Tragédie en musique (French: [tʁaʒedi ɑ̃ myzik], musical tragedy), also known as tragédie lyrique (French: [tʁaʒedi liʁik], lyric tragedy), is a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas in this genre are usually based on stories from classical mythology or the Italian romantic epics of Tasso and Ariosto. The stories may not necessarily have a tragic ending – in fact, most do not – but the works' atmospheres are suffused throughout with an affect of nobility and stateliness. The standard tragédie en musique has five acts. Early works in the genre were preceded by an allegorical prologue and, during the lifetime of Louis XIV, these generally celebrated the king's noble qualities and his prowess in war. Each of the five acts usually follows a basic pattern, opening with an aria in which one of the main characters expresses their feelings, followed by dialogue in recitative interspersed with short arias (petits airs), in which the main business of the plot occurs. Each act traditionally ends with a divertissement, offering great opportunities for the chorus and the ballet troupe. Composers sometimes changed the order of these features in an act for dramatic reasons.
Notable examples of the genre edit
Apart from Lully, the most considerable writer of tragédies en musique is Rameau, whose five works in the form are considered the culminating masterpieces of the genre. The Viking Opera Guide refers to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's tragédie Médée as "arguably the finest French opera of the seventeenth century". In the eighteenth century, Jean-Marie Leclair's lone tragédie Scylla et Glaucus has been similarly praised. Other highly esteemed exponents are André Campra (Tancrède, Idoménée), Marin Marais (Alcyone, Sémélé) and Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (Jephté).
List of works in this genre (Baroque era) edit
Jean-Baptiste Lully edit
- Cadmus et Hermione (1673)
- Alceste (1674)
- Thésée (1675)
- Atys (1676)
- Isis (1677)
- Psyché (1678)
- Bellérophon (1679)
- Proserpine (1680)
- Persée (1682)
- Phaëthon (1683)
- Amadis (1684)
- Roland (1685)
- Armide (1686)
- Achille et Polyxène (1687, completed by Pascal Collasse)
Works by Lully's sons edit
Paolo Lorenzani edit
- Oronthée (1688)
Pascal Collasse edit
- Thétis et Pélée (1689)
- Énée et Lavinie (1691)
- Astrée (1691)
- Jason, ou La toison d'or (1696)
- Canente (1700)
- Polyxène et Pirrhus (1706)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier edit
- David et Jonathas (1688)
- Celse martyr (1687, lost)
- Philomèle (lost)
- Artaxerse (lost)
- Médée (1693)
Henri Desmarets edit
- Didon (1693)
- Circé (1694)
- Théagène et Chariclée (1695)
- Vénus et Adonis (1697)
- Iphigénie en Tauride (1704, completed by Campra)
- Renaud ou la suite d'Armide (1722)
Marin Marais edit
- Alcide (1693) (with Lully's son, Louis)
- Ariane et Bacchus (1696)
- Alcyone (1706)
- Sémélé (1709)
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre edit
- Céphale et Procris (1694)
Charles-Hubert Gervais edit
- Méduse (1697)
- Hypermnestre (1716)
André Cardinal Destouches edit
- Amadis de Grèce (1699)
- Marthésie, reine des Amazones (1699)
- Omphale (1701)
- Callirhoé (1712)
- Télémaque (or Télémaque et Calypso) (1714)
- Sémiramis (1718)
André Campra edit
- Hésione (1700)
- Tancrède (1702)
- Télémaque (1704)
- Alcine (1705)
- Hippodamie (1708)
- Idoménée (1712)
- Télèphe (1713)
- Camille, reine des volsques (1717)
- Achille et Déidamie (1735)
Theobaldo di Gatti edit
- Scylla (1701)
Jean-Féry Rebel edit
- Ulysse (1703)
François Bouvard edit
- Médus, roi des Mèdes (1702)
Louis Lacoste edit
- Philomèle (1705)
- Bradamante (1707)
- Créuse l'athénienne (1712)
- Télégone (1725)
- Orion (1728)
- Biblis (1732)
Toussaint Bertin de la Doué edit
Jean-Baptiste Stuck edit
- Méléagre (1709)
- Manto la fée (1711)
- Polydore (1720)
Joseph François Salomon edit
- Médée et Jason (1713)
- Théonoé (1715)
Jean-Baptiste Matho edit
- Arion (1714)
Jean-Joseph Mouret edit
François Francoeur and François Rebel edit
- Pirame et Thisbé (1726)
- Tarsis et Zélie (1728)
- Scanderberg (1735)
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer edit
- Pyrrhus (1730)
Michel Pignolet de Montéclair edit
- Jephté (1732)
Jean-Philippe Rameau edit
- Hippolyte et Aricie (1733)
- Castor et Pollux (1737)
- Dardanus (1739)
- Zoroastre (1749)
- Les Boréades (1764)
Charles-Louis Mion edit
- Nitétis (1741)
François Colin de Blamont edit
- Jupiter vainqueur des Titans (1745) (with Bernard de Bury)
Jean-Marie Leclair edit
- Scylla et Glaucus (1746)
Marquis de Brassac edit
- Léandre et Héro (1750)
Antoine Dauvergne edit
- Énée et Lavinie (1758)
- Canente (1760)
- Hercule mourant (1761)
- Polixène (1763)
Jean-Benjamin de La Borde edit
- Ismène et Isménias (1763)
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville edit
- Thésée (1765)
Johann Christian Bach edit
- Amadis de Gaule (J. C. Bach) (1779)
References edit
- Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5