La Guirlande, ou Les fleurs enchantée
La Guirlande, ou Les fleurs enchantée (The Garland, or The Enchanted Flowers)
Acte de ballet
Libretto by Jean-François Marmontel
Cast:
Myrtil, haute-contre
Zélide, soprano
Hylas, baritone
Chorus of shepherds and shepherdesses
Dancers
Orchestra:
2 flutes (double on piccolos), 2 oboes, 2 bassoons (unison), 2 musettes, strings, continuo
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Program notes
Following the huge success of his opera Pigmalion, Rameau was asked by the Paris Opéra to write another one-act drama. The result was his pastoral -- or Acte de ballet, as he called it -- La Guirlande, which was premiered in 1751 on a triple bill, along with two other works.
Jean-François Marmontel, Rameau's librettist provided him with a simple, somewhat wistful story about love. It is a moral tale with relatively little action but, as we would expect of an acte de ballet, it offered plenty of opportunity for dance. Out of this material, Rameau fashioned a finely detailed miniature with beautiful set pieces and wonderful dance music. When it was first revived in 1903 in Paris, legend has it that Debussy excitedly exclaimed, "Long live Rameau; down with Gluck."
Rameau spent his life mostly outside the circle of the French royal court. Very few details are known about his early career. (Even his wife claimed to know little about his youth.) Most of it was spent outside Paris as an organist, and when he finally did settle in the capital in the early 1720's, he appears to have had no regular position for nearly a decade. For most of his later career, he enjoyed the patronage of the wealthy tax collector and financier Le Riche de la Pouplinière, conducting his orchestra, living for some years in his mansion, and socializing with other artists and luminaries in La Pouplinière's circle, including Voltaire and Rousseau. Rameau was known as a thorny character with no close friends but was nonetheless a central figure in that circle. According to Rousseau, "Rameau's will was law in that house."
At the age of 50, he suddenly achieved enormous fame and popular success with the premiere of his first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie. It was a shock to the musical establishment in Paris, since till then, he had been known mainly to connoisseurs for his harpsichord music, some vocal works, and particularly for his treatises on music theory, which are still the basis of theory teaching today. Few people expected that this theorist could write music of such depth and brilliance, unprecedented music with extraordinary detail and colorful orchestration. Some immediately recognized him as the greatest opera composer since Lully. One leading composer of the day, André Campra, remarked, "This man will eclipse us all." For others, the music was bizarre, overly learned, and "baroque" (a pejorative term at the time), a threat to long established tradition. The musical public quickly split into two opposing camps, ardent supporters of the old Lully tradition and equally ardent supporters of Rameau. But over time, as more of his operas appeared, Rameau firmly established his reputation as the greatest French composer of his day, and, for some, as the "new Lully."
Synopsis
The shepherd Myrtil and the shepherdess Zélide have exchanged two garlands of flowers that will not fade, as long as they are faithful to one another. But Myrtil was infatuated for a time with Amaryllis, and his garland has wilted. Filled with remorse, he begs Cupid to come to his aid. Zélide fends off the unwanted advances of Hylas and yearns for Myrtil to return to her. Realizing that her lover has been unfaithful and that his garland has wilted, she substitutes her own fresh bouquet for Myrtil's, leading the shepherd to believe that Cupid has worked the miracle that he hoped for and has forgiven him. But now having the wilted bouquet herself, she pretends to have been the one who was unfaithful. When Myrtil forgives her, they discover that both bouquets are now again in full bloom and that Cupid has truly worked a miracle. They and the chorus of shepherds and shepherdesses dedicate themselves to the god of love.
Musical numbers in La Guirlande
Instrumental pieces are in bold
Scène 1:
Prélude
Récit: Peut-on être à la fois (Myrtil)
Ariette: Ranimez-vous (Myrtil)
Récit: Toi qui vis mon erreur
Scène 2:
Air gracieux
Choeur: Hâtons-nous voice l'aurore (SSATB)
Menuets 1 & 2
Scène 3:
Récit: Zélide, no plaisirs non rien (Hylas, Zélide)
Récit: Qui pourrait de Myrtil différer (Zélide)
Ariette: Tout languit dans nos bois (Zélide)
Récit: De mon bonheur (Zélide)
Scène 4:
Récit: Que vois-je (Myrtil)
Scène 5:
Récit: Je vous revois (Myrtil, Zélide)
Duo: Triomphe, Amour (Myrtil, Zélide)
Scene 6:
Choeur: Aimons qu'en nos bois tout soupire (SSATB)
Bergers qui vont offrir leurs guirlandes à l'Amour
Choeur & Solo: Sons brillants/La flûte est des soupirs (SSATB, Myrtil)
Air gracieux en rondeau
Entrée des pâtres
Musette
Gavotte
Musette: Quand du dieu des bois (Zélide)
Pantomime noble
Air gracieux
Tambourins 1 & 2
Ariette gaie & Duo: Vole, Amour (Zélide, puis Myrtil)
Contredanse
Boston Baroque Performances
La Guirlande
February 14 & 16, 2014
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Lawrence Wiliford, haute-contre
Andrew Garland, baritone