''Le timbre d'argent'' (''The Silver Bell'') is an in four acts by composer

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

to a French

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") 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 the t ...

Jules Barbier Paul Jules Barbier (8 March 182516 January 1901) was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré. He was a noted Parisian bon vivant and man of letters.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 ...

. Although completed in 1865, the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

did not receive its premiere performance until 23 February 1877, when it was presented by

Albert Vizentini Albert Vizentini was a French violinist, composer, conductor and music writer, born in Paris on 9 November 1841, and died there on 21 October 1906. His main centre of activity was the French capital, but he also worked for ten years in Russia and ...

's Théâtre National Lyrique at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris.Saint-Saëns 1877, p. 3; Boston Public Library 1916
p. 339
Langham-Smith 1992, p. 874; Harding 1980, p. 202. It includes the well-known aria "Le bonheur est chose légère".

History

''Le timbre d'argent'' is the first opera that Saint-Saëns composed. The opera was commissioned by the

Théâtre Lyrique The Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century (the other three being the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, and the Théâtre-Italien). The company was founded in 1847 as the Opér ...

and he began composing the music for it in 1864, finishing in 1865. The work's premiere was delayed, first by the financial difficulties of the opera house and then later by the Franco-Prussian War. Over the next 12 years Saint-Saëns recomposed the dialogue to form a

Grand Opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...

version, but Albert Vizentini and his Théâtre National Lyrique, who finally staged it, decided to use the original 1865 rendition for the opera's premiere in 1877. The grand opera version was first performed in 1913.

Hugh Macdonald Hugh John Macdonald (born 31 January 1940 in Newbury, Berkshire) is an English musicologist chiefly known for his work within the music of the 19th century, especially in France. He has been general editor of the ''Hector Berlioz: New Edition of ...

: "''Le timbre d'argent''", '' Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed February 28, 2009),

Roles

Synopsis

Conrad, an artist, has an unhealthy obsession for gold, and is further engrossed by his own painting of

Circe Circe (; grc, , ) is an Magician (paranormal), enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion. She is either a daughter of the Titans, Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (mythology), Perse ...

, embodied in the living world by Fiametta, a ballerina. Conrad is given a silver bell by Dr Spiridion: when he strikes the bell he will receive all the gold he craves for, but at the cost of someone's death. The opera concludes with the realization that all of the events have only occurred within Conrad's own fevered mind.

Textual and musical analysis

The librettists for ''Le timbre d'argent'' also notably penned the librettos for

Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'' and Offenbach's ''

Les contes d'Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an 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 ...

'', and Saint-Saëns's opera serves as a "significant link" between these two. All three of these operas explore the hero's reliance on a menacing older man imposed by a diabolic pact. The character of Conrad is similar in many ways to that of Hoffman in Offenbach's opera, and the villainous character of Dr. Spiridion correspond well to Offenbach's villains (Lindorf, Coppélius, Dapertutto, and Dr Miracle). While the music of ''Le timbre d'argent'' is both "versatile and fluent", the drama at times poses difficulties, especially the mimed part of Fiametta and the somewhat weak revelation of truth at the opera's end. However, there are several effectively bold scenes such as a theatre viewed from the back of the stage and a number of imaginative transformations. A number of the positive aspects of this opera undoubtedly influenced Offenbach's ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'', as his first focused efforts on composing ''Hoffman'' took place during the first 18 performances of ''Le timbre d'argent'' in 1877.

Recordings

''Le Timbre d'argent'' (in the version without cuts for La Monnaie, 1914), was revived at the

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 Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...

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 June 2017 by

Les Siècles Les Siècles is a French symphony orchestra founded in 2003 by François-Xavier Roth, with ambition to put works from the 17th to 21st centuries into today's perspective. The musicians of the orchestra play each repertoire on the historical instrum ...

orchestra, Accentus choir, conducted by

François-Xavier Roth François-Xavier Paul Roth (born 6 November 1971) is a French conductor, who founded Les Siècles, an orchestra which performs on instruments appropriate to the period of composition of each piece, from the late Baroque and Classical eras to 20t ...

and was recorded with the support of the

Centre de musique romantique française The Centre de musique romantique française ("centre for French Romantic music") is a French-administered cultural institution, research centre and concert hall, in Venice, in north-eastern Italy. It is housed in the Palazzetto Bru Zane, an annex t ...

References

Notes Sources * Boston Public Library, Trustees of the, publisher (1916). ''Catalogue of the Allen A. Brown Collection of Music'' (volume 4 supplement)
View
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 Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

. * Harding, James (1980). ''Jacques Offenbach: A Biography''. London: John Calder. New York: Riverrun Press. . * Langham-Smith, Richard (1992). "Paris. 5. 1870–1902. (iv) Other companies" in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, pp. 874, 879. * Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). ''

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 ...

'' (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Timbre dargent, Le Operas by Camille Saint-Saëns French-language operas 1865 operas Operas Opera world premieres at the Théâtre Lyrique Libretti by Jules Barbier Libretti by Michel Carré