''Écho et Narcisse'' (''Echo and Narcissus'') is a 1779 '' drame lyrique'' in three acts, the last original

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

written by

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

, his sixth for the French stage. The libretto, written by Louis-Théodore de Tschudi, tells the story of the love between

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

and Narcissus.

Performance history

''Écho et Narcisse'' was first performed on 24 September 1779 by the

Paris Opéra 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 kn ...

in the second

Salle du Palais-Royal Salle is the French word for 'hall', 'room' or 'auditorium', as in: *Salle des Concerts Herz The Salle des Concerts Herz, usually referred to simply as the Salle Herz, was a concert hall in Paris, located at 48, rue de la Victoire. It was built ...

. The opera is in the

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

tradition, a genre not in favor at the Opéra at the time,Rushton 2001, p. 327. and it was a failure, discontinued after only 12 performances. Gluck decided to go back to Vienna and never returned to Paris. He revised the work for 8 August 1780, but this version only enjoyed nine performances. A third version was presented to the public on 8 June 1781. This was better received. However, it was infrequently produced until

René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his musi ...

revived it in 1987 at the

Schwetzingen Festival The Schwetzingen Festival (German: Schwetzinger Festspiele, now Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele) is an early summer festival of opera and other classical music presented each year from May to early June in Schwetzingen, Germany. In 1952, the broadca ...

. Jacobs used the revised version as the original one has not survived, except for the libretto.

Roles

Synopsis

The nymph Écho is loved by Narcisse, but also desired by Apollo. Apollo puts a spell on Narcisse so he falls in love with his own reflection, but Cupid is eventually successful in securing a happy ending by re-uniting Écho and Narcisse.

References

Notes Sources * Lajarte, Théodore
"''Écho et Narcisse''"
''Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique'', Paris, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878, pp. 311–312, vol. I *

Rushton, Julian Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' ...

(2001). "Christoph Willibald Gluck", pp. 313–327, in ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', edited by

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English media personality, actress and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent competition show '' Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the national ''H ...

. London: Penguin Books. .

External links

*
Libretto
(French)
Score
{{DEFAULTSORT:Écho et Narcisse Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck French-language operas 1779 operas Operas Opera world premieres at the Paris Opera Operas based on Metamorphoses

Performance history

Roles

Synopsis

References

Further reading

External links