Adrien (opera)

Adrien (Hadrian) is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, is closely based on Metastasio's Adriano in Siria. Originally intended for performance at the Paris Opéra in 1792, the work was caught up in the turbulent political climate of the French Revolution and banned until 1799.

The opera was originally entitled Adrien, empereur de Rome and the premiere was scheduled for 13 March 1792. Hoffman had no political message in mind but the first act contained a scene in which the Emperor Hadrian celebrates a triumph. At the time, France felt under threat from Austria, whose Emperor Leopold II had just died. Rumours also spread that the horses to be used in the triumph were from the stables of Marie-Antoinette, the deeply unpopular French queen and Leopold's sister. Many Parisians began to express their displeasure at the forthcoming opera and on 12 March - in spite of the protests of the Opéra, which had invested large sums of money in the production - the political authorities intervened and banned the performance of Adrien to prevent a possible riot. A storm of controversy broke out in the Press as Hoffman refused to change his libretto, appealing to the law of 1791 which had freed French theatres from censorship as well as the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Nevertheless, the premiere was replaced by a revival of Piccinni's Atys.

In October 1798, the Opéra decided to try again and asked Méhul to revise the work for a performance scheduled for the following year. The revision and rehearsals took place under the supervision of the Minister of the Police, Jean-Pierre Duval, who advised Méhul to drop the word "empereur" from the title. Hadrian was demoted from an emperor to a general and his triumphal march was cut. When the premiere finally took place on 4 June 1799, the critics acclaimed Adrien as a masterpiece. However, the opera's political woes were not yet at an end. Members of the Council of Five Hundred thought the work was an allusion to Napoleon Bonaparte and the current state of France. On 16 June, the Minister of the Interior, Lucien Bonaparte, withdrew Adrien from the stage after only four performances. It only reappeared in February 1800.

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