Le maréchal ferrant
Encyclopedia
Le maréchal ferrant is a 1761 French two-act opéra comique
with spoken dialogue and music composed by François-André Danican Philidor
as well as several vaudevilles
(popular old songs with new words), which were typically included in opéras comiques of the time. The libretto
is by Antoine François Quétant, after one of the stories in Boccaccio's Decameron (VII, 1), with verses for the ariettes by Louis Anseaume
and a plan devised by Serrière.
at the Théâtre de la Foire St Laurent
in Paris, on 22 August 1761, and was later performed by the same company at the Hôtel de Bourgogne
on 10 February 1762 and for the royal court at Faintainebleau on 3 November 1762. It became one of Philidor's most popular works, and performances in French followed in cities in many other countries, including Amsterdam
in 1762, Vienna
on 26 June 1763, Frankfurt
on 25 March 1764 (or possibly earlier), Saint Petersburg
on 7 October 1764 (where it was the first French opera ever to be performed in Russia), Turin
in the spring of 1765, Dresden
in 1765, Geneva
in 1766, Copenhagen
in February 1767, Brussels
in 1767, Aachen
on 23 July 1768, Ghent
on 19 March 1769, Hamburg
on 10 February 1769, Liège
on 30 October 1770, Warsaw
on 1 February 1778, Munich
on 7 April 1783, Kassel
on 2 October 1784, Cologne
in 1796–1797, and even Kingston, Jamaica
on 15 February 1802. The work was also translated and performed in numerous other languages, including German, Danish, Russian, Swedish, English (Boston
, 25 March 1793), Spanish and Dutch. It was revived by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Feydeau
on 3 April 1802 and at the on 20 November 1920.
objected to this, writing in his Journal: "went to the Mareschal Ferrant.... I detest that mixture of old French vaudevilles with Philidor's Italian plunder." However, Charles Simon Favart
praised this aspect of Philidor's music, writing: "Our musical savants claim that Philidor has stolen from italians. What does it matter, if he enriches our nation with the beautiful things of foreign lands which we should perhaps never have known without him?"
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...
with spoken dialogue and music composed by François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor , often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique...
as well as several vaudevilles
Vaudeville (song)
A vaudeville is a French satirical poem or song born of the 17th and 18th centuries. Its name is lent to the French theatrical entertainment comédie en vaudeville of the 19th and 20th century. From these vaudeville took its name....
(popular old songs with new words), which were typically included in opéras comiques of the time. 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...
is by Antoine François Quétant, after one of the stories in Boccaccio's Decameron (VII, 1), with verses for the ariettes by 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 a plan devised by Serrière.
Performance history
The work was first performed by the Opéra-ComiqueOpéra-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 Théâtre de la Foire St Laurent
Théâtre de la foire
Théâtre de la foire is the collective name given to the theatre put on at the annual fairs at Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent in Paris.-Foire Saint-Germain:The earliest references to the annual fair date to 1176...
in Paris, on 22 August 1761, and was later performed by the same company at the Hôtel de Bourgogne
Hôtel de Bourgogne
Until the 16th century, the Hôtel de Bourgogne was the name of the Paris residence of the Dukes of Burgundy. Today, the last vestige is the Tour Jean sans Peur, 20 rue Étienne Marcel, in the 2nd arrondissement.-Theatre:...
on 10 February 1762 and for the royal court at Faintainebleau on 3 November 1762. It became one of Philidor's most popular works, and performances in French followed in cities in many other countries, including Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in 1762, 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...
on 26 June 1763, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
on 25 March 1764 (or possibly earlier), Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
on 7 October 1764 (where it was the first French opera ever to be performed in Russia), Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
in the spring of 1765, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
in 1765, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1766, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in February 1767, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
in 1767, Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
on 23 July 1768, Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
on 19 March 1769, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
on 10 February 1769, Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
on 30 October 1770, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
on 1 February 1778, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
on 7 April 1783, Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
on 2 October 1784, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in 1796–1797, and even Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
on 15 February 1802. The work was also translated and performed in numerous other languages, including German, Danish, Russian, Swedish, English (Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, 25 March 1793), Spanish and Dutch. It was revived by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Feydeau
Théâtre Feydeau
The Théâtre Feydeau, , a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence , and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur...
on 3 April 1802 and at the on 20 November 1920.
Critical assessment
In the view of Julian Rushton, this is Philidor's "most colourful opéra comique, enlivened by mixed metres, parody, onomatopoeia, and inventive ensemble writing." Philidor's music was influenced by Italian models and contrasted strongly with the French folkloric elements characteristic of the vaudevilles. He was an expert chess player with an amazingly detailed memory, and sometimes wrote down music as his own that had actually been composed by others. Charles BurneyCharles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
objected to this, writing in his Journal: "went to the Mareschal Ferrant.... I detest that mixture of old French vaudevilles with Philidor's Italian plunder." However, Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart was a French dramatist.Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the college of Louis-le-Grand, and after his father's death he carried on the business for a time...
praised this aspect of Philidor's music, writing: "Our musical savants claim that Philidor has stolen from italians. What does it matter, if he enriches our nation with the beautiful things of foreign lands which we should perhaps never have known without him?"
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 22 August 1761 |
|---|---|---|
| Marcel, the village blacksmith and surgeon | 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... |
|
| Jeanette, Marcel's daughter | soprano | |
| La Bride, a coachman | 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... |
|
| Claudine, a village girl | 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... |
|
| Colin, loved by Claudine but engaged to Jeanette | tenor | |
| Bastien, a peasant | tenor | |
| Eustache, a peasant | bass | |
Synopsis
A village farce involving two young couples, a sleeping potion, mistaken identities etc.Sources
- Desboulmiers, Jean-Auguste-Jullien (1769). Histoire du théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, 2 volumes. Paris: Lacombe (1769 edition). Deladoué (1770 edition). Google Books: vol. 1 (1770), vol. 2 (1769), vol. 2 (1770).
- Heartz, Daniel (2003). Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720–1780. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393050806.
- Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). Annals of Opera 1597–1940 (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 9780874718515.
- Rushton, Julian (1992), "Maréchal ferrant, Le" in The New Grove Dictionary of OperaNew Grove Dictionary of OperaThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592289. - Wild, Nicole; Charlton, David (2005). Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762-1972. Sprimont, Belgium: Editions Mardaga. ISBN 9782870098981.
External links
- Libretto (in French), pp. 65–133 in Lepeintre, M., editor (1823). Suite du répertoire du Théâtre Français, avec un choix des pièces de plusieurs autres théâtres. Opéras-comiques en prose, volume 11 (at Google Books). Paris: Veuve Dabo.