Émilie (opera)
{{Infobox opera
| name = Émilie
| type = Monodrama
| composer = Kaija Saariaho
| image =
| caption =
| librettist = Amin Maalouf
| language = French
| based_on = life and writings of Émilie du Châtelet
| premiere_date = {{Start date|2010|03|01|df=y}}
| premiere_location = Opéra National de Lyon
}}
Émilie is an opera – specifically a 9-scene, 75-minute monodrama for soprano – by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho to a libretto by Amin Maalouf. It was written in 2008.[http://www.sikorski.de/575/en/0/a/0/oper/1037688_emilie_oper.html Émilie] at Sikorski{{dead link|date=December 2022}}{{Cite journal|date=2010|title=News Section|jstor=40794473|journal=Tempo|volume=64|issue=252|pages=115–117|doi=10.1017/s0040298210000239|doi-access=free}} Based on the life and writings of Marquise Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749),[https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/37049/Emilie--Kaija-Saariaho/ Émilie] at Wise Music Classical: synopsis, premiere information the work premiered at the Opéra de Lyon, France, on 1 March 2010, with Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, its dedicatee, in the title role. It recounts the achievements of this mathematician, physicist, and mistress of Voltaire: the first woman to establish an international scientific reputation, with pioneering work in the study of fire.
Billed as the third opera by Saariaho, Émilie is more accurately a sister-piece to the oratorio La Passion de Simone (2006).
In 2020, the opera was performed at the Peabody Conservatory with Australian conductor Leonard Weiss, led by soprano Elizabeth Futral, who premiered the role at Spoleto in 2011.{{Cite magazine |author=Leonard Weiss |date=16 June 2020 |title=A Year with Marin Alsop |url=https://limelightmagazine.com.au/features/a-year-with-marin-alsop/ |magazine=Limelight |access-date=6 December 2022}}
Subject
The opera Émilíe is based on the actual biography of Émilie du Châtelet, an 18th-century French intellectual in her own right and the mistress of the French philosopher Voltaire. She had a child by a later lover, and the childbirth led to her death.{{Cite web|url=http://womeninscience.history.msu.edu/Biography/C-4A-0/marquise-du-chtelet/|title=Women in Science {{!}} Biographies {{!}} Marquise Du Châtelet|website=womeninscience.history.msu.edu|access-date=2017-11-17}} In the plot of the opera, her character's arias are linked to the birth of the child and of her significant scholarship. The soprano soloist is seen in character pregnant and penning new ideas as the opera begins.
The subject of the work depicted in the opera was Éléments de la philosophie de Newton (1738) by Voltaire and Châtelet that helped to popularize the theories and thought of Isaac Newton.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/emilie-du-chatelet/|title=Émilie du Châtelet|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|last=Detlefsen|first=Karen|author-link=Karen Detlefsen|date=13 June 2014|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2016}}
Émilie is one of three "female-centered operas" by Saariaho exhibiting a sonic world that feminist musicologist Susan McClary characterizes as "a 'sensual version of modernism', one in which 'smoldering intensities' of desire find voice."{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/04/29/even-the-score|title=Even the Score|last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|date=2013-04-22|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-11-17}}{{clarify|date=December 2022|reason=How do Ross's quotes of McClary relate to this work?}}
Since Châtelet was actually tutored in mathematics by leading European scholars and her exceptional skills were thought to influence Voltaire's work, the scenery in the 2008 Opera de Lyon production of the opera featured images of mathematical equations as significant aspects of the set and scenery for the monodrama.
Reviews
One reviewer described it in 2010 as a "blue-stocking monodrama about the tension between intellect and nature."{{Cite web|date=2010-03-07|title=Émilie, Opéra National de Lyon|author=Anna Picard|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/emilie-op-ra-national-de-lyon-lyon-france-1917293.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/emilie-op-ra-national-de-lyon-lyon-france-1917293.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2020-12-01|website=The Independent}} When it came to the Spoleto Festival USA in 2011, James R. Oestreich in The New York Times characterized the title part as "a tour de force for soprano, some 75 minutes of almost continuous vocalization: speech, elevated speech and soaring melodic arcs, some with electronic voice processing to produce ghostly duets."{{Cite news|last=Oestreich|first=James R.|author-link=James R. Oestreich|date=5 June 2011|title=A Mistress of Voltaire, Set to Video|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/arts/music/emilie-by-kaija-saariaho-at-spoleto-festival-usa.html|access-date=1 December 2020}} In 2012, a reviewer who attended a performance at the Lincoln Center Festival hailed the opera's "triumphant New York debut".{{Cite web|title=Saariaho's Émilie makes triumphant New York debut at Lincoln Center Festival|author=Marion Lignana Rosenberg|date=20 July 2012|url=https://theclassicalreview.com/2012/07/saariahos-emilie-makes-triumphant-new-york-debut-at-lincoln-center-festival/|access-date=1 December 2020|website=theclassicalreview.com}}
Stage productions
- 2010: World Premiere Production at the Opéra de Lyon, directed by François Girard, conducted by Kazushi Ōno, starring Karita Mattila.{{Cite news |date=2010-03-03 |title="Emilie" sombre à l'Opéra de Lyon |language=fr |work=Le Monde.fr |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2010/03/03/emilie-sombre-a-l-opera-de-lyon_1313829_3246.html |access-date=2023-12-19}}{{Cite news |last=Fauchet |first=Benoît |date=4 March 2010 |title=Vu et entendu : Emilie de Saariaho à Lyon |work=Diapason Magazine |url=https://www.diapasonmag.fr/critiques/vu-et-entendu-emilie-de-saariaho-a-lyon-12904.html}}
- 2011: Second Production (US Premiere) at the Spoleto Festival USA, directed by Marianne Weems, conducted by John Kennedy, starring Elizabeth Futral.{{Cite news |date=5 June 2011 |title='Émilie' by Kaija Saariaho at Spoleto Festival USA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/arts/music/emilie-by-kaija-saariaho-at-spoleto-festival-usa.html}} Reprised in 2012 at the Lincoln Center Festival by the same team,{{Cite web |title=Émilie, Lincoln Center Festival, New York |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5485742a-d25e-11e1-abe7-00144feabdc0 |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www.ft.com}} and in 2015 at the Finnish National Opera by conductor André de Ridder and soprano Camilla Nylund.{{Cite web |date=2015-04-09 |title=Kaija Saariahon Émilie – valon ja valistuksen nainen |url=http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2015/04/09/kaija-saariahon-emilie-valon-ja-valistuksen-nainen |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=yle.fi |language=fi-FI}}
- 2013: Third Production (Portuguese Premiere) at the Gulbenkian Foundation, directed by Vasco Araújo and André e. Teodósio, conducted by Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, starring Barbara Hannigan.{{Cite web |last=Portugal |first=Rádio e Televisão de |date=2013-10-08 |title=Ópera "Émilie", com libreto de Amin Maalouf, apresentada na Casa da Música |url=https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/cultura/opera-emilie-com-libreto-de-amin-maalouf-apresentada-na-casa-da-musica_n686352 |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Ópera "Émilie", com libreto de Amin Maalouf, apresentada na Casa da Música |language=pt}}
- 2014: Fourth Production (Austrian Premiere) at the Landestheater Salzburg, directed by Agnessa Nefjodov, conducted by Leo Hussain, starring Allison Cook.{{Cite web |last=oe1.orf.at |title="Emilie" am Salzburger Landestheater |url=https://oe1.orf.at/artikel/376109/Emilie-am-Salzburger-Landestheater |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=oe1.orf.at |language=de}}
- 2022: Concert Performance (Australian Premiere) presented by the opera company The Cooperative in Sydney, conducted by Joanna Drimatis, with the role of Émilie distributed between five sopranos.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-27 |title=Émilie – one concert performance only - South Sydney Herald |url=https://southsydneyherald.com.au/emilie-one-concert-performance-only/ |access-date=2023-12-19 |language=en-AU}}
- 2024: Fifth Production (German Premiere, upcoming) at the Staatstheater Mainz, directed by Immo Karaman, conducted by Hermann Bäumer.{{Cite web |last=Salazar |first=Francisco |date=2023-05-30 |title=Staatstheater Mainz Announces 2023-24 Season |url=https://operawire.com/staatstheater-mainz-announces-2023-24-season/ |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=OperaWire |language=en-US}}
References
Notes
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Driver, Paul, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615062125/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article7048697.ece "The singular, vigourless Émilie"], The Times, 7 March 2010 {{Subscription required}}
- Finch, Hilary, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615062135/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article7050065.ece "Émilie at Opera de Lyon, France"], The Times, 5 March 2010 {{Subscription required}}
External links
- [http://saariaho.org/works/emilie/ Emilie], analysis and score, saariaho.org
- [http://www.opera-lyon.com/sites/default/files/documents/program/texte_emilie.pdf Extensive booklet (81 pages)]{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, incl. instrumentation, libretto. {{ISBN|978-2-84956-047-1}} {{in lang|fr}}
- [https://www.opera-lyon.com/fr/programmation/2009-2010/opera/emilie Production notes], Opéra National de Lyon {{in lang|fr}}
{{Kaija Saariaho}}
{{Amin Maalouf}}
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Category:Operas by Kaija Saariaho
Category:French-language operas
Category:Works by Amin Maalouf
Category:Operas set in the 18th century
Category:Music dedicated to ensembles or performers
Category:Cultural depictions of French people
Category:Cultural depictions of mistresses