Tancrède
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| Title: | Tancrède |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Premiere: | September 13, 1760 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
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Tancrède is a tragedy in five acts by Voltaire . The piece was completed in 1760 after reworking and premiered on September 13 of the same year in Paris , but its development began in 1759 and is said to have taken Voltaire four weeks. The first private performance took place in Ferney in October 1759 .
action
The action takes place in the year 1005 in Syracuse, ruled by Norman, at the time of the liberation of Sicily from the Saracens . Aménaïde, daughter of the knight Argire, is promised to the scheming knight Orbassan. But she loves the knight Tancrède, who is in eighth at the instigation of Orbassan and who is secretly in town. An intercepted letter from Aménaïde to Tancrède, incorrectly interpreted as addressed to the enemy Solamir, leads to her arrest for high treason. Tancrède challenges his adversary Orbassan to a duel. Tancrède, who feels deceived by Aménaïde, seeks death in an attack on the Saracen Solamir, whom he kills. Aménaïde explains her innocence and love to the dying. She evades her father and dies heartbroken next to Tancrèdes' body.
The names Tancrèdes and Aménaïdes are borrowed from Torquato Tasso's Liberated Jerusalem . However, the plot develops completely independently.
Contemporary reception
The Paris premiere in the Comédie-Française with Lekain in the title role and Claire Clairon in the role of Aménaïde was successful and initiated the performance of two parodies by Antonio Francesco Riccoboni in the Théâtre-Italy : La nouvelle joute and Quand parlera-t-elle? Denis Diderot enthusiastically praised the new tragedy in a letter to the author. However, due to intrigues, the well-attended piece was removed from the program after thirteen performances. It was assumed that the Countess Pompadour was degraded by dedicating Voltaire. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published his translation into German in 1802. Gioacchino Rossini experienced his international breakthrough with the setting of the piece for the opera Tancredi in 1813.
Performances
A first private performance of the original version took place after the first rehearsals in Tournay in October 1759 in Voltaire's private theater in Ferney.
Going to press
Voltaire, who preceded the piece with a dedication to Madame Pompadour, an admirer of Tasso, had the piece printed by Prault in 1760. The print was released by the first minister, Étienne-François de Choiseul, on use of Madame Pompadour. Numerous reprints and pirated prints followed immediately.
First editions
- Tancrede, tragédie, en vers et en cinq actes; représentée par les Comédiens franc̜ais ordinaires du Roi, le 3 septembre 1760 Prault, petit fils, Paris 1760, p. 80, with two copperplate engravings by Pierre François Tardieu after FR
- Tancrede, tragédie, en vers croisés, et en cinq actes; représentée par les Comédiens franc̜ais ordinaires du Roi, le 3 septembre 1760 Prault, petit fils, Paris 1761, 8 °, (12), 80 pp. [1]
- Tancred, translated and edited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Cotta, Tübingen 1802.
literature
- Theodore Besterman : Voltaire. Winkler, Munich 1971, p. 343 ff.
- RS Ridgway: Voltarian bel canto. Operatic adaptions of Voltaire's tragedies. SV, 189, 1980, pp. 115-151.
- Manuel Couvreur: Tancrède. In: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 227.
Web links
- Literature on Tancrède on the website of the Société des Etudes Voltairiennes (French)