''Proserpine'' is a French-language

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 libr ...

by the Italian composer

Giovanni Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini. Life Paisiello was born in T ...

. It takes the form of a ''

tragédie lyrique This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

'' in three acts. The libretto, by

Nicolas-François Guillard Nicolas-François Guillard (16 January 1752 – 26 December 1814) was a French librettist. He was born in Chartres and died in Paris, the recipient of a government pension in recognition of his work writing librettos. He was also on ''Comité de ...

, is a reworking of

Philippe Quinault Philippe Quinault (; 3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688), French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris. Biography Quinault was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of ''Marianne''. Quinault's first play w ...

's '' Proserpine''. Paisiello's opera was first performed on 28 March 1803 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 ...

Background

Paisiello was the favourite composer of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

. When Napoleon became First Consul of France in 1801, he invited Paisiello to Paris to become his private ''maître de chapelle''. The seventy-one-year-old musician was reluctant to leave Naples but King Ferdinand IV pressured him to agree in order to help Franco-Neapolitan diplomatic relations. Paisiello arrived in Paris in 1802. Here the Opéra proposed he should write a setting of Guillard's reworking of ''Proserpine'', a libretto by Philippe Quinault originally set by Jean-Baptiste Lully and premiered in 1680. The fashion for such reworkings had emerged in the late 18th century. Examples include

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. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

's '' Armide'' (1777) and J.C. Bach's '' Amadis de Gaule'' (1779). Lully and Quinault were considered the founders of the ''tragédie lyrique'', the genre which was the heart of serious French opera, but by the Classical period Lully's music seemed dated. Reusing Quinault's libretti was a way of asserting the continuity of the national musical tradition and ensuring foreign composers, such as Gluck and Paisiello, were tied into it. Guillard, following the fashionable model of Metastasian drama, reduced Quinault's libretto from five to three acts, concentrating the action on the main plot, the god

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

's abduction of

Proserpina Proserpina ( , ) or Proserpine ( ) is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whose ...

Performance history

Napoleon and the Opéra management admired Paisiello's score but it was not a success with the Parisian public. In writing the opera, Paisiello was hampered by his unfamiliarity with the French language and he found it hard to adapt his own style to the conventions of the ''tragédie lyrique''. ''Proserpine'' was withdrawn from the Opéra stage after its 13th performance (on 6 December 1803) and was never revived there. Paisiello never wrote another French-language opera and in 1804 he returned to Italy. Some time between 1806 and 1808, Paisiello asked Giuseppe Sanseverino to translate the libretto into Italian, but this version remained unperformed until 1988 when it was staged at

Bagni di Lucca Bagni di Lucca (formerly Bagno a Corsena) is a comune of Tuscany, Italy, in the Province of Lucca with a population of about 6,100. The comune has 27 named frazioni (wards). History Bagni di Lucca has been known for its thermal springs since th ...

as part of the Marlia International Festival. The original French version was revived at the

Festival della Valle d'Itria The ''Festival della Valle d'Itria'' is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a speciall ...

Martina Franca Martina Franca, or just Martina ( Martinese: ), is a town and ''municipality'' in the province of Taranto, Apulia, Italy. It is the second most populated town of the province after Taranto, and has a population (2016) of 49,086. Since 1975, th ...

in 2003. A live recording was issued the following year.For details see the "Recording" section.

Roles

Plot

Recording

*''Proserpine'' Sara Allegretta (Proserpine), Piero Guarnera (Pluton), Maria Laura Martorana (Cérès), Bratislava Chamber Choir, Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia, conducted by Giuliano Carella (Dynamic, 2004)

References

Sources

* Francesco Blanchetti, ''Proserpine'', in Piero Gelli and Filippo Poletti (editors), ''Dizionario dell'Opera 2008'' (new edition), Milan, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, pp. 1055-1056,
Available online at Opera Manager
* Spire Pitou, ''The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815'', Westport/London, Greenwood Press, 1985. * Essay by Pierre Serié in the book accompanying Didier Talpain's recording of J.C. Bach's ''Amadis de Gaule'' (Ediciones Singulares, 2012). {{Authority control Operas by Giovanni Paisiello French-language operas Operas based on classical mythology Operas 1803 operas Libretti by Nicolas-François Guillard Proserpina