History
Auber wrote ''Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué'' as aPerformance history
The opera received its first performance at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on 27 February 1833, with costumes designed by Eugène Lami and Paul Lormier, and sets by Léon Feuchère (act 1 and act 5, scene 2), Jules Diéterle (act 2), Alfred (act 3), Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri (act 4), René-Humanité Filastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon (act 5, scene 1). The opera was a major success for the composer, with 168 performances until 1853. Ellen Creathorne Clayton has translated French critic Jules Janin's description of the last act, which was often presented separately from the opera, as follows:"I believe ... that never, even at the Opéra, was seen a spectacle more grand, more rich, more curious, more magnificent, that the fifth act of ''Gustave''. It is a fairlyland of beautiful women, of gauze, of velvet, of grotesqueness, of elegance, of good taste and of bad taste, of details, of learned researches, of esprit, of madness and of whimsicality – of every thing in a word, which is suggestive of the eighteenth century. When the beautiful curtain is raised, you find yourself in an immense ballroom." The stage of the Grand Opéra, the largest in Paris, is admirably adapted for masked balls, and the side-scenes being removed, the stage was surrounded a salon, the decorations of which corresponded with those of the boxes. "This ''salle de bal'' is overlooked by boxes, these boxes are filled with masks, who play the part of spectators. At their feet, constantly moving, is the circling crowd, disguised in every imaginable costume, and dominoes of every conceivable hue. Harlequins of all fashions, clowns, peddlers, what shall I say? One presents the appearance of a tub, another of a guitar; his neighbor is disguised ''en botte d'asperges''; that one is a mirror, this a fish; there is a bird, here is a time-piece – you can hardly imagine the infinite confusion. Peasants, marquises, princes, monks, I know not what, mingle in one rainbow-hued crowd. It is impossible to describe this endless madness, this whirl, this ''bizarrerie'', on which the rays of two thousand wax tapers, in their crustal lustres, pour an inundation of mellow light. I, who am so well accustomed to spectacles like this – I, who am, unfortunately, not easily disposed to be surprised – I am yet dazzled with this radiant scene."
Roles
Synopsis
:Place:Recordings
*''Gustave III'': Laurence Dale, , Christian Treguier, French Lyrique Orchestra; Intermezzo Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Michel Swierczewski ( Arion, 1993) *The overture and ballet music from ''Gustave III'' appears at the end of the second disc of Richard Bonynge's recording of Auber's '' Le domino noir''.References
Notes Sources * * * * * *Further reading
* Budden, Julian, ''The Operas of Verdi'', Volume 2: From ''Il Trovatore'' to ''La Forza del destino''. London: Cassell, 1984. (hardcover) (paperback). * Schneider, Herbert (1992). "''Gustave III''", vol. 2, pp. 583–584, in '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. .External links
* * Visual documentation of the premiere o