Amadis (Lully)

"Amadis" or "Amadis de Gaule" (Amadis of Gaul) is a "tragédie en musique" in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully to a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Nicolas Herberay des Essarts' adaptation of Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo's "Amadis de Gaula". It was premiered at the Paris Opéra January 18 1684. There was a later production at Versailles without machines in 1685. [Roscow]

Performance history

"Amadis" was the first "tragédie en musique" to be based on chivalric rather than mythological themes; Lully's last three completed operas followed in this course. Louis XIV of France chose the theme. In the dance troupe the principal male dancers were Pierre Beauchamps, Louis Guillaume Pécour and Lestang, and the principal female dancers were La Fontaine, Carré and Pesan. There were eight revivals of the opera in Paris between 1687 and 1771. Between 1687 and 1729 it was produced in Amsterdam, The Hague, Marseilles, Rouen, Brussels, Lunéville, Lyon, and Dijon. Today the most famous aria from "Amadis" is Amadis' much anthologized monologue from act two, [http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an24213665 "Bois épais"] . At the beginning of the same act Arcabonne sings "Amour, que veux-tu de moy?", as once did ‘every cook in France’, according to Le Cerf de la Viéville (Comparaison, 1704–6) [Roscow]

Roles

References

*Lois Roscow. "Amadis", "Grove Music Online", ed. L. Macy (accessed July 23 2006), [http://www.grovemusic.com/ grovemusic.com] (subscription access).

External links

* [http://www.unt.edu/lully/Amadis/Amadplot.html Plot summary] on University of North Texas
* [http://www.library.unt.edu/music/lully/Amadis1684/amadis.pdf Original printed score (pdf)]
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