La Dame blanche

  • George Brown, Officer (Tenor)
  • Gaveston, lock manager ( Baritone)
  • Anna, his ward (soprano )
  • Dikson, lessee (Tenor)
  • Jenny, his wife (Soprano)
  • Marguerite, Georges'Amme (mezzo- soprano)
  • Mac Irton, Gantrufer, (baritone )
  • Village people (choir )

La Dame blanche ( The White Lady ) is an opera in three acts by the French composer François -Adrien Boïeldieu ( 1775-1834 ). She is considered one of the most important French opera and the main work of the genus Opéra comique.

Action

Preliminary

The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, who drew inspiration from five novels by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including the novels The Monastery and Guy Mannering.

La Dame blanche was quite the restoration of the aristocracy in the post-revolutionary and post- Napoleonic France committed. At the end of the piece the restoration of the old order and ownership is celebrated. Anna and Gaveston are the good and bad alternative in dealing with aristocratic possession dar. In idyllization of country life reflects the flow of the petit - bourgeois, as the equivalent of the Vienna Biedermeier.

Act I

Picture: Before the tenant farm Dickson

The young officer George Brown comes to the village of Avenel, as the tenant Dikson and his wife Jenny baptism of her son being prepared. Since the specific as godfather justice of the peace is diseased, ask George to take over the sponsorship. The tenants wife Jenny sings at the feast the ballad of the white woman who is haunted in the castle, and the Brown recalls some of the activity of his youth. The tenant claimed to have seen the white woman not only, but even a bag of gold from her to have received. He has praised for ever to obey her reputation, but gets into very embarrassed, as now, a letter from her come to him in a mysterious way into the hands of reminds him of his vow, and calls on the lock. This adventurous call lures the officer who agrees to follow instead of the anxious farmer the call of the White Lady.

Second Act

Image: Hall in the castle of Count Avenel

The lock manager Gaveston wants the old castle auction and asks Anna Documents which has given her the last mistress of Avenel on his deathbed into custody. Anna she refuses him but. In place of the tenant Dickson now George Brown announces guest. The old Marguerite falls on its similarity with the Avenel. Gaveston granted him reluctant hospitality. On the night George the ghost of the white lady appears. It is Gaveston ward Anna. She asks him to take residence at the auction of the castle and to do everything that 'll he was told. He promises it, because the shape tells him of his wounds on the battlefield, and that a strange girl have it maintained there. Anna herself is this nurse, and Brown at the time was already in love with her. The next morning, all the village people find at the auction, in order to prevent that the old ancestral castle passes hands in Gaveston. Although he has no money, George Brown offers over mysterious command of the White Lady of the castle administrator.

Act Three

Picture: ancestral hall of the castle

The new lord of the manor is celebrated by the people of the village as a savior. Songs from her mouth to remind him of his youth and he now recognizes in Marguerite 's nurse again. Now Gaveston appears to demand the purchase price. Threatened with imprisonment for debt, Brown has doubts about a happy solution. At the last moment the white lady comes with the family treasure of Avenel to help. Gaveston rips her enraged the veil from her face and recognizes his ward Anna. This legitimizes George Brown by the ancestral treasure of Avenel and her care documents as the genuine offspring of the last owner of the castle. While Gaveston leaves angry as unmasked Erbschleicher castle and area, George Brown reaches of the recovered nurse hand in marriage covenant.

Music

Boïeldieu processed in his opera folklore and lyrical pieces mixed with a romantic fantasy in which he used the musical style funds of the new era. In addition to simple strophic songs as in Jenny's Ballad of the White Lady or Marguerite's spinning wheel sentimental aria, in which the music reflects the movements of the spinning wheel, there are refined ensemble scenes such as the finale of the first act, where a thunderstorm in the suit is. Stormy roars the music in chromatic tones and shifting seventh chords, interspersed with the lightning and the thunder of the Piccolo Timpani. In the finale of Act 2 with the run by Mac - Irton auction of the castle the drama is hard to beat. While ever higher sums on offer, the music builds with irresistible kinetics, followed by abrupt change of key and dramatic stakes of the choir, if something happens Raw pected. The harp plays in the opera an important role as a companion of the White Lady. The woodwinds are used very subtle, while draw the strings of their full technical repertoire. Thus, the music gets a wonderful color and smoothness and sprayed at the same time of simple spontaneity and Raffinierheit.

La Dame blanche has typical elements of romance in its Gothic expression, with an exotic Scottish village, a lost heir, a mysterious castle, a hidden treasure and a good spirit. The style of the opera influenced the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani and La jolie fille de Perth. La Dame blanche was one of the first attempts to bring the fantasy to the opera. She was also a model for works such as Meyerbeer's Robert le diable and Gounod 's Faust.

The premiere took place in Paris on December 10, 1825 at the Opéra -Comique. She had great success and became the standard work of the operatic repertoire in the 19th century in France and Germany. After it has been given a premiere in 1826 in German language, even a parody of the works were created in Vienna under the title The Black Woman by Adolf Müller senior (music) and Karl Meisl ( libretto ).

La Dame blanche is nowadays rarely rehearsed. In France, it was performed again by Marc Minkowski and recorded on CD, but there are also some earlier released on LP sound recordings.

The tenor aria from Georges Brown, " Viens, gentille lady " was a popular song at that time already in Paris and is also today presented the most.

Equipment

Esquisse de l' acte de décor II

Esquisse de l' acte de décor III

Esquisse de l' acte de décor III

Détail du décor de l' acte III

Costume de Jenny

Media

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