6-459: Tancrède is a 1702 tragédie en musique (a French opera in the lyric tragedy tradition) in a prologue and five acts by composer André Campra and librettist Antoine Danchet , based on Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso . The opera contains 23 dances in addition to the singing. It is famous for having the alleged first contralto role in French opera. (However, in modern terms it
12-638: Is considered more of a mezzo-soprano range.) The role was written for Julie d'Aubigny , known as 'La Maupin', the most colorful singer of this era. It's also notable for the unusual choice of three low-lying voices for the main male parts. Tancrède was first performed on 7 November 1702 by the Académie Royale de Musique at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris under the direction of Marin Marais . It
18-464: The Italian romantic epics of Tasso and Ariosto . The stories may not necessarily have a tragic ending – in fact, most do not – but the works' atmospheres are suffused throughout with an affect of nobility and stateliness. The standard tragédie en musique has five acts. Early works in the genre were preceded by an allegorical prologue and, during the lifetime of Louis XIV , these generally celebrated
24-421: The chorus and the ballet troupe. Composers sometimes changed the order of these features in an act for dramatic reasons. Apart from Lully, the most considerable writer of tragédies en musique is Rameau , whose five works in the form are considered the culminating masterpieces of the genre. The Viking Opera Guide refers to Marc-Antoine Charpentier 's tragédie Médée as "arguably the finest French opera of
30-403: The king's noble qualities and his prowess in war. Each of the five acts usually follows a basic pattern, opening with an aria in which one of the main characters expresses their feelings, followed by dialogue in recitative interspersed with short arias ( petits airs ), in which the main business of the plot occurs. Each act traditionally ends with a divertissement , offering great opportunities for
36-499: Was successful and remained in the repertoire until the 1760s. Trag%C3%A9die en musique Tragédie en musique ( French: [tʁaʒedi ɑ̃ myzik] , musical tragedy), also known as tragédie lyrique ( French: [tʁaʒedi liʁik] , lyric tragedy), is a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas in this genre are usually based on stories from classical mythology or
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