| Charles VI | |
|---|---|
| Grand opera by Fromental Halévy | |
 Portrait of Charles VI and Odette | |
| Translation | Charles VI |
| Librettist | |
| Language | French |
| Premiere | |
Charles VI is an 1843 French grand opera in five acts with music composed by Fromental Halevy and a libretto by Casimir Delavigne and his brother Germain Delavigne.
The number "Guerre aux tyrans!" ("War on the tyrants!") achieved separate fame as a song of political protest. [1]
The opera was first presented on 15 March 1843 by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier. It continued to be performed there, and in a revised form beginning on 4 October 1847, up to 1848, and was revived again in 1850, receiving a total of 61 performances. [2] [3] Beginning on 5 April 1870 it was produced at the Théâtre Lyrique with Rosine Bloch in the role of Odette and was given there a total of 22 times. [4]
Charles VI was also performed in French in Brussels (beginning on 2 October 1845), The Hague (25 April 1846), New Orleans (22 April 1847), Buenos Aires (4 May 1854), Batavia (27 April 1866), Barcelona (29 April 1871), Mexico (19 January 1882), and Marseille (8 April 1901). It was performed in German in Hamburg (13 February 1851) and in Italian in Milan (16 March 1876). [5]
Performances in the 20th century were rare, but the opera was revived at Compiègne in 2005.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 15 March 1843 [6] (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Le Dauphin, son of the King and heir to the French throne | tenor | Gilbert Duprez |
| Charles VI, King of France | baritone | Paul Barroilhet |
| Raymond, a farmer and former French soldier | bass | Nicolas Levasseur |
| Odette, daughter of Raymond | mezzo-soprano | Rosine Stoltz |
| Isabelle de Bavière, Queen of France | soprano | Julie Dorus-Gras |
| Le duc de Bedfort (Duke of Bedford), an English noble | tenor | Canaple |
| L'homme de la forêt du Mans | tenor | Jean-Étienne-Auguste Massol |
| Tanguy Duchâtel, a French commander | bass | Ferdinand Prévôt |
| Dunois | baritone | Octave |
| Lahire | baritone | Martin |
| Saintrailles | tenor | Saint-Denis |
| A student | baritone | Molinier |
| Gontran, a soldier | tenor | Placide Poultier |
| Lionel, an English officer | tenor | Raguenot |
| Louis d'Orléans, apparition | tenor | Brémond |
| Jean sans Peur, apparition | tenor | Brémond |
| Clisson, apparition | tenor | Brémond |
| Le jeune Lancastre, son of the Duke of Bedford | silent | |
| Chorus: French and English knights, lords and ladies of the court, French and English soldiers, pages, bourgeois, students, people | ||
The opera centres on King Charles VI of France, who amid episodes of madness, is attempting to defeat the English invaders. The final scene takes place in the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Odette, a fictional predecessor of Joan of Arc, thwarts a plot by Queen Isabelle and the English nobleman Bedfort to displace the Dauphin with Bedfort's son Lancastre, and helps restore the Dauphin to his rightful place as heir to the throne of France. [7] The King is dying as he and the assembled French swear to the Dauphin: Guerre aux tyrans! jamais en France, Jamais l'Anglais ne régnera ("War on the tyrants! never in France, Never shall the English reign"). [8] [9]
Jean-François Casimir Delavigne was a French poet and dramatist.
Cornélie Falcon was a French soprano who sang at the Opéra in Paris. Her greatest success was creating the role of Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. She possessed "a full, resonant voice" with a distinctive dark timbre and was an exceptional actress. Based on the roles written for her voice her vocal range spanned from low A-flat to high D, 2.5 octaves. She and the tenor Adolphe Nourrit are credited with being primarily responsible for raising artistic standards at the Opéra, and the roles in which she excelled came to be known as "falcon soprano" parts. She had an exceptionally short career, essentially ending about five years after her debut, when at the age of 23 she lost her voice during a performance of Niedermeyer's Stradella.
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Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges was a French playwright, who was born and died in Paris. He was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, often working in collaboration with others.
The Paris Opera is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra, and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the Académie Royale de Musique, but continued to be known more simply as the Opéra. Classical ballet as it is known today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral and important part of the company. Currently called the Opéra national de Paris, it mainly produces operas at its modern 2,723-seat theatre Opéra Bastille which opened in 1989, and ballets and some classical operas at the older 1,979-seat Palais Garnier which opened in 1875. Small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille.
The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the garden of the Hôtel de Choiseul on the rue Lepeletier. Due to the many changes in government and management during the theatre's existence, it had a number of different official names, the most important of which were: Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (1821–1848), Opéra-Théâtre de la Nation (1848–1850), Théâtre de l'Académie Nationale de Musique (1850–1852), Théâtre de l'Académie Impériale de Musique (1852–1854), Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra (1854–1870), and Théâtre National de l'Opéra (1870–1873).
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Sapho is a 3-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Émile Augier which was premiered by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was presented only 9 times in its initial production, but was a succès d'estime for the young composer, with the critics praising Act 3 in particular. It was later revived in 2-act (1858) and 4-act (1884) versions, achieving a total of 48 performances.
Rosine Bloch was a French operatic mezzo-soprano of Jewish descent who had a successful stage career in Europe between 1865 and 1891. She not only possessed a beautiful, warm, and lyrical voice but was also a remarkably beautiful woman physically. Although most of her career was spent performing at the Opéra in Paris, she also appeared in stages in Belgium, Monaco, and England.
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Adèle de Ponthieu is an opera by the French composers Jean-Benjamin de La Borde and Pierre Montan Berton, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris on 1 December 1772. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto was written by Jean-Paul-André Razins de Saint-Marc, after a tragedy by Pierre-Antoine de La Place, staged at the Comédie-Française in 1757.
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