Amadis
Opera by Jules Massenet
Middle-aged man, receding hair, moustached, looking at camera
The composer, Jules Massenet, photographed by Eugène Pirou, 1895
LibrettistJules Claretie
LanguageFrench
Based onAmadis de Gaula
by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo
Premiere
1 April 1922 (1922-04-01)
Opéra de Monte Carlo

Amadis is an opera in three acts with prologue by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie based on the Spanish knight-errantry romance Amadis de Gaula, originally of Portuguese origin, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.

It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 1 April 1922, nearly ten years after Massenet's death. Massenet had started to compose the piece in 1895 but shelved it and completed it clandestinely in the last years of his life. Amadis is one of three operas by Massenet to have been premiered posthumously; the others are Panurge (1913) and Cléopâtre (1914).

Amadis has gained no lasting popularity but was revived (and recorded on the Koch Swann label) during the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne, France in 1988.

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere cast,[1] 1 April 1922
(Conductor: Léon Jehin)
Amadis contralto "Djéma Vécla" (Margherita Grandi)
Floriane soprano Nelly Martyl
Galaor tenor Goffin
Le Roi Raimbert bass Gustave Huberdeau
Wenzel of Norway tenor Charles Delmas
Zorzi of Sicily tenor Carlo Bertossa
Curneval of Thuringe tenor Sini
Perdigon of Ireland baritone Ceresole
Arnaud of Aquitaine baritone Amurgis
Golias of Spain baritone Morange
Orlinde soprano Lucette Korsoff
Béatrice soprano Bilhon
Simone soprano Rossignol
Guillemette soprano Orsoni
Marguerite soprano Rogery
Hélène soprano Lecroix
La Fée spoken Féval
Hunter spoken Stéphane
Princess Elisène mute Sedova
Amadis and Galaor as children mute Rosa Brothers

Synopsis

The story takes place in ancient Brittany and concerns the brothers Amadis and Galaor, separated at birth. Amadis kills Galaor in the final scene in a duel over the princess Floriane. When Amadis discovers magic stones around Galaor's neck identical to those given to him and his long lost brother by their dying mother, he realizes it is his brother he has killed.

References

  1. ↑ Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Amadis, 1 April 1922". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
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