Saint-Saëns and the Stage: Operas, Plays, Pageants, a Ballet and a Film (Cambridge Studies in Opera)
Cambridge University Press, 3/14/2019
EAN 9781108426381, ISBN10: 1108426387
Hardcover, 446 pages, 25.3 x 18.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
The stage works of Saint-Saëns range from grand open-air pageants to one-act comic operas, and include the first composed film score. Yet, with the exception of Samson et Dalila, his twelve operas have lain in the shadows since the composer's death in 1921. Widely performed in his lifetime, they vanished from the repertory - never played, never recorded - until now. With four twenty-first-century revivals as a backdrop, this timely book is the first study of Saint-Saëns's operas, demonstrating the presence of the same breadth and versatility as in his better known works. Hugh Macdonald's wide knowledge of French music in the nineteenth century gives a powerful understanding of the different conventions and expectations that governed French opera at the time. The interaction of Saint-Saëns with his contemporaries is a colourful and important part of the story.
1. Preparations for opera, Le Duc de Parme
2. Le Timbre d'argent
3. Samson et Dalila
4. La Princesse jaune
5. Etienne Marcel
6. Henry VIII
7. Proserpine
8. Ascanio
9. La Crampe des écrivains, Phryné
10. Antigone, Frédégonde
11. Javotte, Déjanire
12. Lola, Les Barbares
13. Parysatis, Botriocéphale, Andromaque, Le Roi Apépi, Hélène
14. L'Ancêtre, La Foi
15. L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise, Déjanire, On ne badine pas avec l'amour
16. Saint-Saëns the Dramatist.