La journée aux aventures

Méhul in 1799 – portrait by Antoine Gros

La journée aux aventures (The Day of Adventures) is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It takes the form of an opéra comique in three acts. It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on 16 November 1816. The libretto is by Pierre-David-Augustin Chapelle and Louis Mezières-Miot.[1] This was the last of the composer's works to be premiered in his lifetime and was a great success; it enjoyed 66 performances before the end of 1817 and helped remedy the financial problems of the Opéra-Comique.[2] It was revived to acclaim in a German translation in Berlin in December 1839.[3]

Roles

Role Voice type[4] Premiere Cast
Gercour, a captain of dragoons haute-contre Paul Dutreck called 'Paul'
Florval, his friend haute-contre Auguste Huet
Danville, an officer of the hussars, nephew of the Marquise de Gernance haute-contre Louis-Antoine-Eléonor Ponchard
Bertrand, a farmer basse-taille (bass-baritone) Mr. Darancourt
Antonin, a young peasant, a little simple and teasing haute-contre Mr. Moreau
The Marquise de Gernance soprano Mme Crétu[5]
Madame de Surville, her niece soprano Marie Julie Boulanger
Germaine, a farmer's wife soprano Marie Desbrosses
Rosette, her daughter soprano Mme Gavaudan[6]
François, the Marquise's intendant spoken Mr. Aler
Head guard of the château basse-taille Rolland
A valet spoken ?
Chorus: Guards of the château, villagers

References

  1. ^ Bartlet, p.xiv
  2. ^ Pougin, pp.333–335
  3. ^ Adélaïde de Place, pp.147–148
  4. ^ According to the score clefs, with the caveat that, in this opera, all tenor parts are notated in the alto clef, which was ordinarily used only for the haute-contre voice.
  5. ^ She was born Anne-Marie Simonet (1763–1829) and was also known as Mme Cretu, after her married name.
  6. ^ She was born Alexandrine-Marie-Agathe Ducamel (1781–1850) and became known as Mme Gavaudan after marrying tenor Jean-Baptiste-Sauveur Gavaudan (1772–1840).

Sources

  • Printed score: La Journée aux Aventures//Opéra Comique en trois Actes et en Prose, Paroles de MM. Capelle et Mézières, Musique de Mr. Méhul..., Paris, Petit, s.d. (accessible for free online at the Internet Archive)
  • Adélaïde de Place Étienne Nicolas Méhul (Bleu Nuit Éditeur, 2005)
  • Arthur Pougin Méhul: sa vie, son génie, son caractère (Fischbacher, 1889)
  • General introduction to Méhul's operas in the introduction to the edition of Stratonice by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet (Pendragon Press, 1997)