Belle Epoque French opera (Erlanger, Leroux, Bruneau, Hue, Fevrier)

[Maury]

I just want to get these turn of the century French opera composers' operas documented in one place. I have no idea if these opera lists are correct or complete but obviously we can revise as needed.

I already posted the Camille Erlanger operas under La Sorciere but for convenience here they are again.

Camille Erlanger

*La Légende de Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier, légende dramatique in three acts and seven tableaux, after the story by Gustave Flaubert, (1888) * not clear if opera or other stage work

·  Kermaria, drame lyrique in three acts, libretto by Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, Opéra-Comique 8 February 1897

·  Faublas, libretto by Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, 1897

·  Le Juif polonais, after a novel by Erckmann-Chatrian, Opéra-Comique, 11 April 1900

·  Le Fils de l'étoile, drame musical in five acts, libretto by Catulle Mendès, 20 April 1904, Palais Garnier

·  La Glu, drame lyrique after the novel by Jean Richepin

·  Aphrodite, drame musical in five acts and seven tableaux after the novel by Pierre Louÿs, adaptation by Louis de Gramont, 23 (or 27 ?) March 1906, Opéra-Comique

·  Bacchus triomphant, 11 September 1909, Bordeaux

·  L'aube rouge, 29 December 1911, Rouen

·  Hannele Mattern, rêve lyrique in five acts (1911), libretto by Jean Thorel and Louis-Ferdinand de Gramont (1854–1912) after the drama Hanneles Himmelfahrt by Gerhart Hauptmann, 28 January 1950, Strasbourg (Opéra du Rhin)

·  La Sorcière, 18 December 1912, Paris

·  Le Barbier de Deauville, 1917

·  La Forfaiture, 1921, posthumous premiere Paris after 1915 film The Cheat


Xavier Leroux

Astarté is an opera in four acts and five scenes to a libretto by Louis de Gramont. It was premiered at the Opéra de Paris on 15 February 1901, directed by Pedro Gailhard.

Les cadeaux de Noël (The Christmas Gifts) is an opera in one act to a French-language libretto by Émile Fabre.[1] Described as a conte héroïque (heroic tale), it was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart Theatre in Paris on Christmas Day 1915.

La reine Fiammette is an opera in four acts. The opera uses a French language libretto by Catulle Mendès which is based on Mendès's 1898 work of the same name, a conte dramatique in six acts set in Renaissance Italy.


Georges Hüe


    Les Pantins, opéra comique (2 acts, E. Montagne), f.p. 28 December 1881, Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris.

    Le Roi de Paris, opéra (3 acts, H. Bouchut), f.p. 26 April 1901, Opéra, Paris.

    Titania, opéra (3 acts, L. Gallet & A. Corneau), f.p. 20 January 1903, Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris.

    Le Miracle, opéra (5 acts, P.B. Gheusi & A. Mérane), f.p. 14 December 1910, Opéra, Paris.

    Dans l'ombre de la cathédrale, opéra (3 acts, M. Léna & H. Ferrare, after Blasco Ibanez), f.p. 7 December 1921, Opéra, Paris.

    Siang-Sin, ballet-pantomime (2 acts, P. Jobbé-Duval), f.p. 12 March 1924, Opéra, Paris.

    Riquet à la houppe ("Prince Riquet with the Tuft") comédie-musicale (3 acts, R. Gastambide, after Perrault), f.p. 17 December 1928, Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris.

Alfred Bruneau

Angelo, tyran de Padoue is a 1928 opera, with a libretto by Charles Méré, based on the 1835 play Angelo, Tyrant of Padua by Victor Hugo.

 L'attaque du moulin (The Attack on the Mill) is a drame lyrique (opera) in four acts. The libretto, by Louis Gallet with the collaboration of Émile Zola, is based on a short story by Zola (included in the collection Les soirées de Médan). Zola's story is about the Franco-Prussian War, but the setting of the opera was changed to the period of the French Revolution.

L'Enfant roi is a 1905 opera  to a libretto by Émile Zola.

Le Jardin du Paradis is an opera in four acts  to a libretto by Robert de Fiers and Gaston Arman de Caillavet after Hans Christian Andersen. It premiered at the Opéra de Paris 29 October 1923 and ran for 27 performances.

Messidor is a four-act operatic drame lyrique  to a French libretto by Émile Zola. The opera premiered on 19 February 1897 in Paris. The opera title comes from the tenth month of the French Republican Calendar.

Naïs Micoulin is a 1907 drame lyrique to a libretto after the 1884 novel by Émile Zola

L'Ouragan is a 1901 opera  to a libretto by Émile Zola.

Les Quatre journées is a 1916 opera u to a libretto by Émile Zola given at the Opéra comique, Paris

Le Rêve is an 1891 opera  to a libretto by Émile Zola based on the author's 1888 novel of the same name.

Henri Février

Gismonda is a 1919 French-language grand opera in three acts to a libretto by Henri Caïn and Louis Payen based on the 1894 play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou.

Monna Vanna is a drame lyrique or opera in four acts. The opera's French libretto is by playwright Maurice Maeterlinck and is based on his play of the same name. The opera premiered on 13 January 1909 at the Académie Nationale de Musique in Paris.

[eschiss1]

Interesting, I was only rather recently even made aware of Ibañez's work through a book by Dos Passos praising him (though then I also found out that the classic movie "Blood and Sand"* which I intend to see is based on one of his books...), and here I also see Hüe adapting his "In the Shadow of the Cathedral" as a libretto to an opera...

*1922, starring Valentino; looking things up, I see the author directed a less-known 1916 adaptation himself

[Maury]

Speaking of films, the Erlanger "posthumous" opera La forfaiture is said to be the first opera based on a movie.