La fausse esclave
Encyclopedia
La fausse esclave is an opéra comique
in one act by Christoph Willibald Gluck
. It has a French-language
libretto based on Louis Anseaume
and Pierre-Augustin Lefèvre de Marcouville’s libretto for La fausse aventurière (The False Adventuress), an opéra comique by Jean Louis Laruette. It was first performed on January 8, 1758, at the Burgtheater
in Vienna
. The full score is lost, but a keyboard version is extant.
Klaus Hortschansky has noted that La fausse esclave is one of Gluck's few stageworks where the composer did not use musical material from prior works, or recycle material from it into future works.
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
in one act by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
. It has a French-language
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...
libretto based on Louis Anseaume
Louis Anseaume
Louis Anseaume was a French librettist.He contributed the words for operas by André Ernest Modeste Grétry , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, Egidio Romualdo Duni, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and François-André Danican Philidor...
and Pierre-Augustin Lefèvre de Marcouville’s libretto for La fausse aventurière (The False Adventuress), an opéra comique by Jean Louis Laruette. It was first performed on January 8, 1758, at the Burgtheater
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. The full score is lost, but a keyboard version is extant.
Klaus Hortschansky has noted that La fausse esclave is one of Gluck's few stageworks where the composer did not use musical material from prior works, or recycle material from it into future works.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, January 8, 1758 (Conductor:) |
|---|---|---|
| Agathe | 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... |
|
| Lisette | soprano | |
| Valère | 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... |
|
| Chrisante | 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... |
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