Andromède
(Redirected from
Andromède (Corneille)
)
Andromède (Andromeda) is a French
Théâtre Royal de Bourbon in Paris.[1] The story is taken from Books IV and V of Ovid's Metamorphoses and concerns the transformation of Perseus and Andromeda.[2]
The play has rarely been revived and is mostly remembered today for the set of six engravings by set designs of Giacomo Torelli
.
Background
The play was commissioned by
Madame de Motteville, the confidante of Anne of Austria.[4]
Plot
- Prologue: Respects to the King
- Act I: Venus predicts the marriage of Andromeda while a final victim will be chosen for the monster Cetus.
- Act II: Andromeda is designated as the victim.
- Act III: Perseus kills the monster; the Nereids promise to avenge it.
- Act IV: Phineus wants to kill Perseus and gets the aid of Juno.
- Act V: Perseus astounds Phineus; all the characters ascend to heaven to become gods.
Characters
The list of characters is from Corneille.[5]
Gods in the Machines
Mortals
- Cephée, King of Ethiopia
- Cassiope, Queen of Ethiopia
- Andromède, their daughter
- Phinée, Prince of Ethiopia
- Persée, son of Jupiter and Danaë
- Timante, Captain of the Royal Guards
- Ammon, friend of Phinée
- Aglante, a nymph of Andromède
- Cephalie, a nymph of Andromède
- Liriope, a nymph of Andromède
- A page of Phinée
- Chorus of People
- Retinue of the King
Premiere
The premiere production incorporated spectacular scenery, set changes, and special effects, designed by
Jupiter, Juno and Neptune in the final act. Corneille did not look too favorably on the music: "I have employed music only to satisfy the ear while the eyes are looking at the machines, but I have been careful to have nothing sung that is essential to the understanding of the play because the words are generally badly understood in music."[7] Most of the music has been lost, except for two choruses published in Airs à quatre parties (Robert Ballard, Paris, 1653).[8]
Engravings by Chauveau
-
Prologue:Melpomène, flying in the sky, and the Sunin his "luminously bright chariot" -
Act 1: Vénus in her "glory" -
-
-
-
Act 5: Juno withCassiopeand Andromède,
in the heavens
Later productions
- 1655: Andromède was revived at the Théâtre du Marais with machinery and sets designed by Denis Buffequin.[9]
- 1682: A revival at the Théâtre Guénégaud by the Comédie-Française with music composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier included a live horse flying through the air. According to the Parfaict brothers, the horse was persuaded to portray a "warlike ardor" by a severe fast, and "when he appeared a theatre employee was in the wings sifting oats. The horse overcome by hunger, neighed, stamped his feet and thus acted exactly as it was wished he should. [...] This acting on the part of the horse greatly contributed to the success the tragedy enjoyed at that time."[10]
Notes
- BnF gives 26 January 1650; Jean Claude Brenac's Le magazine de l'opéra baroque ("Andromède") says: "représentée en 1650 (pendant la Fronde)".
- ^ Corneille 1651a, "Argument"; 1651b, "Argument".
- ^ Corneille 1651a, "Epistre"; 1651b, "Epistre".
- ISSN 0065-0536.
- ^ 1651b, "Acteurs".
- ^ Powell 2000, p. 25; John 1996; Coeyman 1998, p. 63; Howarth 1997, pp. 205–209.
- ^ Quoted and translated by Isherwood 1973, p. 126.
- Grove Music Online.
- ^ Powell 2000, p. 26; Howarth 1997, p. 210.
- ^ Howarth 1997, pp. 355, 357.
Bibliography
- Coeyman, Barbara (1998). "Opera and Ballet in Seventeenth-Century French Theatres: Case Studies of the Salle des Machines and the Palais Royal Theater", pp. 37–71, in Opera in Context: Essays on Historical Staging from the Late Renaissance to the Time of Puccini, edited by Mark A. Radice. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 9781574670325.
- Corneille, Pierre (1651a). Andromède, 1st edition. Rouen: Laurens Maurry. Copy at Gallica.
- Corneille, Pierre (1651b). Andromède, 2nd edition with engravings. Rouen: Laurens Maurry. Copy at Gallica.
- Garreau, Joseph E. (1984). "Corneille, Pierre", vol. 1, pp. 545–554, in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, Stanley Hochman, editor in chief. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780070791695.
- Howarth, William D., editor (1997). French Theatre in the Neo-classical Era, 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521100878.
- Isherwood, Robert M. (1973). Music in the Service of the King. France in the Seventeenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801407345.
- John, Richard (1996). "Torelli, Giacomo", vol. 31, pp. 165–166, in ISBN 9781884446009. Also at Oxford Art Online(subscription required).
- Powell, John S. (2000). Music and Theatre in France 1600–1680. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198165996.