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35-617: Zampa , ou La fiancée de marbre ( Zampa, or the Marble Bride ) is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Ferdinand Hérold , with a libretto by Mélesville . The overture to the opera is one of Hérold's most famous works and is a staple of orchestral repertoire. Zampa was first performed in Paris on 3 May 1831 at the Opéra-Comique ( Salle Ventadour ), where it became popular, achieving 500 performances by 1877. In

70-540: A broken heart; and Lugano caused a marble statue of her to be erected in his palace. This statue is venerated by the local people as a saint. Camille, Lugano's daughter, is preparing to marry Alphonse, the younger son of the Monza family, who has never met his elder brother. Just then Zampa arrives on the scene, in disguise. He is thought by everyone to be in an English prison awaiting execution; but in reality he has escaped, and he has just captured Lugano. Now he has arrived at

105-826: A great success. Parisian audiences of the time also loved Italian opera, visiting the Théâtre Italien to see opera buffa and works in the newly fashionable bel canto style, especially those by Rossini , whose fame was sweeping across Europe. Rossini's influence began to pervade French opéra comique . Its presence is felt in Boieldieu's greatest success, La dame blanche (1825) as well as later works by Auber ( Fra Diavolo , 1830; Le domino noir , 1837), Ferdinand Hérold ( Zampa , 1831), and Adolphe Adam ( Le postillon de Lonjumeau , 1836). Notes Sources La V%C3%A9nus d%27Ille La Vénus d'Ille ( [la venys dij] , "The Venus of Ille ")

140-437: A production by Macha Makeïeff and Jérôme Deschamps . Time: 1590. Place: Casa Lugano, in southwestern Italy. The young Count of Monza, having dissipated the family fortune and seduced then deserted Alice Manfredi, went off to sea to become a pirate. He adopted the name Zampa . Alice Manfredi, roaming in search of her treacherous lover, was taken in and sheltered by Lugano, a wealthy merchant. Alice died shortly thereafter, of

175-466: A quandary, because the (much more attractive prospect) Dandolo has been courting her. The comic sub-plot of this trio continues to weave its way through the rest of the story. Alphonse appears, having made good his escape from the pirates, and recognises Zampa as the pirate chief. As he is in the throes of denouncing Zampa to the assembled company, a pardon arrives from the viceroy: Zampa is to be given his freedom on condition that he and his men go to fight

210-561: A short opera influenced by Pergolesi, Le Devin du village , in an attempt to introduce his ideas of musical simplicity and naturalness to France. Its success attracted the attention of the Foire theatres. The next year, the head of the Saint Laurent theatre, Jean Monnet , commissioned the composer Antoine Dauvergne to produce a French opera in the style of La serva padrona . The result was Les troqueurs , which Monnet passed off as

245-458: A wide variety of subjects from the Oriental fairy tale Zémire et Azor (1772) to the musical satire of Le jugement de Midas (1778) and the domestic farce of L'amant jaloux (also 1778). His most famous work was the historical "rescue opera", Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784), which achieved international popularity, reaching London in 1786 and Boston in 1797. Between 1724 and 1762

280-417: Is a short story by French writer Prosper Mérimée . It was written in 1835 and published in 1837 . It tells the story of a statue of Venus that comes to life and kills the son of its owner, whom it believes to be its husband. This is based on a popular medieval story, of which William of Malmesbury wrote the earliest known version. The narrator, an archeologist , is visiting the town of Ille in

315-454: Is complex in meaning and cannot simply be translated as " comic opera ". The genre originated in the early 18th century with humorous and satirical plays performed at the theatres of the Paris fairs which contained songs ( vaudevilles ), with new words set to already existing music. The phrase opéra comique en vaudevilles or similar was often applied to these early-stage works. In the middle of

350-401: Is screaming and commotion. The narrator runs down the hall to find a crowd of people surrounding the dead Alphonse, who looks as though he died in a fiery embrace. At first, he suspects that it was the rival faction from the game of Paume; but later he hears the story of Alphonse's wife, who others claim has gone crazy. She says that the statue entered the room, embraced her husband, and spent

385-634: The Languedoc-Roussillon region of France . A friend of his recommends him to M. de Peyrehorade, who is familiar with the Roman ruins in the area. When he arrives, he discovers that M. de Peyrehorade's son, Alphonse, is to be married to a certain Mademoiselle de Puygarrig, and the narrator is invited to the wedding. Meanwhile, M. de Peyrehorade shows the narrator his new discovery: a bronze statue of Venus Pudica . The narrator judges

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420-534: The Opéra-Comique theatre, as opposed to works with recitative delivery which appeared at the Paris Opéra . Thus, probably the most famous of all opéras comiques , Georges Bizet 's Carmen , is on a tragic subject. As Elizabeth Bartlet and Richard Langham Smith note in their Grove article on the subject, composers and librettists frequently rejected the use of the umbrella term opéra comique in favor of more precise labels. Opéra comique began in

455-473: The 18th century, composers began to write original music to replace the vaudevilles , under the influence of the lighter types of Italian opera (especially Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 's La serva padrona ). This form of opéra comique was often known as comédie mêlée d'ariettes , but the range of subject matter it covered expanded beyond the merely comic. By the 19th century, opéra comique often meant little more than works with spoken dialogue performed at

490-946: The 20th century however, it faded from the repertoire. It was also popular in Germany and Italy; in the latter the spoken dialogue was replaced by recitatives. It was first performed in the United States on 16 February 1833 at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans, and in the United Kingdom on 19 April 1833 at the King's Theatre in London. The opera was revived at the Opéra-Comique in March 2008 under William Christie in

525-744: The Feydeau included Luigi Cherubini , Pierre Gaveaux , Jean-François Le Sueur and François Devienne . The works of Méhul (for example Stratonice , 1792; Ariodant , 1799), Cherubini ( Lodoïska , 1791; Médée , 1797; Les Deux journées , 1800) and Le Sueur ( La caverne , 1793) in particular show the influence of serious French opera, especially Gluck , and a willingness to take on previously taboo subjects (e.g. incest in Méhul's Mélidore et Phrosine , 1794; infanticide in Cherubini's famous Médée ). Orchestration and harmony are more complex than in

560-498: The French stage. Monsigny collaborated with Sedaine in works which mixed comedy with a serious social and political element. Le roi et le fermier (1762) contains Enlightenment themes such as the virtues of the common people and the need for liberty and equality. Their biggest success, Le déserteur (1769), concerns the story of a soldier who has been condemned to death for deserting the army. Philidor's most famous opéra comique

595-718: The Opéra-Comique theatre was located at the Foire Saint Germain. In 1762 the company was merged with the Comédie-Italienne and moved to the Hôtel de Bourgogne . In 1783 a new, larger home was created for it at the Théâtre Italien (later renamed the Salle Favart ). The French Revolution brought many changes to musical life in Paris. In 1793, the name of the Comédie-Italienne was changed to

630-618: The Opéra-Comique, but it no longer had a monopoly on performing operas with spoken dialogue and faced serious rivalry from the Théâtre Feydeau , which also produced works in the opéra comique style. Opéra comique generally became more dramatic and less comic and began to show the influence of musical Romanticism . The chief composers at the Opéra-Comique during the Revolutionary era were Étienne Méhul , Nicolas Dalayrac , Rodolphe Kreutzer and Henri-Montan Berton . Those at

665-482: The Turks. All this notwithstanding, the ceremony goes ahead: Zampa and the heartbroken Camille are married. In despair, Alphonse comes at night to bid farewell to the desolate Camille. Alphonse decides to kill Zampa, but he suddenly realizes that Zampa is in fact his long-lost elder brother, and that consequently he is unable to kill him. He leaves Camille' s room. Zampa and Camille are finally alone together. However, in

700-477: The aegis of an institution called the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique. In spite of fierce opposition from rival theatres the venture flourished and leading playwrights of the time, including Alain-René Lesage and Alexis Piron , contributed works in the new form. The Querelle des Bouffons (1752–54), a quarrel between advocates of French and Italian music, was a major turning-point for opéra comique . Members of

735-481: The altar when — on the very threshold of the chapel — the statue of Alice appears and threatens Zampa. Again, Zampa refuses to be alarmed by the statue. Now Camille's companion Ritta comes on the scene; she is perplexed about two things: first, that Camille is, although apparently unwillingly, about to marry a stranger; and second, that neither the bride's father Lugano nor Alphonse is there. Then Ritta spots Daniel, her supposedly dead husband; this places her in

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770-414: The castle steward, to prepare rooms and bring wine for them all. During the ensuing feast Daniel, Zampa' s first mate, notices the statue of Alice. For a joke, Zampa places a ring on the marble Alice's finger and declares her his fiancée for the night. However, when he tries to remove the ring, the statue's hand closes — to the terror of all except Zampa. The following day, Zampa is leading Camille to

805-560: The early eighteenth century in the theatres of the two annual Paris fairs, the Foire Saint Germain and the Foire Saint Laurent. Here plays began to include musical numbers called vaudevilles , which were existing popular tunes refitted with new words. The plays were humorous and often contained satirical attacks on the official theatres such as the Comédie-Française . In 1715 the two fair theatres were brought under

840-448: The entire night with him in her arms. In the morning, the statue left him there and returned to her pedestal. The narrator leaves town to return to Paris . He later hears that M. de Peyrehorade has died, and his wife had the statue melted down and turned into a bell for the local church. The narrator remarks that since the bell has been installed, the crops have been destroyed twice by frost. The Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck drew on

875-475: The final fatal twist of the story, just as Zampa goes to take Camille in his arms, the statue of Alice Manfredi appears again between the couple, and drags Zampa down to hell. (This aspect of the plot is clearly a pastiche of the plot of Mozart 's Don Giovanni , and also bears striking similarity to Mérimée 's La Vénus d'Ille , written some four years after the first performance of Hérold's opera.) Notes Op%C3%A9ra comique The term opéra comique

910-437: The most famous of these dramatists. Notable composers of opéras comiques in the 1750s and 1760s include Egidio Duni , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny and François-André Danican Philidor . Duni, an Italian working at the francophile court of Parma , composed Le peintre amoureux de son modèle in 1757 with a libretto by Anseaume. Its success encouraged the composer to move to Paris permanently and he wrote 20 or so more works for

945-585: The music of the previous generation; attempts are made to reduce the amount of spoken dialogue, and unity is provided by techniques such as the "reminiscence motif" (recurring musical themes representing a character or idea). In 1801 the Opéra-Comique and the Feydeau merged for financial reasons. The changing political climate – more stable under the rule of Napoleon – was reflected in musical fashion as comedy began to creep back into opéra-comique . The lighter new offerings of Boieldieu (such as Le calife de Bagdad , 1800) and Isouard ( Cendrillon , 1810) were

980-422: The palace to demand a ransom for Lugano's release. Zampa is smitten by Camille's beauty and so, in addition, he demands her for himself as the price for Lugano's life. In order to save her father, Camille is thus forced to break her engagement to Alphonse, who is removed from the scene when he, too, is captured by the pirates. Zampa is then joined by his pirates. They take possession of the palace and order Dandolo,

1015-442: The pro-Italian faction, such as the philosopher and musician Jean-Jacques Rousseau , attacked serious French opera, represented by the tragédies en musique of Jean-Philippe Rameau , in favor of what they saw as the simplicity and "naturalness" of Italian comic opera ( opera buffa ), exemplified by Pergolesi 's La serva padrona , which had recently been performed in Paris by a traveling Italian troupe. In 1752, Rousseau produced

1050-416: The statue has closed her fingers around it. The narrator does not believe Alphonse's story, since Alphonse has been drinking heavily at the reception, and he goes to bed. During the night, the narrator hears heavy footsteps climbing the stairs; but he assumes that it is a drunken Alphonse going to bed. In the morning, after the cock's crow, he hears the same steps retreating down the stairs. Suddenly, there

1085-452: The statue to be very old and deciphers the inscription. Both men marvel at her fierce gaze; she is as frightening as she is beautiful. Before the wedding, the groom decides to play a game of Paume , and he slips the wedding ring intended for his fiancée onto a finger of the statue. He wins the game, but his opponent swears revenge. He accidentally leaves the ring with the statue; and when he goes back later to retrieve it, he discovers that

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1120-496: The story for his 1922 opera Venus as well as on the similar novella The Marble Statue (Das Marmorbild) by German writer Joseph von Eichendorff . In 1931, the story was adapted as "The Bronze Venus," a 30-minute episode of the radio show The Witch's Tale . It was also adapted as a 60-minute episode of an Italian TV anthology series called The Devil's Games . It was directed by famed Italian horror film director Mario Bava , with his son Lamberto Bava co-directing. The TV episode

1155-472: The work of an Italian composer living in Vienna who was fluent in French, thus fooling the partisans of Italian music into giving it a warm welcome. Dauvergne's opera, with a simple plot, everyday characters, and Italianate melodies, had a huge influence on subsequent opéra comique , setting a fashion for composing new music, rather than recycling old tunes. Where it differed from later opéras comiques , however,

1190-431: Was Tom Jones (1765), based on Henry Fielding 's 1749 novel of the same name. It is notable for its realistic characters and its many ensembles. The most important and popular composer of opéra comique in the late 18th century was André Grétry . Grétry successfully blended Italian tunefulness with a careful setting of the French language. He was a versatile composer who expanded the range of opéra comique to cover

1225-485: Was that it contained no spoken dialogue. In this, Dauvergne was following the example of Pergolesi's La serva padrona . The short, catchy melodies which replaced the vaudevilles were known as ariettes and many opéras comiques in the late 18th century were styled comédies mêlées d'ariettes . Their librettists were often playwrights, skilled at keeping up with the latest trends in the theatre. Louis Anseaume , Michel-Jean Sedaine and Charles Simon Favart were among

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