Les mariages samnites - Misplaced Pages

Les Mariages samnites (The Samnite Marriages) is an opéra comique, described as a drame lyrique, in three acts by André Grétry, The French text was by Barnabé Farmian Durosoy based on a work by Jean François Marmontel.

Performance history

It was first performed on 12 June 1776 by the Comédie-Italienne (with which the Opéra-Comique was merged at that time) at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris.

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 12 June 1776 (Conductor: - )
Agathis, in love with Céphalide	tenor	Jean-Baptiste Guignard, called Clairval
Parmenon, friend of Agathis	tenor	M Julien
Eumene, father of Agathis	basse-taille (bass-baritone)	Pierre-Marie Narbonne
Céphalide	soprano	Marie-Jean Trial, née Milon
Éliane, friend of Céphalide	soprano	Marie-Thérèse-Théodore Rombocoli-Riggieri, called 'Mlle Colombe l'Aînée'
Euphémie, mother of Céphalide	soprano	Louise-Frédérique Moulinghen, née Schrœder
The Chief of the Elders	basse-taille	Philippe-Thomas Ménier (also spelt Meunier)
The General		M Labussière
Two Samnite girls		Sophie Dufayel (ainée) and Marie Desbrosses

Original libretto: Les Mariages Samnites, Drame lyrique en 3 Actes et en Prose (new edition), Paris, Duchesne, 1776 (accessible for free online at Gallica - B.N.F.
Period printed score: Les Mariages Samnites Drame lyrique en 3 Actes et en Prose, Paris, Dezauche, s.d. (accessible for free online at Gallica - B.N.F.)

Michel Brenet Grétry: sa vie et ses œuvres (F. Hayez, 1884)
David Charlton Grétry and the Growth of Opéra Comique (Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Ronald Lessens Grétry ou Le triomphe de l'Opéra-Comique (L'Harmattan, 2007)
Mariages samnites, Les by Michael Fend, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
Kutsch, K. J. and Riemens, Leo (2003). Großes Sängerlexikon (fourth edition, in German). Munich: K. G. Saur. ISBN 978-3-598-11598-1.

v t e André Grétry
List of operas
Operas	Le Huron (1767) Les mariages samnites (1768) Lucile (1769) Le tableau parlant (1769) Silvain (1770) Les deux avares(1770) Zémire et Azor (1771) Le magnifique (1773) Céphale et Procris (1773) Le jugement de Midas (1778) L'amant jaloux (1778) Aucassin et Nicolette (1779) Andromaque (1780) Colinette à la cour (1782) La caravane du Caire (1783) L'épreuve villageoise (1784) Richard Coeur-de-lion (1784) Pierre le Grand (1790) Guillaume Tell (1791)
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