La tentation

The format of La tentation is unusual, with both singers and dancers taking leading roles. The music for the opera sections was written by Halévy; that for the ballet portions by Halévy and Casimir Gide.[4] The director of the Opéra, Louis Véron, wrote in his memoirs that, during the cholera epidemic in Paris;

I wished neither to make use of nor to jeopardize any of the important works of the repertory. We ... busied ourselves with ... rehearsals for La tentation. This five-act fairy tale was merely a series of tableaux, of which the chorus and the corps de ballet were the stars. [These] can always be replaced, and scenery, at least, never falls ill. La tentation ... was thus a work always in readiness for presentation.[5]

The date of the premiere is given by Marian Smith as 12 March 1832;[6] however the printed libretto gives the date 20 June.[7] The music contains several direct quotations from Beethoven, including from his Fifth Symphony (in the act 2 meeting of the demons) and his Pathétique sonata.[8]

On 2 August 1832, Frédéric Chopin wrote to Ferdinand Hiller that "La tentation, an opera-ballet by Halévy and Gide, tempted no-one with any good taste, since it is as dull as your German parliament is out of keeping with the spirit of our century".[9] However, the work was a box-office success and had over 50 performances in its first season,[10] and over 50 performances in the next 6 years,[11] although it does not seem to have been revived since then. The autograph score is in the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra in Paris.[12]

• 
  Leroux as Marie
• 
  Duvernay as Miranda (Act 3)
• 
  Duvernay as Miranda (Act 4)
• 
  Dabadie as Mizaël

Notes

Sources

• Gourret, Jean (1982). Dictionnaire des chanteurs de l'Opéra de Paris. Paris: Albatros. View formats and editions at WorldCat.
• Guest, Ivor (2008). The Romantic Ballet in Paris. Alton, Hampshire, UK: Dance Books. ISBN 9781852731199.
• Halévy, Fromental et al. (1832), La tentation, Ballet-opéra en 5 actes, Paris. View at Bavarian State Library online.
• Jourdan, Ruth (1994). Fromental Halévy. London: Kahn and Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-51-7.
• Lajarte, Théodore (1878). Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de l'Opéra, volume 2 [1793–1876]. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles. View at Google Books.
• Pitou, Spire (1983). The Paris Opéra: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers (3 volumes). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780686460367.
• Smith, Marian Elizabeth (2000). Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691049946.
• Smith, Marian (2001), 'Three Hybrid Works at the Paris Opéra, circa 1830' in Dance Chronicle vol. 24 no. 1, pp. 7–53
• Smith, Marian (2003), 'Dance and Dancers', in The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, ed. D. Charlton, pp. 93–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521646833.
• Tamvaco, Jean-Louis (2000). Les Cancans de l'Opéra. Chroniques de l'Académie Royale de Musique et du théâtre, à Paris sous les deux restorations (2 volumes, in French). Paris: CNRS Editions. ISBN 9782271056856.