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Stratonice (opera)
Encyclopedia
Stratonice is a one-act opéra comique
by Étienne Méhul
to a libretto
by François-Benoît Hoffman, first performed at the Théâtre Favart, Paris
, on 3 May 1792. The plot is taken from De Dea Syria ("On the Syrian Goddess", attributed to Lucian
) concerning an incident from the history of the Seleucid dynasty which ruled much of the Middle East
during the Hellenistic era of the ancient world.
wrote new recitative
s for the opera's revival in Paris.
.
" as this suggested a work mixing tragic and comic elements). The choice of a Classical subject was unusual for an opéra comique of the time and set the fashion for similar works, including Méhul's own Épicure and Bion. The story of Stratonice had appeared several times on the French stage in the 17th and 18th centuries. Hoffman was particularly influenced by Thomas Corneille
's play Antiochus (1666). French opera composers had also treated the subject: it forms the plot of the second entrée in Rameau
's Les fêtes de Polymnie
(1745).
deeply admired Stratonice: "Of all the works by Méhul, this is the best from beginning to end...Stratonice lacks nothing; it is a work of genius, Méhul's masterpiece." Hoffman's choice of Classical subject was unusual for the Opéra-Comique and Méhul's music was similarly innovative, more influenced by the serious tradition of tragédie lyrique than the lighter opéra comiques of Grétry which had been fashionable up to that point. Méhul studied Gluck and Salieri
for their approach to musical drama, as well as Haydn
's orchestration and the melodies of Sacchini
and Piccinni
, Italian composers who had written tragic operas for the French stage in the 1770s and 1780s. But he blended these influences with his own individual style to produce an original work. Contemporary critics praised the more melodic style of Stratonice compared to Méhul's earlier operas, Euphrosine
and Cora. The most striking part of the work is the ensemble Parlez, parlez, achevez de m'apprendre (Numbers 5, 6 and 7), which builds from a duet to a trio and finally to a quartet of the four main characters. According to the critic Elizabeth Bartlet, this quartet made a great impression on the artist Ingres
, a music lover who owned a copy of the score, and later painted a work entitled Antiochus and Stratonice, depicting this very moment.
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...
by Étienne Méhul
Étienne Méhul
Etienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:...
to a 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 François-Benoît Hoffman, first performed at the Théâtre Favart, 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 3 May 1792. The plot is taken from De Dea Syria ("On the Syrian Goddess", attributed to Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
) concerning an incident from the history of the Seleucid dynasty which ruled much of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
during the Hellenistic era of the ancient world.
Performance history
Stratonice was a popular opera, receiving over 200 performances during Méhul's lifetime. On 6 June 1792 a parody, Nice, by Jean-Baptiste Desprez and Alexandre de Ségur, appeared at the Théâtre du Vaudeville. In 1821 Méhul's nephew Joseph Daussoigne-MéhulJoseph Daussoigne-Méhul
Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul was a French composer and music educator. He served as the first director of the Royal Conservatory of Liège from 1826-1862; having been appointed to that post by William I of the Netherlands. In addition to his duties as director, he also taught courses in harmony and...
wrote new recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
s for the opera's revival in Paris.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 3 May 1792 (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Stratonice Stratonice of Syria For other persons with the same name, see StratoniceStratonice of Syria was the daughter of king Demetrius Poliorcetes and Phila, the daughter of Antipater... , a princess |
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... |
Louise-Rosalie Dugazon |
| Antiochus Antiochus I Soter Antiochus I Soter , was a king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. He reigned from 281 BC - 261 BC.... , Prince of Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.... |
haute-contre Haute-contre The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:... |
Louis Michu |
| Séleucus, King of Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.... |
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... |
Philippe Couvy |
| Erasistrate (Erasistratus Erasistratus Erasistratus was a Greek anatomist and royal physician under Seleucus I Nicator of Syria. Along with fellow physician Herophilus, he founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria, where they carried out anatomical research... ), a doctor |
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... |
Jean-Pierre Solié Jean-Pierre Solié Jean-Pierre Solié was a French cellist and operatic singer. He began as a tenor, but switched and became well-known as a baritone. He sang most often at the Paris Opéra-Comique... |
Synopsis
Antiochus, the son of King Seleucus, is pining away yet he would rather die than name the cause of his disease to his father. The doctor, Erasistratus, suspects love is behind Antiochus's suffering. He notices that the prince's pulse rate increases when he sees Stratonice, a young woman intended as his father's bride, and further tests confirm his diagnosis. The doctor subtly reveals the truth to the king who is content to relinquish Stratonice to Antiochus to save his son's life and happiness.Musical numbers
- Overture
- Chorus: Ciel! Ne soit point inexorable
- Recitative and aria for Antiochus: Insensé, je forme des souhaits...Oui, c'en est fait!
- Recitative and aria for Séleucus: Quelle funeste envie...Versez tous vos chagrins dans le sein paternel
- Duet (Érasistrate, Antiochus): Parlez, parlez. Achevez de m'apprendre
- Trio (Séleucus, Érasistrate, Antiochus): Je ne puis résister à mon impatience
- Quartet (Stratonice, Séleucus, Érasistrate, Antiochus): Je tremble, mon cœur palpite
- Recitative and aria for Érasistrate: Sur le sort de son fils...Ô des amants déité tutélaire
- Finale (Séleucus, Antiochus, Stratonice, Érasistrate, chorus): Ô mon fils, quel moment pour moi
Libretto
Hoffman designated Stratonice as a comédie héroïque, meaning a drama with a happy ending (contemporary French critics generally avoided the term "tragicomedyTragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
" as this suggested a work mixing tragic and comic elements). The choice of a Classical subject was unusual for an opéra comique of the time and set the fashion for similar works, including Méhul's own Épicure and Bion. The story of Stratonice had appeared several times on the French stage in the 17th and 18th centuries. Hoffman was particularly influenced by Thomas Corneille
Thomas Corneille
Thomas Corneille was a French dramatist.- Personal life :Born in Rouen nearly twenty years after his brother Pierre, the "great Corneille", Thomas's skill as a poet seems to have shown itself early. At the age of fifteen he composed a play in Latin which was performed by his fellow-pupils at the...
's play Antiochus (1666). French opera composers had also treated the subject: it forms the plot of the second entrée in Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
's Les fêtes de Polymnie
Les fêtes de Polymnie
Les fêtes de Polymnie is an opéra-ballet in three entrées and a prologue by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 12 October 1745 at the Opéra, Paris, and is set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac...
(1745).
Music
Méhul's friend and rival composer CherubiniLuigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
deeply admired Stratonice: "Of all the works by Méhul, this is the best from beginning to end...Stratonice lacks nothing; it is a work of genius, Méhul's masterpiece." Hoffman's choice of Classical subject was unusual for the Opéra-Comique and Méhul's music was similarly innovative, more influenced by the serious tradition of tragédie lyrique than the lighter opéra comiques of Grétry which had been fashionable up to that point. Méhul studied Gluck and Salieri
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
for their approach to musical drama, as well as Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's orchestration and the melodies of Sacchini
Antonio Sacchini
Antonio Maria Gasparo Sacchini was an Italian opera composer.Sacchini was born in Florence, but was raised in Naples, where he received his musical education at the San Onofrio conservatory. He wrote his first operas in Naples, thereafter moving to Venice, then London and eventually Paris, where...
and Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure, even to music lovers today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of his day...
, Italian composers who had written tragic operas for the French stage in the 1770s and 1780s. But he blended these influences with his own individual style to produce an original work. Contemporary critics praised the more melodic style of Stratonice compared to Méhul's earlier operas, Euphrosine
Euphrosine
Euphrosine, ou Le tyran corrigé is an opera, designated as a 'comédie mise en musique', by the French composer Étienne Nicolas Méhul with a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman. It was the first of Méhul's operas to be performed and established his reputation as a leading composer of his time...
and Cora. The most striking part of the work is the ensemble Parlez, parlez, achevez de m'apprendre (Numbers 5, 6 and 7), which builds from a duet to a trio and finally to a quartet of the four main characters. According to the critic Elizabeth Bartlet, this quartet made a great impression on the artist Ingres
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest...
, a music lover who owned a copy of the score, and later painted a work entitled Antiochus and Stratonice, depicting this very moment.
Recordings
- Stratonice: Patricia PetibonPatricia PetibonPatricia Petibon is a French coloratura soprano who has been acclaimed for her interpretations of French Baroque music.-Biography:...
(Stratonice), Yann Beuron (Antiochus), Étienne Lescroart (Séleucus), Karl Daymond (Erasistrate); Cappella ColoniensisCappella ColoniensisCappella Coloniensis is a German orchestra founded by the West German Radio in Cologne in 1954 for the purpose of introducing historically informed performance of Baroque music to the listening public....
, Corona Coloniensis, conducted by William ChristieWilliam Christie (musician)William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
(Erato, 1996; Catalogue number 0630-12714-2)
Sources
- Adélaïde de Place Étienne Nicolas Méhul (Bleu Nuit Éditeur, 2005)
- The Viking Opera Guide, ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993)
- Stratonice: introduction to the edition by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet (Pendragon Press, 1997)