométhée , son of heaven and earth, demigod
  • Pandore
  • Jupiter
  • Mercure
  • Nemesis
  • Nimphes
  • Titans
  • Divinités célestes
  • Divinités infernales
Jean-Michel Moreau : Illustration to Pandore, 1783

Pandore is an opera libretto in five acts by Voltaire from 1739 . The libretto Pandore , set to music first by Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer and then by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde (1734–1794), was performed only in 1752 and 1767 in Versailles and once in Ferney . The third setting by Stanislas Champain (1753-1830) from 1813 was not performed.

action

The action takes place in a landscape with mountains in the background. Prométhée (Prometée in the first edition) enlivens the Pandore he created with the fire of love he stole . Pandore falls in love with her Creator and lights the fire. It arouses the wrath of Jupiter and the titans , who rebel against the gods. Jupiter gives Pandore a box that Prométhée says she should never open. A lie from the gods breaks their promise. After that, humanity can only rely on itself and love.

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire worked on the libretto for Pandore with several linked motifs from Greek mythology since 1739. Voltaire first mentioned the piece in a letter to Helvétius on January 3, 1740. He intended to compose his philosophical opera with the motif of theodicy . Voltaire tried several times to persuade the leading composers of his time to set it to music. Rameau declined with thanks. Finally, at the end of 1765, Jean-Benjamin de La Borde took over the commission, but fell far short of the expectations of Voltaire and the audience. Voltaire himself, in his letter to Laborde of November 4, 1765, doubted the quality of his original:

"" Pandore is not a good work, but at least there is good entertainment with a varied music, the many duets, trios and choirs. Besides, it is a philosophical opera that should be performed in front of people like Bayle and Diderot ; it is about the origin of evil in the physical and moral; by the way, Jupiter plays an unflattering role in it ... "

Performances and contemporary reception

According to Adrien-Jean-Quentin Beuchot, the Duc de Richelieu, as head of the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles, commissioned a score of the Pandore from Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer in 1752 . A performance of Royer’s opera with the libretto revised by a certain M. Sireuil under the title Prométhée et Pandore took place on October 5, 1752 in the salon of Jeanne-Louise Constance d'Aumont, Marquise and later Duchesse de Villeroy (1731-1816). The change in the title and text of Sireuil was sharply disapproved by Voltaire, who referred to him as a former coat-bearer of the king. In 1754 Voltaire thwarted a performance planned by Royer in Paris. Royer died in Paris in 1755. Voltaire remarked sarcastically about his death: "God has punished Royer. He is dead. I wanted him to be buried with his opera before they were exposed in the theater, his parade bed ..." The version of Voltaire favored by Laborde premiered on February 14, 1767 at the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs. Another performance followed at Voltaire's private theater in Ferney. The music of Laborde was lost like that of Royer. The manuscript of Stanislas Champain's unpublished setting has been preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France .

Going to press

The text of the Pandore appeared for the first time in the third volume of the Dresden edition by Walther.

First edition

  • Pandore. Opéra , in: Oeuvres de Mr. de Voltaire, Nouvelle Édition, Volume III, Dresden, Walther, 1748, 8 °, pp. 321-360.

literature

  • Raymond Trousson: Voltaire et la fable de Pandore , Studi francesi, 31, 1967, pp. 31-40.
  • Theodore Besterman : Mahomet and Friedrich (1740–1741), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 207.
  • Manuel Couvreur: Pandore , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 152 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Manuel Couvreur: Pandore , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 152.
  2. ^ Theodore Besterman: Mahomet and Friedrich (1740–1741), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 207.
  3. ↑ Cf. Manuel Couvreur: Pandore , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 152.
  4. ↑ Thomas Vernet: Rameau et ses mécènes, on www.rameau2014.fr
  5. ↑ Pas de chance pour Pandore! in: Claude-Jean Nébrac: Les petites histoires de l'opéra baroque en France, Nébrac, 2011, p. 174 ff.