Pénélope (Piccinni)
| Pénélope | |
|---|---|
| Tragédie lyrique by Niccolò Piccinni | |
 Niccolò Piccinni, engraving by Hippolyte Pauquet | |
| Librettist | Jean-François Marmontel |
| Language | French |
| Based on | Homer's Odyssey |
| Premiere | 2 November 1785 |
Pénélope is a French-language opera by the composer Niccolò Piccinni, first performed at Fontainebleau on 2 November 1785 in the presence of King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto, by Jean-François Marmontel, is based on the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) and Penelope in Homer's Odyssey. The opera transferred to the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris (the Paris Opera) on 6 December 1785, but it was not a success.
Roles[edit]
| Cast | Voice type | Premiere |
|---|---|---|
| Pénélope | soprano | Antoinette Saint-Huberty |
| Théone | soprano | Marie-Thérèse Davoux Maillard |
| Télémaque (Telemachus) | tenor | Étienne Lainez |
| Ulisse (Ulysses) | basse taille (bass-baritone) | Henri Larrivée |
| Laèrte (Laertes) | baritone | Louis-Claude-Armand Chardin ("Chardiny") |
| Eumée (Eumaeus) | haute-contre | Jean-Joseph Rousseau[1] |
| Nésus | bass-baritone | Moreau |
| Minerve (the goddess Minerva) | soprano | Mlle Châteauvieux |
| Une coryphée | soprano | Mlle Buret |
| Chorus: Eight suitors of Penelope, people | ||
Notes[edit]
- ^ Sources traditionally report only the initial letter (J.) of this singer's name; full details, however, can be found in "Organico dei fratelli a talento della Loggia parigina di Saint-Jean d'Écosse du Contrat Social (1773-89)" (list of the members of this Masonic lodge), reported as an Appendix in Zeffiro Ciuffoletti and Sergio Moravia (eds), La Massoneria. La storia, gli uomini, le idee, Milan, Mondadori, 2004, ISBN 978-8804536468 (in Italian).
Sources[edit]
- (in French) Félix Clément and Pierre Larousse Dictionnaire des Opéras, p.523
- (in French) Original libretto at BNF Gallica
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