''Le diable à quatre'' (''The Devil to Pay'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The French-language libretto is by

Michel-Jean Sedaine Michel-Jean Sedaine (2 June 1719 – 17 May 1797) was a French dramatist and librettist, especially noted for his librettos for '' opéras comiques'', in which he took an important and influential role in the advancement of the genre from th ...

and Pierre Baurans, after a translation by Claude-Pierre Patu of the 1731

ballad opera The ballad opera is a genre of English stage entertainment that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier '' comédie en vaudeville'' and the later ''Singspiel'', its dist ...

Charles Coffey Charles Coffey (late 17th century – 13 May 1745) was an Irish playwright, opera librettist and arranger of music from Westmeath. Following the initial failure of his ballad opera '' The Beggar’s Wedding'' (Dublin, Smock Alley Theatre, 24 Ma ...

entitled '' The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphos’d''. It was first performed at

Laxenburg __NOTOC__ Laxenburg (Central Bavarian: ''Laxnbuag'') is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Located about south of the Austrian capital Vienna, it is chiefly known for the Laxenburg castles, which, b ...

on May 28, 1759. The work was a popular success. Joseph Haydn used a melody from it, "''Je n’aimais pas le tabac beaucoup'' (I didn’t like tobacco much)" in the first movement of his symphony ''

Le soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

''. Klaus Hortschansky has noted that ''Le diable à quatre'' is one of Gluck's few stageworks where the composer neither used musical material from prior works nor recycled material from it into future works. Bruce Brown has discussed Gluck's authorship of the music in detail, and has also edited the work for the Gluck ''Sämtliche Werke''. (The same libretto was set to music arranged by Andre Danican Philidor and Jean-Louis Laruette and first staged with the above title on 19 August 1756 in Paris.)

Roles

Synopsis

The story concerns an ill-natured Marquise. An astrologer, to whom she had refused shelter at her chateau, transforms her into the wife of a surly cobbler named Jacques and transforms the cobbler's sweet-natured wife into the Marquise. After the Marquise learns her lesson, the astrologer reverses the spell.Synopsis
on Naxos Records

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diable a quatre French-language operas Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck Opéras comiques Operas 1759 operas