RICHARD STRAUSS Der Bürger Als Edelmann JEAN–BAPTISTE LULLY
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JEAN–BAPTISTE LULLY Le bourgeois gentilhomme TERJE TØNNESEN TERJE NORWEGIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CHAMBER NORWEGIAN RICHARD STRAUSS Der Bürger als Edelmann JEAN–BAPTISTE LULLY 1632–87 who had made his own dancing debut aged 14 First performed on 14 October 1670 at the 1670 Le bourgeois gentilhomme as Apollo, the Sun King, in the extravagant Château de Chambord, in the Loire Valley, EXCERPTS 12-hour Ballet Royal de la Nuit. Lully, who Le bourgeois gentilhomme (‘The Would-Be also danced in this court spectacle, enjoyed Noble’ or ‘The Middle-Class Aristocrat’) was the king’s personal support, later winning a one of nine comédies-ballets on which Molière royal-appointed privilège, effectively grant- and Lully collaborated between 1664 and 1. OUVERTURE Jean-Baptiste Lully had come a long way – in ing him a monopoly on the presentation of 1670. A stage-piece that combined spoken or 2. RITOURNELLES both senses – before collaborating with the opera in France – a position he used calculat- sung comedy with dance, the comédie-ballet 3. PREMIER INTERMÈDE: AIR – SARABANDE playwright Molière on the comédie-ballet ingly to sideline his rivals. Lully formed the was a development of the ballet de cour (Court – BOURRÉE – GAILLARDE – CANARIE Le bourgeois gentilhomme in 1670. Born in Académie Royale de Musique in 1672, which Ballet) and, as a precursor to the tragédie- 4. PREMIER AIR DES GARÇONS TAILLEURS – Florence in 1632, he had moved to France followed on from several national acade-mies lyrique (of which Rameau became the greatest DEUXIÈME AIR – MARCHE POUR LA as a teenager to teach Italian to Louis XIV’s instituted under the arts-loving Louis XIV’s exponent), played an important role in estab- CÉRÉMONIE DES TURCS cousin Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans, the rule, including those dedicated to Painting lishing the form of French opera. 5. TROISIÈME AIR Duchess of Montpensier. Having already and Sculpture (1663), Humanities (Académie 6. LE DONNEUR DE LIVRE – RITOURNELLE joined the service of Louis XIV as a violinist des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, The plot of Le bourgeois gentilhomme concerns DES ESPAGNOLS – DEUXIÈME AIR DES and dancer, in 1653, aged 20, he became 1663), Sciences (1666) and Architecture Monsieur Jourdain, a middle-class (bour- He ESPAGNOLS compositeur de la musique instrumentale. (1671). Unwittingly, Lully died as a direct geois) son of a cloth merchant who aspires to took over the direction of La Petite Bande 7. RITOURNELLE ITALIENNE result of serving the king: on 8 January rise to the ranks of the aristocracy. To learn – the smaller ensemble that complemented 1687, while directing a performance of his the ways of the nobility, he hires instructors 8. L’ENTRÉE DES SCARAMOUCHES, Te the 24 Violons du Roy (La Grande Bande) , he stabbed himself in the foot with his in music, dance, fencing and philosophy, and TRIVELINS ET ARLEQUINS – CHACONNE Deum established by Louis XIII – and finally in conducting staff (used to beat time before the he commissions suitable attire from a master DES SCARAMOUCHES, TRIVELINS ET 1661 was appointed surintendant de la advent of the conductor’s baton). The wound tailor. Jourdain is exposed as a fool by each ARLEQUINS musique du roi. turned gangrenous and Lully died less than of these attendants. (We see, for instance, three months later. that while learning from the Philosopher the Lully was also a talented dancer (this was part difference between poetry and prose, Jour- of his role when he first joined the court in *** dain is tickled to discover that he has in fact 1651), a passion shared by the king himself, been speaking in prose all his life.) Molière takes care to mock these instructors, too – confer upon him the honour (fictitious, of We then jump to the ‘Premier intermède’ are contributions from Spanish then Italian nameless stock characters who bicker among course) of mamamouchi. (First Interlude), which concludes the first entertainers, the latter group bringing with themselves and display their own hypocrisies. Act. Here the Dancing Master demonstrates them two Scaramouches, two Trivolinos and The final act leaves only for Jourdain’s daugh- his art. As his dancers begin, he calls out the a Harlequin – pantomime characters from the Jourdain is further humiliated by Dorante, ter and wife to divine what is going on (Jour- brief sections: Air, Sarabande, Bourrée, Gail- commedia dell’arte. a courtier (though somewhat down at heel dain himself is never let in on the ruse), and liarde. The sequence ends with the ‘Canarie’: financially), who finds that flattering Jour- the work ends with the ‘Ballet des Nations’, a a quick, triple-time dance originating from dain and assuring him that his name is being ballet within the ballet, which, unlike the other the Canary Islands, lending itself to colourful mentioned within the king’s closest circle are intermèdes (interludes), lies independent of accompaniment with guitar and tambourine. effective means of eliciting loans from him. the overall action. To add further insult to Jourdain’s gullibil- The ‘Premier air des garçons tailleurs’ and ity, Dorante is using the borrowed money to *** the ‘Deuxième air’ are danced in Act 2 by lavish gifts upon the widowed Marchioness the apprentice tailors, the former while they Dorimène, upon whom Dorante has designs – The sequence of music selected for this disc dress Jourdain in his new garments. From even though Jourdain himself intends to marry begins with the ouverture, which follows the here we cut to the Act 4 interlude, the famous her (so breaking into the desired social circle). classic French ouverture style comprising a ‘Ceremony of the Turks’, in which the Mufti slow, ceremonial first section marked by dot- (Muslim scholar)1, plus dervishes and other Jourdain refuses Cléonte permission to marry ted rhythms, followed by a quicker second Turkish dancers and musicians, arrive before his daughter (he intends for her to land a mar- section featuring imitative counterpoint. beginning the ceremony honouring Jourdain quis or perhaps a duke), whereupon Cléonte’s Lully was an early adopter of the form in his as mamamouchi. The ‘Troisième air’ forms valet hatches a plan: he appears to Jourdain in earlier Ballet d’Alcidiane (1658). part of this sham ceremony. disguise, claiming he has learnt on his travels that the son of the Sultan of Turkey, no less, The three instrumental ritournelles are from The remaining numbers come from the self- desires to marry Jourdain’s daughter and that Act 1, where they alternate with solo songs contained ‘Ballet des Nations’ concluding the foreign nobleman has arrived in the coun- penned by the Music Master as he attempts the final act (Act 5). After ‘Le donneur de try with his extensive retinue. Furthermore, to ‘show the different passions that music livre’ – the customary distribution of the livre 1 Lully performed this role himself in the first performance, on becoming Jourdain’s son-in-law, he would can express’. (the book of the ballet) to spectators – there while Molière took the role of Jourdain. RICHARD STRAUSS 1864–1949 If this opera-within-a-play weren’t a layered Three months later Hofmannsthal was talk- (TRV 228C) Der Bürger als Edelmann – suite, Op. 60 enough concept, the Ariadne end-piece ing of reworking the piece, discarding the (1911–12, REVISED 1917, ARRANGED 1918) would itself contrast and combine mythical Molière play (along with Strauss’s incidental figures – centring on the classical Greek myth music) and expanding the bridge scene that of the Cretan princess Ariadne, left aban- had linked the play to the opera into a Pro- doned by Theseus on the island of Naxos – logue, from which the opera Ariadne would with interloping characters from a commedia stem. This is the form in which the opera is 1. OUVERTURE Even before the curtain first went up on their dell’arte troupe. almost exclusively performed today. However, 2. MENUETT (MINUET) second collaboration, the comic opera Der Hofmannsthal was apparently keen that the 3. DER FECHTMEISTER Rosenkavalier in October 1911, Richard The incidental music for Le bourgeois gen- incidental music should not go to waste and so (THE FENCING MASTER) Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmanns- tilhomme came quite easily to Strauss: he – even before the premiere of this Prologue/ 4. AUFTRITT UND TANZ DER SCHNEIDER thal were discussing the subject of their next claimed it was ‘dashed off, as it were, with opera version – the librettist had set about (ENTRY AND DANCE OF THE TAILORS) project. (They had launched their partner- my left hand’. But the first performance of persuading Strauss to work with him on a full- 5. DAS MENUETT DES LULLY ship with the chilling, modernistic Elektra of the play/opera pairing was badly received. er version of the Molière play, to be performed (LULLY’S MINUET) 1906–08) After much volleying of suggest- As Strauss later recalled, ‘The charming without the opera. This arrangement, too, 6. COURANTE ions, counter-suggestions and disagreements initial idea – to move from the most sober proved far from successful at its premiere in 7. AUFTRITT DES CLÉONTE – a pattern that characterised their corre- of prose comedies to the experience of pure 1918. Hofmannsthal then suggested yet an- spondence over the 23 years of their partner- (ENTRY OF CLÉONTE) (AFTER LULLY) music – had proved a practical failure. To put other format, in which the Molière play would ship – Hofmannsthal suggested he make a it bluntly, this was because the play-going now be adapted as a self-contained opera, but 8. VORSPIEL ZUM ACTE II two-act adaptation of Molière’s Le bourgeois public had no wish to listen to opera and vice by now Strauss understandably wanted to (PRELUDE TO ACT 2) (INTERMEZZO) gentilhomme (Der Bürger als Edelmann in versa.’ It couldn’t have helped that at the first move on.