''Charles VI'' is an 1843 French grand opera in five acts with music composed by Fromental Halevy and a libretto by

Casimir Delavigne Jean-François Casimir Delavigne (4 April 179311 December 1843) was a French poet and dramatist. Life and career Delavigne was born at Le Havre, but was sent to Paris to be educated at the Lycée Napoleon. He read extensively. When, on 20 Marc ...

and his brother

Germain Delavigne Louis Marie Germain Delavigne (1 February 1790 – 3 November 1868) was a French playwright and librettist. Delavigne was born in Giverny to Louis-Augustin-Anselme Delavigne, a surveyor of the French royal forests, and his wife. He was the brothe ...

. The number "Guerre aux tyrans!" ("War on the tyrants!") achieved separate fame as a song of political protest.

Performance history

The opera was first presented on 15 March 1843 by the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

at the

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

. It continued to be performed there, and in a revised form beginning on 4 October 1847, up to 1848, and was revived again in 1850, receiving a total of 61 performances. Lajarte 1878
p. 172
Chouquet 1873
pp. 404–405
Beginning on 5 April 1870 it was produced at the

Théâtre Lyrique The Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century (the other three being the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, and the Théâtre-Italien). The company was founded in 1847 as the Opér ...

with

Rosine Bloch Rosine Bloch (7 November 1844 – 1 February 1891)Pierre 1900p. 701 "née à Paris, 7 nov. 1844", "† Monte Carlo (Nice?), 1 fév. 1891". Other sources differ with regard to her dates and places of birth and death. Walsh 1981, p. 374: "(1832? 1 ...

in the role of Odette and was given there a total of 22 times. ''Charles VI'' was also performed in French in Brussels (beginning on 2 October 1845),

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

(25 April 1846), New Orleans (22 April 1847), Buenos Aires (4 May 1854), Batavia (27 April 1866), Barcelona (29 April 1871), Mexico (19 January 1882), and Marseille (8 April 1901). It was performed in German in Hamburg (13 February 1851) and in Italian in Milan (16 March 1876). Performances in the 20th century were rare, but the opera was revived at

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with ...

in 2005.

Roles

Synopsis

:Place: France :Time: Several years after the

battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numeric ...

The opera centres on

King Charles VI of France Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé) and later the Mad (french: le Fol or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic ...

, who amid episodes of madness, is attempting to defeat the English invaders. The final scene takes place in the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Odette, a fictional predecessor of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

, thwarts a plot by Queen Isabelle and the English nobleman Bedfort to displace the Dauphin with Bedfort's son Lancastre, and helps restore the Dauphin to his rightful place as heir to the throne of France. The King is dying as he and the assembled French swear to the Dauphin: ''Guerre aux tyrans! jamais en France, Jamais l'Anglais ne régnera'' ("War on the tyrants! never in France, Never shall the English reign").Pitou 1990, pp. 227–230.

Derivative works

* June 1, 1843, Théâtre du Gymnase, Paris — ''Lucrèce a Poitiers, ou Les écuries d' Augias'', tragédie mêlée de

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

s by M. Léonard de Chatellerault; * March 16, 1847,

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, Milan — ', ballet by Jules Perrot.

References

Notes Sources * Chouquet, Gustave (1873). ''Histoire de la musique dramatique en France''. Paris: Didot
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at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

. * Delavigne, Casimir; Delavigne, G. (1878). ''Charles VI. Opéra en cinq actes. Musique de F. Halévy'' (libretto in French), pp. 221–233 in ''Chefs-d'oeuvre du théâtre Moderne'', volume 1. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères
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. * Halévy, Fromental (ca. 1858). ''Charles VI. Opéra en 5 Actes. Paroles de MM. Germain et Casimir Delavigne. Musique de F. Halévy'' (piano-vocal score). Paris: Henry Lemoine
File #72489
at

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwa ...

. * Jordan, Ruth (1994). ''Fromental Halévy: His Life & Music 1799–1862''. London: Kahn & Averill. . * Lajarte, Théodore (1878). ''Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de l'Opéra'', volume 2. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles
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. *Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). ''Annals of Opera 1597–1940'' (third edition, revised). London, John Calder. . Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Macdonald, Hugh (1992a). ''"Charles VI"'' in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, p. 821. * Macdonald, Hugh (1992b). "Halévy, (Jacques-François-)Fromental (-Elie)" in Sadie 1992, vol. 2, pp. 598–600. * Pitou, Spire (1990). ''The Paris Opéra: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers. Growth and Grandeur, 1815–1914''. New York: Greenwood Press. . * Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'' (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. . * Thomson, Andrew (1995). "Review of ''Fromental Halevy: His Life and Work, 1799-1862''" in ''The Musical Times'', vol. 136, no. 1826 (April 1995), p. 198. . * Walsh, T. J. (1981). ''Second Empire Opera: The Théâtre Lyrique Paris 1851–1870''. New York: Riverrun Press. .

External links

Revival at Compiègne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles VI Operas by Fromental Halévy 1843 operas Grand operas Operas Opera world premieres at the Paris Opera Operas set in France French-language operas Libretti by Germain Delavigne Libretti by Casimir Delavigne