Pontalba | |
---|---|
Opera by Thea Musgrave | |
Librettist | Thea Musgrave |
Language | English |
Premiere |
Pontalba is an opera in two acts composed by Thea Musgrave. Musgrave also wrote the libretto which is loosely based on the life of Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, a prominent figure in 19th-century New Orleans. The opera was commissioned by New Orleans Opera to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. It premiered on 2 October 2003 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans conducted by Robert Lyall with Yali-Marie Williams in the title role.
In 2001 New Orleans Opera commissioned Thea Musgrave to compose a new opera for the 2003 celebrations of the Louisiana Purchase bicentennial. On the suggestion of the company's General Director Robert Lyall, Musgrave chose Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba as her subject. [1] Born in New Orleans and a wealthy heiress in her own right, Micaela Almonester married her mentally unstable French cousin, Célestin de Pontalba in 1811 and eventually moved to France where she became a virtual prisoner at the de Pontalba chateau near Senlis. In 1834, having failed to gain possession of Almonester's inheritance, her father-in-law shot her four times at point-blank range with a pair of duelling pistols and then committed suicide. She survived the attack, eventually obtained a legal separation from her husband and returned to New Orleans in 1848 where she stayed until 1851. During her time there she became a central figure in the city's intellectual, social, and commercial life. [2] [3]
As with most of her operas, Musgrave herself wrote the libretto (originally called The Pontalba Affair), loosely basing it on Intimate Enemies, Christina Vella's 1997 biography of Micaela Almonester. Musgrave added some fictional characters and took several liberties with the historical facts, most notably making Almonester 10 years older so that her marriage to Celestin de Pontalba would take place around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. [4] According to the British magazine Opera , New Orleans Opera ended up spending a million dollars on the Pontalba project. In the face of rising costs the company was forced to cancel the performances of The Tales of Hoffmann , its only other planned production for the 2003 Autumn season. [5] Excerpts from the score were previewed in New York City in May 2003 in a concert celebrating Musgrave's 75th birthday. The complete opera premiered on 2 October 2003 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans. The production was conducted by Robert Lyall and directed by Jay Lesenger with the sets designed by Erhard Rom and the lighting by Dan Darnutzer. Pontalba had two more performances on 4 and 5 October 2003. [6] [7] It has not received any further performances since that time.
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 2 October 2003 [5] (Conductor: Robert Lyall) |
---|---|---|
Micaela Almonester | soprano | Yali-Marie Williams |
Louise Almonester, Micaela's mother | mezzo-soprano | Jane Gilbert |
Celestin de Pontalba, Micaela's husband | tenor | Robert Breault |
Baron Pontalba, Celestin's father | bass-baritone | Jake Gardner |
Jeanne Loiuse de Pontalba, Celestin's mother | soprano | Kathryn Day |
Mr Monroe, the Almonesters' lawyer | baritone | Ray Fellman |
Jacques Dupin, the Pontalbas' lawyer | tenor | Enrique Toral |
Cassie, the Almonesters' servant | soprano | Fahnlohnee Harris |
Mayor of New Orleans | baritone | Charles Robert Stephens |
Jean-Baptiste Castillion, Micaela's stepfather | tenor | John Giraud |
Ernestine | (speaking role) | Kitty Cleveland |
People of New Orleans |
The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the Vieux Carré, a central square. The district is more commonly called the French Quarter today, or simply "The Quarter", related to changes in the city with American immigration after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Most of the extant historic buildings were constructed either in the late 18th century, during the city's period of Spanish rule, or were built during the first half of the 19th century, after U.S. purchase and statehood.
Thea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972.
Versailles is an unincorporated community in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is located along the East Bank of the Mississippi River, approximately 3.5 miles below the lower limit of New Orleans. The community, for governmental and postal address purposes, is considered part of Chalmette and by some designations, part of neighboring Meraux. As a place designation, the name "Versailles" continues in local use.
DonAndrés Almonaster y Roxas de Estrada was a Spanish civil servant and philanthropist of New Orleans, today chiefly remembered for his numerous charitable benefactions made to the city of New Orleans.
Jackson Square, formerly the Place d'Armes (French) or Plaza de Armas (Spanish), is a historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, for its central role in the city's history, and as the site where in 1803 Louisiana was made United States territory pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase. In 2012 the American Planning Association designated Jackson Square as one of the Great Public Spaces in the United States.
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to theaters hosting traveling performers and companies.
The Pontalba Buildings form two sides of Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. They are matching red-brick, one-block-long, four‑story buildings built between 1849–1851 by the Baroness Micaela Almonester Pontalba. The ground floors house shops and restaurants; and the upper floors are apartments which, reputedly, are the oldest continuously-rented such apartments in the United States.
Christina Vella was an American writer, historian of modern Europe, and adjunct professor at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Micaela Leonarda Antonia de Almonester Rojas y de la Ronde, Baroness de Pontalba was a wealthy New Orleans-born Creole aristocrat, businesswoman, and real estate designer and developer, who endures as one of the most recalled and dynamic personalities in the city's history, though she lived most of her life in Paris.
Almonaster or Almonester may refer to:
The Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts is a theater located in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born in New Orleans. The theater reopened in January 2009, after being closed since the landfall of Hurricane Katrina.
The Hôtel de Pontalba is a hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse of France, at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It has been the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France since 1971.
The Louisiana State Museum's 1850 House is an antebellum row house furnished to represent life in mid-nineteenth-century New Orleans. It is located at 523 St. Ann Street on Jackson Square in the French Quarter.
René-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière (1641–1709) was a French-Canadian Poet, 1st Seigneur de Lotbinière in New France (1672), Judge of the Provost and Admiralty Courts and Chief Councillor of the Sovereign Council of New France.
Ignace François Broutin was a French Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis military officer, commander of Fort Rosalie among the Natchez people, and later an architect and Captain of Engineers of the King in the Province in colonial Louisiana. He is chiefly remembered for designing the Ursuline Convent, completed by 1753 and the oldest and only surviving French colonial building in New Orleans.
Claude-Marie-Paul Dubufe (1790–1864) a French historical, genre and portrait painter, was born in Paris in 1790, and studied under Jacques-Louis David. His subjects were at first classical, and then scriptural. He then gave himself up to the painting of genre pictures and portraits. His reputation rests chiefly on his portraits, of which he produced a large number. Dubufe, who was the last representative of the school of David, died at Selle-Saint-Cloud in 1864.
Kathryn Day is an American opera singer who has had an active international career spanning five decades. She began her career as a leading soprano under the name Kathryn Bouleyn in the 1970s and 1980s with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. With the latter institution she created the role of Cora in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982).
Simón Bolívar is an opera in two acts composed by Thea Musgrave who also wrote the libretto. It is loosely based on episodes in the life of Simón Bolívar, the military and political leader who played a leading role in freeing Latin American countries from Spanish rule. The opera premiered on 20 January 1995 performed by Virginia Opera at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, Virginia. Although the libretto is written in English, the opera was performed at the premiere in Spanish translation. Musgrave extracted a suite from the opera Remembering Bolívar in 1994 and wrote a shortened version of the opera in 2013.
Mary, Queen of Scots is an opera in three acts composed by Thea Musgrave. Musgrave also wrote the libretto based on Peruvian writer Amalia Elguera's play Moray. It focuses on events in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, from her return to Scotland in 1561 until 1568 when she was forced to flee to England. The opera premiered on 6 September 1977 at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh performed by Scottish Opera. It has subsequently had multiple performances in the UK, US, and Germany. A chamber version, produced by Musgrave in 2016, also exists.
Don Nicolás María Vidal y Madrigal was a colonial official in Spanish Louisiana and Spanish Florida from 1799–1801.