Wq. 32 (''The Unexpected Encounter, or The Pilgrims to Mecca'') is a three-act ''

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

'', composed in 1763 by

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

to a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Louis Dancourt after the 1726 '' comédie en vaudeville'' ''Les pèlerins de la Mecque'' by Alain-René Lesage and d'Orneval. The death of Isabella of Parma, the archduke's wife, occasioned a revision of the spoken text downplaying the feigned death by which princess Rezia tests her beloved. The work was first performed in this form as ''La rencontre imprévue'' at the Burgtheater, Vienna on 7 January 1764. Dancourt's original text, titled ''Les pèlerins de la Mecque'' and designated as a '' comédie mêlée d'ariettes'', was not premiered until 1990 (see Recordings).

Performance history

Gluck's longest ''opéra-comique'' and considered his finest, ''La rencontre imprévue'' was his most popular work in the genre in the 18th century. It was performed in French in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

(1766),

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

(as ''Ali et Rezia'', 19 May 1766),

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

(1768),

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

(1768),

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

(1768),

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

(1772),

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

(23 December 1776), Cassel (1780),

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

(17 November 1783), and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

(1784). It was translated into German as ''Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft oder Die Pilgrimme von Mecca'' and performed in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

(16 April 1771), Vienna (1776 at the Kärntnertor Theater; 26 July 1780 at the Burgtheater),

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

(9 March 1779),

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

(17 October 1783, the first Gluck opera to be performed there), and many other cities.Loewenberg 1978, columns 275–276. The opera was first performed in Paris on 1 May 1790 by the Opéra-Comique at the first Salle Favart in an arrangement by Jean-Pierre Solié with the title ''Les fous de Médine, ou La rencontre imprévue''. It was revived by the Opéra-Comique in Gluck's arrangement (as ''Les pèlerins de la Mecque'') on 20 December 1906, and also produced at the Trianon Lyrique on 8 November 1923. A new German translation by with the title ''Die Pilger von Mekka'' was performed in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

(October 1922),

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(26 September 1924), Berlin (18 February 1928), and Vienna (June 1931).''Die Pilger von Mekka'',

Legacy

''La rencontre imprévue'' was adapted and supplied with new music by Haydn as ''

L'incontro improvviso ''L’incontro improvviso'' (The unexpected encounter) (Hob. XXVIII:6) is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn first performed at Eszterháza on 29 August 1775 to mark the four-day visit of Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria-Este, Archduke Ferdina ...

'' (1775) and the 1780 Vienna revival of Gluck's version presumably inspired the plot of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's '' Die Entführung aus dem Serail''. In 1784 Mozart wrote a set of variations for piano ( K. 455) on Calender's aria "Unser dummer Pöbel meint" ("Les hommes pieusement"). In 1887 the variations were orchestrated by Tchaikovsky as the final movement of his orchestral Suite No. 4 ''Mozartiana''.

Roles

Recordings

* 1990 – Guy de Mey (Ali), Lynne Dawson (Rezia), Catherine Dubosc (Dardané), Sophie Marin-Degor (Amine), Claudine Le Coz (Balkis), Jean-Luc Viala (Osmin), Guy Flechter (Le Sultan d'égypte), Jean-Philippe Lafont (Vertigo), Gilles Cachemaille (Le calender), Francis Dudziak (La chef de Caravane) – Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner – 2 CDs

Erato In Greek mythology, Erato (; ) is one of the Greek Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes playfully sugge ...

(world première recording; in cooperation with MusiFrance and

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

). * 1990 – Robert Gambill (Ali), Julie Kaufmann (Rezia), Annegeer Stumphius (Dardané), Anne-Marie Rodde (Amine), Iris Vermillion (Balkis), Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö (Osmin), Ulrich Reß (Le Sultan d'égypte), Malcolm Walker (Vertigo), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Le calender), Paolo Orecchia (La chef de Caravane) – Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Leopold Hager – 3 CDs Orfeo (issued 2016).

References

Notes Sources * Brown, Bruce Alan (1992). "''La rencontre imprévue''" in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, pp. 1288–1289. * Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). ''Annals of Opera 1597–1940'' (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Rushton, Julian (2001). "Christoph Willibald Gluck", pp. 313–327, in ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', edited by Amanda Holden. London: Penguin Books. . * Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. . * Wild, Nicole; Charlton, David (2005). ''Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762–1972''. Sprimont, Belgium: Editions Mardaga. . * Wolff, Stéphane (1953). ''Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900–1950).'' Paris: André Bonne.

External links

Amazon review
of

John Eliot Gardiner Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Church cantata (Bach), Bach's church ...

's recording
ms full score
(n.d. 764 or later at Gallica
1767 libretto
(Munich: Mayrin) at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

1768 libretto
(The Hague: Constapel, et le Febure) at Google Books
1776 libretto
(Paris: Duchesne) at Google Books
1780 libretto: ''Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft oder die Pilgrime von Mecca''
(Vienna: Logenmeister) at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Recontre imprevue, La Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck French-language operas Operas Comédies mêlées d'ariettes 1764 operas Opera world premieres at the Burgtheater