Le Pré aux clercs

Le pré aux clercs (The Clerks' Meadow) is an opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.

Le pré aux clercs was premiered in Paris by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse on 15 December 1832. However, after the first performance Madame Casimir refused - possibly demanding more money - to sing in the subsequent performances, and Mlle Dorus of the Opéra was coached by Hérold over five days to take over the role of Isabelle. Pougin claims that this incident exacerbated the composer's ill-health, leading to his death five weeks after the premiere.

The opera, Hérold's last completed one, was very successful, inaugurating the new Salle Favart in 1840, and enjoying some 1,000 performances up to 1871, and reaching its 1,600th at the Opéra-Comique by 1949.

Though rarely performed in recent years, a studio production conducted by José Serebrier was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1987, with Carole Farley and John Aler among the cast.

The opera was performed at the Paris Opéra-Comique in March 2015, directed by Éric Ruf, with the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Paul McCreesh, in a co-production with the Wexford Festival Opera, where it was conducted by Jean-Luc Tingaud as part of the 2015 festival, and subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The performance by McCreesh was recorded in April 2015 at the Grande Auditório of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon for release on two CDs.

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Wikipedia