''Le lac des fées'' (''The Fairy Lake'') is a

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on o ...

in five acts composed by

Daniel Auber Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire. Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally whe ...

to a French

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 ...

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

and Mélesville (the pen name of Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier). The story is set in the

Harz Mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...

and based on a German ballad. The opera was premiered by the

Paris Opera 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 kn ...

at the

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

on 1 April 1839.

Roles

References

Notes Sources *Charlton, David
''The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera''
Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp 184–186. *Chorley, Henry Fothergill
''Modern German Music: Recollections and Criticisms''
Smith, Elder, 1854, pp. 246–247. *Clément, Félix and Larousse, Pierre
"Lac des fées (Le)
, ''Dictionnaire lyrique ou Histoire des opéras'', Slatkine, 1999, p. 392 (in French). * Tamvaco, Jean-Louis (2000). ''Les Cancans de l'Opéra. Chroniques de l'Académie Royale de Musique et du théâtre, à Paris sous les deux restorations'' (2 volumes, in French). Paris: CNRS Editions. .

External links

*
1839 libretto
at Gallica
Complete libretto in the original French
from ''Œuvres complètes de M. Eugène Scribe'' (Volume 2), Furne, 1841, pp. 123–146. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lac des fees, Le Operas Grand operas 1839 operas Operas by Daniel Auber French-language operas Opera world premieres at the Paris Opera Libretti by Eugène Scribe