Charpentier: Stage Works

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Explore the complete catalog of Stage compositions by Charpentier. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.

Title Year Actions
David et Jonathas, tragédie en musique, H.490

David et Jonathas (David and Jonathan), H.490, is an opera in five acts and a prologue by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, first performed at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris, on 28 February 1688. The libretto, by Father François Bretonneau, is based on the Old Testament story of the friendship between David and Jonathan. Although the opera takes the form of a typical French tragédie en musique it has also been referred to as a tragédie biblique because of its Biblical subject matter. David et Jonathas was first performed at a Jesuit college in combination with a spoken drama in Latin, Saul, by Father Étienne Chamillard (1656–1730). Each act of the opera was followed by one act from the play. Charpentier's work was so successful, it was reprised at other Jesuit colleges in 1706, 1715 and 1741. The opera received its American premiere in Baltimore in 2005. Pinchgut Opera performed the Australian premiere in 2008; a recording was released on ABC Classics. A staging at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, France, with William Christie as musical director, was filmed in 2012. In 2022, a new production directed by Marshall Pynkoski and choreographed by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg (with costumes created by Christian Lacroix) was staged at the Château de Versailles, France with Gaëtan Jarry as musical director.

La descente d'Orphée aux Enfers, opera, H.488

La descente d'Orphée aux enfers H.488 (English: The Descent of Orpheus to the Underworld) is an incomplete chamber opera in two acts by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was probably composed in early 1686 and performed either in the apartments of the Dauphin that spring or at Fontainebleau in the autumn. Charpentier himself sang the title role, joined by musicians of Mademoiselle de Guise and members of the Dauphin's little ensemble; it was Charpentier's last appearance with this ensemble. The libretto, whose author is unknown, is based on the myth of Orpheus as told by Ovid in Book 10 of the Metamorphoses. It is debatable whether the opera as it survives in the manuscript is complete or not. The musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock believes Charpentier may have planned (and composed) a third, concluding act. The opera is not to be confused with an earlier work, by Charpentier, Orphée descendant aux enfers H.471, which is a cantata for three male voices, 2 violins, recorder, flute, and bc.

Médée, opera, H.491

Médée H.491 is a tragédie mise en musique in five acts and a prologue by Marc-Antoine Charpentier to a French libretto by Thomas Corneille. It was premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on December 4, 1693. Médée is the only opera Charpentier wrote for the Académie Royale de Musique. The opera was well reviewed by contemporary critics and commentators, including Sébastien de Brossard and Évrard Titon du Tillet, as well as Louis XIV whose brother attended several performances, as did his son; however, the opera only ran until March 15, 1694, although it was later revived at Lille.