Puck is an opéra-féerique in three acts with music by Marcel Delannoy

Marcel Delannoy

Marcel Delannoy was a French composer and critic. He wrote operas, ballets, orchestral works, vocal and chamber works, and film scores.-Life and career:...

, premiered in 1949. The French libretto was adapted by André Boll from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

.

Background

It was first performed at the Opéra Municipal

Opéra national du Rhin

LOpéra national du Rhin is an opera company which performs in Alsace, eastern France, and which includes the Opéra in Strasbourg, the company's ballet in Mulhouse , and the "Opéra Studio" , a training centre for young singers, in Colmar...

 in Strasbourg on 29 January 1949 directed by Roger Lalande with scenery and costumes designed by Boll. The Strasbourg production was seen at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....

 on 17 November 1949 and at the Theater des Westens in Berlin on 22 September 1951. The Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by André Cluytens

André Cluytens

André Cluytens was a Belgian-born French conductor who was active in the concert hall, opera house and recording studio. His repertoire extended from Viennese classics through French composers to 20th century works...

 played a suite from Puck at their concert on 21 May 1956.

There was much media coverage of the premiere and a generally positive welcome for the work. The story is loosely based on the play by Shakespeare and mixes traditional 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...

 elements with dance (the title role) and actors. Grove talks of the opera’s "mobile declamation oscillating between speech and song".

Roles and role creators

Role	Voice type	Cast of premiere, 29 January 1949. Conductor: Ernest Bour Ernest Bour Ernest Bour was a French conductor. Born in Thionville, Moselle, Bour studied at both the University and the Conservatoire of Strasbourg...
Puck	dancer	Roland April
Titania	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...	Mona Million
Obéron	bass	Georges Jongejeans
A fairy	soprano	Nany Arnaud
Thésée	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...	Roger Barnier
Démétrius	tenor	Paul Derenne Paul Derenne Paul Derenne was a French tenor whose eclectic repertoire allowed him a successful career on stage and on the concert platform.-Life and career:...
Hélène	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...	Marika Stephanidès
Lysandre	bariton-martin	Georges Verguet
Hermia	soprano	Jacqueline Drozin
Quince	tenor	Kedroff
Bottom	tenor	René Hérent René Hérent René Hérent was a French tenor whose career was centred on the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where he played supporting roles for many years, and left several recordings.-Life and career:...
Snug	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...	Akiaroff
Flute	bass	Borissoff
Égée	spoken	Paul Parmentier
Hippolyte	silent	Eveline Mischke