Briséïs
Encyclopedia
Briséïs, or Les amants de Corinthe (bʁizeis u lez‿amɑ̃ də kɔʁɛ̃t) is an opera
tic 'drame lyrique' by Emmanuel Chabrier
with libretto by Catulle Mendès
and Ephraïm Mikaël after Goethe's Die Braut von Korinth.
The first act (which lasts around 75 minutes) was in a finished enough state by the end of June 1890 for Chabrier to play it to Mendès – the orchestration was then completed by the end of September of that year.
In 1894 Chabrier asked Vincent d'Indy
to complete the work, but it was too difficult to piece together the sketches. Due to illness, Chabrier only completed the first act (of the three projected), which was premiered at a Chabrier memorial concert in Paris on 13 January 1897, conducted by Charles Lamoureux
.
Chabrier’s heirs asked other composers – including Debussy
, Enescu
and Ravel
– to try to complete it.
The first staging of act 1 took place at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus
in Berlin on 14 January 1899, conducted by Richard Strauss
. Briséïs is highly erotic and seductively scored music, which Strauss may well have remembered when he came to compose Salome
.
The manuscript is at the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris. The publication of the score in 1897 included a limited edition with a portrait by Desmoulins, tributes by several friends and composers (Bruneau
, Charpentier
, Chausson
, D'Indy
, Lamoureux
, Messager
and Mottl
), as well as poems in Chabrier's memory by de Régnier
, Saint-Pol-Roux
, van Lerberghe
and Viélé-Griffin
.
(Goldmark
's opera Die Kriegsgefangene (1899) was originally to be called Briseis, although the subject matter is different.)
Hylas, in love with Briséïs, wishes to find fortune in Syria but pauses at the house where she lives with her sick mother Thanastô. As Briséïs appears, Hylas invokes Eros.
Scene 2:
Briséïs and Hylas swear by Kypris [Aphrodite] to love each other until their last days. Briséïs insists that love must survive death into the tomb. Hylas leaves.
Scene 3:
Thanastô implores God to save her to save the souls of the pagans around her, while regretting that her daughter does not share her Christian beliefs. Briséïs while fearful of the temptations facing Hylas vows to save her mother wracked by sickness and pain.
Scene 4:
While the servants and Briséïs invoke the pagan gods, the Catechist arrives and prays for Thanastô, telling Briséïs that if she follows him her mother will be saved. Thanastô had promised her daughter to remain a virgin ‘in eternity, a bride of God’. Briséïs submits and follows the Catechist.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic 'drame lyrique' by Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
with libretto by Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters.Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, he was born in Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris and promptly attained notoriety by the publication in the Revue fantaisiste of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's...
and Ephraïm Mikaël after Goethe's Die Braut von Korinth.
Composition history
It seems likely that Catulle Mendès (who had already provided the libretto for Gwendoline and words for Chabrier's songs Chanson de Jeanne and Lied), saw potential for an opera in Ephraïm Mikhaël and Bernard Lazare's ‘dramatic legend’ La fiancée de Corinthe, and suggested the project to Chabrier. Chabrier worked on the opera from May 1888 until 1893 when his ill-health (paralysis in the late stages of syphilis) prevented any further progress.The first act (which lasts around 75 minutes) was in a finished enough state by the end of June 1890 for Chabrier to play it to Mendès – the orchestration was then completed by the end of September of that year.
In 1894 Chabrier asked Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
to complete the work, but it was too difficult to piece together the sketches. Due to illness, Chabrier only completed the first act (of the three projected), which was premiered at a Chabrier memorial concert in Paris on 13 January 1897, conducted by Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a café. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854. He was subsequently engaged as a violinist at the Opéra and later joined the Société...
.
Chabrier’s heirs asked other composers – including Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
and Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
– to try to complete it.
The first staging of act 1 took place at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
in Berlin on 14 January 1899, conducted by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. Briséïs is highly erotic and seductively scored music, which Strauss may well have remembered when he came to compose Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
.
The manuscript is at the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris. The publication of the score in 1897 included a limited edition with a portrait by Desmoulins, tributes by several friends and composers (Bruneau
Alfred Bruneau
Louis-Charles-Bonaventure-Alfred Bruneau was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera....
, Charpentier
Gustave Charpentier
Gustave Charpentier, , born in Dieuze, Moselle on 25 June 1860, died Paris, 18 February 1956) was a French composer, best known for his opera Louise.-Life and career:...
, Chausson
Ernest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
, D'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
, Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a café. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854. He was subsequently engaged as a violinist at the Opéra and later joined the Société...
, Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
and Mottl
Felix Mottl
Felix Josef von Mottl was an Austrian conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day. He composed three operas, of which Agnes Bernauer was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music...
), as well as poems in Chabrier's memory by de Régnier
Henri de Régnier
Henri François Joseph de Régnier was a French symbolist poet, considered one of the most important of France during the early 20th century....
, Saint-Pol-Roux
Saint-Pol-Roux
Paul-Pierre Roux, called Saint-Pol-Roux was a French Symbolist poet.-Marseille:...
, van Lerberghe
Charles van Lerberghe
Charles van Lerberghe was a Flemish symbolist poet writing in French.His poetry was set by Gabriel Fauré in the song cycles La chanson d'Ève and Le jardin clos....
and Viélé-Griffin
Francis Viélé-Griffin
Francis Vielé-Griffin , was a French symbolist poet. He was born at Norfolk, Virginia, USA and was the son of Egbert Ludovicus Viele.Vielé-Griffin was educated in France and divided his time between Paris and Touraine...
.
(Goldmark
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
's opera Die Kriegsgefangene (1899) was originally to be called Briseis, although the subject matter is different.)
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 13 January 1897 (Conductor: Charles Lamoureux Charles Lamoureux Charles Lamoureux was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a café. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854. He was subsequently engaged as a violinist at the Opéra and later joined the Société... ) |
Stage Premiere, 14 January 1899 (Conductor: Richard Strauss Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till... ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Briséïs | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Mlle Éléonore Blanc | Fr Hiedler |
| Hylas | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Pierre-Émile Engel Pierre-Émile Engel Pierre-Émile Engel was a French operatic tenor active on the stages of Brussels, Paris, Monte-Carlo and other European cities where he sang leading roles in several world premieres.-Life and career:... |
Gruning |
| Le Catéchiste | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Alexis Ghasne | Hoffmann |
| Stratoklès, servant to Thanastô | bass | M. Nicolaou | - |
| Thanastô | mezzo soprano | Alba Chrétien-Vaguet Alba Chrétien-Vaguet Albertine Marie Chrétien-Vaguet was a French operatic soprano.She studied the piano at the Paris Conservatoire and began her career at La Monnaie in Brussels in 1891.... |
Fr Goetze |
| First maidservant | soprano | ||
| Second maidservant | soprano | ||
| Old sailor | |||
| Another sailor | |||
Act 1
Scene 1Hylas, in love with Briséïs, wishes to find fortune in Syria but pauses at the house where she lives with her sick mother Thanastô. As Briséïs appears, Hylas invokes Eros.
Scene 2:
Briséïs and Hylas swear by Kypris [Aphrodite] to love each other until their last days. Briséïs insists that love must survive death into the tomb. Hylas leaves.
Scene 3:
Thanastô implores God to save her to save the souls of the pagans around her, while regretting that her daughter does not share her Christian beliefs. Briséïs while fearful of the temptations facing Hylas vows to save her mother wracked by sickness and pain.
Scene 4:
While the servants and Briséïs invoke the pagan gods, the Catechist arrives and prays for Thanastô, telling Briséïs that if she follows him her mother will be saved. Thanastô had promised her daughter to remain a virgin ‘in eternity, a bride of God’. Briséïs submits and follows the Catechist.
Acts 2 & 3
(Shipwrecked on the spot where Briséïs has been baptized, Hylas reminds her of her vow to him. Briséïs kills herself and then calls upon Hylas to join her in the nuptial grave. After breathing the deadly scent of the flowers she offers him, he does, to the wonder of Christians and pagans.)Recordings
- Hyperion 1994: Joan Rodgers - Mark PadmoreMark PadmoreMark Padmore is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera.Born in London 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent in England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gaining a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge...
- Simon KeenlysideSimon KeenlysideSimon Keenlyside CBE is a British baritone who has had an active international career performing in operas and concerts since the mid 1980s.-Early life and education:...
- Michael George - Kathryn Harries - conductor Jean Yves Ossonce. Chorus of Scottish OperaScottish OperaScottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
, BBC Scottish Symphony OrchestraBBC Scottish Symphony OrchestraThe BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is a broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation , it is the oldest full-time professional orchestra in Scotland...
. 2292-45792-2.