''Prométhée'', Op. 82, (''Prometheus'') is a ''tragédie lyrique'' (grand cantata) in three acts by the French composer Gabriel Fauré with a French libretto by the

Symboliste Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism ...

poets

Jean Lorrain Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school. Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time amongs ...

and (1865–1940). It was partly based on the opening of the Greek tragedy of ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ant ...

''. The first performance at Arènes de Béziers on 27 August 1900 involved almost 800 performers (including two

wind band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...

s and 15 harps) and was watched by an audience of 10,000. Between 1914 and 1916,

Jean Roger-Ducasse Jean Jules Aimable Roger-Ducasse (Bordeaux, 18 April 1873 – Le Taillan-Médoc ( Gironde), 19 July 1954) was a French composer. Biography Jean Roger-Ducasse studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Émile Pessard and André Gedalge, and was t ...

reworked the score for a reduced orchestra. This version (which was later revised by Fauré) made its debut at the

Paris Opéra The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ...

on 17 May 1917 but never became popular. Designated as a ''tragédie lyrique'', the work resists easy categorisation. It was intended to be on a large-scale with spoken and musical sections. Warrack and West call it a grand cantata, arguing that since "only some of the characters participate in the stage action it is scarcely an opera, though Fauré's conception of the work is at times more operatic than merely choral ... ndthe clearest example to date of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's influence on his music."

Roles

Plot

The plot on which the opera was based has been deprecated as "patchy, and for the most part mediocre". It suffers particularly from the introduction of Pandore as the counterpart in importance of Prométhée. At the close of act 1 "she falls as if dead" and act 2 accordingly opens with the powerful funeral procession carrying her body. Illogically, but necessarily because of her balancing role, she revives later in the act and continues to take part in the action. ;Act 1 :A musical prelude is followed by a massed choral scene, in which Andros leads the men and Aenoë leads the women in rejoicing at the gift of fire. Prométhée praises its benefits but Pandore opposes his action in defying Zeus. Then Gaia appears to warn the Titan of the consequences of his action. She is followed by Kratos (power) and Bia (violence), sent by Zeus to punish him; with them is the divine smith Hephaestus, who is a friend of Prométhée. The three tell Prométhée his sentence: he will be chained forever to a rock and every day a black eagle shall drink from his veins. ;Act 2 :The female choir enters carrying Pandore on a bier of leafy branches, after which Aenoë makes the funeral oration. Prométhée returns with the executioners from Olympus. Though Hephaestus laments for his friend, Bia and Kratos are there to ensure that he make the chains to bind Prométhée to the rock. Having slit his veins, they leave and the revived Pandore enters again to lament his fate. ;Act 3 :A chorus of

Oceanids In Greek mythology, the Oceanids or Oceanides (; grc, Ὠκεανίδες, Ōkeanídes, pl. of grc, Ὠκεανίς, Ōkeanís, label=none) are the nymphs who were the three thousand (a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable") daughters o ...

comforts Pandore. Bia and Kratos return to threaten her and Prométhée, followed by Hermes with the gift of a box from Zeus. Despite being warned by Prométhée to refuse, Pandore insists on taking it. She discovers that her tears have been miraculously transformed there to a balsam. The opera ends with praise for the benevolence of the tyrannical Zeus.

Productions

The opera has been presented very rarely, but in July 2011 there was a Brazilian production by the in São Paulo. This Brazilian production included recitatives instead of spoken lines and a new orchestration by their conductor and director, Paulo Maron."Teatro Anhembi Morumbi apresenta ''Prometheus''"
15 June 2011, revised 14 September 2013

References

Notes Sources * Nectoux, Jean-Michel, ''Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life'', Cambridge University 2004
pp. 192–214
*

Warrack, John John Hamilton Warrack (born 1928, in London) is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist. Warrack is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack. He was educated at Winchester College (1941-6) and then at the Royal College o ...

; West, Ewan (1992). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Promethee French-language operas 1900 operas Operas by Gabriel Fauré Operas based on classical mythology Operas

Roles

Plot

Productions

References

Further reading

External links