Les fêtes vénitiennes

Les festes vénitiennes ("Venetian Festivities"), also spelled Les fêtes vénitiennes,[1] is an opéra-ballet by the French composer André Campra. It consists of a prologue (later sometimes omitted, abridged or replaced) and three entrées (four or five in subsequent versions). All versions of the libretto are by Antoine Danchet. It was first performed on 17 June 1710 by the Académie royale de musique in the Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. According to the usage of the time, it was originally simply billed as a "ballet",[2] but it is one of the most important and successful instances of the new genre later classified by scholars as opéra-ballet, which had become popular in Paris around the end of the 17th century.[3]

Performance history

At the beginning of the 18th century the Paris Opéra public was growing dissatisfied with the traditional "operatic fare consisting of lyric tragedies cast invariably in the mould created by Lully and Quinault",[4] and the innovative nature of the opéra-ballet, with its realistic locations and characters, and its comic plots, was seen as a viable alternative. The format of the new genre was exceedingly flexible: each entrée had its own independent intrigue and characters, and the various acts were loosely linked together by a tenuous thread (in Les festes vénitiennes, the Venice location).[3]

Campra and Danchet's opera proved incredibly popular from the beginning, and, through a trial and error approach, "it perpetuated itself to the point where new entrées were written to replace the acts that seemed to be losing their appeal".[4] Between June and December 1710, Campra and Danchet experimented with a total of two prologues and eight[5] entrées and the opera ran for several dozen performances, reaching its 51st mounting on 14 October when it was restructured in a version with a shortened prologue and four entrées[6] (which were to become five in the following month of December).

After its unprecedented success in 1710-1711, the opera was regularly revived over the next half-century (in 1712, 1713, 1721, 1731-1732, 1740, 1750-1751 and 1759), the different entrées being swapped around at various times, and provided ample opportunity for almost all the major artists who appeared on the stage of the Paris Opéra in this period.[7] Eventually, it chalked up the incredible number of about three hundred performances.[8]

Roles

Les Festes vénitiennes, plate introducing the reprint of the libretto in Recueil general des opera...
Roles[9] Voice type Premiere Cast, 17 June 1710[10]
(Conductor: Louis de La Coste)
Prologue: "Le Triomphe de la Folie sur la Raison dans le temps de Carnaval"
("The triumph of Folly over Reason during the Carnival")
Folly soprano Marie-Catherine Poussin
Reason soprano Mlle Desmatins
Carnival bass-baritone Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard
Héraclite bass-baritone Charles Hardouin
Démocrite haute-contre (high tenor) Louis Mantienne
First entrée: "La feste des barquerolles"
("The gondola festival")
A Venice doctor bass-baritone Jean Dun 'père'
Lilla soprano Mlle Dun
Damiro haute-contre Jacques Cochereau
A (female) gondolier, representing Victory soprano Mlle Hacqueville (or D'Huqueville)
A (male) gondolier haute-contre Guesdon
Second entrée: "Les sérénades et les joueurs"
("Serenades and gamblers")
Léandre bass-baritone Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard
Isabelle soprano Françoise Journet
Lucile soprano Mlle Pestel
Irène soprano Mlle Dun
Fortune soprano Françoise Dujardin
A follower of Fortune haute-contre M. Buseau
Third entrée: "Les saltinbanques de la place St Marc ou L'Amour saltinbanque"[11]
("The acrobats of St Mark's Square, or Cupid the acrobat")
Filindo bass-baritone Charles Hardouin
Eraste haute-contre Jacques Cochereau
Léonore soprano Marie-Catherine Poussin
Nérine (travesti) haute-contre Louis Mantienne
Amour acrobat (travesti) soprano Mlle Dun
First entrée added at a later date: "La feste marine"
("The marine festival")[12]		 First performed on 8 July 1710[10]
Astophe bass-baritone Jean Dun 'père'
Dorante haute-contre Jacques Cochereau
Cephise soprano Françoise Journet
Doris soprano Mlle Dun
A mariner haute-contre Guesdon
Second entrée added at a later date:
"Le bal ou le maître à danser"
("The dance, or the dancing master")[13]		 First performed on 8 August 1710[10]
Alamir bass-baritone Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard
Themir haute-contre Buseau
Iphise soprano Françoise Journet
A master of music taille (baritenor)[14] Louis Mantienne
A master of dance taille[14] François-Robert Marcel[15]
A masker haute-contre (not stated)
Third entrée added at a later date:
"Les devins de la Place St Marc"
("The fortune-tellers of St Mark's Square")[16]		 First performed on 5 September 1710[10]
Lèandre bass-baritone Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard
Zélie soprano Marie-Catherine Poussin
A gipsy woman soprano Mlle Dun
Fourth entrée added at a later date:
"L'Opéra ou le maître à chanter"
("The Opera, or the singing master")[17]		 First performed on 14 October 1710[10]
Damire (Boreas)[18] bass-baritone Charles Hardouin
Adolphe/An actor of the Opera performing Zephyr[19] haute-contre Buseau
Leontine (Flore)[18] soprano Françoise Journet
Lucie (A shepherdess)[18] soprano Mlle Dun
The singing master haute-contre (not stated)
Rodolphe bass-baritone Courteil
Fifth entrée added at a later date:
"Le triomphe de la Folie"
("The triumph of Folly")[20]		 First performed in December 1710[10]
Harlequin taille François Dumoulin[21]
Folly soprano Marie-Catherine Poussin
A doctor bass-baritone Jean Dun 'père'
A Spaniard (man) haute-contre Jacques Cochereau
A Frenchman bass-baritone Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard
Columbine soprano Mlle Dun
Another Spaniard (man) taille ?
A Spanish girl soprano ?

References

Notes
  1. ↑ The spelling more often employed today, according to modern French orthography, is 'fêtes', instead of the old-fashioned 'festes'. The modern spelling is adopted for instance by The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Le magazine de l'opéra baroque and Dizionario dell’opera. On the other hand, the term 'festes' is still used by Lajarte and Pitou and appears in the earliest sources available online, such as the scores cited below, the libretto published by Delormel in 1750 (all accessible at the site Gallica, Bibliothèque numérique della Bibliothèque Nationale de France), the original libretto as assessed by Maurice Barthélémy in Catalogue des imprimés musicaux anciens du Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège, Liège, Mardaga, 1992, p. 34 (ISBN 978-2-87009-521-8), and the complete entrée librettos as reproduced by Christoph Ballard in 1714 in Recueil general ... (both accessible, the former only in part, at books.google.com). It is only after 1750, owing to the diffusion and enforcement of the third edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, that the new spelling 'fêtes' appears to have gradually come into common use, as can be seen from the libretto reprinted by Delormel in 1759 with the newly-spelt title (the title-page is reproduced in Le magazine de l’opéra baroque).
  2. ↑ Cf. the period printed sources cited above.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Anthony.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Pitou, p. 223.
  5. ↑ According to Anthony there were seven of them, but in fact there were eight, as is analytically stated below. The second prologue is just a shortened version of the original one.
  6. ↑ Professor Anthony writes that, according to "Ballard’s printed editions", the version given at the 51st performance on 14 (and not 10) October 1710 had five entrées, including Les serenades et les jouers (which had been previously suppressed on 5 September). Although it has not been possible to check the 1710 printed libretto, surely Anthony’s statement does not accord with all the other sources cited in this article, and in particular with Ballard’s 1714 'printed edition' of all the librettos of the opera, which reports, regarding the 51st performance, a structure in a prologue and the following four entrées: Les devins as the first entrée, L’Amour saltinbanque (sic, cf. below) as the second, L’Opéra as the third, and Le bal as the fourth (Recueil general des opera..., p. 132).
  7. ↑ Pitou, p. 224; Anthony; Lajarte, p. 113.
  8. ↑ Le magazine de l'opéra baroque.
  9. ↑ According to Recueil General Des Opera ....
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Source: Le magazine de l'opéra baroque, page: Les fêtes vénitiennes and Parfaict.
  11. ↑ The French term 'saltimbanque', meaning a street (acrobatics) performer, is spelled 'saltinbanque' in the period librettos according to its Italian etymology: 'salta in banco', leaps on a bar (the temporary stage).
  12. ↑ This entrée was substituted for La feste des barquerolles at the 10th performance.
  13. ↑ Le bal was interpolated as the new second entrée, the prologue being suppressed, at the 23rd billing.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Sometimes considered as haute-contre roles, the parts of the masters, of music and of dance, are actually notated in the score in the tenor clef (and not in the alto clef commonly used for the haute-contre voice).
  15. ↑ Marcel was not a professional singer, but a first-rate member of the Ballet, evidently considered fit to perform a dancing master.
  16. ↑ This entrée was substituted for Les sérénades et les joueurs at the 34th showing.
  17. ↑ This entrée, which also includes, as a play within a play, another miniature opera, Le ballet de Flore, was substituted for La feste marine at the 51st billing when the prologue was also restored, albeit in an abridged version.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 The role interpreted by each character in the metatheatrical miniature opera Le ballet de Flore is given in brackets.
  19. ↑ Zephyr is a character of the metatheatrical opera Le ballet de Flore, performed during the course of the entrée.
  20. ↑ The small 'comedy' Le triomphe de la Folie was added to Les festes vénitiennes as its last entrée during December when the opera had already enjoyed 66 performances between June and November.
  21. ↑ Lajarte, I, p. 113. François Dumoulin was not a professional singer, but a first-rate member of the Ballet along with his three (step)brothers Henri, Pierre and David.
Sources