Tarare (opera)

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Work data
Title: Tarare
Georg Braun, Frans Hogenberg: Hormus (1572)

Georg Braun , Frans Hogenberg : Hormus (1572)

Original language: French
Music: Antonio Salieri
Libretto : Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Premiere: June 8, 1787
Place of premiere: Théâtre de l ' Académie royale de musique , Paris
Playing time: 3 hours
Place and time of the action: Hormuz ( Persia ), indefinite time
people
  • Genius , who rules over the multiplication of beings, or nature ( soprano )
  • Genius of the fire that rules over the sun, lover of nature ( baritone )
  • Atar, King of Hormuz, wild, uncontrolled ( bass baritone )
  • Tarare , soldier in his service, revered for his great virtues ( tenor )
  • Astasie , wife of Tarare, tender and pious (soprano)
  • Arthenée, high priest of Brahma , unbeliever consumed by pride and ambition (bass baritone)
  • Altamort , army general , son of the high priest, reckless and quick -tempered young man (bass baritone)
  • Urson, captain of Atar's guards, brave and meritorious (bass-baritone)
  • Calpigi, head of the eunuchs , European slave , trained singer (Haute-contre) in the music bands of Italy
  • Spinette , European slave, wife of Calpigi, Neapolitan singer, scheming and flirty (soprano)
  • Élamir little child of the augurs , naive and very faithful ( boy soprano )
  • Priest of Brahma (Baritenor)
  • Slave (baritenor)
  • Eunuch (baritenor)
  • Shepherdess (soprano)
  • Bauer (bass baritone)
  • Viziers , emirs , priests of life, priests of death, slaves of the seraglio , guard of Atar, soldiers, numerous people

Tarare (Trara) is an opera in five acts and with a prologue , written in collaboration with Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais ( libretto ) and Antonio Salieri (music). That the ideas of the Enlightenment embossed, subversive work was in Paris two years before the Revolution premiered .

The following year, Salieri and wrote Lorenzo Da Ponte , who had previously been the comedy Le mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais libretto Le nozze di Figaro for Mozart fashioned had, by order Emperor Joseph II. The Italian version Axur, re d'Ormus (A. , King of Hormuz).

Emergence

Beaumarchais was a music teacher for the daughters of Louis XV in his youth . He first wrote his comedy Le Barbier de Séville as an opéra-comique with self- arranged music. In 1774 he was enthusiastic about the world premiere of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide . The following year he wrote the prose libretto of Tarare and half of the verse . Completion was delayed until 1784, when the renovator of the opera was too old to deliver the music. His favorite student Salieri, on the other hand, just triumphed with Les Danaïdes in Paris , one day before the premiere of Le mariage de Figaro . Beaumarchais quartered the chamber composer Joseph II with him, which made it easier to coordinate music and text.

In a statement addressed to subscribers to the opera, Beaumarchais described the music theater of the time as boring because it turned the hierarchy of its elements, namely: 1st plot, 2nd word, 3rd music and 4th dance, upside down. It is important to restore them.

action

Tarere is set in an oriental despotism where there is a revolution .

prolog

Sang nature: Mademoiselle Joinville.

(Clouds that reveal and re-cover a beautiful landscape)

The nature shows the genius of fire the shadows of unborn people whose assets it from those of countless generations mixed to form a new fact. She describes it as ridiculous when the mighty and great believed that they were made of better stuff than their fellow citizens. It lets the genius of fire decide whether Atar or Tarare - the similarity of the names indicates the equality of people postulated by the Enlightenment - should become king. Knowing that one wrong decision could make a century unhappy, he chooses Atar; Tarare becomes a soldier. The other shadows protest: Nobody should give orders to his brother. Nature replies that this great idea will only be realized in happier times.

initial situation

After Alexandre-Marie Colin: Adolphe Nourrit as Tarare (1823).

The tyrannical king Atar hates the virtuous and heroic militia leader Tarare, even though he once saved him from drowning. He envies him his popularity and his wife Astasie, with whom he leads a happy monogamy instead of sleeping with changing slaves . On behalf of Atar's army, General Altamort ransack Tarares gardens, murders his slaves, burns down his country house and kidnaps Astasie.

1st act

(Hall in the Palace of Atar)

Scenes 1 f .: The chief of the eunuchs Calpigi asks Atar in vain for mercy for Tarare, to whom he also owes his life and his position. The king orders him to hold a feast to bring Astasia to his seraglio .

Scenes 3–5: The abducted woman is carried in like a hunted booty. Atar stabs a slave who shows compassion for her. He gives Astasie the code name Irza and instructs the intriguer Spinette to prepare her for her duties as a royal concubine .

Scenes 6 f .: Tarare considers the attack on his estate to be the work of Christian corsairs . Atar, who doesn't show anything, gives him a new palace and a hundred Circassians . He mocks him for his love for astasia. But Tarare is determined to free his wife. Atar instructs Altamort to accompany Tarare in search of the " brigands " and not to let him return alive.

2nd act

Arthenée (1787).

(Square in front of the Palace of Atar and the Temple of Brahma )

Scenes 1–3: Arthenée is instructed by Atar to have his son Altamort appointed by an oracle to command the punitive expedition against the “brigands”. The priests and kings make no secret of the fact that for them religion is only a means of ruling the people.

Scenes 4-6: Calpigi informs Tarare that Astasie is in the king's seraglio and that Altamort has kidnapped her. He offers to fix a silk ladder to the sea-side wall of the seraglio gardens , with the help of which Tarare can free his wife at night.

(The portal of the temple disappears so that you can see its interior.)

Scenes 7 f .: The boy Élamir, destined to be the instrument of Providence , is instructed by Arthenée to name Altamort, but accidentally names Tarare. The applause of the people and soldiers forces Atar to confirm the appointment. Tarare publicly swears revenge. Altamort calls him an arrogant non- nobleman . Tarare replied that instead of ancestors he had victories to show, while Altamort was still half a child. He arranges to meet him for a duel .

3rd act

Émile Bayard : Calpigi (1876).

(Gardens of the Serail, illuminated ground floor with divan under canopy )

Scenes 1–3: According to Atar, the festival planned for the following day should take place immediately. Urson describes the course of the duel between Tarare and Altamort, in which the former left his wounded offender alive.

Scene 4: The corps de ballet caricatures European society by confronting the gallant dances of nobles disguised as shepherds with the rough jumping dances of peasant people . The choir praises that the (noble) wife enjoys freedom in love. Spinette calls the god Hymen a despot , love a republic . Atar crowns "Irza" as sultana. Calpigi has to tell his life story: Because of his beautiful voice, the greedy father had him neutered . Spinette only married him in order to be able to indulge in libertinage . In revenge, he sold her to a corsair. But this kidnapped him too and chained him to his wife's bed. When he wanted to sell the two to the Shah of Persia , Tarare saved him. Atar is annoyed that cheers break out when the name is mentioned. ( Video on YouTube ; Calpigi: Eberhard Lorenz ) He follows Astasie into her apartment .

(It is very dark.)

Scenes 5–7: Tarare overcomes the wall despite being followed. Calpigi has everything ready to turn him into a dumb black man. Rejected by athasia, Atar wants to take revenge by cutting off the head of the mute, making him unrecognizable and presenting the stubborn as that of Tarares. But since this would not break her resistance, he decides instead to marry her off to the mute as a punishment.

4th act

Atar (1787).

( Salon in Astasie's apartment)

Scenes 1–4: Astasie is determined to die if the king forces her to become his wife. She then learns from Calpigie how Atar wants to take revenge for the rejection she has experienced. So that he cannot marry her off to the dumb man, Astasie equips Spinette with the sultan's insignia and goes into hiding.

Scenes 5 f .: Tarare in disguise is led to the disguised spinet, who finds him ugly but well built. When he realizes that he is not dealing with Astasia, and Spinette confesses to him that she is in love with Tarare, he forgets to play the mute in surprise. Spinette takes off his mask but does not recognize him (or pretends not to) and makes advances for him. ( Video on YouTube ; Tarare: Howard Crook; Spinets: Anna Caleb)

Scenes 7 f .: Urson is supposed to kill the mute on Atar's orders. Calpigi informs him who this really is. Urson does not enforce the sentence, but arrests Tarare. Calpigi now sees not only his life and his own, but also that of Atar in danger. Because, as he says (twice): "The abuse of the highest power always ends with undermining it."

5th act

( Courtyard of the palace prepared for an execution at the stake )

Scenes 1–4: Atar is looking forward to Tarare's death, but Calpigi is fleeting. Arthénée is supposed to condemn the "murderer of his son", but has a bad feeling. Desperate because he has not found Astasie again, Tarare himself demands his execution. Altamort brought another woman to Atar. The king should beware of a rebellion. Spinette admits to have passed himself off as "Irza". Arthémée condemns Tarare and Astasie. The two recognize each other. When Atar orders that only Tarare be executed, Astasie draws a dagger to die with him.

Scenes 5 f .: Eunuchs report that the palace guards have been overwhelmed and the gate has been stormed. Calpigi appears with Urson and the entire militia. The soldiers overturn the pyre. Tarare tries to keep them from mutiny . But they declare Atar deposed and, at Calpigi's suggestion, Tarare as his successor. Atar stabs himself, not without first handing over power to Tarere, thereby sparing him the accusation of having usurped her.

Scenes 7–10: Tarare rejects the royal dignity and wants to withdraw into private life with Astasie. But since he is still tied, it can Arthenée, instructed by Urson, against his will crown . Everyone pays homage to him, Calpigi and Urson loosen his chains. Clouds descend from which nature and the genius of fire rise to sanction the act . At the end of the opera they announce what can be read in flaming letters on the clouds at the same time:

"Human! Your greatness on earth
is by no means your status ,
but your character alone . "

Success and rediscovery

Jean-Baptiste Lallemand : The Paris Opera (around 1790).
Duhamel after Jean-Florent Defraine: Ladies hat "à la Tarare" (1787).

The production required over 70 singers and over 30 dancers; the expense amounted to 200,000 livres . The royal household contributed 50,000 livres for set design and costumes . The premiere, attended by the king's brothers, was a success. When the audience, against all the rules, asked to see the authors, dancers forced Salieri to appear on stage while Beaumarchais did not show herself.

Whether they liked the opera or not, contemporaries ascribed it greatness. But while Mouffle d'Angerville described it as a "theatrical-musical monster ", Gudin de La Brenellerie wrote: "It was certainly the most powerful invention and the strongest moral idea that had ever been brought to any stage."

Charles Percier : Set design for Tarare (1795).

By Easter 1788 Tarare had 33 performances. Opera itself influenced fashion. After the end of the Ancien Régime , the time-bound work was adapted four times - for the first time by Beaumarchais himself - to the changed political conditions, which ended with its complete mutilation.

In the foreword to the 1790 edition, Beaumarchais counted himself among the "worried thinkers who were forced to veil their ideas, which were wrapped in allegories and laboriously prepared the field for the revolution ". In the epilogue Couronnement de Tarare (Coronation of T.) , which was created at that time , the title hero allows priests and nuns to marry, Calpigi and Spinette to divorce . He also turns half-heartedly against slavery (with black caricatures appearing in a tasteless way). On the other hand, sans-culottes are put in their place: soldiers, peaceful citizens, young farmers and - as a warning of a violent suppression of the revolution? - Priests of death carry banners with slogans directed against anarchy as the enemy of freedom.

Tarere was performed in this form in Paris until 1792, in a mutilated form until 1826, in Hamburg (where Beaumarchais had found refuge during the reign of terror ) as late as 1841. Around 1880 Gustave Lefèvre published a piano reduction . The score was re-edited by Rudolph Angermüller in 1978 , albeit as a mere reprint of the 1787 edition. More intimate performances than the original production took place in 1988 at the Schwetzingen Festival and in 1991 at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse.

Video

libretto

score

Jean-Baptiste Cartier : Arrangement of Calpigi's aria in the 3rd  act (1790).
  • Tarare, Opéra en cinq actes avec un prologue, Représenté pour la première fois sur le théâtre de l'Académie royale de musique le vendredi 8 juin 1787, Paroles de M. de Beaumarchais, Musique de M. Salieri, maïtre de chapelle de la Chambre de Sa Majesté l'Empereur, Deuxième édition, Imbault, Paris undated

Adaptations

literature

Web links

Commons : Tarare  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. Also referred to alternately as sultan or emperor .
  2. Disparaging term for trumpet sound . Indication of low level . Cf. Pierre Larthomas , with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard ( Bibliothèque de la Pléiade ), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 504, incl. Notes 2-4.
  3. Called by Atar Irza.
  4. Alta mors = high death.
  5. In the tradition of Arlecchino in the Commedia dell'arte .
  6. High tenor.
  7. Spinetta = another name for the type of Colombina in the Commedia dell'arte.
  8. El-Amir = Emir .
  9. According to Beaumarchais' own statements, chosen as the title because of the advertising effect. Cf. Pierre Larthomas , with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard ( Bibliothèque de la Pléiade ), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 504, incl. Notes 2-4.
  10. Shortly before that, the Assembly of Notables had rejected Minister Calonne's tax reform and had met the Constitutional Convention in the United States .
  11. The considerable differences between Tarere and Axur can be explained, among other things, by the fact that resistance to the reforms of Joseph II had increased in the meantime and that actors sang on the French opera stage, while singers played on the Italian stage. A tabular representation of the differences can be found in Ignaz Franz von Mosel : About the life and works of Anton Salieri (…), Johann Baptist Wallishausser, Vienna 1827 ( digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fdownload.digitale-sammlungen.de%2Fpdf%2F1535969105bsb10600513.pdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D version), pp. 98–112. Atar became Axur, Tarare became Atar (!), Calpigi became Biscroma, Astasie became Aspasia, Spinette became Fiammetta.
  12. Beaumarchais writes: "(...) Mr. Salieri is a born poet, and I am a bit of a musician." Cf. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 506.
  13. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (Ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , pp. 497-510 ( Aux subscriptions de l'Opéra qui voudraient aimer l'opéra ) , here: p. 498.
  14. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , pp. 513-521.
  15. ^ "Arrogant soldat de fortune" (scene 8).
  16. In France at that time, nobles could already become officers as young people, whereas non-nobles only in exceptional cases.
  17. From the late 16th to the 19th century, many boys in Italy were castrated to enable them to pursue a career as singers.
  18. Calpigi's romance Je suis né natif de Ferrare (I was born as a guest of Ferrara ) was as popular as Figaro's Non più andrai by Mozart. In Axur it is sung by Biscroma and begins with the words: NATO io son nello stato romano (I was born in the Papal States ).
  19. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 576 f.
  20. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 589, repeated on p. 503 and 505 ( Aux subscriptions de l'Opéra qui voudraient aimer l'opéra ) and 596 ( Couronnement de Tarare ). Beaumarchais and Salieri also wrote an alternative conclusion in 1787, calling for "haughty Europeans" to repel an attack and calling for a just and humane government from Tarare and Astasie. Compare there, p. 589 f.
  21. Christian Felix Weisse (ed.): New library of the beautiful sciences and the free arts, 35th volume, Dyck, Leipzig 1788 ( digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D9IhKAAAAcAAJ%26pg%3DPA306%26lpg%3DPA306%26dq%3D%2522calpigi%2522%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DqI6hLhP7Zi%3DqI6hLhP7Zi%26Tv3byB%3De26%Esaal9sigW%3De26% 3DX% 26ved% 3D2ahUKEwjr3-GP07TdAhWLCSwKHfsNDAUQ6AEwEXoECAAQAQ% 23v% 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dtrue ~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ), p. 311.
  22. Maurice Lever : Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Volume 3, Fayard , Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-213-62140-1 , p. 85.
  23. Souvenirs de Léonard, coiffeur de la Reine Marie-Antoinette, Volume 2, Alphonse Levavasseur, Paris 1838, p. 317 f. ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DpO4_zyzK074C%26pg%3DPA317%26dq%3D%2522tarare%2522%2B%2522marie-antoinette%2522%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DXIs%26ved%3Dod7PhXWi %%3D0ahUKEWi3 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dtrue ~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ). The conductor was Jean-Baptiste Rey .
  24. (Barthélemy-François-Joseph Mouffle d'Angerville :) Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France (...), Volume 35, John Adamson, London 1789, p. 236 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgallica.bnf.fr%2Fark%3A%2F12148%2Fbpt6k2066900%2Ff235~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  25. Maurice Tourneux (ed.): Histoire de Beaumarchais par Gudin de La Brenellerie, Mémoires inédits publiés sur les manuscrits originaux, Plon , Paris 1888, p. 365 f. ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgallica.bnf.fr%2Fark%3A%2F12148%2Fbpt6k208029p%2Ff396~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  26. Cf. Magasin des modes nouvelles, françaises et anglaises (…), 2nd year, Buisson, Paris 1787, pp. 209–211, 236, 246 f., 259–261, 269 f., 276, 284 and associated Panel.
  27. 1790 the disempowerment of the clergy and nobility , 1795 the proclamation of the republic , 1802 the introduction of the consulate constitution , 1819 the restoration .
  28. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , p. 1458.
  29. Maurice Lever: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Volume 1, Fayard, Paris 1999, ISBN 978-2-213-59561-0 , p. 252, refers to Beaumarchais, who was engaged to the heiress of a plantation in Martinique , as "Repentant slave owners".
  30. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, ISBN 2-07-011137-7 , pp. 591-596.
  31. In the series Chefs-d'œuvre classiques de l'opéra français with an introduction by Arthur Pougin, Théodore Michaelis, Paris o. J.
  32. ^ As Volume 2 of the series Die Oper, Henle Verlag, Munich 1978.
  33. Review in Christian Felix Weisse (ed.): New library of the beautiful sciences and the free arts, 35th volume, Dyck, Leipzig 1788, pp. 291-311 ( digitized version http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D9IhKAAAAcAAJ%26pg%3DPA306%26lpg%3DPA306%26dq%3D%2522calpigi%2522%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DqI6hLhP7Zi%3DqI6hLhP7Zi%26Tv3byB%3De26%Esaal9sigW%3De26% 3DX% 26ved% 3D2ahUKEwjr3-GP07TdAhWLCSwKHfsNDAUQ6AEwEXoECAAQAQ% 23v% 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dtrue ~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D).
  34. ^ Translation by Sarker ( pseudonym ): Axur, King of Ormus, A tragicomic Singspiel in five acts, Vienna 1788.
  35. See Ludwig Schiedermair : Contributions to the history of the opera at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Volume 2, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1910, pp. 112–121 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Fbeitrgezurgesc02schi%23page%2F112%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).