''L'arbre enchanté, ou Le tuteur dupé'' (''The Magic Tree, or, the Tutor Duped''), Wq 42, is a one-act

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 Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

Christoph Willibald 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 (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

to a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) 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 th ...

based on the 1752 opéra-comique ''Le poirier'' ("The Peartree") with a text by

Jean-Joseph Vadé Jean-Joseph Vadé (17 January 1720 – 4 July 1757) was a French chansonnier and playwright of the 18th century. Biography The son of Jacques Vadé, an innkeeper, Jean-Joseph went with his father to Paris in 1725. His studies suffered from his ...

. Vadé's libretto was based on a tale from

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

's ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...

'', as retold by

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

. Gluck's opera was written for the

name day In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, as well as Christian communities elsewhere. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively t ...

of Emperor Francis I, premiering at the

Schönbrunn Palace Schönbrunn Palace (Austrian German, German: Schloss Schönbrunn ) was the main summer residence of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna. The name ''Schönbrunn'' (meaning "beautiful spring") ha ...

in Vienna on the evening of 3 October 1759, the anniversary of the death of

Saint Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he ...

.Brown 2001. Gluck revised the work to a versified adaptation by

Pierre-Louis Moline Pierre-Louis Moline (27 May 1739 – 20 March 1820)Mahul 1823, p. 157. Rushton 1992, p. 425, gives his date of death as 19 February 1821. Pitou 1985, p. 367, gives his date of death as 19 February 1820. was a prolific French dramatist, poet and l ...

of the original libretto, to which was also added (for Lubin) the ''ariette'' "Près de l'objet qui m'inflamme",

parodied A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can also b ...

from Gluck's earlier opera ''

Le cadi dupé ''Le cadi dupé'' (''The Duped Qadi'', or ''The Duped Judge'') is an opéra comique in one act by Christoph Willibald Gluck. It has a French-language libretto by Pierre-René Lemonnier. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 8 December 1761. ...

''. The revised version was first performed on 27 February 1775 as ''L'arbre enchanté'', at the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

.Information at the ''césar'' website
suggests that Louis Heurteaux dit Dancourt and Pierre-Louis Moline played roles in the Vienna production, perhaps as

dramaturge A dramaturge or dramaturg (from Ancient Greek δραματουργός – dramatourgós) is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and pr ...

s. But Dancourt arrived in Vienna in 1762, and Brown 2001 credits Moline only with the recasting of the spoken dialogue in verse for the Paris version. The story is slightly varied in

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...

's tale of May and Januarie ("

The Merchant's Tale "The Merchant's Tale" () is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. Summary of the tale After a prologue where the Merchant laments the cruelty of his spouse, he begins the story in Pavia, where Januarie, a sixty year old knight, is ...

"), where it is instead the pair of lovers who climb the tree. The diarist

Karl von Zinzendorf Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cachoe ...

related that Gluck sang the part of an ailing singer from the wings in 1761.

Roles

References

Notes Sources * Brown, Bruce Alan (1992). "''Arbre enchanté, L'''" in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, p. 163. * Brown, Bruce Alan (2001). "Gluck, Christoph Willibald, Ritter von. 3. Vienna, 1752–60" in Sadie 2001. *

Rushton, Julian Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' ...

(1992). "Moline, Pierre-Louis" in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, p. 425. *

Sadie, Stanley Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...

, editor (1992). ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'' (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. . * Sadie, Stanley, editor (2001). ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook). * Sadler, Graham (1992). "Vadé, Jean-Joseph" in Sadie 1992, vol. 4, p. 883.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbre Enchante Operas One-act operas Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck French-language operas 1759 operas Operas based on works by Giovanni Boccaccio Operas based on works by Jean de La Fontaine