''Lalla-Roukh'' is an '' opéra comique'' in two acts composed by

Félicien David Félicien-César David (13 April 1810 – 29 August 1876) was a French composer. Biography Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began to study music at the age of five under his father, whose death when the boy was six left him an impoverish ...

. The libretto by

Michel Carré Michel Carré (20 October 1821, Besançon – 27 June 1872, Argenteuil) was a prolific French librettist. He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing lib ...

and

Hippolyte Lucas Pierre-Hippolyte Lucas (17 January 1814 – 5 July 1899) was a French entomologist. Lucas was an assistant- naturalist at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. From 1839 to 1842 he studied fauna as part of the scientific commission on the e ...

was based on

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

's 1817 narrative poem ''

Lalla Rookh ''Lalla Rookh'' is an Oriental romance by Irish poet Thomas Moore, published in 1817. The title is taken from the name of the heroine of the frame tale, the (fictional) daughter of the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The work consi ...

''. It was first performed on 12 May 1862 by the Opéra-Comique at the

Salle Favart The Salle Favart, officially the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, is a Paris opera house and theatre, the current home of the Opéra-Comique. It was built from 1893 to 1898 in a neo-Baroque style to the designs of the French architect Louis Bernie ...

in Paris. Set in Kashmir and Samarkand, the opera recounts the love story between Nourreddin, the King of Samarkand, and the Mughal princess Lalla-Roukh. Her name means "Tulip-cheeked", a frequent term of endearment in Persian poetry.

Performance history

Emma Calvé as Lalla-Roukh, Opéra-Comique 1885

''Lalla-Roukh'' had its world premiere on 12 May 1862 at the Opéra-Comique (Salle Favart) in Paris in a double bill with

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny ( – ) was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813). He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical gen ...

's '' Rose et Colas'', a one-act '' mêlée d'ariettes''. The '' mise en scène'' was by Ernest Mocker, the settings by Jean-Pierre Moynet, Charles Cambon, and Joseph Thierry, and the costumes by Jules Marre. An immediate success with the Paris audiences, ''Lalla-Roukh'' was very popular in its day, with 100 performances at the Opéra-Comique in the year following its premiere. It was revived several more times by the company, including performances in 1876, 1885 (with

Emma Calvé Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French operatic soprano. Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly ...

in the title role), and 1898, receiving its 376th and last performance on 29 May. The opera was soon presented in other French-language theatres, including those in Liège (20 October 1862), Brussels (27 October 1862), Antwerp (29 October 1862), Geneva (19 January 1864), and other cities, as well as the

Opéra de Monte-Carlo The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house which is part of the Monte Carlo Casino located in the Principality of Monaco. With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des ba ...

in 1886 and 1888. It was translated into German and performed in cities such as

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...

(25 December 1862),

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

(26 December 1862), Munich (16 March 1863), Vienna (22 April 1863), and Berlin (Meysels-Theater, 7 August 1865), and even translated into Hungarian (presented in Budapest, 31 January 1863), Polish (Warsaw, 8 March 1866), Swedish (Stockholm, 12 January 1870), Italian (Milan, Teatro Re, 7 September 1870), and Russian (St. Petersburg, 5 February 1884; Moscow, 10 February 1896). ''Lalla-Roukh'' sank into obscurity in the 20th century although individual arias and its overture were occasionally performed at concerts and recitals. Larger extracts from the opera were given concert performances in 1976 at

Cadenet Cadenet () is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Cadenétiens'' in French. Geography Cadenet is a village located on the southern slopes of the Lub ...

(David's birthplace) and in 2008 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., performed by Opera Lafayette.

Roles

Synopsis

Lalla-Roukh, the daughter of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, has been promised in marriage to the King of Samarkand. Accompanied by her confidants, Mirza and a

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millenni ...

called Baskir, she departs in a caravan to the King's summer palace for the wedding. As the caravan travels through Kashmir, she is charmed by the nightly songs of Nourreddin, a mysterious poet-singer who has joined the caravan. The couple meet at night and pledge their love to each other. Lalla-Roukh tells him that when they arrive at the palace, she will confess all to the King and refuse to marry him, preferring to live in a simple cottage in Kashmir with her true love. When the caravan finally arrives at the palace, a crash of cymbals is heard and the King comes out to receive his bride. To her amazement, Lalla-Roukh realizes that he is in fact Nourreddin.

Recordings

In March 2014 Naxos Records released a complete recording of Opera Lafayette's revival of ''Lalla-Roukh'', featuring Marianne Fiset as Lalla-Roukh, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro as Noureddin, Nathalie Paulin as Mirza, and Bernard Deletré as Baskir. Earlier recordings include several extracts sung by the French soprano Solange Renaux for the Bibliothèque nationale de France. One of these, Mirza's couplets "Si vous ne savez plus charmer", also appears on the

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

boxed set ''Les Introuvables du Chant Français''. Nourreddin's aria "O ma maîtresse" has been recorded by several French tenors.

References

Notes References Sources * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* Complete original score, and transcribed for voice and piano. * *, Opera Lafayette, 19 January 2013 *, Opera Lafayette, 24 January 2013 *, Opera Lafayette, 27 January 2013
''Lalla-Ruk'' (Italian libretto, Milan, 1870)
* {{Authority control Operas Operas by Félicien David Opéras comiques Opera world premieres at the Opéra-Comique French-language operas 1862 operas Operas set in Asia Operas set in India