Amadis is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in three acts with prologue by Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

 to a French libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Jules Claretie

Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie

Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie was a French literary figure and director of the Théâtre Français.He was born at Limoges. After studying at the lycée Bonaparte in Paris, he became a journalist, achieving great success as dramatic critic to Le Figaro and to the Opinion nationale...

 based on the Spanish knight-errant

Knight-errant

A knight-errant is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. "Errant," meaning wandering or roving, indicates how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures to prove himself as a knight, such as in a pas d'armes.The first known appearance of the term...

ry romance Amadis de Gaula

Amadis de Gaula

Amadis de Gaula is a landmark work among the knight-errantry tales which were in vogue in 16th century Iberian Peninsula, and formed the earliest reading of many Renaissance and Baroque writers, although it was written at the onset of the 14th century.The first known printed edition was published...

, originally of Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 origin, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo

Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo

Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo was a Spanish author who arranged the modern version of the chivalric romance Amadis of Gaul, written in three books in the 14th century by an unknown author...

.

It was first performed at the Opéra in Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

 on April 1, 1922, nearly ten years after Massenet's death. Massenet had started to compose the piece in 1895 but shelved it and completed it clandestinely in the last years of his life. Amadis is one of three operas by Massenet to have premiered posthumously; the others are Panurge

Panurge (opera)

Panurge is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Georges Spitzmuller and Maurice Boukay, after Pantagruel by Rabelais...

(1913) and Cléopâtre

Cléopâtre

Cléopâtre is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Payen. It was first performed in at the Opéra Monte-Carlo on February 23, 1914, nearly two years after Massenet's death....

(1914).

Amadis has gained no lasting popularity but was revived (and recorded on the Koch Swann label) during the Massenet Festival

Massenet Festival

Massenet Festival is a biennale festival of music by French composer, Jules Massenet held at Saint-Étienne, France, close to the area where the composer was born....

 in Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne

Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...

, France in 1988.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, April 1, 1922 (Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Léon Jehin Léon Jehin Léon Jehin, born Spa, Belgium 17 July 1853, died Monaco 14 February 1928, was a conductor and composer, especially associated with musical life and the opera house in Monte Carlo.-Life and career:... )
Amadis	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	"Djéma Vécla" (Margherita Grandi Margherita Grandi Margherita Grandi was an Australian-born Italian soprano, particularly associated with dramatic Italian roles. She possessed a powerful voice and was a forceful singing-actress in the grand manner.-Life and career:... )
Floriane	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Nelly Martyl
Galaor	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Goffin
Le Roi Raimbert	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Gustave Huberdeau Gustave Huberdeau Gustave Huberdeau was a French operatic bass-baritone who had a prolific career in Europe and the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century...
Wenzel of Norway	tenor	Charles Delmas
Zorzi of Sicily	tenor	Carlo Bertossa
Curneval of Thuringe	tenor	Sini
Perdigon of Ireland	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Ceresole
Arnaud of Aquitaine	baritone	Amurgis
Golias of Spain	baritone	Morange
Orlinde	soprano	Lucette Korsoff
Béatrice	soprano	Bilhon
Simone	soprano	Rossignol
Guillemette	soprano	Orsoni
Marguérite	soprano	Rogery
Hélène	soprano	Lecroix
La Fée	spoken	Féval
Hunter	spoken	Stéphane
Princess Elisène	mute	Sedova
Amadis and Galaor as children	mute	Rosa Brothers

Synopsis

The story takes place in ancient Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 and concerns the brothers Amadis

Amadis de Gaula

Amadis de Gaula is a landmark work among the knight-errantry tales which were in vogue in 16th century Iberian Peninsula, and formed the earliest reading of many Renaissance and Baroque writers, although it was written at the onset of the 14th century.The first known printed edition was published...

 and Galaor

Galaor

Galaor was a hero of Spanish romance.The brother of Amadis de Gaul, Galaor was the model of a courtly paladin and was always ready with his sword to avenge the wrongs of widows and orphans.-See also:* Galaor, a comic book hero from Hexagon Comics...

, separated at birth. Amadis kills Galaor in the final scene in a duel over the princess Floriane

Oriana

Oriana is primarily a female given name, widespread, even if not very common, in European languages.-Possible roots of the name:Its etymological origins are probably mixed...

. When Amadis discovers magic stones around Galaor's neck identical to those given to him and his long lost brother by their dying mother, he realizes it is his brother he has killed.

External links

• Amadis at Bob's Universe