User:Folantin/Les mariages samnites

Background
Rosoi based the libretto on "Les mariages samnites", one of Marmontel's Contes moraux published in 1761. Grétry had already written an opera with the same title and the same source at the beginning of his career in Paris with a libretto by Pierre Légier.

Music reused. Mozart.

The 1776 Mariages samnites was an attempt to create a Neo-Classical opéra-comique with parallels to the contemporary reforms Gluck was making in French tragédie lyrique at the Paris Opéra. Rosoi discarded all comic elements and diversity of tone in favour of "that noble simplicity of that true beauty which attaches to nature alone." He claimed he was following the example of Shakespeare's history plays.

Michael Fend: Mariages samnites, Les, in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, New York, 1997, III, p. 212 (ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2):

"Despite further revisions after the premiere in 1776 it never became a great success, and Grétry blamed this failure on the public's inability to enjoy serious plots played by actors known for their comic roles. The plot's ancient setting was chosen to promote friendship, family loyalties, equality of women and the crucial role of law in society, yet these ideas are not successfully adapted in this opera, as the women have no right to choose a husband and the lovers cannot address each other. [...] The substantial score (24 arias, ensembles, choruses and closing vaudeville) demonstrates for the first time Grétry's ambition to emulate the style of Gluck's tragédies in the opéra comique genre. The scoring of some pieces is exceptionally rich (requiring the services of military musicians) and their structural design varied. The repeated use of a motif links different parts of the opera, and the chorus march 'Dieu d'amour' formed the theme for Mozart's piano variations in F k352"

See also quote from Elizaberh Bartlet in Barbe-bleue sandbox.

Act 1
Scene: An amphitheatre in ancient Italy