Tom Jones is a comédie mêlée d'ariettes

Comédie mêlée d'ariettes

Comédie mêlée d'ariettes is a form of French opéra comique that developed in the mid 18th century following the Querelle des Bouffons dispute over the respective merits of the French and Italian styles, between serious drama and comedy in opera.The best-known ones are Christoph Willibald Gluck's...

, a kind of 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...

, by the French composer 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...

 which first appeared at the Comédie-Italienne, 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 27 February 1765. 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 Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poisenet and Bertin Davesne, is loosely based on the novel

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. First published on 28 February 1749, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel...

 by Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....

.

The piece was initially a failure but Philidor had the libretto revised by Michel-Jean Sedaine

Michel-Jean Sedaine

Michel-Jean Sedaine was a French dramatist, was born in Paris.- Biography :His father, who was an architect, died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no fortune, and the boy began life as a mason's labourer...

 and this new version, first performed on 30 January 1766, proved one of the most popular opéras comiques of the late 18th century. It was produced in a number of other countries, and translated into German, Swedish and Russian.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 27 February 1765 (Conductor:)
Squire Western	bass	Joseph Caillot Joseph Caillot Joseph Caillot was a French actor and singer-Bibliography:*Émile Campardon, Les Comédiens du roi de la troupe italienne, Paris, Berger-Levrault et Cie, 1880, vol. I, pp. 85–95....
Mrs Western, his sister	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...	Bérard
Sophia, his daughter	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...	Desglands
Mrs Honour, her companion	soprano	Marie-Thérèse Laruette-Villette
Allworthy, their neighbour	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...	Antoine Trial Antoine Trial Antoine Trial was a French singer and actor. He was the younger brother of the musician Jean-Claude Trial and husband of soprano Marie-Jeanne ....
Tom Jones, his ward	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...	Jean-Baptiste Guignard, 'Clairval'
Blifil, Allworthy's nephew	tenor	Jean-Louis Laruette
Quaker Dowling	spoken

Recordings

François-André Danican Philidor: Tom Jones, Opéra de Lausanne & Le Sinfonietta de Lausanne

• Conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire
  Jean-Claude Malgoire
  Jean-Claude Malgoire is a French conductor.He was born in Avignon, France and studied music locally and at the Paris Conservatory. His early musical career was as an oboist....
  
  
• Principal singers: Sébastien Droy, Sophie Marin-Degor, Marc Barrard, Sibyl Zanganelli, Carine Séchehaye, Rodolphe Briand, Léonard Pezzino & Guillaume Michel
• Recording date: 2005
• Label: Dynamic 33509 (DVD), CDS509 (CD)

Sources

• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 17 November 2010
• Rushton, Julian (1992), 'Tom Jones (i)' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  The 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) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
• The Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (1993)