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La Magicienne är en grand opera i fem akter med musik av Jacques Fromental Halévy. Librettot av Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges bygger på historier om den europeiska folkfiguren Melusina, särskilt då Coudrettes 1400-talsverk Roman de Mélusine. Operan hade premiär den 17 mars 1858 i Théâtre de l'Académie Impériale de Musique i Paris. Den fick ett blandat mottagande och efter de första 45 föreställningarna glömdes den bort och spelades inte förrän 2011 i Montpellier i en kraftigt nerkortad konsertversion.
La Magicienne var Halévys sista fullbordade opera. Liksom hans tidigare 'grand opera' Le Juif errant, som hade premiär 1852 med libretto av Saint-Georges, byggde verket på en europeisk, mytologisk figur och kombinerade övernaturliga element med kristna teman. Enligt musikforskarena Karl Leich-Galland och Diana Hallman kontrasterar den uttryckliga religiositeten (särskilt i finalakten som Leich-Galland beskriver som en scenisk motsvarighet till ett kristet oratorium) med den antiklerikala uppfattningen såsom den uttrycks i Halévys grand opera La Juive från 1835. Både Hallman och Leich-Galland föreslår att detta skifte kan ha sin grund i det närmande som kyrka och stat gjorde under det andra franska kejsardömet och som kan återfinnas i andra grand operas från den perioden.[1][2]
The medieval legend of Mélusine on which the libretto is loosely based has various versions. A common thread running through them is that she is the daughter of a fairy mother and a human father and possessed of supernatural powers. Like her mother, Mélusine married a human and forbade him from seeing her at certain times lest he see her true form, a creature that is half woman and half serpent (or fish in some versions). In many versions, especially those by Jean d'Arras (1393) and Coudrette (1401), Mélusine's husband was the founder of the House of Lusignan. She used her powers to build his castle, the Château de Lusignan, and bring him great riches. He discovered her secret one day when spying on her in her bath, and later in a fit of anger, called her a serpent in front of the assembled court. Outraged at this affront, she transformed herself into a winged serpent and flew out of the castle, never to return in human form.[3][4]
In La magicienne, Mélusine lives alone in the Lusignan château. Her magic powers derive not from her ancestry as the daughter of a fairy but from a Faustian pact with the devil (personified in the opera by the Chevalier Stello di Nici). In his preface to the libretto Saint-Georges explained that the transformation of Mélusine into a horrible winged serpent in the "crude" form of the original legend could not be replicated in the theatre. Instead, he made her a woman whose future soul had become the devil's property and who was condemned in the present to be "beautiful by day and ugly by night".[5] Her ultimate transformation in the opera is from a pagan to a Christian rather than from a woman to a monster. Some contemporary critics noted that the Mélusine of Saint-Georges' libretto scarcely resembled that of the medieval legend which was well known to French audiences of the time. She seemed more akin to the Circe of ancient Greece or Tasso's Armida.[1][2]
La magicienne premiered on 17 March 1858 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Impériale de Musique in Paris in a lavish production attended by Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie.[6] The elaborate stage settings were created by a team of designers and painters that included Joseph Nolau, Auguste Alfred Rubé, Joseph Thierry and Charles Cambon.[7] As is traditional in the grand opera genre, the production contained several ballets, including one in the second act depicting a human chess game. The supernatural themes were reflected in several scenes populated by large numbers of mythical creatures. One of the ballets in the first act specified 40 fairies and 6 genies. The fourth act ballet had an even greater variety of creatures: 18 nymphs, 18 naiads and sirens, 14 fairies, 8 genies, and an assortment of butterflies, salamanders, gnomes, and ondines.[5]
The opening night reviews were mixed. Hector Berlioz writing in the Journal des Debats described Halévy's score as one of "power and grandeur" and filled with "many beautiful passages". He noted that the composer had rightly dispensed with an overture given the number of "instrumental treasures" present in the remainder of the score. However, in private both Berlioz and Gounod expressed doubts about the work.[1][8] The critic from Revue des Deux Mondes was scathing.[1] The critic from La Gazette Musicale noted that a great deal of favourable publicity about the production had appeared in the press during the six months prior to the opening, but at the premiere,
La Magicienne has not quite fulfilled general expectation. We are stating a fact, not pronouncing a judgment, for it is impossible to utter a downright and irrevocable opinion at one hearing. Nevertheless, when a grand opera contains beauties of a high order, it rarely happens that some few are not perceptible at once, and for such we sought in vain.[9]
La magicienne ran for 45 performances with the last one on 2 February 1859.[10] It received no further stagings until it was revived in a heavily cut concert version performed in 2011 at the Opéra Berlioz during the Festival Radio-France Montpellier. The concert performance (also broadcast live on Radio France) featured Marianne Crebassa as Mélusine, Norah Amsellem as Blanche, Florian Laconi as René, and Marc Barrard as Stello de Nici. Lawrence Foster conducted the Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon.[11][12]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 17 March 1858[5] |
|---|---|---|
| Mélusine, Countess of Lusignan, a sorceress | mezzo-soprano | Adelaide Borghi-Mamo |
| René, Viscount of Thouars | tenor | Louis Gueymard |
| Chevalier Stello di Nici, a sorcerer | baritone | Marc Bonnehée |
| Blanche, René's fiancée | soprano | Pauline Guéymard-Lauters |
| Count of Poitou, Blanche's father | bass | Jules-Bernard Belval |
| Aloïs, Blanche's page | soprano | Cécile Pétronille Morache ("Delisle") |
| Sorcerers, servants, lords and ladies of the Count of Poitou's court, ancient Greek maidens and priests, villagers, nuns, fairies, nymphs, sprites, etc. | ||
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