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Adèle de Ponthieu (La Borde and Berton)

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Adèle de Ponthieu is an opera by the French composers Jean-Benjamin de La Borde and Pierre Montan Berton, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris (the Paris Opera) on 1 December 1772. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto was written by Jean-Paul-André Razins de Saint-Marc, after a tragedy by Pierre-Antoine de La Place, staged at the Comédie-Française in 1757.[1]

The opera had little success in its first run and was only revived in 1775 in five acts, for 38 performances, before being withdrawn for good.[2] The three-act libretto, however, was later set by Niccolò Piccinni in 1781.

Roles

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Cast Voice type Premiere
1 December 1772
Guillaume, Count of Ponthieu basse-taille (bass-baritone) Henri Larrivée
Adèle, the Count's daughter soprano Sophie Arnould
Alphonse, a foreign knight bass-baritone Nicolas Gélin
Raimond de Mayenne, a relative of the Count and a humble squire haute-contre Joseph Legros
Alise, Adèle's confidante soprano Mlle Châteauneuf
Juges du camp (judges of the camp) 2 bass-baritones, haute-contre, taille (baritenor) Cassaignade, de la Suze, Cavalier, Méon
Un berger (a shepherd) bass-baritone Durand
Une bergère (a shepherdess) soprano Mlle Beaumesnil (stage name of Henriette-Adélaïde de Villars)
Une jongleuse (a female jongleur) soprano Mlle Beaumesnil
Chorus: The court of the Count, knights, squires, king of arms, heralds, officers of the joust, fiddlers, male and female jongleurs, shepherds, shepherdesses

References

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Notes
  1. ^ Pitou, pp. 9-10. Cf. Adèle, comtesse de Ponthieu, Tragédie. Par M. de la Place. Représentée par les Comédiens Ordinaire du Roi, le 28 Avril 1757, & remise au Théâtre au mois de Novembre de la même année, Paris, Jorry, 1758 (copy at books.google).
  2. ^ Lajarte, p. 256.
Sources
  • (in French) Théodore Lajarte, Bibliothèque Musicale du Théatre de l'Opéra. Catalogue Historique, Chronologique, Anecdotique, Tome 1, Paris, Librairie des bibliophiles, 1878 (copy at Internet Archive)
  • Spire Pitou, The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715-1815, Greenwood Press, Westport/London, 1985. ISBN 0-313-24394-8
  • (in French) Original 1772 libretto at Gallica, BNF
  • (in French) Félix Clément and Pierre Larousse Dictionnaire des Opéras, p. 6