Céphale et Procris is an opera

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...

 by the French composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer.-Life and works:...

. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in five acts with an allegorical prologue

Prologue

A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...

. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

, by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy

Joseph-François Duché de Vancy

Joseph-François Duché de Vancy was a French playwright.-Life:He was the son of a gentleman in the household of Louis XIV and was himself a valet de chambre du roi. He followed Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles to Spain as his secretary...

, is loosely based on the myth of Cephalus

Cephalus

Cephalus is an Ancient Greek name, used both for the hero-figure in Greek mythology and carried as a theophoric name by historical persons. The word kephalos is Greek for "head", perhaps used here because Cephalus was the founding "head" of a great family that includes Odysseus...

 and Procris

Procris

In Greek mythology, Procris was the daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. She married Cephalus, the son of Deioneus. Procris had at least two sisters, Creusa and Orithyia...

 as told in Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

's Metamorphoses. The opera was first performed at the Paris Opéra

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

 on 17 March 1694.

Unsurprisingly, the music shows the influence of Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...

, the founder of the French genre of tragédie en musique, who had died less than a decade before. But Jacquet de La Guerre added original touches of her own to the Lullian formula, such as a quiet conclusion in place of the expected final chorus.

Performance history

Céphale et Procris was not a success and only ran for five or six performances before disappearing from the stage until a revival of interest in the work in the late 20th century. Wanda R. Griffiths, who has edited the opera, has proposed some reasons for this failure: the poor literary quality of the libretto, with its confused plot; and the cultural climate of Paris in the 1690s, which was generally unfavourable to new operas. Parisian audiences looked to King Louis XIV as their arbiter of taste and the king had lost interest in opera, probably under the influence of his religiously conservative wife Madame de Maintenon. At the time, Catholic religious authorities were attacking opera as a "sensuous" form of entertainment. French national morale was also low as the result of a series of military defeats.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 17 March 1694 (Conductor: - )
Prologue
Flore (Flora)
Pan
Nerée (Nereus Nereus In Greek mythology, Nereus was the eldest son of Pontus and Gaia , a Titan who with Doris fathered the Nereids, with whom Nereus lived in the Aegean Sea. In the Iliad the Old Man of the Sea is the father of Nereids, though Nereus is not directly named... )
Chorus of nymphs, fauns, divinities of the forest, Tritons Triton (mythology) Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the big sea. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, whose herald he is... , sea gods
Main opera
Céphale
Procris
Borée, Prince of Thrace Thrace Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
Dorine, Procris's confidante
Arcas, friend of Céphale
L'Aurore
Iphis, Aurore's confidante
La Prêtresse de Minerve (the priestess of Minerva Minerva Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic... )
Une Athénienne (an Athenian)
Chorus of Athenian men and women, followers of Volupté, demons, Thracians

Synopsis

The opera begins with a prologue celebrating the glory of King Louis XIV. The main opera (Acts I to V) is set in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. Céphale, a warrior, and Procris, the daughter of the King of Athens, are in love but are yet to be married (in this the opera differs from Ovid where they are already man and wife). Borée, Prince of Thrace, is Céphale's rival for Procris's hand and the gods help him press his claim, particularly L'Aurore (Aurora

Aurora (mythology)

Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry.Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas , Aurora continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, *Hausos....

, the goddess of dawn) who is in love with Céphale and wants him for herself. When L'Aurore believes Céphale has rejected her, she conjures up demons to cast a spell so Procris will believe Céphale has been unfaithful to her. The spell works but the goddess has a sudden change of heart and convinces Procris that Céphale has always been true to her. Procris finds Céphale and Borée engaged in a fight. When she tries to intervene, Céphale accidentally wounds her with an arrow and she dies leaving her lover grief-stricken.

Recording

• Céphale et Procris Soloists, Musica Fiorita, conducted by Daniela Dolci (ORF Alte Edition, 2008, 2 CDs)

Sources

• Céphale et Procris edition by Wanda R. Griffiths (A-R Editions, 1998)