La rencontre imprévue
Template:Gluck operasLes pèlerins de la Mecque ou La rencontre imprévue Wq. 32 (The Unexpected Encounter, or,The Pilgrims to Mecca) is a comédie mêlée d'ariettes, a form of opéra comique, composed in 1763 by Christoph Willibald Gluck to a libretto by Louis Hurtaut Dancourt after the 1726 play by Alain René Lesage and d'Orneval.. The death of Isabella of Parma, the archduke's wife, occasioned a revision of the spoken text downplaying the feigned death by which princess Rezia tests her beloved. The work was first performed in this form as La rencontre imprévue at the Burgtheater, Vienna on January 7, 1764, and although often revived as Die Pilger von Mekka, the original version was not premiered until 1990.[1]
La rencontre imprévue was adapted and supplied with new music by Haydn as L'incontro improvviso (1775) and the 1780 revival of Gluck's version presumably inspired the plot of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. In 1784 Mozart wrote a set of variations for piano (K.455) on Osmin's aria "Unser dummer Pöbel meint" ("Les hommes pieusement"). In 1887 the variations were orchestrated by Tchaikovsky as the final movement of his orchestral Suite No.4 "Mozartiana".
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, January 7, 1764 (Conductor: – ) |
|---|---|---|
| Ali | haute-contre | Godard |
| Osmin, his servant | tenor | Pierre-Nicolas Oyez |
| Rezia, beloved of Ali, prisoner of the Sultan | soprano | |
| Amine, Balkis & Dardané, her attendants in the harem | soprano | |
| Vertigo. a painter | bass | |
| Calender, a dervish | bass | |
| Le Sultan | tenor[citation needed] | |
| Le chef de caravane | bass |
References
- ^ Bruce Alan Brown: "'La rencontre imprévue" in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
External links
- Amazon review of John Eliot Gardiner's recording
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