''Dardanus'' is an opera by

Antonio Sacchini Antonio Maria Gasparo Gioacchino Sacchini (14 June 1730 – 6 October 1786) was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Sacchini was born in Florence, but raised in Naples, where he received his musical education. He made a name for him ...

. It takes the form of a

tragédie lyrique This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

in four acts (later revised to a three-act version). It was first performed at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

on 18 September 1784, and subsequently at the Paris Opera on 30 November of the same year. The French-language libretto was adapted by

Nicolas-François Guillard Nicolas-François Guillard (16 January 1752 – 26 December 1814) was a French librettist. He was born in Chartres and died in Paris, the recipient of a government pension in recognition of his work writing librettos. He was also on ''Comité de ...

from that by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère, which had already been set to music by Jean-Philippe Rameau in his earlier opera of the same name.

History

Guillard's adaptation blends both 1739 and 1744 versions of Rameau's opera, but is based principally upon the second one. Although "the title-page of the printed score reads only 'paroles de M. Guillard',

n fact N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

most of the text is by La Bruère". Guillard's interventions mainly consisted in " mittingthe Prologue, lteringthe order of events in Act 3, and skilfully ompressingActs 4 and 5".Grove The librettist "justified his redoing the subject ... y explainingthat his aim was to tighten the plot and create better motivation for the characters". The dancing ''divertissement'' was done by

Pierre Gardel Pierre-Gabriel Gardel (4 February 1758, in Nancy, France – 18 October 1840, in Paris) was a French ballet dancer, ballet master, violinist, and composer., 2007. He was the younger brother of Maximilien Gardel, seventeen years his senior. In 1795 ...

.Lajarte The opera was not successful at its first appearance and had no more than six performances. Both Maillard, who played Iphise, and Larrivée, who played Teucer, were regarded as inadequate, the latter having to be replaced by Moreau after the second performance; the opera as a whole was deeply involved in the growing hostility towards Queen Marie Antoinette's predilection for foreigners, Sacchini being her favourite: she herself had introduced the musician to the king in 1783, when he had been celebrated at court along with another Italian composer Piccinni, when they had both been granted substantial pensions on account of their recently staged operas, '' Didon'' and '' Chimène''. Sacchini and Guillard later decided to revise ''Dardanus'', reducing it to three acts and introducing new choreography by Gaetano Vestris. The new version was given at Fontainebleau on 20 October 1785 and was later brought to the stage of the Paris Opera on 17 January 1786, enjoying a total of 25 performances in 1786/1787. "It was

ater Ater (Hebrew אֲתַר) is an Old Testament male name. #A descendant of Hezekiah, who returned from Babylon ; #An Israelite, who subscribed to Nehemiah Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in r ...

mounted annually between 1800 and 1808, and it was sung on 28 dates in these nine years",Pitou, p. 142 before being definitively dropped.

Roles

Recordings

Music from ''Dardanus'' was used in the film '' Jefferson in Paris''. Extracts from the opera appeared on the soundtrack CD, conducted by William Christie with Jean-Paul Fouchécourt singing the title role. Two arias for Iphise ("Il me fuit ... Rien peut émouvoir" and "Cesse, cruel Amour, de régner sur mon âme") were recorded by

Véronique Gens Véronique Gens (born 19 April 1966) is a French operatic soprano. She has spent much of her career recording and performing Baroque music. Gens was born in Orléans, France, and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning first prize at the ...

on the album ''Tragédiennes 2'', accompanied by the orchestra Les Talens Lyriques conducted by

Christophe Rousset Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 1 ...

(Virgin Classics, 2009).

References

Notes

Sources

* Original libretto: ''Dardanus, tragédie en trois actes ; représentée devant leurs majestés, à Trianon, le 18 septembre 1784'', Paris, Ballard, 1784 (accessible for free online i
Gallica, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
* Adolphe Jullien, ''La Cour et l'Opéra sous Louis XVI. Marie-Antoinette et Sacchini Salieri Favart et Gluck. D'après des documents inédits conservés aux Archives de l'État et à l'Opéra'', Paris, Librairie Académique (Didier),1878 (accessible for free online i
OpenLibrary.org
, accessed 3 February 2011 *

Julian Rushton Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' ...

, "''Dardanus'' (ii)", in Stanley Sadie (ed.), ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, I, p. 1079, *

Théodore Lajarte Théodore Lajarte (10 July 1826 – 20 June 1890) was a French musicologist, librarian, and composer.Huebner 1992. Early years Lajarte was born in Bordeaux. His full name has been given as Théodore Édouard Dufaure de Lajarte. He studied at t ...

, ''Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique'', Paris, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878, Tome I, ''ad nomen'', pp. 345-46 (accessible online a
Internet Archive
* Spire Pitou, ''The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715–1815'' (article: ''Dardanus'', pp. 142–43), Greenwood Press, Westport/London, 1985 () *

'', accessed 3 February 2011 *
''Dardanus'' (Sacchini)
L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian). {{Authority control Operas by Antonio Sacchini French-language operas Operas Tragédies en musique Operas based on classical mythology 1784 operas Libretti by Nicolas-François Guillard