A report on Esclarmonde

Original poster for the premiere

Opéra in four acts and eight tableaux, with prologue and epilogue, by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Alfred Blau and Louis Ferdinand de Gramont.

- Esclarmonde
Original poster for the premiere

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Massenet photographed by Pierre Petit, 1880

Jules Massenet

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French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty.

French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty.

Massenet photographed by Pierre Petit, 1880
Massenet's birthplace in Montaud, photographed c. 1908
Massenet in the early 1860s
Auditorium of the Opéra-Comique
Poster for the première of Don César de Bazan by Célestin Nanteuil
Design by Philippe Chaperon for Le roi de Lahore, 1877
"M. Massenet's bland pâtisserie and Mlle. Sanderson's sugar-candy notes" baked in "the National Musical Oven". Caricature from La Silhouette, March 1894.
Poster for the first French production of Werther.
Mary Garden in the title role of Chérubin, 1905
Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for the 1912 Paris première of Roma.
Poster by Jean de Paleologu for ''Sapho, 1897
Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for Don Quichotte, 1910
Among Massenet's interpreters, clockwise from top left: Pierre Monteux, Renée Fleming, Roberto Alagna and Victoria de los Ángeles
Massenet in his later years

For her, the composer revised Manon and wrote Esclarmonde (1889).

Sutherland in 1975

Joan Sutherland

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Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

Sutherland in 1975
Sutherland in 1962
Joan Sutherland in 1990

She continued to add dramatic bel canto roles to her repertoire, such as Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucrezia Borgia, as well as Massenet's Esclarmonde.

Tenor Colin Lee, soprano Pretty Yende, Bonynge, mezzo-soprano Violina Anguelov and baritone George Stevens at a concert performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Cape Town in April 2013

Richard Bonynge

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Australian conductor and pianist.

Australian conductor and pianist.

Tenor Colin Lee, soprano Pretty Yende, Bonynge, mezzo-soprano Violina Anguelov and baritone George Stevens at a concert performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Cape Town in April 2013

By doing some research and reading up on Massenet and Italian bel canto composers, Bonynge discovered Massenet's own statement about his opera Esclarmonde being his "best achievement."

Massenet Festival

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Biennale festival of music by French composer, Jules Massenet held in Saint-Étienne, France, close to the area where the composer was born.

Biennale festival of music by French composer, Jules Massenet held in Saint-Étienne, France, close to the area where the composer was born.

In 1992 Esclarmonde was staged (with Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni in the title role) along with Grisélidis and the oratorio La Terre Promise (with Laurent Naouri), while the Third Massenet Festival in 1994 brought revivals of Panurge, and Le Cid.

Denia Mazzola

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Italian operatic soprano.

Italian operatic soprano.

She subsequently distinguished herself and her talent for dramatic coloratura roles as Violetta in La Traviata, the title roles in Lucrezia Borgia and Maria Stuarda, Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux, and the very demanding title role in Esclarmonde which she sang first during the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne (October 1992), repeating it in Teatro Massimo of Palermo (January 1993).

Jean-Louis Pichon

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French stage director, opera manager and author.

French stage director, opera manager and author.

His work on the rarely performed operas of Massenet earned him an invitation to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo which entrusted him to stage Esclarmonde in January 1993 (conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni).

Sibyl Sanderson

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Famous American operatic soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque.

Famous American operatic soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque.

Sibyl Sanderson as Massenet's Esclarmonde

She was his favorite soprano and appeared in the premieres of a number of his operas, the roles having been created for her unique talents (her professional debut took place in Paris in the title role in Esclarmonde).

Tourangeau in 1970.

Huguette Tourangeau

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French-Canadian operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories.

French-Canadian operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories.

Tourangeau in 1970.

She made her formal Metropolitan Opera debut on November 28, 1973, as Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (with Plácido Domingo in the name part), and later sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte (1975–76), Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (opposite Justino Díaz and Judith Blegen, 1976) and Parséïs in Esclarmonde (opposite Sutherland, 1976).

Quilico in 1994

Louis Quilico

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Canadian opera singer.

Canadian opera singer.

Quilico in 1994

During the Met's 1976 season, he debuted the role of the Bishop of Blois in their premiere of Massenet's Esclarmonde, repeating his earlier commercial recording of the same role from a year earlier.

Set design for Paul and Lucien Hillemacher's Orsola (1902)

Eugène Carpezat

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Acclaimed French scenographer in the Belle Époque.

Acclaimed French scenographer in the Belle Époque.

Set design for Paul and Lucien Hillemacher's Orsola (1902)
Carpezat's set for Hugo's Les Burgraves (1902), Act III. Photograph by Henri Mairet in Le théâtre.
Carpezat's preserved stage curtain of the Theatro da Paz in Belém (Brazil), 1889.

Upon Lavastre's death, in 1883, Carpezat briefly joined hands with Lavastre's younger brother, Jean-Baptiste, to design the premieres of a.o. Bruneau's Le rêve (1891), Massenet's Esclarmonde (1889) and Le mage (1891), and Saint-Saëns' Ascanio (1890).