|
Platée
''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Autreau (1657–1745) and had d'Orville modify it. The ultimate source of the story is a myth related by the Ancient Greece, Greek writer Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias in his ''Guide to Greece''. Rameau's first attempt at comic opera, the plot concerns an ugly water nymph who believes that Jupiter (mythology), Jupiter, the king of the gods, is in love with her. The work was initially called a ''ballet bouffon'', though it was later styled a ''comédie lyrique'', putting it in the same category as Rameau's ''Les Paladins''. It was written for the celebrations of the wedding of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV, to the Infanta María Teresa Rafaela of Spain, who, according to contemporary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin. Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ''Treatise on Harmony'' (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Jélyotte
Pierre Jélyotte (13 April 1713 – 11 September 1797) was a French operatic tenor, particularly associated with works by Rameau, Lully, Campra, Mondonville and Destouches. Life and career Born Pierre Grichon in Lasseube, he studied in Toulouse (voice, harpsichord, guitar, violin, composition) and made his stage debut in Paris as a singer at the Concert Spirituel in 1733. That same year, he made his debut at the Opéra de Paris, in ''Les fêtes grecques et romaines'', by François Colin de Blamont. He thereafter created several roles in opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, such as; '' Hippolyte et Aricie'', '' Les Indes galantes'', '' Dardanus'', and '' Zoroastre'', as well as in opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campra, and André Cardinal Destouches. In all he sang some 150 roles. He often appeared at Court in Fontainebleau, where he sang Daphnis in '' Daphnis et Alcimadure'' by Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, and Colin in '' Le devin du village'' by Jean-Jacques ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 was predominantly used in male solo roles, typically heroic and amatory ones, but also in comic parts, even '' en travesti'' (see apropos the portrait reproduced below and representing Pierre Jélyotte made up for the female title role of Rameau's ''Platée ''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Autr ...''). Lully wrote 8 out of 14 leading male roles for the voice; Charpentier, who was an haute-contre himself, composed extensively for the voice-part, as did Rameau and, later, Gluck. The leading ''hautes-contre'' of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques Autreau
Early Life Jacques Autreau, a French dramatic poet and painter, was born in 1657 in France. According to the registers of the church of Saint Barthélemy, he was baptized on October 30 of the same year. Career Artistic Career A poem addressed to the cardinal de Fleury suggests that Autreau did not earn much income from his paintings. The number of paintings Autreau created is unknown, as very few have survived to the present day. One surviving painting is a self-portrait, which is displayed in the Palace of Versailles. Another painting mentioned in the poem is a portrait of the Greek philosopher Diogenes with the inscription “Quem frustra quæsivit Cynicus olim, ecce inventus adest. [Whom the Cynic once sought in vain, behold, he is found here]”, which, along with the aforementioned poem, was presented to the cardinal de Fleury. However, there are no physical remnants of the painting of Diogenes. The poem to the cardinal de Fleury also suggests a friendship between Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrien-Joseph Le Valois D'Orville
Adrien-Joseph le Valois d'Orville, real name Adrien Joseph de Valois, (paroisse Notre Dame des Champs in Paris, 8 June 1715 – 1780) was an 18th-century French librettist. The son of Adrien de Valois and Marie Suzanne Durand de Linois, he married Geneviève Chapelon with whom he had two children, Alexis et Victor. He wrote several parodies of operas and tragedies, mainly for the Théâtre de la foire and the Opéra-Comique. He is mostly known for his adaptation of the libretto of ''Platée'', opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau who had acquired the rights from its original author, Jacques Autreau Early Life Jacques Autreau, a French dramatic poet and painter, was born in 1657 in France. According to the registers of the church of Saint Barthélemy, he was baptized on October 30 of the same year. Career Artistic Career A poem addr .... External links Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orvilleon data.bnf.fr His works and their presentationsoCÉSAR {{DEFAULTSORT:Levalois d'Orvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Amours De Ragonde
''Les amours de Ragonde'' (''The Loves of Ragonde'', original title: ''Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin ou La Veillée de Village'') is an opera in three acts by Jean-Joseph Mouret with a libretto by Philippe Néricault Destouches. It was first performed at the Château de Sceaux in December, 1714. It is one of the first French comic operas. Performance history Mouret was in charge of the ''Grandes Nuits de Sceaux'', musical entertainments put on every fortnight by the Duchesse de Maine at her chateau at Sceaux. For the 13th night, in 1714, Mouret and his librettist wrote ''Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin''. Comedy was something of a novelty in French opera and the work looks forward to the genre of ''opéra comique'' which would become popular in the mid-18th century. Mouret also parodied many famous scenes from the prestigious '' tragédies en musique'' by Jean-Baptiste Lully, including moments from '' Armide'', '' Atys'' and '' Alceste''. The next time the opera was heard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Querelle Des Bouffons
The ("Quarrel of the Comic Actors"), also known as the ("War of the Comic Actors"), was the name given to a battle of musical philosophies that took place in Paris between 1752 and 1754. The controversy concerned the relative merits of French and Italian opera. It was also known as the ("War of the Corners"), with those favoring French opera in the King's corner, and those favoring Italian opera in the Queen's corner. It was sparked by the reaction of literary Paris to a performance of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's short intermezzo ''La serva padrona'' at the Académie royale de musique in Paris on 1 August 1752. ''La serva padrona'' was performed by an itinerant Italian troupe of comic actors, known as ''buffoni'' (''bouffons'' in French, hence the name of the quarrel). In the controversy that followed, critics such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Melchior Grimm, along with other writers associated with the ''Encyclopédie'', praised Italian opera buffa. They att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Paladins
''Les Paladins'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760 at the Paris Opera. The author of the libretto is not known for sure but was probably one of the Duplat de Monticourt brothers. Rameau called ''Les Paladins'' a ''comédie lyrique'', putting it in the same category as his earlier work ''Platée''. Authorship of the libretto The identity of the librettist is uncertain. In the 18th century, Charles Collé relayed the rumour that the author was Gentil-Bernard. However, ''Les spectacles de Paris'' of 1770 and, later, Louis-François Beffara claimed the text was by Duplat de Monticourt, without specifying whether this meant Jean-François Duplat de Monticourt or his brother Pierre-Jacques. In her 2014 biography of the composer, the Rameau specialist inclines slightly to the belief it was Pierre-Jacques, given his greater experience of writing for the theatre. The plot is based on a verse tale by Jean de la Fontaine, '' Le petit chien qui sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melchior Grimm
Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm (26 September 172319 December 1807) was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''. In 1765 Grimm wrote ''Poème lyrique'', an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos. Like Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi, Grimm became interested in opera reform. According to , a German literary theorist, "sooner or later a book entitled ''The Aesthetic Ideas of Grimm'' will have to be written." Early years Grimm was born at Regensburg, the son of Johann Melchior Grimm (1682–1749), a pastor, and Sibylle Margarete Grimm, (''née'' Koch) (1684–1774). He studied at the University of Leipzig, where he came under the influence of Johann Christoph Gottsched and of Johann August Ernesti, to whom he was largely indebted for his critical appreciation of classical literature. When ninete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Bodin De Boismortier
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (23 December 1689 – 28 October 1755) was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public. Biography The Boismortier family moved from the composer's birthplace in Thionville (in Lorraine) to the town of Metz where he received his musical education from Joseph Valette de Montigny, a well-known composer of motets. The Boismortier family then followed Montigny and moved to Perpignan in 1713 where Boismortier found employment in the Royal Tobacco Control. Boismortier married Marie Valette, the daughter of a rich goldsmith and a relative of his teacher Montigny. In 1724 Boismortier and his wife moved to Paris where he began a prodigious composition career, writing for many instruments and voices. He was prolif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse
''Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse'' (''Don Quixote at the Duchess'') is a "comic ballet" ('' comédie lyrique'') by the French baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Although it is described as a ballet, it is sung throughout with a libretto by Charles Simon Favart. Performance history It was first performed on 12 February 1743 at the Académie Royale de Musique et de Dance in Paris. Roles *Don Quichotte, ''haute-contre'' Jean-Antoine Bérard *Sancho Pança, ''taille'' ( baritenor) Louis-Antoine Cuvilliers *Altisidore, soprano Marie Fel *Peasant girl, soprano Mlle Bourbonnois *Woman, soprano *Duke, bass *Merlin, ''basse-taille'' (bass-baritone) Person *Montésinos, ''basse-taille'' Albert *Japanese man, ''basse-taille'' Person *Japanese woman, soprano Marie Fel *Enchanted lovers, sopranos Mlles Clairon and Gondré *Ballerinas, Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo and Mimi Dallemand *Male dancers, David Dumoulin, Louis Dupré and Jean-Barthélemy Lany Synopsis The opera is b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially Criticism of the Catholic Church, of the Roman Catholic Church) and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including Stageplay, plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, and even scientific Exposition (narrative), expositions. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. Voltaire was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and was at constant risk from the strict censorship laws of the Catholic French monarchy. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
