Béatrice et Bénédict
Béatrice et Bénédict (Beatrice and Benedick) is an opéra comique in two acts by French composer Hector Berlioz.[1] Berlioz wrote the French libretto himself, based in general outline on a subplot in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
Béatrice et Bénédict
Berlioz had been interested in setting Shakespeare's comedy since his return from Italy in 1833, but only composed the score of Béatrice et Bénédict following the completion of Les Troyens in 1858. It was first performed at the opening of the Theater Baden-Baden on 9 August 1862.[2] Berlioz conducted the first two performances of a German version in Weimar in 1863, where, as he wrote in his memoirs, he was "overwhelmed by all sorts of kind attention."
It is the first notable version of Shakespeare's play in operatic form, and was followed by works by, among others, Árpád Doppler, Paul Puget, Charles Villiers Stanford, and Reynaldo Hahn.[3]
Berlioz biographer David Cairns has written: "Listening to the score's exuberant gaiety, only momentarily touched by sadness, one would never guess that its composer was in pain when he wrote it and impatient for death".[4]
Performance history[edit]
Berlioz described the premiere of Béatrice et Bénédict as a "great success" in a letter to his son Louis; he was particularly taken with the performance of Charton-Demeur (who would create the role of Didon in Les Troyens in Paris a year later) and noted that the duo which closes the first half elicited an "astonishing impact".[5]
Although it continued to be staged occasionally in German cities in the years after the premiere, the first performance in France only took place on 5 June 1890 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, 21 years after its composer’s death, promoted by the Société des Grandes auditions musicales de France, conducted by Charles Lamoureux, and with Juliette Bilbaut-Vauchelet and Émile Engel in the lead roles.[6]
Paul Bastide conducted a notable production of Béatrice et Bénédict in Strasbourg in the late 1940s.[7] It was produced at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1966 conducted by Pierre Dervaux but with recitatives by Tony Aubin,[8] and in February 2010 under Emmanuel Krivine.[9]
The UK premiere was on 24 March 1936 in Glasgow under Erik Chisholm.[10] The English National Opera opened a production on 25 January 1990, with wife and husband Ann Murray and Philip Langridge in the title roles.[11] The work was first performed in New York in 1977 as a concert performance at Carnegie Hall, Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.[12]
Although rather infrequently performed and not part of the standard operatic repertoire, recent productions have included Amsterdam and Welsh National Opera tour in 2001, Prague State Opera (Státní opera Praha) in 2003, Santa Fe Opera in 1998 and 2004, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg in 2005, Chicago Opera Theater in 2007, Houston Grand Opera in 2008 (in English), Opera Boston in 2011, Theater an der Wien in 2013, and Glyndebourne in 2016. The first Swedish production of the opera was at Läckö Castle in 2015, and the first in staging in Italy in late 2022 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.[13]
There are several recordings of the opera. The overture, which refers to several passages in the opera without becoming a pot-pourri, is heard on its own in concerts and has been recorded many times.