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''Stradella'' is a Grand Opera in five acts by Louis Niedermeyer to a libretto by Emile Deschamps and Emilien Pacini. Based on a highly romanticized version of the life of the composer Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), it was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 3 March 1837.〔Ferchault, §Works〕 ==Background== The storyline of the opera is fashioned from the fanciful legend told by Pierre Bourdelot in his 1715 ''Histoire de la musique''. Interest in Stradella in Paris had been growing in 1830s Paris, after the musician François-Joseph Fétis had included an aria, (supposedly by Stradella but actually by Fétis himself), in an 1833 concert; the melody soon became extremely popular. In July 1836 the , run by Maurice Schlesinger, had serialised a work by Jules Janin, ''Stradella, or the Poet and the Musician'', as 'advance publicity' (Schlesinger was to publish Niedermeyer's score in 1837). Moreover, a vaudeville with music by Flotow on the same subject opened in Paris a month before Niedermeyer's opera.〔Hibberd 2009, pp. 83, 84,91.〕 The opera was Niedermeyer's first venture in the Grand Opera vein. The leading roles were taken by two of the Opera's strongest singers, Adolphe Nourrit and Cornélie Falcon, both then at the height of their careers. However for both of them it represented some of their last appearances in Paris singing full operatic roles. Falcon lost her voice catastrophically during the second performance of ''Stradella'' at the Opéra in March 1837. When Nourrit as Stradella asked her "Demain nous partirons – voulez-vous?", Falcon was unable to sing her line "Je suis prête", fainted, and was carried offstage by Nourrit.〔Cairns 1999, p. 151.〕 Hector Berlioz, who was present, describes "raucous sounds like those of a child with croup, guttural, whistling notes that quickly faded like those of a flute filled with water".〔Cited in Smart 2003, p. 116.〕 Her career never recovered from this disaster, and after 1840 she never performed publicly again. Nourrit gave a farewell performance in April 1837 after the first performances of ''Stradella'', and later that year travelled to Italy, where he committed suicide in 1839. The opera had a mixed reception. In a letter Berlioz was more frank than he would be in a review, saying: "In a few days' time I have to find a way of writing indulgent nonsense about an appalling non-work called ''Stradella'', of which I saw a rehearsal yesterday evening at the Opéra. A thousand reasons force me to, quite apart from the fact that it would not be decent, in my position, to slate a young composer () who has for a long time been in the same situation vis-à-vis the theatre as I am. But I must warn you not to believe a word I say."〔 The opera was revised to suit Gilbert Duprez when he took over the title role from Nourrit in 1837, and successfully revived in a three-act form in 1840. It is now almost totally forgotten 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「Stradella (opera)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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