Une folie is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It takes the form of a comédie en vers mêlée de musique (an opéra-comique) in two acts. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 5 April 1802. The libretto is by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly.[1] The work was a popular success and enjoyed several revivals, despite some hostile reviews.[2] It was around this time, claimed Bouilly, that Méhul fought a duel with and wounded a journalist who had harshly criticised him.[3]
Florival is in love with Armantine, the ward of the Italian painter Cerberti. At first he tries to deceive Cerberti by disguising himself as a Flemish art merchant but he is discovered. In the second act, Florival's valet pretends to be the nephew of an old servant of Cerberti's from Picardy. He persuades Cerberti to use Florival as a model for a painting of Bayard alongside Armantine. Florival's identity is betrayed but he is defiant, as is Armantine, who claims she is free to choose who she marries. Cerberti has no choice but to consent.
Arrangements
Louis Spohr wrote his Variations on "Je suis encore dans mon printemps" for harp (Op. 36) based on the aria in Act 1, Scene 2.
^ abBoth Solié and Martin were high baritones: the former had begun his career as a tenor, the latter gave rise to a new type of French light baritone, called 'baryton-Martin' after him. However, having the baritone clef fallen into disuse at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, both Cerberti and Carlin parts are notated, as usual, in the bass clef.
Sources
Adélaïde de Place Étienne Nicolas Méhul (Bleu Nuit Éditeur, 2005)
Arthur Pougin Méhul: sa vie, son génie, son caractère (Fischbacher, 1889)
General introduction to Méhul's operas in the introduction to the edition of Stratonice by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet (Pendragon Press, 1997)
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