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Tarare (1787) - Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
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Background
Salieri’s French debut Les Danaïdes (1784) led to additional commissions, Les Horaces (1786) and Tarare (1787). Although Les Horaces was not well-received, Tarare was popular both in Paris and Vienna.
Beaumarchais supplied the libretto for Tarare, basing his plot on the third volume of the exotic English collection The Tales of the Genii, or The Delightful Lessons of Horam, the Son of Asmar (1764) by James Ridley, (pseudonym for Sir Charles Morell), who claimed the stories were translated from a Persian source. The original characters were Sadak (who became Tarare), Kalasrade (Astasie), and Amurath (Atar).
With Tarare, Beaumarchais realized his vision of what an opera should be. Firstly, he believed that music should serve the drama, rather than the opposite. This hierarchy resonates with Calzabigi and Gluck’s reformatory principle. Another principle that Beaumarchais advocated is more in line with Goldoni’s opera buffa ideal that both serious and comic characters (in Tarare, Spinette functions in a comic capacity) could intermingle. Thus, Tarare represents Beaumarchais and Salieri’s attempt to resolve the operatic issues of their time.
Tarare also stands as a testament of the political currents that would soon culminate in the French Revolution. Although the topical location is displaced, the conniving king Atar’s death and replacement by a general, Tarare, are in line with the changes that French rebels advocated.
Salieri never returned to Paris after Tarare, and this opera was his last for the Parisian audience. However, he and Beaumarchais made a lasting contribution to the French repertoire with Tarare. While Tarare is cloaked in the traditional five-act structure of Lully’s tragédie en musique, its subject matter and characters epitomize modernity within conventional parameters.
When Da Ponte adapted Tarare for Vienna, he purged the plot of its political intrigue. Furthermore, Salieri reworked the music to make it more Italianate. This version of the opera appeared as Axur, Re d’Ormur at the Burgtheater on 8 January 1788.
In addition to this libretto, Salieri's setting of Tarare is also available in UNT's Virtual Rare Book Room.
Bibliography
Title from title page: TARARE, / OPERA EN CINQ ACTES,
Genre: Opéra; dramma tragicomico
Composer: Antonio Salieri, 1750-1825
Librettist: Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais, 1732-1799
Libretto
based on: The Tales of the Genii, or The Delightful Lessons of Horam,
the Son of Asmar (1764) by James Ridley (pseudonym for Sir Charles
Morell, 1736-65).
Setting: Hormuz, on the Persian Gulf
Premiere: Paris, Opéra, 8 June 1787
First published: Paris, 1787
Volume in the UNT Collection: Paris: De l'imprimerie de P. de Lormel, imprimeur de l'Académie-Royale de Musique
For further reading on Tarare, see:
Antonio Salieri's setting of Tarare, also in the Virtual Rare Book Room. To view, click here.
Angermüller, Rudolph. Antonio Salieri: Sein Leben und seine weltliche Werke unter besondere Berücksichtigung seiner “grossen” Opern. Munich: Katzbichler, 1971.
________. “Salieris Tarare (1787) und Axur Re d’Ormus (1788): Vertonung eines Sujets für Paris und Wien.” In Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft 5 (1981): 211–27.
Rice, John A. Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.
________. Tarare. In Grove Music Online. Edited by Laura Macy. Accessed 17 December 2003. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Swenson, Edward. Antonio Salieri: a Documentary Biography. Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1974.
Physical
Conservation: Heavy bleed-through and bleed-across; tearing, staining, foxing, cockling.
Binding: Has come completely loose at spine; no additional cover; front and back pages of libretto serve as covers.
Comments: Contains profile portrait on front verso; deckled edges; fragile; from the Rare Book and Texana Collections at the University of North Texas.