La mort d'Adam
| Operas by Jean-François Le Sueur |
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La mort d'Adam et son apothéose is a Biblical opera in 3 acts by composer Jean-François Le Sueur with a French libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard.[1]
Composition and performance history
Le Sueur wrote the opera while working as an instructor at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. The opera was initially scheduled to be performed at the Conservatoire but was dropped in favor of Charles-Simon Catel's Sémiramis. Upset over this decision, Le Sueur published anonymously a pamphlet entitled Projet d'un plan général de l'instruction musicale en France, in which he harshly criticized the methods of instruction followed at the Conservatoire, his rival Catel, and Catel's patron, the director of the Conservatoire. Le Sueur was subsequently fired from the Conservatoire on September 23, 1802 and the composer lived in a state of poverty for about a year before he became maître de chapelle to the First Consul in Paris in early 1804.
Eventually, Le Sueur was able to mount a production of La mort d'Adam. The opera was first performed at the Académie impériale in Paris on March 21, 1809,[2] with a choreography by Louis-Jacques Milon (act 1) and Pierre-Gabriel Gardel (acts 2,3), "but it failed to arouse much enthusiasm and had to be dropped from the repertory permanently on 4 February 1810 after 16 performances".[3]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast[4] 21 Mars 1809 (Conductor:) |
|---|---|---|
| Adam | bass | Henri-Étienne Dérivis |
| Seth | baritone | François Lays or Lay |
| Caïn | tenor | Étienne Lainez |
| L'ombre d'Abel, the shade of Abel | tenor | Louis Nourrit |
| L'ange de la mort, the angel of Death | bass | Mr Bonel |
| Satan | bass | Jean-Honoré Bertin |
| Éve | soprano | Marie-Thérèse Davoux, called Mlle Maillard |
| Sélime | soprano | Mme Granier |
| Sunim | ? | ? |
| Coryphée, coryphaeus | bass | Mr Martin |
| Coryphée, coryphaea | soprano | Mlle Pauline |
References
- ↑ La Mort d'Adam by Le Sueur
- ↑ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Jean-Francois Lesueur
- ↑ Pitou, p. 372.
- ↑ According to the original libretto.
- Original libretto: La mort d'Adam et son apothéose, Tragédie lyrique, En trois actes, Représentée pour la première fois sur le Théâtre de l'Académie Impériale de Musique, le mardi 21 Mars 1809 , Paris, Roullet (printer: Gratiot), 1809 (accessible for free online at Books Google)
- Pitou, Spire, The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815, Greenwood Press, Westport/London, 1985 (ISBN 0-313-24394-8)
- Amadeus Almanac, accessed 14 August 2008