Les dragons de Villars
Les dragons de Villars is an opéra-comique in three acts by Aimé Maillart to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Joseph-Philippe Lockroy.[1]
Performance history
The piece was first offered to the director of the Opéra-Comique, Émile Perrin, who found the piece too dark, even after having the composer play some of it to him. It was next offered to Edmond Seveste, then directeur of the Théâtre-Lyrique who also rejected it. Some years later, the authors met Carvalho, who had just taken over the direction of the Théâtre-Lyrique, and who accepted the completed piece without reading a word or hearing a note.[2]
Les dragons de Villars had its premiere in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique, on 19 September 1856 and notched up over 150 performances there up to 1863. It was to become popular throughout Europe, as well as being staged in New Orleans (1859), New York (1868) and Mauritius (1872).[1] Revived at the Opéra-Comique in 1868, it achieved 377 performances at that theatre up to 1950.[3] A production was also mounted at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris on 3 June 1935. Mahler conducted the piece in Budapest in 1888, and Furtwängler conducted it in Strasbourg in 1910. The opera was in the repertory of the Opera de la Monnaie in Brussels from 1942 to 1953. More recently, it was staged in 1986 in Montpellier.
Synopsis
The story of the opera was said to have been borrowed from La Petite Fadette by Georges Sand, updated by the librettists to the time of Louis XIV.[4] The scene is laid in a French mountain-village near the frontier with Savoy towards the close of the war in the Cevennes in 1704.
Act I
Peasant women in the service of Thibaut, a rich country squire, are collecting fruit. Georgette, Thibaut's young wife, controls their work. She treats them to a favourite Provencal song, in which a young girl, forgetting her vows made to a young soldier, gives her hand to another suitor. She is interrupted by the sound of trumpets. Thibaut hurries in and tells the women to hide themselves at once, because soldiers are marching into the village. He conceals his own wife in the pigeon-house. A detachment of dragoons arrive, and Bellamy, their corporal, asks for food and wine at Thibaut's house. He learns that there is nothing to be had and also that all the women have fled, fearing the unprincipled soldiers of King Louis XIV who have been sent in pursuit of a group of Protestant fugitives – or Camisards – hiding in the mountains; and that the 'Dragons de Villars' are said to be an especially wild and dissolute set.
Bellamy, disgusted, and after having had dinner and a sleep in Thibaut's own bed, decides to march on. The squire gladly offers to accompany the soldiers to St Gratien's grotto near the hermitage, where they have orders to search for the Huguenot refugees. While Bellamy is sleeping, Thibaut calls his servant Silvain and scolds him because he has now repeatedly been absent over-long on his errands; finally he orders him to saddle the mules.
Silvain stammers out that they have gone astray in the mountains, but he is sure of their being found. While Thibaut expresses his fear that they have been stolen by the fugitives, Rose Friquet, an orphan-girl, brings the mules, riding on the back of one of them. Thibaut reproaches her, but Silvain thanks her warmly, and though she mockingly repudiates his thanks, he discovers that she has taken the mules to divert Thibaut’s attention from Sylvain's secret missions to bring food each day to the refugees. Silvain carries food every day to the refugees, and Rose Friquet, a poor goat-keeper, despised and supposed to be wicked and malicious, protects him because he once intercepted a stone, which was meant for her head.
While the soldiers are eating, Bellamy, who has found Georgette's bonnet, demands an explanation. Thibaut finds a pretext for going out, but Rose lets out to Bellamy Georgette's hiding-place. The young wife cries for help and Rose runs in to fetch Thibaut. Bellamy is delighted with the pretty Georgette, but she tells anxiously, that all the women in the village must remain true to their husbands, for the hermit of St Gratien (though dead for two hundred years), is keeping watch, and at any case of infidelity will ring a little bell, which is heard far and wide. Bellamy would like to try the experiment with Georgette, and asks her to accompany him to the hermitage instead of her husband. After having found the other women in the village, the soldiers, to Thibaut's annoyance, decide to stay and amuse themselves. But Silvain rejoices, and after a sign from Rose resolves to warn the refugees in the evening.
Act II
Rose and Silvain meet near St Gratien. Rose tells him that all the paths are blocked by sentries, but promises to show the refugees a path that only she and her goats. Silvain, thanks her and tries to induce her to care more for her appearance, praising her pretty features. Rose is delighted to hear this, and there follows a charming duet. Silvain promises to be her friend and then leaves to seek the Camisards. Thibaut now appears, seeking his wife, whom he has seen going away with Bellamy. Finding Rose, he imagines he has mistaken her for his wife, but she laughingly corrects him and he proceeds to search for Georgette. Bellamy now comes and courts Thibaut's wife. But Rose, seeing them, resolves to free the path for the others. No sooner has Bellamy tried to snatch a kiss from his companion, than Rose pulls the rope of the hermit's bell until Georgette takes flight, while Thibaut rushes up at the sound of the bell. Bellamy reassures him, intimating that the bell may have rung for Rose (though it never rings for maids) and accompanies him to the village. But he turns to look for the supposed hermit, and finds Rose instead, who does not see him. To his great surprise Silvain leads the whole troop of refugees and presents Rose to them as their deliverer and vows to make her his wife. Rose leads them to the secret path, while Silvain returns to the village, leaving Bellamy triumphant at his discovery.
Act III
On the following morning the villagers talk of nothing but Silvain's wedding with Rose and the hermit's bell ringing. Nobody knows who was the culprit; Thibaut, having learned that the soldiers had been commanded to saddle their horses in the midst of the dancing the night before, and that Bellamy, sure of his prey, has come back, he believes that Rose has betrayed the Camisards in order to win the price set on their heads.
To keep Bellamy away from Georgette, the squire has taken him to the wine-cellar, and the officer, now half-drunk, admits to having had a rendez-vous with Rose. When Thibaut has retired, Bellamy again kisses Georgette, – but the bell does not ring!
Meanwhile Rose comes down the hill, neatly clad and glowing with joy. Georgette, disregarding Thibaut's reproofs, offers her the wedding-garland. The whole village is assembled to see the wedding, but Silvain appears and when Rose radiantly greets him, he pushes her back fiercely, believing Thibaut’s whispers that she betrayed the refugees, who are, as he has heard, caught. Rose is too proud to defend herself, but when Georgette tries to console her, she silently produces a paper proving that the refugees have safely crossed the frontier; Silvain is ashamed. Suddenly Bellamy enters, beside himself with rage, for his prey has escaped and he has lost his rank together with the prize of 200 pistoles. He at once orders Silvain to be shot, but Rose bravely defends her lover, threatening to reveal the dragoon's neglect of duty at the hermitage. When Bellamy's superior appears to hear the news, his corporal is only able to stammer out that nothing in particular has happened, and so after all, Georgette is saved from discovery, and Rose becomes Silvain's happy bride. [5]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast,[3] 19 September, 1856 (Conductor: Adolphe Deloffre) |
Opéra-Comique premiere, 5 June 1868 (Conductor: Adolphe Deloffre) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgette | soprano | Caroline Girard | Caroline Girard |
| Rose Friquet | mezzo soprano | Juliette Borgheze | Galli-Marié |
| Sylvain | tenor | Scott | Paul Lhérie |
| Thibaut | bass | Adolphe Girardot | Ponchard |
| Bellamy | bass | Grillon | Auguste Barré |
| Pasteur | baritone | Henry Adam | Bernard |
| Dragon | tenor | Quinchez | Michaud |
| Lieutenant | tenor | Garcin | Eugène |
Recordings
1961 with Susanne Lafaye (Rose Friquet), Andrée Esposito (Georgette), André Mallabrera (Sylvain), Julien Haas (Bellamy), Pierre Heral (Thibault); conducted by Richard Blareau.
1948 (in German) with Maria Madlen Madsen (Rose Friquet), Hanna Clauss (Georgette), Franz Fehringer (Sylvain), Kurt Gester (Bellamy), Willi Hofmann (Thibaut); conducted by Kurt Schröder.
Notes
- ^ a b Aimé Maillart. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997
- ^ Soubies A, Malherbe C. Histoire de l'opéra comique - La seconde salle Favart 1840-1887. Flammarion, Paris, 1893.
- ^ a b Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.
- ^ Walsh TJ. Second Empire Opera: The Théâtre Lyrique Paris 1851-1870. John Calder, London, 1981.
- ^ Synopsis adapted from: Annesley, Charles. The standard opera glass : containing the detailed plots of one hundred and thirty celebrated operas. Sampson Low, Marston, London, Lemcke & Buechner, New York, 1901.
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