''Léonore, ou L'Amour conjugal'' (Leonore, or marital love) is an
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 ...
in two acts by
Pierre Gaveaux after 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 ...
by
Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (24 January 1763 – 14 April 1842) was a French playwright, Libretto, librettist, Children's literature, children's writer, and politician of the French Revolution. He is best known for writing a libretto, supposedly based ...
. It was premiered on 19 February 1798 at the
Théâtre Feydeau in Paris.
Orchestra
The orchestration of the opera contains the following instruments:
[ Klaus Hortschansky: ''Léonore ou L’Amour conjugal.'' In: ''.'' Volume 2: ''Werke. Donizetti – Henze.'' Piper, Munich/Zürich 1987, , .]
*
winds
Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...
: two
transverse flute
A transverse flute or side-blown flute is a flute which is held horizontally when played.Powell, A. (2001). Transverse flute. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 6 Feb. 2024 The player blows across the embouchure hole, in a direction perpendicular to ...
s, two
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
s, two
clarinet
The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
s, two
bassoon
The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...
s
*
brass section
The brass section of the orchestra, concert band, and jazz ensemble consist of brass instruments, and is one of the main sections in all three ensembles. The British brass band, British-style brass band contains only brass and percussion instrume ...
: two
horns, two
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
s, two
trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
s
*
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
*
strings
History
Bouilly's work was, with regard to the subject matter, a model for the composers Paër's ''
Leonora'' 1804 and Mayr's ''
L'amor coniugale'' 1805.
Joseph Sonnleithner presented a translation of the original in German, which in turn inspired Beethoven to write his operas ''Leonore'' (1805, 1806) and ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...
'' (1814).
It is unknown whether or not Beethoven knew the score of Gaveaux' ''Léonore'', and it is quite unlikely that he did.
The opera was performed for the first time in New York in 2017 and this production was recorded.
DVD information
''Online Merker'', retrieved on 20 November 2019.
References
External links
*
Libretto (French)
Paris 1798. Digitized at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonore ou Lamour conjugal
French-language operas
Operas by Pierre Gaveaux
1798 operas
18th-century operas
Operas