Ghiselle is an opera by César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

 to a Merovingian-themed French 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 the novelist Gilbert-Augustin Thierry, son of Amédée Thierry

Amedée Simon Dominique Thierry

Amédée Simon Dominique Thierry , French journalist and historian, was the younger brother of Augustin.- Biography :Thierry was born in Blois, Loir-et-Cher....

. The plot, set in the sixth century, while not keeping up with the "one assassination per act" of its predecessor Hulda

Hulda (opera)

Hulda is an opera by César Franck to a French libretto by Charles Grandmougin. It is set in 11th-century Norway, and is based on the play Lame Hulda by Norwegian writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. The complete opera contains a prologue, three acts and an epilogue.It was first performed in an...

 (1886), is nonetheless rich in violent incident and ends with a double suicide.

Composition began in the fall of 1888 and the last page of the piano score bears the date September 21, 1889. Franck orchestrated the first act himself; the remainder were prepared for the posthumous premiere (in Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

) by his pupils Pierre de Bréville

Pierre de Bréville

Pierre Onfroy de Bréville was a French composer.-Biography:Pierre de Bréville was born was born in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse. Following the wishes of his parents, he studied law with the goal of becoming a diplomat. However, he abandoned his plans after a few years and entered the Conservatoire de Paris...

, Ernest 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...

, 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...

, Samuel Rousseau :de and Arthur Coquard

Arthur Coquard

Arthur Coquard was a French composer and music critic.He studied composition with César Franck, and was a music critic for Le Monde and Echo de Paris. He served as director of the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles from 1891–99.He won a prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts for his publication...

.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Cast for the Monte Carlo premiere, March 30, 1896 (Conductor: Léon Jehin Léon Jehin Léon Jehin, born Spa, Belgium 17 July 1853, died Monaco 14 February 1928, was a conductor and composer, especially associated with musical life and the opera house in Monte Carlo.-Life and career:...  )
Ghiselle, an Austrasian princess	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...	Emma Eames Emma Eames Emma Eames was an American soprano renowned for the beauty of her voice. She sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York, London and Paris during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.-Early life:The daughter of...
Gudrune	Mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin was a French operatic contralto who had a prolific career in France from 1879-1905. She possessed a rich-toned and flexible voice that had a wide vocal range...
Frédegonde Fredegund Fredegund was the Queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons.All her wealth and power came to her through her association with Chilperic... , regent of Neustria Neustria The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...  and Ghiselle's captor	dramatic Vocal weight Vocal weight refers to the perceived "lightness" or "heaviness" of a singing voice. This quality of the voice is one of the major determining factors in voice classification within classical music...  soprano	Ada Adini Ada Adini Ada Adini was an American operatic soprano who had an active international career from 1876 up into the first decade of the 20th century. She possessed a large, expressive voice which enabled her to sing a broad range of roles that extended from the coloratura soprano repertoire to dramatic...
Gouthram	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...	Edmonde Vergnet
Theudébert	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...	Léon Melchissédec Léon Melchissédec Léon Melchissédec was a French baritone who enjoyed a long career in the French capital across a broad range of operatic genres, and later made some recordings and also taught at the Paris Conservatoire.-Life and Career:He played second violin in the Théâtre de Saint-Étienne before coming to Paris...
Bishop Ambrosius	bass	L. Mauzin

Sources

Léon Vallas: César Franck, translated by Hubert Foss

Hubert J. Foss

Hubert James Foss was an English pianist, composer, and first Musical Editor for Oxford University Press at Amen House in London. His work at the Press was a major factor in promoting music and musicians in England between the world wars, most notably Ralph Vaughan Williams, through publishing...

 (London 1951)

External links

• Chouens piano-vocal at IMSLP