Richard Coeur de Lion
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Richard the Lionheart |
| Original title: | Richard Coeur de Lion |
The Blondels song |
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| Shape: | Opéra-comique |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry |
| Libretto : | Michel-Jean Sedaine |
| Literary source: | Blondelsage |
| Premiere: | October 21, 1784 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris , Opéra-Comique |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | A castle near Linz in the Holy Roman Empire , around 1190 |
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Richard Cœur de Lion is an opera comique in three acts by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry . The libretto is by Michel-Jean Sedaine . The opera premiered on October 21, 1784 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
action
first act
At the beginning of the first act, the farmers return from the fields to the village, where the supposedly blind troubadour Blondel asks for quarters and identifies himself as a follower of the captured Richard the Lionheart. By chance he overhears the country gentleman Williams catching his servant Guillot with a love letter to his daughter Laurette. The love letter comes from the pen of the governor of the nearby castle, it casually mentions that he cannot leave the castle during the day because of a prisoner. Blondel pricks up his ears and hears out Laurette. Finally, Countess Marguerite, Richard's lover, arrives, desperately looking for him. Since she recognizes Blondel by one of his melodies, she gives him shelter. The first act ends with a big feast for the farmers and Blondels. The following motives emerge: Marguerite and Blondel are looking for the imprisoned king, the governor wants to tinker with Laurette, which her father Williams wants to prevent, Antonio wants to win and Colette the peasants want to celebrate a great festival for Mathurin's golden wedding anniversary. The love letter from the governor establishes the connection to what is happening in the castle and shows the further progress of the action. The musical heart of the first act is Blondel's aria "Ô Richard, ô mon roi", which identifies him as a loyal follower of Richard the Lionheart.
Second act
At the beginning of the second act, Richard laments his imprisonment and, in view of a portrait of his mistress Marguerite, becomes hopeless. Blondel sings a tune at the foot of the castle, whereupon Richard recognizes him and also reveals himself. The troubadour tries in vain to gain access to the castle. He was almost imprisoned because of his audacity, but can pull himself out of the affair as a blind beggar.
Third act
In the third act, Blondel visits the countess and reports that the king is trapped in the neighboring castle. She rejects her decision to go to the monastery, and both decide to storm the castle, which Marguerite's troops then manage. The following wedding feast serves as a trap for the governor, who, however, only receives a reminder and at the end - lieto fine - is allowed to marry Laurette.
layout
music
The form of the opera corresponds to a number opera with spoken dialogues. In addition to Blondel's “O Richard, o mon Roi!” From the first act, Richard's scene at the beginning of the second act, which requires a lyrical tenor with a stable pitch up to the stroke b, is particularly noteworthy. Despite her high status as a stage figure, Queen Marguerite has more of a dramaturgical function and is not assigned a major performance aria, which is instead taken over by the amorous Laurette.
dramaturgy
The drama stretches from one evening to the next and has the following settings: The first act takes place in a village near a castle, where the inhabitants are just preparing for a celebration. The second act takes place at the foot of the fortress, where King Richard the Lionheart is imprisoned. The castle is known as the Château de Lintz . The historic fortress of Dürnstein , where Richard was actually held prisoner, is about 130 km west of Linz . This simplistic renaming gave the public in Paris the opportunity to localize the castle relatively precisely. For the local public, the castle was named Veste Dürnstein in the libretto of the revival in Vienna in 1806 . In the third act, the ballroom of Williams' house is the venue. The locations are referred to via the stage design; there are no references to the location and time in the text book. A rural-village world is contrasted with a noble world. From both spheres comes an actor, in that the young farmer Antonio is placed at the side of the supposedly blind Blondel as leader. The main and secondary actors can only be distinguished from one another to a limited extent, as there are many ensemble scenes and the solo numbers are relatively evenly distributed. King Richard the Lionheart, the poet Blondel and Countess Marguerite of Flanders are historical figures who never met. The actors of the love story and the rural festival are fictional.
There are two conflicts within the nobility, namely King Richard's captivity and Williams's refusal to marry his daughter Laurette off to the governor. The conflicts in the opera are resolved through Blondel's loyalty and acumen.
From a military point of view, Countess Marguerite, whose troops have successfully stormed the castle, proves to be the owner of power, which she, however, unconditionally hands over to Blondel, Williams and their Seneschal out of a feeling of sudden impotence. King Richard the Lionheart is designed as a positive figure of identification.
history
Emergence
Richard Cœur de Lion's libretto processes two historical events and their connection in a legend. On the one hand, there is the captivity of King Richard the Lionheart at the end of the third crusade , which is described in detail in the Chronica Majora of Matthew of Paris . The dispute between Richard and Duke Leopold V of Austria began when Richard wanted to stay in a castle near Emmaus, where the Duke was already a guest. At Richard's behest, the duke's flag was torn down and thrown into the sewer. Due to this insult, the Duke captured Richard on his way home from the crusade near Vienna and later sold him to Emperor Heinrich VI.
Around two dozen minne songs have come down to us from the historical troubadour Blondel de Nesle . There is no evidence that the contemporaries Richard and Blondel ever met, but they were first associated with each other in Ménéstrel de Reims, in ancient France, around 1260. Since then, Blondel has been an integral part of the legends surrounding Richard the Lionheart. Already in the Ménéstrel of Reims it is told how the prisoner Richard recognizes his troubadour by the voice and frees him. This becomes the central motif of the opera.
Representation of the Middle Ages in music, text and productions
In the music and in the early productions, various means are used to evoke the “Middle Ages” or perhaps more diffuse imaginations of the past, whereas the libretto only offers such indications in passing. Grétry himself was of the opinion that on a musical level one could already recognize the historical coloring in the overture from the dominance of the brass.
The duet by Richard and Blondel in the second act is composed "in the old style". Rhythm and melody are kept very simple and represent a stylized imitation of medieval music. Modern musical material is not used. Instead, the work is characterized by catchy rondes and chansons that were seen as a direct legacy of the troubadours. The instrumental collapse of the castle wall in the third act is effective, making the emblem “castle” very vivid even on the musical level. A spectacular entry by Marguerite is not included in the libretto, only a drinking song at the end of the first act, with verses about a battle against Sultan Saladin and a verse about Pope Gregory, recourse is made to the time of the Middle Ages.
reception
The stage design for the Darmstadt festival in 1785 showed a naturalistic and perspective depicted castle as the background. For the staging of the resumption in Vienna in 1806 , 14 live horses were used, in whose company Marguerite appeared. The destruction of the castle, in the original only described in the music, was also staged on the stage, in the third act there was a fight on horseback to represent knight tournaments. The royalists of the late 18th century liked to use the aria “, Richard, ô mon roi”, also in the variant “Ô Louis, ô mon roi”, to express their unconditional loyalty to Louis XVIII. to document opposite.
Recordings / discography
- Richard Cœur de Lion / Le devin du village , Nicolai Gedda , Mady Mesplé , 1977, EMI, audio CD
- Richard Cœur de Lion / Denys le Tyran , Peter Edelmann (Blondel), Hubert Zingerle (Richard), Barbara Pichler (Marguerite) and Marinella Pennicchi (Laurette) under Fabio Neri , 1999 (recorded in 1990), Nuova Era.
Individual evidence
literature
- Michael Klügl : Richard Cœur de Lion: Opéra comique en trois actes. In: Piper's Enzyklopadie des Musiktheater, Vol. 2, 1987, pp. 574-576.
- M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet: Grétry and the Revolution. In: Philippe Vendrix (ed.): Grétry et l'Europe de l'opéra-comique. Liège 1992, pp. 47-110.
- Thomas Betzwieser: Grétrys Richard Cœur de Lion in Germany: The Opéra-comique on the way to the “Great Opera”. In: Philippe Vendrix (ed.): Grétry et l'Europe de l'opéra-comique. Liège 1992, pp. 331-351.
- John Grillingham: Some Legends of Richard the Lionheart: Their Development and their Influence. In: Janet L. Nelson (ed.): Richard Cœur de Lion in history and Myth ( King's College London Medieval Studies 7), London 1992, pp. 51-69.
- Ronald Lessens: André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry ou Le triomphe de l'Opéra-Comique (1741-1813). Paris 2007.
- Joachim Bumke: Court culture: literature and society in the high Middle Ages. Munich 2008.
Web links
- Richard Cœur-de-Lion : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Riccardo Cor Di Leone. Libretto (Italian), Lisbon 1792. Digital copy from the Biblioteca Nazional Brasil
- Richard Coeur-de-Lion (André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Manuscripts and performances (1770–1830) by Richard Cœur de Lion in the DFG opera project
- Work data on Richard Cœur-de-Lion based on MGG with discography at Operone