User:Folantin/Raoul

Raoul Barbe-bleue (Raoul Bluebeard) is an opéra comique in three acts by André Grétry, first performed at the Comédie Italienne (Opéra-Comique) in Paris on 2 March 1789. The libretto, by Michel-Jean Sedaine, is based on the story of Bluebeard.

Background
Sedaine based the libretto on the folk tale of Bluebeard as told by Charles Perrault in his Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697). According to Loewenberg, Raoul Barbe-bleue may have been the first opera on the Bluebeard theme... There are significant differences between Perrault's and Sedaine's versions. The character of Vergi does not appear in Perrault and Isaure is unnamed; Perrault merely calls her "la Cadette" (the younger sister). Anne is still alive and helps her sister defeat Bluebeard. For Sedaine, the moral of the story was not just Perrault's warning against idle curiosity. He used the drama to explore the topic of nobility and feudalism, contrasting Vergi and Raoul. Vergi is a conscientious nobleman who looks after his vassals and protects them from harm. Raoul is a "feudal tyrant" whose death comes as a relief to his subjects.

Performance history
Raoul Barbe-bleue appeared 103 times at the Théâtre Italien (Opéra Comique) between 1789 and 1799. After this, interest declined. There were 19 performances between 1799 and 1801 followed by a break until a revival in 1806. Between then and 1818 there were 30 performances. The new values of the Revolutionary era forced Sedaine to make changes to the libretto in the 1790s. Isaure's crown disappeared as did words with feudal associations, e.g. "château" (castle) became "maison" (house) or "logis" (abode). From its revival on 20 October 1794, Parisian newspapers frequently referred to the opera as Barbe-bleue, ou le tyran puni ("Bluebeard, or The Tyrant Punished").

Popular in Germany. Bluebeard prototype of "noble villain" in German Romantic opera, e.g. Lysiart in Weber's Euryanthe. It was the very first opera that Richard Wagner ever saw (aged five)

There was a modern revival in 2016 by the ensemble Les Monts de Reuil

Act 1
Scene: The partly ruined castle of Isaure's family The peasants Jacques and Jeanne tell Isaure how Vergi saved them from kidnapping by an evil knight. Isaure and Vergi are in love but they do not have enough money to marry because of the precarious financial state of their families. Isaure's brothers want her to marry the wealthy Raoul instead to restore the family's fortune. Raoul arrives and offers Isaure splendid gifts. Seeing no other option, Vergi agrees to renounce Isaure in Raoul's favour.

Act 2
Scene: A splendid room in Raoul's castle Isaure and Raoul are now married. Raoul decides to test her curiosity as he did his three previous wives, all of whom failed to keep his instructions and thus were murdered. He pretends to leave on a journey while entrusting Isaure with the key to a chamber she must vow never to open. Vergi arrives at the castle disguised as Isaure's dead sister Anne. Isaure is torn between her feelings for Vergi and her sense of duty to Raoul, who has been a good husband up to this point. Isaure finally succumbs to temptation and unlocks the chamber. She is horrified to find the corpses of Raoul's former wives. Osman keeps Isaure and Vergi prisoner in the castle, but he offers them entertainment and allows Vergi to contact his page, who takes a message to Isaure's brothers.

Act 3
Scene: The same as Act 2 Raoul returns and, finding the chamber door open, condemns Isaure to death. Vergi, still in disguise, tries in vain to persuade Raoul he was the one responsible. Raoul tries to drag Isaure into the bloody chamber when Isaure's brothers arrive together with the fathers of the murdered wives and a company of soldiers. Vergi throws off his disguise but is taken captive then freed by the rescue party. Raoul runs offstage after safety but is recaptured and killed at the door of the bloody chamber by one of the fathers. {Last scene from the score here} The final chorus celebrates liberation from tyranny.

Period sources

 * Original printed score: Barbe Bleue. Comédie en Prose et en Trois Actes, Paris, Huguet, s.d. (accessible online at Gallica - B.N.F.)

Modern sources

 * Michel Brenet Grétry: sa vie et ses œuvres (F. Hayez, 1884)
 * David Charlton Grétry and the Growth of Opéra Comique (Cambridge University Press, 1986)
 * Ronald Lessens Grétry ou Le triomphe de l'Opéra-Comique (L'Harmattan, 2007)

Osservazioni da Jeanambr
Mi ha molto colpito che quest'opera preveda, nel finale, l'uccisione in scena del protagonista. Nel corso di tutto il '700 c'era stata un'avversione radicata, in tutto il teatro musicale a far rappresentare la morte violenta in scena, in Italia soprattutto, ma, per quanto mi ricordo, anche in Francia. Ora, vedere, addirittura in un'opéra-comique, un'attore che corre fuori scena, rientra trascinando con sé Raoul, si batte con lui "à outrance" e l'ammazza sulla porta della stanza dove si trovano i cadaveri putrefatti delle sue mogli assassinate, mi sembra davvero notevole. Direi che si inserisca e porti a compimento la tendenza, verificatasi nell'ultimo quarto di secolo del '700, a importare nell'opéra-comique tematiche da dramma serio, alla quale si riferisce Elizabeth Bartlet nella citazione che ti allego qui sotto. Negli anni '90, dopo la Rivoluzione Francese, la morte in scena diventerà merce comune sia nell'opera francese che in quella italiana: basta ricordare le opere tratte in questo periodo dall ' Horace di Corneille, che si conclude con l'uccisione della sorella da parte del giovane Orazio. Les Horaces di Salieri del 1786 adottano, invece, il lieto fine e, quando sta per avvenire il fattaccio, interviene una terza persona che risolve la vicenda. Ne Gli Orazi e i Curiazi di Cimarosa di circa dieci anni dopo, si torna a Corneille e Orazia "is slain by her furious ruthless brother and flung headlong down the staircase" (come avevo scritto nella voce della Wikipedia inglese). Nel 1800, una nuova versione degli Horaces fu data all'Opéra di Parigi per la musica di Bernardo Porta, e questa volta con finale tragico: Camille, come si chiama qui la sorella del giovane Orazio, previene il fratello che sta per ucciderla trafiggendosi da sola.

M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet, Opéra comique,in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, III, p. 690 ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2:

"With the mid-1770s and 1780s came some works in a consistently serious tone, although comedies remained the core of the Comédie-Italienne's repertory. The librettist B.F. de Rosoi led the way with his patriotic Henri IV (set by J.-P.-E. Martini, who used a military and heroic musical style to good effect, 1774) and his classical drame, Les mariages samnites (set by Grétry, 1776); significantly, neither was a popular success. A much better man of the theatre, Sedaine provided Grétry with a series of challenges in 'chevaleresque', pseudo-historical and drame or drame-influenced works, including Aucassin et Nicolette (1779), their masterpiece Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784), Le comte d'Albert (1786) and Raoul Barbe-bleue (1789). [...] Barbe-bleue especially is remarkable for its time for the freedom and continuity of musical forms to underline the dramatic situation''.
 * Yes, it struck me too. I thought the French of this era were squeamish about showing actual violence on stage. I've just noticed there is an analysis of this scene in David J. Buch's Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests (pp. 147-149). I'll add the information later. Folantin (talk) 09:06, 11 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Charlton scrive (p. 194): "Dramatically speaking, Raoul's death is expected, but it is worth making the point that the Théâtre Italien, in this violent ending, echoed the mass murder (offstage) in Salieri,s Les Danaides (Opéra, 1784) and that of the tyrant Atar in the same composer's Tarare (Opéra, 1787)". Ciao.
 * Thanks. I've not had much time to work on things over the past week but this is going to be a long-term revision alongside the ongoing Rameau overhaul. The plot summaries are also driving me insane! The aim is to make decent articles out of all the existing pages. The most substantial additions will be to the main Grétry article itself plus these major operas:
 * Richard Coeur-de-lion
 * Zémire et Azor
 * La caravane de Caire (not much in Charlton but plenty in the book which comes with the Guy Van Waas recording)
 * New articles on at least the following operas:
 * L'ami de la maison
 * L'amitié à l'épreuve
 * Le Comte d'Albert
 * La fausse magie - NB: the version history of this piece is horribly complicated
 * Les méprises par ressemblance
 * Les événements imprévus
 * Elisca (not in Charlton but there is a long article on the opera on Google Books somewhere)
 * Panurge (possibly)
 * Denis le tyran (possibly)
 * Cheers. Folantin (talk) 09:33, 19 October 2017 (UTC)