Le songe d'une nuit d'été

Ambroise Thomas

Operas Le songe d'une nuit d'été (1850) La cour de Célimène (1855) Mignon (1866) Hamlet (1868) See also: Operas by Ambroise Thomas

Le songe d'une nuit d'été (A Midsummer Night's Dream) is an opéra-comique in three acts composed by Ambroise Thomas to a French libretto by Joseph-Bernard Rosier (1804–1880) and Adolphe de Leuven. It premiered on 20 April 1850 at the first second Salle Favart in Paris. Although it shares the French title for Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, its plot is not based on the play. Shakespeare himself is a character in the opera as are Elizabeth I and Falstaff.^[1]

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 20 April 1850 (Conductor: )^[2]
Olivia	soprano	Sophie Grimm
Queen Elizabeth I	mezzo-soprano	Constance-Caroline Faure-Lefèbvre
Lord Latimer	tenor	Jean-Jacques Boulo
Falstaff	bass	Eugène Bataille
Shakespeare	baritone	Joseph-Antoine-Charles Couderc
Actors and actresses, ladies and gentlemen of the court, foresters, tavern servants, cooks, sommeliers, and kitchen boys

References

^ Hoenselaars and Calvo (2010)
^ Premiere cast from Casaglia (2005)

Rosier Joseph-Bernard and de Leuven, Adolphe (1850). Le songe d'une nuit d'été: opéra-comique en trois actes (libretto). Brussels: J. A. Lelong
Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Ambroise Thomas". Almanacco Amadeus (Italian)
Hoenselaars, Ton and Calvo, Clara (2010). "Shakespeare Eurostar: Calais, the Continent, and the Operatic Fortunes of Ambroise Thomas" in Willy Maley and Margaret Tudeau-Clayton (eds.), This England, That Shakespeare: New Angles on Englishness and the Bard, pp. 147–164. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0754666026

External links

Complete score (in piano reduction) at the International Music Score Library Project