The eighteenth-century European novel came out as the modern genre par excellence, both in its articulation of new values like sentiment and experience, and in its problematisation of the individual’s integration in society. It therefore appealed to the librettists of the opéra-comique in France and of the Singspiel in Germany. They contributed to the popularity of the new genre by adapting for the operatic stage the successful novels that were to form the literary canon. The present study confronts the rewriting of two Enlightenment novels, Fielding’s Tom Jones and Wieland’s Don Sylvio von Rosalva, respectively adapted by Poinsinet in 1765 and Bürde in 1795, at two key-moments in the discussion on the evolution and definition of the opéra-comique. The comparison of two libretti based on prose dialogue and musical numbers is conditioned by two parameters : the selection and rewriting of the novel’s episodes and the balance between comedy and sentiment according to the aesthetic requirements of the time, i.e. « to please » and « to move ».
Sylvie Le Moël
Université de Tours
L'Europe romanesque dans le livret d'opéra-comique et de Singspiel après 1760 : Tom Jones (1765) et Don Sylvio von Rosalva (1795)
Albert Gier
Albert Gier - Etudes récentes sur le livret
Sieghart Döhring
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Daniela Sautter
Daniela Sautter - Element einer pietà-Poetik
Michael Klaper
Michael Klaper - Der Beginn der Operngeschichte in Paris
Adrian La Salvia
Adrian La Salvia - Die erste Auffürung einer Tragédie en musique
Marco Rosa Salva
Marco Rosa Salva - Licinio imperatore
Herbert Schneider
Herbert Schneider - Voltaire als Librettist
Laurine Quetin
Laurine Quetin - Lucio Silla, Lucio Cornelio Silla Dittatore
Pierre Degott
Pierre Degott - "Procurerò di ritornar inglese"
Sylvie Le Moël
Sylvie Le Moël - L'Europe romanesque dans le livret d'opéra-comique et de Singspiel
Anja Overbeck
Anja Overbeck - Auf der Suche nach dem "Libretto-Idiom"
Chantal Cazaux
Chantal Cazaux - Alexandre Soumet, Felice Romani
Bernd Zegowitz
Bernd Zegowitz - Kein Librettist in eigener Sache
Joachim Herz
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Andrea Schindler
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Anja Müller
Anja Müller - The Lords of the Rings
Isolde Braune
Isolde Braune - Zum Phänomen des Sprachversagens bei S Wagner
Bernard Banoun
Bernard Banoun - Livret et esthétique le l'opéra dans les années 1920
Thorsten Preuss
Thorsten Preuss - Die Erzählung als Libretto
Nicolas Moron
Nicolas Moron - La Suite vocale d'après L'Ange de feu