Sémiramis (Destouches)

Sémiramis is an opera by the French composer André Cardinal Destouches, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 4 December 1718. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto is by Pierre-Charles Roy.

Composer André Cardinal Destouches

The opera was very successful : the Regent's eldest daughter, the Duchesse de Berry, came to see Sémiramis on December 7 : as if she were a queen, the haughty princess sat on an armchair which was set on a platform in the amphitheater. A barrier placed in the middle of the amphitheater, separated her and the thirty ladies of her court from the rest of the audience.[1] On March 20, 1719, Mme de Berry, soon to give birth, saw Sémiramis again, sitting in the amphitheater on an armchair with the Regent and one of her sisters, both next to her on chairs.[2]

References
  1. Mémoires ou Journal du Marquis de Dangeau, tome 4, Paris, 1817, pp. 83-84. Usurping royal honors and radiantly beautiful in her lavish sack-back gown. Mme de Berry majestically watched the performance from her throne, towering above the audience. The young widow was visibly pregnant. This evidence of her profligacy shocked and offended spectators. Widowed at 18 (1714), her sexual voracity and repeated pregnancies kept scandalizing the Court
  2. Journal du marquis de Dangeau, vol. 18, Firmin Didot, Paris, 1860, p.19., Mme De Berry openly defied the public opinion : malicious gossips claimed she had "criminal relations" with the Regent. Exhibiting her very advanced pregnancy, the shameless princess stirred up rumors announcing she would soon give birth to her father's child. Going into labour on March 28 at her Luxembourg Palace, Madame de Berry almost perished and the Church denied her the Sacraments. Delivered on April 2 of a stillborn girl but unable to recover from this scandalous childbirth, she died on July 21, 1719.

Sources


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