Le déserteur (opera)

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Le déserteur (The Deserter) is a drame mélé de musique (opéra comique) by the French composer Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny with a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine. It was first performed on 6 March 1769 by the Comédie-Italienne at their public theatre, the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris.

The work was Monsigny's greatest musical success and is one of the key operas of late 18th-century French opéra comique. It was performed in Amsterdam (1769), Copenhagen (1770), Germany in German translation (1770: Hamburg and Brunswick; 1771: Frankfurt), London on 2 November 1773 in an English version by

second Salle Favart, in a revised version re-orchestrated by Adolphe Adam.[2] The company performed it over 300 times up to 1911.[3] The work mixes serious and comic elements, an example of the latter being the behaviour of the drunkard Montauciel. The theme of a last-minute reprieve from execution influenced later rescue opera
.

Roles

Marie-Thérèse Laruette
Pastel by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau
Cast Voice type[4] Premiere, 6 March 1769[5]
Alexis, a soldier baritone[6] Joseph Caillot
Louise, his fiancée soprano Marie-Thérèse Laruette
Jean-Louis, Louise's father tenor Jean-Louis Laruette [fr]
Alexis's aunt soprano Mme Bérard
Bertrand, Alexis's cousin haute-contre Antoine Trial
Jeannette, a young peasant soprano Pétronille-Rosalie Beaupré
Montauciel, a dragoon tenor Clairval (Jean-Baptiste Guignard)
Courchemin, a brigadier basse-taille (bass-baritone) M Nainville
Three guards haute-contre, tenor, tenor Robert Desbrosses, M Lemoyne etc.
The jailer spoken role

Synopsis

Alexis, a young soldier, is engaged to be married to Louise, a farmer's daughter. On the orders of her father, she plays a trick on him by pretending she is going to marry her cousin Bertrand instead. Alexis falls for the deception and deserts the army in despair. He is captured and thrown into jail to await execution. Louise goes to see the king to beg for mercy for Alexis. She receives a letter of reprieve but faints from exhaustion before she is able to deliver it. All ends happily, however, when the king arrives in person and frees Alexis.

Recording

  • Le déserteur (musical numbers only): William Sharp (Alexis), Dominique Labelle (Louise), Ann Monoyios (Jeannette), David Newman (Montauciel/Second Guard), Eugene Galvin (Jean-Louis/Third Guard), Tony Boutté (Bertrand/First Guard), Darren Perry (Courchemin), Claire Kuttler (Aunt Marguerite), Andrew Adelsberger (Jailer), Opera Lafayette Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Brown (Naxos 8.660263-64, 2010)

Adaptations

The opera was adapted as a pantomime ballet at least three times in the eighteenth century:

  • Zuchelli’s Il disertore, first produced at the King’s Theatre, London, in December 1779
  • Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in 1804, in a production by Jean Aumer[8]
  • Paris Opéra on 16 January 1788[10]

References

  1. ISBN 9780874718515
    .
  2. ISBN 978-2-87009-898-1
    .
  3. ^ Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900–1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.
  4. ^ According to Mellace, unless otherwise stated in footnotes
  5. ^ According to the original libretto
  6. ISBN 88-7082-127-7
    ).
  7. ISBN 9780195173697
    (2004 paperback edition).
  8. ^ Le Déserteur, ballet d'action en trois actes (Dauberval), 1804
  9. ^ Le Déserteur, ballet d'action en trois actes (M. Gardel), 1786.
  10. ^ "Le Déserteur, ballet-pantomime en 3 actes", p. 360] in Théodore Lajarte (1878). Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de l'Opéra, volume 1 [1671–1791]. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles.

Sources

External links

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