Le pré aux clercs is an opéra comique

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 three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a 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 François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée

Prosper Mérimée

Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...

's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.

Performance history

Le pré aux clercs was premiered in 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...

 by the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 at the Salle de la Bourse on December 15, 1832. However, after the first performance Madame Casimir refused - possibly demanding more money - to sing in the subsequent performances, and Mlle Dorus

Julie Dorus-Gras

Julie Dorus-Gras was a Belgian operatic soprano.-Early life and training:She was born Julie-Aimée-Josèphe Van Steenkiste, the daughter of an ex-soldier who was the leader of the theatre orchestra in her native city Valenciennes...

 of the Opéra was coached by Hérold over five days to take over the role of Isabelle. Pougin claims that this incident exacerbated the composer's ill-health, leading to his death five weeks after the premiere.

The opera, Hérold's last completed one, was very successful, inaugurating the new Salle Favart in 1840, and enjoying some 1,000 performances up to 1871, and reaching its 1,600th at the Opéra-Comique by 1949.

Though rarely performed in recent years, a studio production conducted by José Serebrier

José Serebrier

José Serebrier is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969.- Youth :Serebrier was born in Montevideo, and first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up...

 was broadcast by BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

 in 1987.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 15 December 1832 (Conductor:)
Marguerite de Valois	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...	Marie-Sophie Carrault-Ponchard
Isabelle Montal (a young Béarnaise countess)	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...	Alphonsine-Virginie-Marie Dubois ('Mme. Casimir')
Nicette (betrothed to Girot)	soprano	Marie Massy
Baron de Mergy	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...	Étienne-Bernard-Auguste Thénard
Comte de Comminges	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...	Louis-Augustin Lemonnier
Cantarelli	baritone	Louis Féréol
Girot (host of the 'Pré aux clercs')	bass	Fargueil
Un exempt du guet (detective)	bass	Génot
Three archers
An officer
Chorus: Guards, officers, light horsemen, courtiers, archers, masques, people, dancers.

Synopsis

The action takes place in Étampes

Étampes

Étampes is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southwest from the center of Paris . Étampes is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department....

, then in Paris at the Palais du Louvre

Palais du Louvre

The Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...

 and the grounds of the 'Pré aux clercs', in 1572, around the time of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Act 1

The opera opens at Nicette’s country inn where festivities anticipate the wedding of Nicette (the god-daughter of Marguerite) and Girot, the host of the famous Pre-aux-Clercs in Paris – known both for lovers’ rendez-vous and for duels.
Marguerite, wife of Henry IV, king of Navarre, and sister to Henry III, king of France, while detained at the Louvre as a hostage of peace between the two sovereigns, has been accompanied by Isabelle de Montal, a Béarnaise countess.
The King of Navarre sends as envoy the Baron de Mergy, a young Béarnaise gentleman, to recall his Queen and her lady-in-waiting Isabelle. Resting after his arrival at Étampes, near Paris, Mergy meets Cantarelli, an Italian, the director of the court festivities and deportment tutor to Isabelle, who informs Mergy of the news from the court concerning Isabelle.
The rough swordsman Comminge, a colonel and royal favourite also arrives, angry at having been kept away from the royal hunt by a challenge to a duel from a young man, whom he had killed. Next Marguerite and Isabelle, having been with the royal hunting party in the forest, come to visit Nicette.
The Queen expresses her concerns for Isabelle's unhappiness and rejection of suitors at court. Isabelle responds that she wishes to return home; Marguerite however informs her of the plans to marry Isabelle to Comminge. When Isabelle reacts to this news, Mergy comes to her and the lovers embrace; their emotion causes suspicion in Comminge, to whom Mergy is introduced as Henri III's messenger. Marguerite invites Nicette to the Louvre to claim her dowry.

Act 2

Isabelle sings of her love for Mergy (“Jours de mon enfance”). Marguerite meanwhile is plotting with Nicette and Cantarelli to marry Isabelle to Mergy in secret and secure their flight to Navarre. The marriage is fixed to take place at the chapel of the Pré-aux-Clercs, simultaneously with that of Nicette and Girot. Cantarelli is blackmailed into assisting them by means of an incriminating letter. During the masked ball Cantarelli will bring Mergy to Marguerite’s chambers whence they will flee to a country church. However Comminge’s suspicions bring him to confront Cantarelli whom he threatens if he discovers a conspiracy to rob him of Isabelle. Comminge is misled by Cantarelli into believing the love intrigue is between Mergy and Marguerite. Now a message arrives refusing Isabelle’s departure with Marguerite – the countess must marry Comminge, and Mergy is ordered to return. Mergy, slighted by an offer from Comminge to assist him in meeting the Queen challenges the colonel to a duel at dawn at the Pre-aux-Clercs. Nonetheless the curtain falls with some hope for the young lovers as Nicette informs Mergy that Marguerite is resolute in her plans for them to wed after Nicette and Girot.

Act 3

The wedding festivities for Nicette and Girot are underway and at the chapel Mergy and Isabelle are secretly wed. Cantarelli arrives with passports for the pair’s escape then leaves to act as second for Comminge’s duel with Mergy. During the duel Comminge learns that it is Isabelle whom Mergy loves, not Marguerite, and the discovery that they are in fact wed makes the colonel even more furious. Comminge falls and his body is put on a boat to be taken to Chaillot to be received by the monks. Cantarelli comes to announce the result of the duel, as the boat passes, and all believe Mergy to be dead. However, the joy of his victory joins with that of the wedding celebration and Isabelle and Mergy flee to Navarre with Cantarelli as their guide.