This article deals with the libretto of Emmanuel Chabrier's last unifinished opera Briséis and its intertextual relations to Goethe's ballad Die Braut von Korinth (1797), Anatole France's drama Les Noces Corinthiennes (1875), Ephraim Mikhaël's and Bernard Lazare's Légende dramatique la Fiancée de Corinthe (1888). In this symbolistic drama, France's anticlericalism is replaced by the intimate and passionate aspects of the story. It seems that Chabrier found in Briséis (by E. Mikhaël and Catulle Mendès) a matter that reminded him of Wagner's Tristan ; Wagner's opposition between day and night finds his counterpart in the opposition between past (the time of paganism) and present (the time of Christian faith).

2002

Mélanges

Albert Gier

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

Omnia vincit amor, ou Chabrier entre Wagner et Anatole France