Cinq-Mars
MÜNCHNER RUNDFUNKORCHESTER
Ulf Schirmer conductor
with Véronique Gens, Mathias Vidal, Tassis Christoyannis, Andrew Foster-Williams, André Heyboer, Norma Nahoun, Marie Lenormand, Jacques-Greg Belobo, Andrew Lepri Meyer, Matthias Ettmayr, Wolfgang Klose
Alfred de Vigny’s Cinq-Mars, published in 1826, is regarded as the first great historical novel in French, and soon became popular all over Europe. It was at the request of the director of the the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique Léon Carvalho, attracted by the idea of a musical setting of the novel, that Gounod agreed to return to the forefront of the operatic scene in 1877, after an absence of ten years. He produced a work that renounces none of the musical charms of Roméo et Juliette or Faust, but tends very clearly in the direction of historical grand opéra. The Palazzetto Bru Zane mounted the first modern performance of Cinq-Mars in a series of concerts in January 2015 (in Munich, Vienna and Versailles).
Contents of the book
Gérard Condé, A total rediscovery
Sébastien Troester, The different versions of Cinq-Mars
Un monsieur de l’orchestre, News from the opera house
Johannès Weber, An eyewitness account of the first performance
Alfred de Vigny, The death of Cinq-Mars
Synopsis
Libretto