Psyché

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There are two important versions of Psyché which are often mixed up. The first is the Tragédie et ballet of 1671, composed by Molière and versified in collaboration with Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault with musical intermèdes by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The second is the opera of 1678, adapted from Molière's original play by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Thomas Corneille.

Contents

[edit] 1. Molière's Psyché (1671)

Molière's play was one of many sumptuous spectacles produced in celebration of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The treaty was signed in 1668 but the festivities continued well into 1671. More specifically, the play was a product of Louis XIV's desire to re-use the Salle des Tuileries which had been built to house Cavalli's opera Ercole Amante in 1662. The theatre was sumptuous and could seat over 7000 spectators, but because of its excessively large stage, its acoustics rendered most performances inaudible. It had remained unused since the end of Cavalli's opera. It is likely that Louis XIV also wished to re-use some or all of the sets from Ercole Amante, at the very least the sets representing Hell.

Molière did not have time to versify the entire play. He was responsible for inventing and outlining the plot, including the coordination of the intermèdes which involved singers, dancers and machines. He versified the prologue, the first act and the first scene of acts two and three. The rest of the play was versified by Pierre Corneille. Philippe Quinault wrote all of the poetry that was set to music. The music itself was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully.

[edit] Sources and Synopsis

The subject is taken from Apuleius's Metamorphoses (also known as The Golden Ass). The story of Psyche and Cupid is recounted by an old woman to a young girl kidnapped by brigands. Apuleius's version was far too ribald and overtly sexual for the 17th century stage, or even for the 17th century reader, and the story had been adapted to the morals of the time on several occasions. There were two ballets on the subject: the Ballet de la reine tiré de la fable de Psyché of 1619 and Benserade's Ballet de Psyché of 1656. La Fontaine had also published a conte intitled Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon in 1669.

Prologue: Flora and her followers summon Venus to participate in their games (in celebration of the peace that Louis XIV has brought to the world. Venus arrives in a fury, however, and breaks the hitherto musical atmosphere of the prologue. She sends her son to punish Psyche, despite his reticence.

Act one: Psyche's jealous sisters attempt to attract the attention of her two most recent suitors, without success. Psyche refuses both suitors before being called away by a messenger. The messenger then informs Psyche's sisters that she must be sacrificed on the mountain top and devoured by a monster. The sisters confess their delight before a group of mourners arrive on stage and sing the first intermède, the plainte italienne.

Act two: The King informs Psyche of her fate. She accepts it unflinchingly, though her father prefers to defy the gods. After bidding him farewell, her sisters arrive and seem unwilling to leave her alone. Psyche pushes them to save themselves, but they reply that oracles are always mysterious and perhaps her fate will not be so hard after all. They finally leave and Psyche believes herself to be alone at last to face her doom when her suitors appear to defend her. She chastises their impiety. Their attempt to defend her is in any case vain, as she is carried away by zephyrs. The set changes for the third act, representing a magnificent palace. At this time, Vulcan sings the second intermede, encouraging his crew of cyclops to finish building the palace.

Act three: Zephyr informs Cupid that he has successfully brought Psyche to her new palace and expresses his surprise at Cupid's new, adult appearance. Psyche wakes up and is confused by her splendid surroundings. Rather than being attacked by a monster, Psyche is greeted by the dashing figure of Cupid who declares his love for her. After a love scene, Psyche impresses upon Cupid (whose identity she still does not know) that she must share her happy fate with her sisters and father. Cupid resists, but finally concedes and sends Zephyr to fetch Psyche's sisters. For the third intermède, Cupid invites a Cupid and a Zephyr to sing a divertissement in honour of Love.

Act four: Psyche's sisters, having seen Psyche's new home are, naturally, green with envy and try to find a way to spoil her happiness. They feed her curiosity regarding the identity of her lover and make her fear his unfaithfulness, suggesting that all the palace may be no more than a lie, an enchantment. Zephyr takes them away. Psyche demands to know the identity of her lover. Cupid resists, saying that to know his identity is to lose him forever, but swears that he will tell her if she wishes it absolutely. She insists, and Cupid confesses his identity, then disappears, taking the palace with him. Alone in a lugubrious setting, Psyche bemoans her fate, and resolves to drown herself in the river. The River God forbids her, saying the heavens forbid it and that an easier fate may be in store. But in the mean time, Venus arrives to chastise and to punish Psyche. In the fourth intermède Psyche descends to hell, where eight furies dance a ballet to celebrate the rage they have inspired in so sweet a goddess as Venus. Psyche passes in Charon's boat with the box the Venus orders her to obtain from Proserpine.

Act five: Psyche is in Hell and meets her two suitors. They recount how they threw themselves from the rock on which Psyche was sacrificed, having been unable to prevent her death. They also recount the death of her sisters, who voluntarily threw themselves off a cliff, proudly believing that Zephyr would carry them back to Cupid's palace. Psyche, determined to regain the love of Cupid, opens Proserpine's box, hoping to enhance her beauty. But a poisonous vapour comes out of the box, killing her. Cupid descends to lament what her death and forgives her. Venus descends and chastises Cupid for his rebellion. He confronts his mother for her cruelty towards the object of his love. He calls on Jupiter for aid, who takes his side and grants Psyche immortality. The scene changes from Hell to Heaven and a great ballet is danced by the followers of Apollo, Bacchus, Momus and Mars to celebrate the union of Cupid and Psyche.

[edit] Success of the play

The play was given for the first time on January 17th, 1671. Like the traditional ballet de cour of the time, many eminent figures at court participated in the ballets (particularly the final intermède) alongside professional musicians and dancers. The play and ballet were performed several times at the Salle des Tuileries during the Carnaval period.

Molière continued to give the play at his usual venue, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. He was required to renovate his theatre in order to stage the play. These renovations, consisting mostly in stage machinery, cost the troupe over 4000 livres (roughly 50 000 euros today), not including the cost of hiring extra musicians, singers and dancers. The investment proved worthwhile, however, since the success of the play was spectacular. During Molière's lifetime (that is to say over the course of the next two years), the play was given 82 times (not including the initial representations at the Tuileries) for a total profit of 77 119 livres. It was necessary to modify the intermèdes somewhat since there was neither enough space nor enough money to mount such lavish ballets as at the tuileries. But aside from the more restrained forces, the text and structure of the court and city versions are virtually identical.

The same expense that pushed Molière to reduce his cast has caused the play to become virtually unknown in our time. The play is too difficult to mount and is therefore known more as a work of literature to be studied than as a play that anyone has seen. But despite its impractical qualities (for today's theatre companies at least) and the limited participation of its principal author, Psyché is undoubtedly one of Molière's greatest successes and one of his finest plays.

[edit] 2. Psyché, the opera (1678).

According to the Mercure Galant, the opera Psyché was composed in three weeks; libretto, score and all. Although it is impossible to verify the truth of this statement, there is every reason to believe that Lully was in a hurry when writing this opera. In effect, the opera reuses the intermèdes from Molière's play. Since these intermèdes had met with such spectacular success seven years earlier, Lully must have felt that given his lack of time, he could at the very least attract a crowd with the promise of reviving the plainte italienne and the final divertissement. All that was required was a synthesis of Molière's play that could coherently string together the already-existing intermèdes. Such a text would have to be one third the length of Molière's, that is to say 600 rather than 1800 lines long, and would have to be composed in varied rimes and rhythms rather than the alexandrines in riming couplets used in spoken declamation. Unfortunately, Lully's usual librettist, Philippe Quinault, was in disgrace at court over his previous opera Isis and the task fell to Thomas Corneille, very likely at the bidding of the same cabal that had sought to disgrace Quinault. Whether by choice or out of necessity, Corneille's text is not a synthesis of Molière's, but rather a profoundly different plot for a profoundly different genre.

It is believed that Fontenelle, Thomas Corneille's nephew, collaborated on the text. It is impossible to know whether or not this is true or, if true, to what extent Fontenelle participated. All anecdotes speaking of Psyché state that Thomas Corneille is the author without mentioning Fontenelle. The latter, however, placed the libretto among his complete works, without the slightest mention of the participation of his uncle. Conversely, none of Thomas Corneille's three opera librettos appear in any of the editions of his works or theatre. It is now impossible to know if or how Fontenelle participated in the writing of Psyché, but in view of all of the accounts of Psyché's creation (see below)it seems improbable that he should be sole author of the work.

[edit] Synopsis

The prologues to the two works are identical up until the arrival of Venus. In Corneille's text, Venus banishes the followers of Flora who had summoned her and calls her son Cupid to punish Psyche, whom mortals revere as a second Venus. In the first act, Psyche's sisters learn with the spectators that Psyche must be sacrificed to a dragon that has been ravaging the kingdom. The plainte italienne from Molière's play is sung to represent the mourning of the people. The sisters flee at Psyche's arrival and it is her father who informs her of the oracle that has pronounced her doom. Psyche unhesitatingly climbs the rock to offer herself in sacrifice, much to her father's consternation, and is carried away by Zephyrs. Act two opens with Vulcan and a group of cyclops who are building a palace for Psyche at Cupid's bidding. Just before Vulcan can complete the palace, he is surprised by his wife Venus who discovers that her son has betrayed her. She quarrels with her husband and vows revenge against her son. Psyche awakes and is courted by Cupid. The act ends in a happy love scene, but Cupid must hide his identity and begins a divertissement sung by three nymphs to divert Psyche's attention. In act three, Venus disguises herself as a Nymph and gives Psyche a lamp with which to discover the identity of her lover. Psyche is overjoyed to discover that her lover is Cupid himself, but the light of the lamp awakes the god who flees. At the same time, the palace disappears and Psyche is left in a desolate wilderness. Venus exposes her treachery to Psyche and further accuses her of trying to marry her way into immortality. She forces her to descend to hell and recover a box wherein Proserpine keeps her beauty. Psyche, in despair, attempts to drown herself, but is saved by the River God who peacefully accompanies her to the underworld. In act four, Psyche resists the torture of the three furies in order to meet the Nymphs of the Acheron. These nymphs banish the furies, give Psyche the box she is looking for and conduct her to Venus's garden where act five is set. In act five, Psyche opens the box, hoping to restore any beauty she might have lost during her recent hardships. But instead of beauty, the box exudes a poisonous vapour that kills Psyche. Venus appears to rejoice and brings Psyche back to life in order to gloat and torture her further. She is amazed to see that Psyche is still in love with her son despite so many hardships. But she is resolved to continue punishing her. Mercury descends and begs her to stop, recounting the chaos and suffering in the universe that has been produced by Cupid's displeasure. Venus takes no heed and Jupiter descends himself to calm the goddess and pronounce Psyche immortal. The lovers are united and the opera ends with a magnificent ballet, identical to the one closing the 1671 version.

[edit] Success of the opera

Accounts of the success of the opera vary greatly. The Mercure Galant states that the opera was extremely well received; that audiences were enthralled by Lully's music as always and that they would never have guessed that Corneille had composed the libretto in so little time as three weeks. On the other hand, the Frères Parfraict in their Histoire de l'académie royale de musique claim that the opera is "irremediably cold" and that "the diabolical character of Venus ruins what little galantry there is to be found" in it. These reports are both equally difficult to believe when one considers, on the one hand, that Thomas Corneille was one of the chief editors of the Mercure Galant and, on the other hand, in what contempt the frères Parfaict held all authors of the 17th century other than Pierre Corneille, Molière, Jean Racine and, for opera, Philippe Quinault. Might they have felt obligated to condemn Thomas Corneille's libretto out of fidelity to his brother, Molière and most of all Quinault whose place Thomas Corneille may have thought he was usurping indefinitely? The frères Parfaict's attitude seems to have remained the dominant one since the 18th century. Most modern musicologists skip over Psyché quite quickly in comparison to Lully's other operas. Robert Fajon, in his Opéra à Paris du Roi Soleil à Louis le Bien-Aimé, even goes so far as to accuse Thomas Corneille of being responsible for Lully's only operatic failure. Concretely, however, none of Lully's operas were a failure. Their success continued to daunt operatic composers well into the 18th century. It is true that Psyché, unlike many of Lully's operas, was not created at court and was only revived twice (once in 1703 and again in 1713). Thésée, by comparison was revived ten times and remained in the repertoire of the Académie royale de musique until 1744. The records of the profits from Psyché have been lost, so it is impossible to judge its financial success. Today we may only say that Psyché would appear to have been the least popular of Lully's operas, but there is no reason to believe that it was a flop.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Molière's Psyché (1671)

The definitive edition is George Couton's edition in the complete works of Molière for la Pléiade. It includes a detailed "notice" on the history of the play.

  • Molière. Oeuvres complètes. Georges Couton ed. Paris: Gallimard, "Bibliothèque de la pléiade", 1971. 2 volumes.

[edit] Psyché the opera.

There is at present no widely distributed commercial edition of Psyché.

[edit] old editions

  • Psyché / Tragédie. Paris: René Baudry, 1678. (first edition, distributed to spectators)

[edit] Psyché in anthologies

  • Recueil général des opera représentez par l'Académie royale de musique depuis son établissement. Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1703-1745.
  • Fontenelle, Bernard le Bouyer de. Oeuvres Complètes. Alain Niderst, ed.. Paris, Fayard, 1989-2001 (9 volumes.).

[edit] Critical editions

  • Corneille, Thomas. Psyché: Tragédie. Luke Arnason ed. (under the direction of Georges Forestier). Paris: Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2005. (masters' thesis)

Available online at ftp://ftp.cs.umanitoba.ca/pub/arnason/ala/Psyche.pdf

[edit] History and criticism

  • Fajon, Robert. L'Opéra à Paris du Roi Soleil à Louis le Bien-Aimé. Geneva: Slatkine, 1984.
  • Gorce, Jérôme de la. Jean-Baptiste Lully. Paris: Fayard, 2002.

[edit] other

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