v • d • e Operas by Fromental Halévy

L'artisan (1827) Ludovic (1833) La Juive (1835) L'éclair (1835) La reine de Chypre (1841) Charles VI (1843) Le val d'Andorre (1847) Le Juif errant (1852) Le nabab (1853) Jaguarita l'Indienne, (1855) Noé (1885) Jacques Fromental Halévy Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (May 27, 1799 - March 17, 1862) was a French composer. ... Halevy, in a carte de visite 19th century photogravure The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... La Juive (The Jewess) is a opera in five acts by Jacques Halévy to an original libretto by Eugène Scribe. ... Léclair (The lightning-flash) is an opéra comique by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. ... Noé (Noah) was the last opera of the composer Fromental Halévy. ...

La reine de Chypre (The Queen of Cyprus) is a grand opera composed by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Grand Opera is a style of opera mainly characterized by many features on a grandiose scale. ... Jacques Fromental Halévy Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (May 27, 1799 - March 17, 1862) was a French composer. ... Antonio Ghislanzoni, nineteenth century Italian librettist. ... Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges (November 7, 1799 - December 23, 1875), French dramatist, was born in Paris. ...

Background

La reine de Chypre, first performed at the Paris Opéra on 22 December 1841 with Gilbert Duprez in the role of Gérard, was regarded in its time as one of the composer's greatest achievements.The publisher Maurice Schlesinger was reputed to have paid the enormous sum of 30,000 francs for the rights to the opera. La reine de Chypre prompted an extended eulogy from Richard Wagner, who was present at the first night, in the Dresden Abend-Zeitung, for which he was a correspondent. However since the 19th century it has been rarely revived. Exterior of the Palais Garnier. ... is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Gilbert Duprez (6 December 1806 – 23 September 1896) was a French tenor. ... Adolf Martin Schlesinger (born Sülz, Silesia, 4 October 1769, died Berlin, 11 October 1838) was a German music publisher whose firm became one of the most influential in Berlin in the early nineteenth century. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as they were later called). ... Dresden (etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest) is the capital city of the German Federal Free State of Saxony. ...

The libretto, or a version of it, was used by other composers, including Franz Lachner and Donizetti, whose Caterina Cornaro is based on an Italian translation. The historical background was well summarised by Wagner in his review: Franz Paul Lachner (April 2, 1803 – January 20, 1890) was a German composer and conductor. ... Categories: People stubs | 1797 births | 1848 deaths | Opera composers | Romantic composers | Italian composers | People born in Bergamo, Italy ... Caterina Cornaro ossìa La Regina di Cipro (Caterina Cornaro or The Queen of Cyprus) is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. ...

[...] In the latter half of the fifteenth century, with predatory designs on the isle of Cyprus, - then ruled by the French house of Lusignan - Venice hypocritically took the part of a prince of that house, whose right to the throne was disputed by his family, [...], helped him to his crown, and sought to saddle him with its baleful influence by giving him for his wife Catarina , daughter of the Venetian senator Andreas Cornaro. This King died soon thereafter, and, as is generally supposed, by Venetian poison [...] Conspiracies came to a head to rob the royal widow of the regency over her son; Catarina's obstinate refusal to give up the reins of government, together with her spirited resistance, this time frustrated Venice's plan.^[1] The Lusignan family originated in Poitou in western France, and in the late 12th century came to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus. ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... Caterina Cornaro (1454 - 1510) was Queen of Cyprus from 1474 - 1489. ... A senate is a deliberative body, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature. ... For other uses, see Poison (disambiguation). ... Regent, from the Latin, a person selected to administer a state because the ruler is a minor or is not present or debilitated. ...

Now, adds Wagner, 'let us see how Herr Saint-Georges has used this historical find for a five-act lyric drama'.

Roles

• Lusignan, King of Cyprus (baritone)
• Catarina Cornaro, betrothed to him (contralto)
• Gérard de Coucy, her lover (tenor)
• Mocenigo , a member of the Council of Ten (baritone)
• Andrea Cornaro, father of Catarina.

James II (the Bastard) of Cyprus (c. ... ű For other uses, see Baritone (disambiguation). ... In music, an alto is a singer with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a soprano. ... This article is about Tenor vocalists in music. ... The Council of Ten, or simply the Ten, was, from 1310 to 1797, one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice. ...

Synopsis

Act I

In the Cornaro palace in Venice, Andrea is about to marry his daughter Catarina to Gérard. Mocenigo however announces the decision of the Council of Ten to marry her to the King of Cyprus; otherwise Andrea faces execution. He is given one hour to make up his mind. Andrea revokes his promise to Gérard, to the scandal of all present. The Council of Ten, or simply the Ten, was, from 1310 to 1797, one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice. ...

Act II

Catarina's chamber in the Cornaro palace. Andrea asks Catarina to forgive him. No sooner has he left than, by a secret passage, Mocenigo appears, with a bunch of assassins, and insists that Catarina tell Gérard when she sees him that she no longer loves him otherwise Mocenigo's companions will do away with him. They retreat to the passage while Gérard enters and, to his bewilderment, hears his dismissal from his lover. When he has left Mocenigo reemerges and seizes Catarina to take her to Cyprus.

Act III

A feast, in Cyprus, awaiting the arrival of Catarina. Mocenigo is informed that Gérard may be lurking in the vicinity. He sets his swordsmen on Gérard, who is saved by the intervention of a stranger (in fact the King of Cyprus in disguise). Each tells the other his story - as is the custom in such melodramas, without actually giving away their true identities - and they promise eternal brotherhood. The guns sound for Catarina's arrival.

Act IV

At Catarina's marriage festivities, Gérard seeks to revenge himself by slaying her husband, but recognises him at the last moment as his deliverer. The King is equally astonished but prevents Gérard from being slaughtered by the crowd and delivers him to prison.

Act V

Two years later. The King is dying, and reveals that he knows of her love for Gérard (whom he has spared from execution). He hopes she may be happy with him. Enter Gérard, as a Knight of Malta - he announces that the King is fact dying of Venetian poison and hopes that he can still be saved. Enter Mocenigo to tell them it is too late to save the King, and that Catarina must hand power over to him. Catarina and Gérard however successfully resist the Venetian invasion. Mocenigo is captured. The King with his last breath hands his crown to Catarina, to whom the people swear fealty. Gérard renounces his love. The Knights Hospitaller (the or Knights of Malta or Knights of Rhodes) is a tradition which began as a Benedictine nursing Order founded in the 11th century based in the Holy Land, but soon became a militant Christian Chivalric Order under its own charter, and was charged with the care...

Critical comment

Wagner praised the libretto of Saint-Georges for its competence, even allowing for its lack of poetry^[2]. The music he called 'noble, feeling and even new and elevating', although he was critical of Halévy's lapses towards unsophisticated orchestration^[3]. Although he felt the opera did not reach the level of the composer's La Juive, he wrote 'the Opéra may congratulate itself on the birth of this work, for it is decidedly the best that has appeared on its boards since Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots '^[4]. (This tribute to Meyerbeer was deleted when Wagner later reprinted the review, in line with his later vendetta against the composer). Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble) or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium. ... La Juive (The Jewess) is a opera in five acts by Jacques Halévy to an original libretto by Eugène Scribe. ... Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (September 5, 1791 - May 2, 1864) was a noted opera composer. ... Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer. ...

However, George Sand, who was also at the premiere, wrote to Eugène Delacroix: George Sand sewing, portrait by Eugène Delacroix (1838). ... Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863) was one of the most important of the French Romantic painters. ...

You did well, old friend, not to go to the Opera. It was boring to death in spite of the magnificence and pomp of the spectacle. I trust your truffles gave you more inspiration than La Reine de Chypre gave to M. Halévy.^[5]

Sources

• Grove Music Online
• Richard Wagner, tr. W. Ashton Ellis, Halévy's "Reine de Chypre", in A Pilgrimage to Beethoven and Other Essays, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London (1994). ISBN 0803297637

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2001 The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians, considered by most scholars to be the best general reference source on the subject in the English language. ...

Notes

1. ^ Wagner(1994) (see sources), p. 213.
2. ^ Wagner (1994), pp. 210-212, 219
3. ^ ibid, pp. 220-221.
4. ^ ibid, p. 222
5. ^ cited in Ruth Jordan, Fromental Halévy, London, 1994, p. 92