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''Les brigands'' (''The Bandits'') is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.〔 Meilhac and Halévy's libretto lampoons both serious (Schiller's play set to music by Verdi) and light theatre (''Fra Diavolo'' and ''Les diamants de la couronne'' by Auber).〔 The plot is cheerfully amoral in its presentation of theft as a basic principle of society rather than as an aberration. As Falsacappa, the brigand chieftain, notes: "Everybody steals according to their position in society".〔(Libretto: ) "Sans doute !… il faut voler selon la position qu’on occupe dans la société... c’est élémentaire." Act II Scene III.〕 The piece premiered in Paris in 1869 and has received periodic revivals in France and elsewhere, both in French and in translation. ''Les brigands'' has a more substantial plot than many Offenbach operettas and integrates the songs more completely into the story. The forces of law and order are represented by the bumbling carabinieri, who always arrive too late to capture the thieves, and whose exaggerated attire delighted the Parisian audience during the premiere. In addition to policemen, financiers receive satiric treatment. The satire is a pretext for joyful musical romps and the frequent Italian and Spanish rhythms are more real than in real life; "Soyez pitoyables" is a true canon, and each act finale is a well-developed whole.〔 A 1983 ''New York Times'', article concluded that the music of the piece seems to have influenced Bizet in writing ''Carmen'' and noted that the librettists for this work supplied Bizet's libretto,〔Hughes, Allan. ("Recordings; Rare Works Display Offenbach's Varied Gifts" ), ''The New York Times'', 27 March 1983, accessed 22 August 2013〕 but standard Offenbach references do not mention any such influence.〔See major studies of Bizet by Winton Dean (Winton, Dean. ''Bizet'', J M Dent & Sons, London, 1978), Mina Curtiss (Curtiss M. ''Bizet and his world'', Vienna House, New York, 1974), and Jean-Claude Yon (Yon, Jean-Claude. ''Jacques Offenbach'', Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 2000), and extended essays on ''Carmen'' by Susan McClary (McClary, Susan. ''George Bizet: Carmen'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1992).〕 == Performance history == ''Les brigands'' was first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 10 December 1869; this version was in three acts. A four-act version was subsequently prepared for a production at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, opening on 25 December 1878. The piece achieved great success as the Second Empire came to an end. Only the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in the following months dampened audience enthusiasm. The work was soon popular around Europe and beyond: it was produced in Vienna, Antwerp, Prague, Stockholm, Berlin, Madrid and Budapest in 1870,〔Loewenberg, Alfred. ''Annals of Opera, 1597–1940''. London, John Calder, 1978. ISBN 978-0-7145-3657-6.〕 and in New York City at The Grand Opera House in 1870–71.〔(Info from IBDB database )〕 Paris revivals included 1885 with Léonce and Dupuis from the original cast, 1900 with Marguerite Ugalde, Mathilde Auguez and Dupuis and the same year with Tariol-Baugé, at the Gaîté-Lyrique in 1921 with Andrée Alvar, Raymonde Vécart and Jean Périer, and at the Opéra-Comique in 1931 with Marcelle Denya, Emma Luart, Dranem and Louis Musy.〔Gänzl K, Lamb A. ''Gänzl's Book of the Musical Theatre.'' The Bodley Head, London, 1988.〕 More recent revivals have been produced at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1978 directed by Peter Ustinov,〔(Peter Ustinov Foundation, Achievements ), retrieved 23 August 2013〕 at the Opéra de Lyon in 1988 (then recorded by EMI),〔"Jacques Offenbach: ''Les Brigands''", in Kaminski, Piotr. ''Mille et Un Opéras'', Fayard, 2003, p. 1083〕 1992 at Amsterdam Opera and 1993 at the Opéra Bastille (produced by Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff), and then at the Opéra-Comique in 2011.〔("''Les Brigands'' trouvent leurs aises à l'Opéra-Comique" ), Le Monde review, 28 June 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Les brigands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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