The Maid of Orleans
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| Operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky |
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Voyevoda (1868) |
The Maid of Orleans (Орлеанская дева in Cyrillic alphabet, Orleanskaja deva in transliteration) is an opera in four acts, six tableaux, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. It was composed during 1878–1879 to a Russian libretto by the composer, based on several sources: Friedrich von Schiller’s Die Jungfrau von Orleans as translated by Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky; Jules Barbier’s Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc); Auguste Mermet’s libretto for his own opera; and Henri Wallon’s biography of Joan of Arc. The premiere performance occurred on 13 February 1881 (Old Style) at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, under the conductorship of Eduard Nápravník, to whom the opera was dedicated. The Prague premiere in 1882 was the first production of a Tchaikovsky opera outside Russia.
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[edit] Background
Among Tchaikovsky's operas, this work represents the composer's closest approach to French grand opera (albeit in the Russian language), especially with its inclusion of a ballet in Act II. The best known number from The Maid of Orleans is Joan's aria in Act I, "Простите вы, холмы, поля родные" ("Farewell, you native hills and fields"), in the French translation as "Adieu, forêts."
As regards the period and setting of this opera, a historical sequel can be understood to have been composed to it in 1896-1898 by Tchaikovky's contemporary César Cui, entitled The Saracen. This sequel revives the characters Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, but unlike its predecessor does not include a ballet.
[edit] Roles
| Premiere, February 25, 1881 (Eduard Nápravník) |
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| Joan of Arc | soprano or mezzo-soprano |
Mariya Kamenskaya |
| Charles VII, King of France | tenor | |
| Agnès Sorel, his mistress | soprano | Wilhelmina Raab |
| Dunois, a French soldier | baritone | Fyodor Stravinsky |
| Lionel, a Burgundian solider | baritone | Ippolit Pryanisknikov |
| The Archbishop (Cardinal in premiere) |
bass | |
| Raymond, Joan's betrothed | tenor | |
| Thibaut, Joan's father | bass | |
| Bertrand, a peasant | bass | |
| Lauret | bass | |
| A Soldier | bass | |
| An Angel Voice | soprano | |
| Courtiers and laides, French and English soldiers, knights, monks, Gypsies, pages, buffoons, dwarfs, minstrels, jesters, clowns, crowd |
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[edit] Synopsis
Place of action: France.
Time: beginning of the 15th century.
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Act I.
Act II.
Act III, Tableau 1.
Act III, Tableau 2.
Act IV, Tableau 1.
Act IV, Tableau 2.
[edit] Important Excerpts
- Joan's Aria, Act I
- Dances, Act II
[edit] Bibliography
- Bernandt, G.B. Словарь опер впервые поставленных или изданных в дореволюционной России и в СССР, 1736-1959 [Dictionary of Operas First Performed or Published in Pre-Revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, 1836-1959] (Москва: Советский композитор, 1962), p. 215.
- 100 опер: история создания, сюжет, музыка. [100 Operas: History of Creation, Subject, Music.] Ленинград: Издательство "Музыка," 1968, pp. 390-396.
[edit] External links
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