La Esmeralda (opera)
Encyclopedia
La Esmeralda is a grand opera
in four acts composed by Louise Bertin
. The libretto
was written by Victor Hugo
, who had adapted it from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris
(The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, although she lived for another 40 years.
had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, Guy Mannering for which she also wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, Guy Mannering or The Astrologer. Two of her later operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique
, Le loup-garou (The Werewolf) in 1827 and Fausto in 1831 (again with a libretto by Bertin, this time adapted from Goethe's play Faust
). Although many of Victor Hugo's plays and novels were later adapted as operas (e.g. Hernani
, Ruy Blas
, Le roi s'amuse
, Angelo, tyran de Padoue, Marie Tudor, and Lucrèce Borgia
), La Esmeralda was the first and only libretto which he wrote himself in direct collaboration with the composer. Shortly after he completed Notre-Dame de Paris
in 1830, Hugo began sketching out an operatic adaptation. The success of the novel had brought him many offers from composers anxious to turn it into an opera, including Meyerbeer
and Berlioz
. He had declined those proposals, but according to Hugo's wife, he changed his mind out of friendship for the Bertin family. In September 1832, while Hugo was staying with the Bertins, Louise, supported by her father Louis-François Bertin
, asked him for permission to create an opera from the work. He immediately commenced work on a libretto, completing it on his return to Paris (despite the frenzy of rehearsals for his play Le Roi s'amuse
), and sending Louise the first draft manuscript on 30 October 1832.
The process of preparing the final libretto was slow, and rehearsals for the opera did not begin until over three years after Hugo wrote the first lines. Bertin's requests for lines of various lengths to fit the music partly contributed to this as well as the task of condensing a long novel into a four-hour opera. Many of the characters were eliminated including Jehan Frollo, the dissolute younger brother of the chief antagonist Claude Frollo, although some aspects of his character were incorporated into Claude's. The main protagonist of the novel, Quasimodo
, has a much reduced role in the opera, which concentrates more on the love story between Esmeralda and Phoebus
. At Bertin's request, the ending of the novel was also changed with Esmeralda escaping execution. In 1834, Notre-Dame de Paris had been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
, the list of works condemned by the Catholic Church. The opera libretto was submitted to the censors in January 1836 who required the title to be changed to La Esmeralda and all references to Claude Frollo as a priest to be removed. (The printed libretto which was sold prior to the premiere did have the change of title but retained the use of "priest" regardless, and some of the singers at the premiere sang the original words, claiming they had forgotten that which ones were censored.)
No expense was spared for the production. The four principal roles were assigned to the reigning stars of the Paris Opera
: Cornélie Falcon, Adolphe Nourrit
, Nicolas Levasseur
and Jean-Étienne Massol. The well known interior and theatrical designers Humanité-René Philastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon
designed the sets and costumes. Bertin's limited mobility made it difficult for her to participate in the rehearsals, and her father commissioned Berlioz to conduct the rehearsals and direct the singers. Berlioz found the experience dispiriting. The singers and orchestra were unenthusiastic, and showed it during the rehearsals. There were also backstage rumblings that the opera was only being produced because of the Bertin family's influence and a persistent rumor that Berlioz had written the best arias in the piece, a back-handed complement which he firmly denied. He wrote to Franz Liszt
, "What an inferno that whole world is, an ice-cold inferno!" Hugo was travelling in Brittany and absent for almost all the rehearsals. According to Adèle Hugo, on his return he was not pleased with the set and costume designs in which he found "nothing rich nor picturesque." In particular, he found the use of obviously new cloth to clothe the beggars and vagabonds inappropriate and blurred the distinction between them and those of the higher social classes.
When La Esmeralda premiered on 14 November 1836 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris, it had a generally dismal reception from the critics and some segments of the audience, although on the opening night it was largely made up of friends and supporters of the Bertins. The accusations that it had only been performed because of her brother's connection to the administration of the Paris Opera and the family's directorship of the influential newspaper, Journal des débats
(to which both Victor Hugo and Berlioz were contributors) led to open disdain by those who opposed the newspaper's political stance. There were hisses and groans, and after the one undeniably fine aria, Quasimodo's "Air des Cloches" ("Song of the Bells") in Act 4, several members of the audience, including Alexandre Dumas, shouted "It's by Berlioz!". The opera was withdrawn after six performances. For the last of these, 16 December 1836, it had been shortened to three acts and was followed by the ballet La Fille du Danube
starring Marie Taglioni
. It was at the final performance, that a near-riot ensued. The anti-Bertin faction began shouting "Down with Bertin!" "Down with the Journal des débats!" "Bring down the curtain!" They kept it up until Cornélie Falcon fled the stage and the curtain was lowered. It was not raised again until the ballet began. Louise Bertin would never compose another opera, although she lived for another 40 years. In her memoires, Adèle Hugo wrote of the opera's final word, "Fatalité!":
The full orchestral score was never published. However, the autograph
manuscript is held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
and a copy in the library of the Paris Opera. Franz Liszt's version of the score reduced for piano and voice was published by Troupenas in 1837 and republished in 2009 by Lucie Gallande. The first act, revised to include the principal arias from the rest of the opera, continued to be performed sporadically between 1837 and 1839 as a curtain-raiser for ballet productions, and excerpts from the work were played in a concert in 1865. After that it sank into obscurity. However, La Esmeralda was revived in February 2002 when it was staged to piano accompaniment (using the Bertin/Liszt score) at the Théâtre-Opéra in Besançon
to mark the 200th anniversary of Hugo's birth. A concert performance using the full orchestral score was given on 23 July 2008 at the Opéra Berlioz in Montpellier as part of the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier
and later released on CD.
at night
The beggars and thieves of Paris, led by Clopin, are celebrating carnival season with rowdy songs. Esmeralda entertains them with a gypsy dance. Frollo, the corrupt archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral
watches the scene from his hiding place and is consumed with desire for her. Before she finishes her dance, Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer at the cathedral is led in to be crowned "The Fools' Pope" When Frollo angrily remonstrates with him, the crowd turn on Frollo who is rescued by Clopin. With Quasimodo's help, Frollo then attempts to kidnap Esmeralda, but she is rescued by the arrival of Phoebus and his archers. Esmeralda and Phoebus are taken with other and as a parting gift, he gives her a scarf.
The crowd taunts Quasimodo who has been placed in the stocks
for his role in the attempted kidnap of Esmeralda. However, she takes pity on him and offers him a drink of water.
Scene 2: A magnificent room in the house of Fleur de Lys de Gondelaurier
A reception is about to begin. Phoebus, who is engaged to Fleur de Lys, reflects on his love for Esmeralda. The guests arrive but are soon drawn to the window to watch Esmeralda who is dancing in the street below. During the course of her dance she waves the scarf which Phoebus had given her. Fleur de Lys is horrified. The scarf had been her present to Phoebus. At this sign of his infidelity, Fleur de Lys and her wealthy guests turn on Phoebus.
Phoebus and his men are carousing outside the tavern. He sings to them of his new love, Esmeralda, who is to meet him for a tryst at the tavern later that night. Frollo appears and attempting to prevent the tryst warns Phoebus that Esmeralda is a sorceress.
Scene 2: A room in the tavern
Frollo is hiding in a niche where he can spy on the lovers. In a fit of jealousy, he rushes out and attacks Phoebus with his sword badly wounding him.
At the behest of Frollo, Esmeralda has been imprisoned and sentenced to death for the murder of Phoebus, although unbeknownst to her he is still alive. Frollo offers to have her freed if she becomes his lover. Esmeralda angrily refuses.
Scene 2: A square outside Notre Dame Cathedral
As Quasimodo rings the cathedral bells, Esmeralda prepares herself for the execution. Frollo is now planning to abduct her again, this time with Clopin's help. As the crowd pours into the square to witness the execution, Quasimodo grabs Esmeralda and takes her into the cathedral where she will have sanctuary from the executioner. Attempts are made to remove her, but suddenly the wounded Phoebus arrives. His testimony exonerates her, but he dies in her arms. She throws herself on his body, vowing to follow him. Frollo cries out "Fatalité!", echoed by the chorus of onlookers.
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
in four acts composed by Louise Bertin
Louise Bertin
Louise-Angélique Bertin was a French composer and poet.Louise Bertin lived her entire life in France. Her father, Louis-François Bertin, and also her brother later on, were the editors of Journal des débats, an influential newspaper. As encouraged by her family, Bertin pursued music...
. The 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...
was written by Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, who had adapted it from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
(The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, although she lived for another 40 years.
Background
Partially paralyzed from birth, and basically chair-bound, Louise BertinLouise Bertin
Louise-Angélique Bertin was a French composer and poet.Louise Bertin lived her entire life in France. Her father, Louis-François Bertin, and also her brother later on, were the editors of Journal des débats, an influential newspaper. As encouraged by her family, Bertin pursued music...
had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, Guy Mannering for which she also wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, Guy Mannering or The Astrologer. Two of her later operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, Le loup-garou (The Werewolf) in 1827 and Fausto in 1831 (again with a libretto by Bertin, this time adapted from Goethe's play Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
). Although many of Victor Hugo's plays and novels were later adapted as operas (e.g. Hernani
Hernani
Hernani may refer to:*Hernani José da Rosa, a Brazilian football defender*Hernani , a Romantic drama by Victor Hugo*Ernani, a Romantic opera based on Hugo's play*Hernani, Eastern Samar, a municipality in Eastern Samar, Philippines...
, Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....
, Le roi s'amuse
Le roi s'amuse
Le roi s'amuse is a play written by Victor Hugo in 1832. While it depicts the escapades of Francis I of France, censors of the time believed that it also contained insulting references to King Louis-Philippe and banned it after one performance...
, Angelo, tyran de Padoue, Marie Tudor, and Lucrèce Borgia
Lucrèce Borgia
Lucrèce Borgia is a 1953 French drama film starring Martine Carol and Pedro Armendáriz. The film was directed by Christian-Jaque, who co-wrote screenplay with Cécil Saint-Laurent and Jacques Sigurd, based on novel by Alfred Schirokauer...
), La Esmeralda was the first and only libretto which he wrote himself in direct collaboration with the composer. Shortly after he completed Notre-Dame de Paris
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
in 1830, Hugo began sketching out an operatic adaptation. The success of the novel had brought him many offers from composers anxious to turn it into an opera, including Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
and Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
. He had declined those proposals, but according to Hugo's wife, he changed his mind out of friendship for the Bertin family. In September 1832, while Hugo was staying with the Bertins, Louise, supported by her father Louis-François Bertin
Louis-François Bertin
Louis-François Bertin, also known as Bertin l'Aîné was a French journalist...
, asked him for permission to create an opera from the work. He immediately commenced work on a libretto, completing it on his return to Paris (despite the frenzy of rehearsals for his play Le Roi s'amuse
Le roi s'amuse
Le roi s'amuse is a play written by Victor Hugo in 1832. While it depicts the escapades of Francis I of France, censors of the time believed that it also contained insulting references to King Louis-Philippe and banned it after one performance...
), and sending Louise the first draft manuscript on 30 October 1832.
Quasimodo
Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by...
, has a much reduced role in the opera, which concentrates more on the love story between Esmeralda and Phoebus
Captain Phoebus
Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He is the Captain of the King's Archers. His name comes from Phoebus, the Greek god of the sun , with whom he shares handsome looks and skill at...
. At Bertin's request, the ending of the novel was also changed with Esmeralda escaping execution. In 1834, Notre-Dame de Paris had been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
, the list of works condemned by the Catholic Church. The opera libretto was submitted to the censors in January 1836 who required the title to be changed to La Esmeralda and all references to Claude Frollo as a priest to be removed. (The printed libretto which was sold prior to the premiere did have the change of title but retained the use of "priest" regardless, and some of the singers at the premiere sang the original words, claiming they had forgotten that which ones were censored.)
No expense was spared for the production. The four principal roles were assigned to the reigning stars of the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
: Cornélie Falcon, Adolphe Nourrit
Adolphe Nourrit
Adolphe Nourrit was a French operatic tenor, librettist, and composer. One of the most esteemed opera singers of the 1820s and 1830s, he was particularly associated with the works of Gioachino Rossini....
, Nicolas Levasseur
Nicolas Levasseur
Nicolas Levasseur was a French bass, particularly associated with Rossini roles.Born Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur at Bresle, Somme, he studied at the Paris Music Conservatory from 1807 to 1811, with Pierre-Jean Garat. He made his professional debut at the Paris Opéra in 1813, as Osman Pacha, in La...
and Jean-Étienne Massol. The well known interior and theatrical designers Humanité-René Philastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon
Charles-Antoine Cambon
Charles-Antoine Cambon, a French scene-painter, was born in Paris in 1802. He was a pupil of Ciceri, and acquired much celebrity by his theatrical decorations, many of which were real masterpieces. He died in Paris in 1875.-References:...
designed the sets and costumes. Bertin's limited mobility made it difficult for her to participate in the rehearsals, and her father commissioned Berlioz to conduct the rehearsals and direct the singers. Berlioz found the experience dispiriting. The singers and orchestra were unenthusiastic, and showed it during the rehearsals. There were also backstage rumblings that the opera was only being produced because of the Bertin family's influence and a persistent rumor that Berlioz had written the best arias in the piece, a back-handed complement which he firmly denied. He wrote to Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, "What an inferno that whole world is, an ice-cold inferno!" Hugo was travelling in Brittany and absent for almost all the rehearsals. According to Adèle Hugo, on his return he was not pleased with the set and costume designs in which he found "nothing rich nor picturesque." In particular, he found the use of obviously new cloth to clothe the beggars and vagabonds inappropriate and blurred the distinction between them and those of the higher social classes.
Performance history
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
(to which both Victor Hugo and Berlioz were contributors) led to open disdain by those who opposed the newspaper's political stance. There were hisses and groans, and after the one undeniably fine aria, Quasimodo's "Air des Cloches" ("Song of the Bells") in Act 4, several members of the audience, including Alexandre Dumas, shouted "It's by Berlioz!". The opera was withdrawn after six performances. For the last of these, 16 December 1836, it had been shortened to three acts and was followed by the ballet La Fille du Danube
La Fille du Danube
La fille du Danube is a ballet in two acts and four scenes. Choreography by Filippo Taglioni. Music by Adolphe Adam. Premiered September 21, 1836, by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris.-Revivals/Restagings:...
starring Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni
Marie Taglioni was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.-Biography:...
. It was at the final performance, that a near-riot ensued. The anti-Bertin faction began shouting "Down with Bertin!" "Down with the Journal des débats!" "Bring down the curtain!" They kept it up until Cornélie Falcon fled the stage and the curtain was lowered. It was not raised again until the ballet began. Louise Bertin would never compose another opera, although she lived for another 40 years. In her memoires, Adèle Hugo wrote of the opera's final word, "Fatalité!":
A first fatality was this suppression of a work the singers of which were M. Nourrit and Mademoiselle Falcon, the composer a woman of great talent, the librettist M. Victor Hugo, and the subject Notre Dame de Paris. The fatality followed the actors. Mademoiselle Falcon lost her voice; M. Nourrit soon after committed suicide in Italy. A ship called Esmeralda, crossing from England to Ireland, was lost, vessel and cargo. The Duke of Orleans named a mare of great value Esmeralda and in a steeple-chase she ran against a horse at a gallop and got her head broken.
The full orchestral score was never published. However, the autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
manuscript is held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
and a copy in the library of the Paris Opera. Franz Liszt's version of the score reduced for piano and voice was published by Troupenas in 1837 and republished in 2009 by Lucie Gallande. The first act, revised to include the principal arias from the rest of the opera, continued to be performed sporadically between 1837 and 1839 as a curtain-raiser for ballet productions, and excerpts from the work were played in a concert in 1865. After that it sank into obscurity. However, La Esmeralda was revived in February 2002 when it was staged to piano accompaniment (using the Bertin/Liszt score) at the Théâtre-Opéra in Besançon
Besançon
Besançon , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It had a population of about 237,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2008...
to mark the 200th anniversary of Hugo's birth. A concert performance using the full orchestral score was given on 23 July 2008 at the Opéra Berlioz in Montpellier as part of the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier
Festival de Radio France et Montpellier
The Festival de Radio France et Montpellier is a summer festival of opera and music held in Montpellier, France created in 1985. The music festival concentrates on classical music and jazz with about 100 events, including opera, concerts, films, and talks, most of which are free and located in the...
and later released on CD.
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, 14 November 1836 Conductor: François Antoine Habeneck François Antoine Habeneck François Antoine Habeneck was a French violinist and conductor.- Early life :Habeneck was born at Mézières, the son of a musician in a French regimental band. During his early youth, Habeneck was taught by his father, and at the age of ten played concertos in public... |
|---|---|---|
| Esmeralda, a beautiful gypsy dancer | 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... |
Cornélie Falcon |
| Phoebus de Chateaupers, captain of the King's Archers | 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... |
Adolphe Nourrit Adolphe Nourrit Adolphe Nourrit was a French operatic tenor, librettist, and composer. One of the most esteemed opera singers of the 1820s and 1830s, he was particularly associated with the works of Gioachino Rossini.... |
| Claude Frollo, Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of... |
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... |
Nicolas Levasseur Nicolas Levasseur Nicolas Levasseur was a French bass, particularly associated with Rossini roles.Born Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur at Bresle, Somme, he studied at the Paris Music Conservatory from 1807 to 1811, with Pierre-Jean Garat. He made his professional debut at the Paris Opéra in 1813, as Osman Pacha, in La... |
| Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral | tenor | Jean-Étienne-Auguste Massol Jean-Étienne-Auguste Massol Jean-Étienne-Auguste Massol was a French operatic tenor and later baritone who sang in the world premieres of many French operas.... |
| Fleur de Lys de Gondelaurier, the wealthy fiancée of Phoebus | soprano | Constance Jawureck Constance Jawureck Constance Jawureck was a French mezzo-soprano opera singer.The daughter of a German musician, she was born in Paris and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 14 where she studied singing under Plantade and Garat and acting under Baptiste... |
| Madame Aloise de Gondelaurier, her mother | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Augusta Mori-Gosselin |
| Diane | mezzo-soprano | Mme. Lorotte |
| Bérangère | mezzo-soprano | Mme. Laurent |
| Le Vicomte de Gif | tenor | Alexis Dupont |
| Monsieur de Chevreuse | bass | Ferdinand Prévôt Ferdinand Prévôt Ferdinand Prévôt was an French operatic baritone. His surname is also found spelt as Prevot or Prévost.... |
| Monsieur de Morlaix | bass | Jean-Jacques-Émile Serda |
| Clopin Trouillefou, a street performer and leader of the vagabonds | tenor | François Wartel François Wartel Pierre François Wartel, was a French tenor and music educator. His wife was Thérèse Wartel, a talented pianist, and their son Émile was a bass who sang and created several operatic roles between 1857 and 1870 at the Théâtre Lyrique and later founded his own singing school.-Biography:In 1825... |
| Le crieur public (town crier Town crier A town crier, or bellman, is an officer of the court who makes public pronouncements as required by the court . The crier can also be used to make public announcements in the streets... ) |
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... |
Hens |
| People, vagabonds, and archers | ||
Synopsis
Setting: Paris, 1482Act 1
The Cour des miraclesCour des miracles
Cour des miracles was a French term which referred to slum districts of Paris, France where the unemployed migrants from rural areas resided...
at night
The beggars and thieves of Paris, led by Clopin, are celebrating carnival season with rowdy songs. Esmeralda entertains them with a gypsy dance. Frollo, the corrupt archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
watches the scene from his hiding place and is consumed with desire for her. Before she finishes her dance, Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer at the cathedral is led in to be crowned "The Fools' Pope" When Frollo angrily remonstrates with him, the crowd turn on Frollo who is rescued by Clopin. With Quasimodo's help, Frollo then attempts to kidnap Esmeralda, but she is rescued by the arrival of Phoebus and his archers. Esmeralda and Phoebus are taken with other and as a parting gift, he gives her a scarf.
Act 2
Scene 1: The Place de GrèveThe crowd taunts Quasimodo who has been placed in the stocks
Stocks
Stocks are devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by...
for his role in the attempted kidnap of Esmeralda. However, she takes pity on him and offers him a drink of water.
Scene 2: A magnificent room in the house of Fleur de Lys de Gondelaurier
A reception is about to begin. Phoebus, who is engaged to Fleur de Lys, reflects on his love for Esmeralda. The guests arrive but are soon drawn to the window to watch Esmeralda who is dancing in the street below. During the course of her dance she waves the scarf which Phoebus had given her. Fleur de Lys is horrified. The scarf had been her present to Phoebus. At this sign of his infidelity, Fleur de Lys and her wealthy guests turn on Phoebus.
Act 3
Scene 1: Outside a tavernPhoebus and his men are carousing outside the tavern. He sings to them of his new love, Esmeralda, who is to meet him for a tryst at the tavern later that night. Frollo appears and attempting to prevent the tryst warns Phoebus that Esmeralda is a sorceress.
Scene 2: A room in the tavern
Frollo is hiding in a niche where he can spy on the lovers. In a fit of jealousy, he rushes out and attacks Phoebus with his sword badly wounding him.
Act 4
Scene 1: A prisonAt the behest of Frollo, Esmeralda has been imprisoned and sentenced to death for the murder of Phoebus, although unbeknownst to her he is still alive. Frollo offers to have her freed if she becomes his lover. Esmeralda angrily refuses.
Scene 2: A square outside Notre Dame Cathedral
As Quasimodo rings the cathedral bells, Esmeralda prepares herself for the execution. Frollo is now planning to abduct her again, this time with Clopin's help. As the crowd pours into the square to witness the execution, Quasimodo grabs Esmeralda and takes her into the cathedral where she will have sanctuary from the executioner. Attempts are made to remove her, but suddenly the wounded Phoebus arrives. His testimony exonerates her, but he dies in her arms. She throws herself on his body, vowing to follow him. Frollo cries out "Fatalité!", echoed by the chorus of onlookers.
Recording
- Louise Bertin: La Esmeralda – Maya Boog (Esmeralda), Manuel Nuñez Camelino (Phoebus), Francesco Ellero d'Artegna (Frollo), Frédéric Antoun (Quasimodo); Orchestre national de Montpellier and the Chœur de la Radio Lettone, Lawrence FosterLawrence FosterLawrence Foster is an American conductor.He became the conductor of the San Francisco Ballet at the age of 18, and served as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta...
(conductor). Live recording of the performance on 23 July 2008 at the Opéra Berlioz, Montpellier. Label: Accord 4802341
Sources
- Bennett, Douglas M. (February 2002). "Louise-Angélique Bertin, Dilettante or Icon?". Donizetti Society Newsletter, No. 85
- Bennett, Douglas M. (June 2002). "La Esmeralda in Besançon". Donizetti Society Newsletter, No. 86
- Berlioz, Hector and Newman, Ernest (1932/1966). Memoirs of Hector Berlioz: from 1803 to 1865. Edited, annotated and English translation revised by Ernest Newman. Originally published by Alfred Knopf 1932, published in facsimile by Courier Dover Publications, 1966. ISBN 0486215636
- Bertin, Louise and Hugo, Victor (1836). La Esmeralda: Opéra en quatre actes (libretto). Maurice Schlesinger.
- Cairns, David (2003). Berlioz, Volume Two: Servitude and Greatness, 1832-1869'. University of California Press. ISBN 0520240588
- Crory, Neil (September 2009). "Review: La Esmeralda, Louise Bertin, Accord 4802341". Opera Canada
- Gerhard, Anselm (2000). The Urbanization of Opera: Music Theater in Paris in the Nineteenth Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226288587
- Halsall, Albert W. (1998). Victor Hugo and the Romantic Drama. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802043224
- Hibberd, Sarah (2009) "Monsters and the Mob: Depictions of the Grotesque on the Parisian Stage 1826-1836" in Rachael Langford (ed.), Textual Intersections: Literature, History and the Arts in Nineteenth-century Europe, pp. 20–40. Rodopi. ISBN 9042027312
- Hugo, Adèle (1863). Victor Hugo (in English translation by Charles Edwin Wilbour). Carleton
- Hugo, Victor, ed. J.-J. Thierry and Josette Mélèze (1964). Théatre complet, Paris:Editions Gallmard (2 vols).
- Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). Grosses Sängerlexikon (fourth edition, in German). Munich: K. G. Saur. ISBN 9783598115981.
External links
- Autograph score of La Esmeralda: Act 3 at the Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...