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Atys (1781) - Niccolò Piccinni
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Background
The story of Atys was first known operatically through Lully’s opera that premiered in 1676 at the court of St Germain-en-Laye. Marmontel adapted Quinault’s libretto and modified it by removing the prologue and divertissements. He also altered the plot; in lieu of Ovid’s metamorphic ending (to which Quinault had adhered), Atys commits suicide.
Ovid wrote about Attis (Atys) in his mythological poem Fasti. The six books of Fasti are significant for their record of important stories associated with January through June of the Roman calendar. Each book focuses on a month of the year, recounting myths and events surrounding particular days.
Attis’s tale is situated in the fourth book (the month of April). According to legend, Attis was the offspring of the daughter of Sangarius, a river god. Sangarius’s daughter was impregnated by the fruit of an almond tree which had sprung from the male sexual organ of Agdistis, a hermaphrodite who had been castrated by the gods. In turn, Attis later goes mad and castrates himself before becoming a pine tree.
Plot
Act I finds Atys denying his love for the nymph Sangaride, who is engaged to another man. However, he has confessed this secret to his friend Idas; Sangaride reciprocates this action by telling Idas’s sister Doris that she prefers Atys to her fiancé Celoenus, who is king of the area. When the Phrygians celebrate the goddess Cybèle’s arrival, both Atys and Sangaride first disguise their feelings for each other but eventually reveal the truth. Cybèle announces that Atys will be anointed her great Sacrificer, instead of Celoenus, the more logical choice.
In the second act, Cybèle confesses to her confidante Mélisse that she loves Atys. Celoenus, unsure of his beloved’s devotion, consults Atys, who promises that Sangaride will be a good wife. While contemplating his feelings for Sangaride and his friendship with Celoenus, Atys drifts to sleep. Morphée, the God of Sleep, relays that Cybèle loves Atys in a dream divertissement that indicates there will be dire consequences if Atys rejects the goddess. When Atys wakes up, he finds Cybèle in front of him. Sangaride enters to request permission to break off her engagement to Celoenus, to which Cybèle consents, but Atys prevents Sangaride from revealing their love. Cybèle realizes that something is being hidden from her.
The third act presents a distressed Sangaride, who now believes that Atys loves Cybèle. The heartbroken nymph decides to follow through on her commitment to Celoenus. Then Atys and Sangaride confront each other, and after arguing, they resolve their love. After Cybèle witnesses this exchange, she and Celoenus plot their revenge against the clandestine lovers. Cybèle invokes the Fury Alecton to cause Atys to lose his sanity. Celoenus then informs everyone that Atys has murdered Sangaride because he has mistaken her for a monster. After Atys’s sanity is restored by Cybèle, he discovers what he has done and commits suicide by stabbing himself, leaving the others to mourn him in a concluding divertissement.
Bibliography
Title from title page: No title page
Genre: Tragédie lyrique
Composer: Niccolò Piccinni, 1728-1800
Librettist: Jean-François Marmontel, 1723-1799
Libretto based on: Philippe Quinault’s Atys (from Ovid’s Fasti)
Premiere: Paris, Opéra, 22 February 1780
First published: Paris: Auteur, de La Chevardière, and Lyon: Castaud, n.d.
Volume in the UNT Collection: Paris: Des Lauriers, n.d.
For further reading on Atys, see:
Hunter, Mary. “Atys (ii).” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy. [Accessed 11 February 2004]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Liggett, M. A Biography of Piccinni and a Critical Study of His La Didone and Didon. Ph.D. diss.: Washington University, 1977.
Piccinni, Niccolò. Atys: Tragédie lyrique. Introduction by Julian Rushton. French Opera in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Volume 65. Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1991.
Rushton, Julian. Music and Drama at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris, 1774-1789. Ph.D. diss.: University of Oxford, 1970.
Rushton, Julian. “The Theory and Practice of Piccinnisme.” Proceedings of the Royal Music Association 98 (1971-72): 31-46.
Physical
Dimensions: 33 x 25 cm.
Collation: [unable to determine formula] 169 leaves, pp. [4] 1-332 [333-334].
Conservation: Heavy foxing, dirty and stained pages, faded print.
Binding: Three-fourths binding with brown patterned paper-covered board and brown buckram spine; gold-stamped red buckram label on spine reads “ATYS / PICCINNI / FULL SCORE” between first and second cord; rebound in modern library style.
Comments: Copper-plate engraving (plates measure 26.7 x 20.1 cm); dealer plate reads “KENNETH MUMMERY / Books and Music / Bournemouth, England”; from the Lloyd Hibberd Collection.