''Cora'' is an opera in four acts by the French composer
Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by Valadier, is based on the novel ''Les Incas'' by
Jean-François Marmontel. It was the first opera Méhul wrote but the second to be performed, receiving its premiere at the Académie Royale de Musique (the
Paris Opéra) on 15 February 1791. ''Cora'' was not a success and there were only four more performances (18, 20, 25 February and 4 March).
Background
In 1784 the Académie Royale de Musique held a competition for new libretti. From the 58 candidates the judges chose three winners:
Chabanon's ''Le toison d'or'',
Guillard Guillard is a surname, and may refer to:
* Charlotte Guillard, first woman printer of importance
* Georges Guillard (born 1939), French former holder of the Great Organ of the Notre-Dame church in Paris
* Marie Guillard (born 1972), French actress ...
's ''
Ĺ’dipe Ă Colone
is an operatic tragédie lyrique by Antonio Sacchini first performed at Versailles on 4 January 1786 in the presence of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The libretto, by Nicolas-François Guillard, is based on the play ''Oedipus at Colonus'' b ...
'' and Valadier's ''Alonzo et Cora''. Chabanon's libretto was never set; Guillard's provided
Antonio Sacchini with the text for his most famous opera (premiered in 1786); and Valadier's was handed to MĂ©hul. Since arriving in Paris in the late 1770s MĂ©hul had published two sets of keyboard sonatas and written or arranged vocal works for the
Concert Spirituel, but this was his first opportunity to compose an opera. He set to work writing the score in 1785-86 and in 1787 his supporters, the composer
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne and the man of letters
Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Suard, urged the Académie to stage the work. It went into rehearsal on 10 June 1789 but was abandoned on 8 August. The reasons for this delay are unknown, but the Académie was suffering from severe financial difficulties at the time.
Frustrated at his lack of progress at the Académie Royale, Méhul turned to its rival the
Opéra Comique
''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a l ...
, which staged his debut ''
Euphrosine'' on 4 September 1790. The great success of this work prompted the Académie Royale to dust off ''Alonzo et Cora'' (now retitled simply ''Cora'') for a performance on 15 February 1791. However, the piece was a failure; the musicologist
Arthur Pougin blames this on the inadequacies of the libretto rather than MĂ©hul's music.
Style
According to the MĂ©hul scholar
Elizabeth Bartlet, the music of ''Cora'' demonstrates "not only
Ă©hul'sindebtedness to the 'reform' operas of
Gluck and
Salieri
Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...
but also his awareness of symphonic style (particularly
Haydn's) and his interest in dynamic, large-scale ensembles - both of which were unusual for the period."
[Bartlet, page x]
Roles
References
Sources
*Adélaïde de Place ''Étienne Nicolas Méhul'' (Bleu Nuit Éditeur, 2005)
*Arthur Pougin ''Méhul: sa vie, son génie, son caractère'' (Fischbacher, 1889)
*General introduction to MĂ©hul's operas in the introduction to the edition of ''
Stratonice'' by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet (Pendragon Press, 1997)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cora (opera)
Operas by Étienne Méhul
1791 operas
French-language operas
Operas