Tragédie en musique (, musical tragedy), also known as tragédie lyrique (, 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 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 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 the chorus and the ballet troupe. Composers sometimes changed the order of these features in an act for dramatic reasons.
Notable examples of the genre
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 the seventeenth century". In the eighteenth century, Jean-Marie Leclair's lone tragédie Scylla et Glaucus has been similarly praised. Other highly esteemed exponents are André Campra (Tancrède, Idoménée), Marin Marais (Alcyone, Sémélé) and Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (Jephté).
List of works in this genre
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Cadmus et Hermione (1673) Alceste (1674) Thésée (1675) Atys (1676) Isis (1677) Psyché (1678) Bellérophon (1679) Proserpine (1680) Persée (1682) Phaëthon (1683) Amadis (1684) Roland (1685) Armide (1686) Achille et Polyxène (1687, completed by Pascal Collasse)
Works by Lully's sons
Orphée (1690) (by Louis and Jean-Baptiste the Younger) Alcide (by Louis Lully and Marin Marais)
Paolo Lorenzani
Oronthée (1688)
Pascal Collasse
Thétis et Pélée (1689) Énée et Lavinie (1691) Astrée (1691) Jason, ou La toison d'or (1696) Canente (1700) Polyxène et Pirrhus (1706)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
David et Jonathas (1688) Celse martyr (1687, lost) Philomèle (lost) Artaxerse (lost) Médée (1693)
Henri Desmarets
Didon (1693) Circé (1694) Théagène et Chariclée (1695) Vénus et Adonis (1697) Iphigénie en Tauride (1704, completed by Campra) Renaud ou la suite d'Armide (1722)
Marin Marais
Alcide (1693) (with Lully's son, Louis) Ariane et Bacchus (1696) Alcyone (1706) Sémélé (1709)
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre
Céphale et Procris (1694)
Charles-Hubert Gervais
Méduse (1697) Hypermnestre (1716)
André Cardinal Destouches
Amadis de Grèce (1699) Marthésie, reine des Amazones (1699) Omphale (1701) Callirhoé (1712) Télémaque (or Télémaque et Calypso) (1714) Sémiramis (1718)
André Campra
Hésione (1700) Tancrède (1702) Télémaque (1704) Alcine (1705) Hippodamie (1708) Idoménée (1712) Télèphe (1713) Camille, reine des volsques (1717) Achille et Déidamie (1735)
Theobaldo di Gatti
Scylla (1701)
Jean-Féry Rebel
Ulysse (1703)
François Bouvard
Médus, roi des Mèdes (1702)
Louis Lacoste
Philomèle (1705) Bradamante (1707) Créuse l'athénienne (1712) Télégone (1725) Orion (1728) Biblis (1732)
Toussaint Bertin de la Doué
Cassandre (1706) (with François Bouvard) Diomède (1710) Ajax (1712)
Jean-Baptiste Stuck
Méléagre (1709) Manto la fée (1711) Polydore (1720)
Joseph François Salomon
Médée et Jason (1713) Théonoé (1715)
Jean-Baptiste Matho
Arion (1714)
Jean-Joseph Mouret
Ariane (1717) Pirithoüs (1723)
François Francoeur and François Rebel
Pirame et Thisbé (1726) Tarsis et Zélie (1728) Scanderberg (1735)
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer
Pyrrhus (1730) Prométhée et Pandore (1744) Lost
Michel Pignolet de Montéclair
Jephté (1732)
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) Samson (lost) Castor et Pollux (1737) Dardanus (1739) Zoroastre (1749) Linus (1750) (lost) Les Boréades (1764)
Charles-Louis Mion
Nitétis (1741)
François Colin de Blamont
Jupiter vainqueur des Titans (1745) (with Bernard de Bury)
Jean-Marie Leclair
Scylla et Glaucus (1746)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Daphné (1748)
Marquis de Brassac
Léandre et Héro (1750)
Antoine Dauvergne Énée et Lavinie (1758) Canente (1760) Hercule mourant (1761) Polixène (1763)
Jean-Benjamin de La Borde Ismène et Isménias (1763)
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville
Thésée (1765) Lost
François-Joseph Gossec
Sabinus (1773) Thésée (1782)
François-André Danican Philidor
Persée (1780) Thémistocle (1785) Ernelinde, princesse de Norvège (1767)
Niccolò Piccinni
Roland (1778) Atys (1780) Iphigénie en Tauride (1781) Adèle de Ponthieu (1781) Didon (1783) Pénélope (1785) Clytemnestre (1787)
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Armide (Gluck) (1777)
Johann Christian Bach
Amadis de Gaule (J. C. Bach) (1779)
Antonio Sacchini Renaud (1783) Canente (1760) Dardanus (1783) Œdipe à Colone (1786) Arvire et Évélina (1788) unfinished, completed by Jean-Baptiste Rey
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne
Électre (1782) Phèdre (1786) Nephté (1789)
Charles-Simon Catel • Sémiramis (1802)
Luigi Cherubini
Démophoon (1788) Les Abencérages, ou L'étendard de Grenade (1813) Ali Baba, ou Les quarante voleurs (1833)
Gaspare Spontini
La vestale (1807)
Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique (1809)
Olimpie (1819)
Anton Reicha
Sapho (1822)
Gioachino Rossini
Le siège de Corinthe (1826)
References Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages,
Further reading
External links