''Psyché'' is an opera (''tragédie lyrique'') in a prologue and five acts composed by

Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

to a

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 ...

Thomas Corneille Thomas Corneille (20 August 1625 – 8 December 1709) was a French lexicographer and dramatist. Biography Born in Rouen some nineteen years after his brother Pierre, the "great Corneille", Thomas's skill as a poet seems to have shown itself e ...

(adapted from

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

's original play for which Lully had composed the

intermède Intermède (also intermédie, intramède, entremets) is a French term for a musical or theatrical performance involving song and dance, also an 18th-century opera genre. The context in which the 'intermède' was performed has changed over time. ...

s). Based on the love story of

Cupid and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyc ...

, ''Psyché'' was premiered on April 19, 1678 by the

Académie Royale de Musique 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 ...

at the

Théâtre du Palais-Royal The Théâtre du Palais-Royal () is a 750-seat Parisian theatre at 38 rue de Montpensier, located at the northwest corner of the Palais-Royal in the Galerie de Montpensier at its intersection with the Galerie de Beaujolais. Brief history ...

in Paris.

Background

According to the '' Mercure Galant'', the opera ''Psyché'' was composed in three weeks; libretto, score and all. Although it is impossible to verify the truth of this statement, there is every reason to believe that Lully was in a hurry when writing this opera. In effect, the opera reuses the ''intermèdes'' from

's play. Since these ''intermèdes'' had met with such spectacular success seven years earlier, Lully must have felt that given his lack of time, he could at the very least attract a crowd with the promise of reviving the ''plainte italienne'' and the final ''divertissement''. All that was required was a synthesis of Molière's play that could coherently string together the already-existing ''intermèdes''. Such a text would have to be one third the length of Molière's, that is to say 600 rather than 1800 lines long, and would have to be composed in varied rimes and rhythms rather than the alexandrines in riming couplets used in spoken declamation. Unfortunately, Lully's usual librettist, Philippe Quinault, was in disgrace at court over his previous opera ''

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

'' and the task fell to Thomas Corneille, very likely at the bidding of the same cabal that had sought to disgrace Quinault. Whether by choice or out of necessity, Corneille's text is not a synthesis of Molière's, but rather a profoundly different plot for a profoundly different genre. It is believed that Fontenelle, Thomas Corneille's nephew, collaborated on the text. It is impossible to know whether or not this is true or, if true, to what extent Fontenelle participated. All anecdotes speaking of ''Psyché'' state that Thomas Corneille is the author without mentioning Fontenelle. The latter, however, placed the libretto among his complete works, without the slightest mention of the participation of his uncle. Conversely, none of Thomas Corneille's three opera librettos appear in any of the editions of his works or theatre. It is now impossible to know if or how Fontenelle participated in the writing of ''Psyché'', but in view of all of the accounts of ''Psychés creation it seems improbable that he should be sole author of the work.

Roles

;Prologue *

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

(

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

) * L'Amour (mute) *

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

(soprano) * Vertumne (

haute-contre The haute-contre (plural hautes-contre) was the primary French operatic tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera, from the middle of the seventeenth century until the latter part of the eighteenth century. History This voice ...

) *

Palemon The Palemonids were a legendary dynasty of Grand Dukes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The legend was born in the 15th or 16th century as proof that Lithuanians and the Grand Duchy are of Roman origins. Already Jan Długosz (1415–1480) wrote ...

(

taille The ''taille'' () was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in ''Ancien Régime'' France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held, and was directly paid to the state. History Originally o ...

) *

Nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

s of Flora (sopranos) *Deities of land and water (chorus) ;TragedyAccording to Arnason, p. 59. *

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

( bass) *Venus (soprano) *L’Amour (

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America ...

/haute-contre) *

Mercure Mercure may refer to: * MERCURE, an atmospheric dispersion modelling CFD code developed by Électricité de France * Mercure Hotels, a chain of hotels run by Accor * French ship Mercure (1783), French ship ''Mercure'' (1783) * Dassault Mercure, a ...

(haute-contre) * Vulcain (haute-contre) * Zéphir (haute-contre) *The king, father of Psyché (bass) *Psyché (soprano) *Aglaure, Psyché's sister (soprano) *Cidippe, Psyché's sister (soprano) *Licas (bass) *The god of a river (bass) *Nymphs, Zephyruses & Amours (boy sopranos) *Two nymphs of

Acheron The Acheron (; grc, Ἀχέρων ''Acheron'' or Ἀχερούσιος ''Acherousios''; ell, Αχέροντας ''Acherontas'') is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . Its source is ...

(sopranos) *The three

Furies The Erinyes ( ; sing. Erinys ; grc, Ἐρινύες, pl. of ), also known as the Furies, and the Eumenides, were female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath in the ''Iliad The ''Il ...

(haute-contre, taille and bass) ;Final ''

divertissement ''Divertissement'' (from the French 'diversion' or 'amusement') is used, in a similar sense to the Italian 'divertimento', for a light piece of music for a small group of players, however the French term has additional meanings. During the 17th and ...

'' *

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

n (haute-contre) *

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

(soprano)The part is notated in the soprano clef, but it was originally sung by the

baritenor Baritenor (also rendered in English language sources as bari-tenor or baritenore) is a portmanteau (blend) of the words "baritone" and "tenor." It is used to describe both baritone and tenor voices. In ''Webster's Third New International Dictionar ...

Gaye, who also performed the role of Palemon in the prologue (Arnason, p. 59, note 86). * Mome (bass) *

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

(haute-contre) *Two

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

s (sopranos) * Silène (soprano) *Two

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...

s (taille and bass)

Synopsis

The prologues to the two works are identical up until the arrival of Venus. In Corneille's text, Venus banishes the followers of Flora who had summoned her and calls her son Cupid to punish Psyché, whom mortals revere as a second Venus. In the first act, Psyché's sisters learn with the spectators that Psyché must be sacrificed to a dragon that has been ravaging the kingdom. The ''plainte italienne'' from Molière's play is sung to represent the mourning of the people. The sisters flee at Psyché's arrival and it is her father who informs her of the oracle that has pronounced her doom. Psyché unhesitatingly climbs the rock to offer herself in sacrifice, much to her father's consternation, and is carried away by Zephyrs. Act two opens with Vulcan and a group of cyclops who are building a palace for Psyché at Cupid's bidding. Just before Vulcan can complete the palace, he is surprised by his wife Venus who discovers that her son has betrayed her. She quarrels with her husband and vows revenge against her son. Psyché awakes and is courted by Cupid. The act ends in a happy love scene, but Cupid must hide his identity and begins a ''divertissement'' sung by three nymphs to divert Psyché's attention. In act three, Venus disguises herself as a Nymph and gives Psyché a lamp with which to discover the identity of her lover. Psyché is overjoyed to discover that her lover is Cupid himself, but the light of the lamp awakes the god who flees. At the same time, the palace disappears and Psyché is left in a desolate wilderness. Venus exposes her treachery to Psyché and further accuses her of trying to marry her way into immortality. She forces her to descend to hell and recover a box wherein Proserpine keeps her beauty. Psyché, in despair, attempts to drown herself, but is saved by the River God who peacefully accompanies her to the underworld. In act four, Psyché resists the torture of the three Furies in order to meet the Nymphs of the Acheron. These nymphs banish the Furies, give Psyché the box she is looking for and conduct her to Venus's garden where act five is set. In act five, Psyché opens the box, hoping to restore any beauty she might have lost during her recent hardships. But instead of beauty, the box exudes a poisonous vapour that kills Psyché. Venus appears to rejoice and brings Psyché back to life in order to gloat and torture her further. She is amazed to see that Psyché is still in love with her son despite so many hardships. But she is resolved to continue punishing her. Mercury descends and begs her to stop, recounting the chaos and suffering in the universe that has been produced by Cupid's displeasure. Venus takes no heed and Jupiter descends himself to calm the goddess and pronounce Psyché immortal. The lovers are united and the opera ends with a magnificent ballet, identical to the one closing the 1671 version.

Reception

Accounts of the success of the opera vary greatly. The '' Mercure Galant'' states that the opera was extremely well received; that audiences were enthralled by Lully's music as always and that they would never have guessed that Corneille had composed the libretto in so little time as three weeks. On the other hand, the Frères Parfraict in their ''Histoire de l'académie royale de musique'' claim that the opera is "irremediably cold" and that "the diabolical character of Venus ruins what little galantry there is to be found" in it. These reports are both equally difficult to believe when one considers, on the one hand, that Thomas Corneille was one of the chief editors of the ''Mercure Galant'' and, on the other hand, in what contempt the Parfaict brothers held all authors of the 17th century other than Pierre Corneille, Molière, Jean Racine and, for opera, Philippe Quinault. Might they have felt obligated to condemn Thomas Corneille's libretto out of fidelity to his brother, Molière and most of all Quinault whose place Thomas Corneille may have thought he was usurping indefinitely? The Parfaict brothers' attitude seems to have remained the dominant one since the 18th century. Robert Fajon, in his ''Opéra à Paris du Roi Soleil à Louis le Bien-Aimé'', even goes so far as to accuse Thomas Corneille of being responsible for Lully's only operatic failure. Concretely, however, none of Lully's operas were a failure. Their success continued to daunt operatic composers well into the 18th century. It is true that ''Psyché'', unlike many of Lully's operas, was not created at court and was only revived twice (once in 1703 and again in 1713). ''Thésée'', by comparison was revived ten times and remained in the repertoire of the

Académie royale de musique 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 ...

until 1744.

Recording

*''Psyché'',

Carolyn Sampson Carolyn Sampson (born 18 May 1974) is an English soprano in opera and concert. Specialising in historically informed performance, she has sung in Masaaki Suzuki's recording project of Bach cantatas and has appeared at the English National Opera. ...

(Psyché),

Karina Gauvin Karina Gauvin is a Canadian soprano who has made several recordings and is especially recognised for her interpretation of Baroque music. ''Opera News'' stated that, "Gauvin knows how to rivet an audience in opera and concert. She has been a queen ...

(Vénus), Boston Early Music Festival Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by

Paul O'Dette Paul Raymond O'Dette (born February 2, 1954) is an American lutenist, conductor, and musicologist specializing in early music. Biography O'Dette, who was born in Pittsburgh, began playing the electric guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio, w ...

and Stephen Stubbs (CPO, 3 CDs, 2008)

Notes

Sources

*Arnason, Luke, ''Psyché. De Thomas Corneille'', critical edition of the 1678 libretto, master's thesis at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

pdf copy
at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.''The Molière Encyclopedia''
Greenwood Publishing Group. *Midgette, Anne (June 16, 2007)

''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' *Powell, John S. (2000)
''Music and Theatre in France, 1600-1680''
Oxford University Press. *Sadie, Julie Anne (1998)
''Companion to Baroque Music''
University of California Press.

External links

Le magazine de l'opéra baroque by Jean-Claude Brenac

on

Playbill Arts ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's p ...

.
Full scores
in both the hand-copied version by the Atelier

Philidor Philidor (''Filidor'') or Danican Philidor was a family of musicians that served as court musicians to the French kings. The original name of the family was Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scottish origin (Duncan). Philidor was a later addition to t ...

(1702), scanned by Bibliothèques de Versailles and in a typeset version by Nicolas Sceaux. Note that the third complete score listed on the page, scanned by the Bibliothèque de Toulouse, appears to be Lully's music for the 1671 Molière play of the same name. {{DEFAULTSORT:Psyche Operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully French-language operas Operas based on classical mythology Opera world premieres at the Paris Opera Operas 1678 operas Operas based on works by Molière Cupid and Psyche Works based on The Golden Ass Silenus