Jephté 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

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts (because of its subject matter it was also styled a tragédie biblique). 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 the Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin

Simon-Joseph Pellegrin

The abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a French poet and playwright, a librettist who collaborated with Jean-Philippe Rameau and other composers.-Biography:...

, is based on the Biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 story of Jephtha

Jephtha

Jephthah is a character in the Old Testament's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years . He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead...

. The opera was first performed at the Académie royale de musique

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...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on 28 February 1732. It was the first opera in France using a story from the Bible to appear on a public stage. For this reason, Cardinal de Noailles banned performances of the work for a time. Montéclair made revisions for revivals of the work in March 1732 and April 1737.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast
Jephté	bass	Claude-Louis-Dominique Chassé de Chinais
Iphise	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...	Catherine-Nicole Le Maure
Ammon	haute-contre Haute-contre The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:...	Denis-François Tribou
Phinée	bass	Jean Dun
Abdon	haute-contre
Almasie	soprano	Marie Antier
Abner	bass
Élise	soprano

Act One

The high priest Phinée chooses Jephté as leader of the Israelite

Israelite

According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

s as they prepare to attack the people of Ephraim. Jephté vows to God to sacrifice the first person he sees on his return from battle if he is victorious.

Act Two

The leader of the Ephraimites, Ammon, is a captive in Jephtha's palace. He refuses the urging of his follower, Abner, to escape because he has fallen in love with Jephtha's daughter, Iphise. Iphise guiltily confesses to her mother that she is in love with Ammon too. News arrives of Jephté's victory in battle.

Act Three

Jephté is horrified when the first person he sees as he arrives home is Iphise. He tells her of his vow and she prepares herself to be sacrificed, in spite of Ammon's entreaties.

Act Four

Iphise laments her fate but is resigned to death. Ammon swears he will lead his army to save her but she rejects his offer.

Act Five

The Israelites prepare the sacrifice in the temple. Ammon and his men burst in but they are struck by a bolt of fire from Heaven. The priest Phinéé declares God is pleased with Iphise and her life is spared.

Recordings

• Jephté (first version) Jacques Bona, Sophie Daneman, Nicolas Rivenq, Claire Brua, Mark Padmore. Les Arts Florissants
  Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)
  Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamber orchestra...
  
  , conducted by William Christie
  William Christie (musician)
  William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
  
  (Harmonia Mundi, 1992)

Sources

• The Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)
• Le magazine de l'opéra baroque by Jean-Claude Brenac
• Amadeus Online