Le dernier sorcier (The Last Sorcerer) is a chamber opera in two acts with music composed by Pauline Viardot to a French libretto by Ivan Turgenev. It was first performed privately on 20 September 1867 at the Villa Turgenev in Baden-Baden and received its first public performance at the Court Theatre in Weimar on 8 April 1869 (in German translation as Der letzte Zauberer). The story revolves around Krakamiche, an old and once-powerful sorcerer whose presence in the woods has upset the elves living there, and a romance between the sorcerer's daughter Stella and Prince Lelio, whose marriage comes about through the intervention of a Queen of the Elves.
By the mid-1860s, after her retirement from the stage and living at her villa (Villa Viardot) in Baden-Baden, Viardot's main activities centered around her teaching, including giving her students experience of performing in small-scale operas in a private setting. Although married, Viardot had long had an intimate friendship with Ivan Turgenev whom she first met when singing in St. Petersburg in 1843. The relationship had continued over the years with Turgenev having extensive stays in Paris, always living close to Viardot and her husband, Louis.[1] When the Viardots went to Baden-Baden in 1863, Turgenev followed shortly thereafter and built his own villa next to theirs. Turgenev and Viardot's collaboration in Baden-Baden produced three operas designed to be performed by her students: Trop de femmes, Le dernier sorcier and L'ogre.
According to Turgenev scholar Nicholas Žekulin, Le dernier sorcier was already mentioned in correspondence in 1859, but does not appear to have been performed until it was revised for Baden-Baden.[2] The first performance of the opera was on September 20, 1867, at the completed but as yet unoccupied Villa Turgenev, where the first performance of Trop de femmes had also taken place.[3] Turgenev's friend, Louis Pomey, was Krakamiche for the initial performances. The part was taken by Turgenev for a gala performance on October 20. Marie Hasselmans played Stella. Viardot's daughter, Louise Héritte played the role of Lelio. Other Viardot children were Claudie as the Queen, Marianne as Verveine, and Paul as Perlimpinpin (most of these roles were spoken). Viardot accompanied on piano, the sole instrument in the original score. The audience consisted of invited guests who were primarily from Viardot's circle. They included Giulia Grisi, Garcia[clarification needed Viardot's father? Brother Manuel? Nephew Gustave? Great-nephew Albert?], Clara Schumann, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, Hermann Levi, and singers Marianne Lüdecke[de] and Albertina Ferlesi. Pierre-Jules Hetzel (who reviewed the production of Trop de femmes for the Journal des débats, September 13, 1867), a few politicians, and the German Empress Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach also attended. The Empress's enthusiasm not only caused her to bring her husband Kaiser William I along for a subsequent performance, but also led to a special royal command performance on October 17 to celebrate the birthday of the Crown Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm.[4]
Later performance history
Interior of the Weimar Court Theatre, where Le dernier sorcier had its first public performance on April 8, 1869
Following a second season of Viardot and Turgenev's privately performed operettas, which included the first performance of L'ogre, their reputation began to spread which led to the first public performance of Le dernier sorcier. With help of Franz Liszt, its first professional public performance was arranged for the Weimar Court Theatre, where it premiered on April 8, 1869, and was repeated on April 11.[1] For those performances, the libretto was translated into German by Richard Pohl and the score was arranged for a full orchestra by Eduard Lassen. The reviews of Der letzte Zauberer (the opera's German title) were mixed. According to Žekulin, this may have been due to the "ponderous" German translation and the arrangement for a full symphony orchestra which overwhelmed what was originally composed as a chamber piece.[5] Nevertheless, there were subsequent performances of the German version in Karlsruhe (January 28 and February 1, 1870) and in Riga later that year as part of a benefit performance for Louise Mayer, who had been a pupil of Viardot's in Baden-Baden.[6]
Viardot's villa in Baden-Baden had an adjacent salon and art gallery. She later added a small theatre there known locally as the Théâtre du Thiergarten, which could seat about 30 people, making it appropriate for small stage productions. The theatre was inaugurated on August 13, 1869, with a gala performance of Le dernier sorcier. Brahms was in the audience that night and returned to conduct the August 23 performance himself.[7] although on that occasion, it was given in a chamber orchestration—piano, string quartet, harp and percussion. After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, the Viardot family left Baden-Baden for London where they stayed until 1871, with Turgenev, once again living nearby. While Viardot was in London, Le dernier sorcier received a private performance there.[1]
The work was largely forgotten until January 2005 when the University of Calgary staged its North American premiere using an English translation of the French libretto by Žekulin and the version of the score for chamber orchestra that had been used at the 1869 gala performance in the Théâtre du Thiergarten, which Žekulin reconstructed from Viardot's papers at Harvard University.[8] As part of the commemorations for the centenary of Viardot's death, the opera was given another staging in July 2010 (using Žekulin's 2005 version of the score) at the convent of the Minims in Pourrières.[9]
In a forest in a far away land lives Krakamiche.[10] In his youth, he was a powerful and feared sorcerer who set up a magnificent magic palace and a strong servant in the forest. But time has diminished his power so that the palace is now a hut, the servant old, and Krakamiche is able to use his wand only with much effort to summon his daily bread. He lives with his daughter, Stella.
In the same forest live elves, ruled by a Queen, all of whom are Krakamiche's enemies. In his youth Krakamiche expropriated land in the forest; the elves were unable to fight him due to his power. But in his old age, they pester and annoy him. Nearby lives Prince Lelio, a king's son, who often hunts in the forest. He has fallen in love with Stella and wants to marry her, although he doesn't know who she is.
All action takes place within Krakamiche's hut.
Act 1
The curtain rises on Krakamiche's hut, where the elves are teasing Krakamiche ("Par ici, par ici!"). They pour water on his fireplace and laugh at his distress. With the Queen, they plan to disguise themselves as Cochinese and to trick Krakamiche into taking magic grass that will lead him to believe in the restoration of his youth. They exit upon the entrance of Prince Lelio who pines for Stella ("Dans le bois frais et sombre"). The Queen appears and makes a deal with Lelio: In return for his obeying her commands, she gives him a magic flower that enables him to disappear (the flower only works at night) ("Ramasse cette rose"). They exit.
Krakamiche returns, moans his fate ("Ah la sotte existence") and has a comic duet with his servant Perlimpinpin ("Eh bien!"), resulting in the servant being kicked out of the house and Krakamiche leaving. Stella enters and sings of the rain ("Chanson de la pluie" or "Coulez, gouttes fines"). The Queen returns and tells Stella of her impending meeting with Lelio ("Sur les yeux de ton père"). Perlimpinpin enters, revealing his agedness ("Chanson de Perlimpinpin" or "Quand j'étais un géant"). A delegation of Cochinese is heard approaching (really the elves in disguise) and Krakamiche receives them ("Messieurs le sénateurs!"). After the welcome, he is eager to try the magic grass, but the trick is revealed, and he winds up being tormented by the elves and driven to a wild waltz ("Ronde des Lutins" or "Tourne, tourne comme un tonton"). The Queen and the elves celebrate victory and depart ("Ronde des elfes" or "Compagnes ailées").
Act 2
Lelio cannot wait to use the magic flower to approach Stella ("Stornello" or "Pourrais-je jamais aimer une autre femme?"). He withdraws upon hearing the approach of Krakamiche and Stella. Krakamiche is carrying a book of spells from Merlin, and searches for the incantation that will prevent the Queen's power from affecting him. Stella works her spinning wheel. A duet ensues in which Krakamiche desires wealth and seeks revenge for his tormentors, but Stella doesn't want wealth but just a happy home and warm heart ("Si tu ne sais pas"). While Krakamiche seeks the incantation, Stella sings a song, but hears Lelio sing the third verse ("Quand vient la saison fleurie"). Lelio enters using the magic flower. He and Stella sing to one another ("C'est moi, ne craignez rien"), but Krakamiche can not see him, in part because he thinks he found the correct words. Lelio kneels before Stella, but drops the flower. This makes him visible to Krakamiche, who thinks it was his own power which has made the prince appear, and who is furious. He casts a spell to summon a monster who will annihilate the prince ("Louppola, Schibbola, Trix"). But instead of a monster, the spell brings forth a goat, and Krakamiche faints from exhaustion. As Stella and Lelio rush to help him, the Queen appears. In order to help the young couple, Krakamiche gives in and consents to his daughter's marriage and promises to leave the forest, to live with his daughter and son-in-law in the latter's castle. In an unaccompanied quartet, Krakamiche, Stella, Lelio, and Perlimpinpin sing of their futures ("Adieu témoins de ma misère!"). They leave, and the Queen waves her wand, making Krakamiche's hut disappear as the elves rejoice over the return of their forest ("Salut! Salut! O forêt bien aimée!").
Recording
2019: Le dernier sorcier, Eric Owens, Jamie Barton, Camille Zamora, Adriana Zabala, Michael Slattery, Sarah Brailey; Manhattan Girls Chorus, Michelle Oesterle (conductor); pianos: Liana Pailodze Harron, Myra Huang; narrator: Trudie Styler (Bridge, cat: 9515)[11]
↑ Žekulin (1989) p. 64. Benefit performances, where an opera's singer, conductor or composer received the box-office takings for a particular performance in addition to their salary, were a common practice in the 18th- and 19th-century opera world.
Žekulin, Nicholas G. (1989). The story of an operetta: 'Le dernier sorcier' by Pauline Viardot and Ivan Turgenev. München: Verlag O. Sagner. ISBN3-87690-428-5
Žekulin, Nicholas G. (2005). Le dernier sorcier, Programme notes for the production by the University of Calgary, January 13, 14, 15, 2005
Pauline Viardot was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, she came from a musical family and took up music at a young age. She began performing as a teenager and had a long and illustrious career as a star performer.
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa. Orfeo ed Euridice is the first of Gluck's "reform" operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of opera seria with a "noble simplicity" in both the music and the drama.
The Tales of Hoffmann is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in October 1880, four months before the premiere.
Bougival is a suburban commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is located 15.3 km (9.5 mi) west from the centre of Paris, on the left bank of the River Seine, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In 2019, Bougival had a population of 8,790.
Diana Damrau is a German soprano who achieved international fame for her performances, primarily in opera, but also in concert and lieder. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles since her early career, and gradually proceeded into heavier roles of the 19th-century Italian bel canto repertoire. Her signature roles include the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Violetta in La traviata.
Winifred Lawson was an English opera and concert singer in the first half of the 20th century. She is particularly remembered for her performances in the soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas as a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company between 1922 and 1932.
Sapho is an opera in three acts by Charles Gounod, premiered 16 April 1851 at Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera. The libretto was by Émile Augier after the life of the poet Sappho of Lesbos. The creation of the work was given an impetus by, and provided a central role for, the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot.
The Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century. The company was founded in 1847 as the Opéra-National by the French composer Adolphe Adam and renamed Théâtre Lyrique in 1852. It used four different theatres in succession, the Cirque Olympique, the Théâtre Historique, the Salle du Théâtre-Lyrique, and the Salle de l'Athénée, until it ceased operations in 1872.
Cendrillon is a chamber operetta with dialogue in three acts by Pauline Viardot based on the story of "Cinderella". The work, for a cast of seven with piano orchestration, premiered in Viardot's Paris salon on 23 April 1904, when she was 83, and was published later that year. Inspiration for this work was also found in the small play for children "The Snow Queen" by Nicholay Checkhov based on the tale. Historians are unsure of when the opera was composed, although it is thought to be after the death of Viardot's friend Ivan Turgenev in 1883 as he did not write the libretto. It has been described as "a retelling of the Cinderella story with Gallic wit, Italianate bel canto, and a quirkiness all her [Viardot's] own".
Isoline is an opera, described as a conte de fées in three acts and ten tableaux, on a text by Catulle Mendès, with music by André Messager.
Margarethe Siems was a German operatic dramatic coloratura soprano and voice teacher. A Kammersängerin of the Dresden State Opera, between 1909 and 1912 Siems created leading roles in three operas by Richard Strauss: Chrysothemis in Elektra, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos.
Die Rheinnixen is a romantic opera in four acts by Jacques Offenbach. The original libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter was translated into German by Alfred von Wolzogen.
Marie Constance Sasse [Sax, Saxe, Sass] was a Belgian operatic soprano. "Her voice was powerful, flexible, and appealing", and she was one of the leading sopranos at the Paris Opéra from 1860 to 1870. She created the roles of Elisabeth in the Paris premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser, Sélika in the world premiere of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, and Elisabeth de Valois in the world premiere of Verdi's Don Carlos.
Smoke is an 1867 novel by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) that tells the story of a love affair between a young Russian man and a young married Russian woman while also delivering the author's criticism of Russia and Russians of the period. The story takes place largely in the German resort town of Baden-Baden.
La magicienne is a grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halévy. The libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges is based on stories surrounding the European folk figure Melusine, especially Coudrette's 15th-century Roman de Mélusine. The opera premiered on 17 March 1858 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Impériale de Musique in Paris. It had a mixed reception and after its initial run of 45 performances was not heard again until it was revived in a heavily cut concert version performed in Montpellier in 2011.
The Magic Mirror is a ballet-féerie in four acts and seven scenes, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa with music by Arseny Koreshchenko. The libretto is based on the 1812 fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm and the 1833 poem The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights by Alexander Pushkin. The ballet was premièred on the 22 February [O.S. 9 February] 1903 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
La capricciosa corretta is a comic opera in two acts composed by Vicente Martín y Soler. The libretto is by Lorenzo Da Ponte and has a plot which has a slight similarity to William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew, but is not based on it. The story takes place over a 24-hour period and examines the marriage of an older man to his vain and capricious second wife whose antics make her husband, stepchildren, and servants miserable until she is finally brought to heel through the machinations of her husband's major domo. The opera premiered under the title La scuola dei maritati at the King's Theatre in London on 27 January 1795 to considerable success. It was later performed throughout Europe under the alternative titles Gli sposi in contrasto, La moglie corretta, and La capricciosa corretta—the title used by Da Ponte and the one by which it is known today.
La Princesse de Trébizonde is an opéra bouffe with music by Jacques Offenbach and text by Étienne Tréfeu and Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter. The work was first given in two acts at the Theater Baden-Baden on 31 July 1869 and subsequently presented in a revised three-act version at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens on 7 December of the same year.
Jules Lefort, was a French lyrical singer of the Victorian era who in a career that spanned three decades regularly sang in the salons of wealthy and aristocratic patrons and in fashionable concert rooms both in Paris and London and across Europe. During his early singing career he was a tenor and a baritone but by the time of his later career in 1871 his voice had lowered to bass.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
