Polyeucte (opera)
| Polyeucte | |
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| Opera by Charles Gounod | |
Poster for the premiere by Jules Chéret
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| Librettist | |
| Based on | 'Polyeucte by Pierre Corneille |
| Premiere | 3 August 1860 (one-act version) Palais Garnier, Paris |
Polyeucte (French pronunciation: [pɔliœkt]) is an opéra by Charles Gounod based on the play about Saint Polyeuctus by Pierre Corneille. The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré is more faithful to its source than Les martyrs, Scribe's adaptation for Donizetti, and Gounod hoped to express "the unknown and irresistible powers that Christianity has spread among humanity". The subject had occupied Gounod for some ten years. An initial delay was caused by a fire which destroyed the theatre of the Paris Opéra, the Salle Le Peletier, in October 1873. Further delay came about because the first draft remained in the hands of the jealous Georgina Weldon when Gounod left England in 1874 to return to Paris. He had to resort to a lawsuit before resigning himself to recomposing the work from memory, although towards the end of that endeavor, Weldon did return it.
The opera finally premiered at the Opéra's new house, the Palais Garnier on 7 October 1878, in stage sets designed by Jean Émile Daran (Act I), Louis Chéret (Act II), Auguste-Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (Act III), Eugène Louis Carpezat and Antoine Lavastre (Act IV), and Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (Act V). Despite the splendid staging, the premiere was a failure – "the sorrow of my life," noted Gounod – and closed after 29 performances. Polyeucte's aria "Source délicieuse" is sometimes heard in concert.
A 2004 co-production by Jean-Louis Pichon was seen that year in Martina Franca, then in 2006 in Saint-Etienne conducted by Laurent Campellone and Jean-Pierre Furlan in the title role.
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