Lucile (opera)
Encyclopedia
Lucile is an opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...

, described as a comédie mêlée d'ariettes
Comédie mêlée d'ariettes
Comédie mêlée d'ariettes is a form of French opéra comique that developed in the mid 18th century following the Querelle des Bouffons dispute over the respective merits of the French and Italian styles, between serious drama and comedy in opera.The best-known ones are Christoph Willibald Gluck's...

, in one act by the Belgian composer André Grétry, The French text was by Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement.-Biography:He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin...

, and the characters in the opera, though not the actual story, were derived from Marmontel's L'école des pères. The melody from "Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?" was later reused in Vieuxtemp's
Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century....

 Violin Concerto No. 5, Op.37
Violin Concerto No. 5 (Vieuxtemps)
The Violin Concerto No.5 in A minor, Op. 37, by Henri Vieuxtemps was composed in 1861. This remains Vieuxtemps' most popular violin concerto. The second movement borrows from "Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?" in Grétry's opera Lucile...

.

Performance history

It was first performed at the Comédie-Italienne
Comédie-Italienne
Over time, there have been several buildings and several theatrical companies named the "Théâtre-Italien" or the "Comédie-Italienne" in Paris. Following the times, the theatre has shown both plays and operas...

, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on 5 January 1769.

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, January 5, 1769
(Conductor: - )
Blaise bass Joseph "Giuseppe" Caillot
Dorval 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...

Dorval Père bass
Julie 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...

Lucile soprano
Timente tenor

Selected recordings

  • Lucile, ariettes et quatuor, DUCHESNE Solistes de Liege, Dir. Emmanuel Koch Cat: DD 8026
  • Lucile, Solistes, Choeurs et Orchestre de l'Opera de Wallonie, Dir. Roger Rossel Cat: MBM 28
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