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Le cadi dupé (1761) - Pierre-René Lemonnier
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Background
Two settings of Pierre-René Lemonnier’s libretto Le cadi dupé were staged in 1761. The first one, by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, was first performed on 4 February. The premiere of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s version followed in early December.[1]
Although Gluck is best known for his reform operas, his early compositional career was filled with a variety of opera genres, including opéra comique. Le cadi dupé was his last comic opera before the start of the collaboration between Gluck and Calzabigi; Orfeo ed Euridice appeared just ten months after Le cadi dupé.
What makes Gluck’s version of Le cadi dupé most noteworthy is the use of Janissary music topics, reinforcing the exoticism of the opera, the plot of which revolves around a Turkish judge who attempts to woo a young woman in spite of his existing marriage.[2]
[1] Bruce Alan Brown dates the premiere as 8 December 1761, but Patricia Howard identifies the date as 9 December. See Brown, “Cadi dupé, Le,” New Grove Online, ed. Laura Macy, [accessed 14 July 2005] <http://www.grovemusic.com>, and Howard, Gluck: An Eighteenth-century Portrait in Letters and Documents (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 50.
[2] Alfred Einstein credited the plot of the opera as being based on a story from the Arabian Nights, but the specific story has not been identified. Given the manner in which librettists adapted existing works for opéra comique plots, however, the situation of Le cadi dupé may have been culled from several stories.
Bibliography
Title from title page: LE CADI DUPÉ, / OPÉRA-COMIQUE.
Genre: Libretto – Opéra-comique
Composer: Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, Christoph Willibald Gluck
Librettist: Pierre-René Lemonnier
Libretto based on: N/A
Setting: Baghdad
Premiere: Mosigny’s version—4 February 1761; Gluck’s version—8 or 9 December 1761
Print in the UNT Collection: Paris, chez M. de la Chevardiere; Lyon, Les Freres Le Goux, 1761.
For further reading on Le Cadi Dupé, see:
Brown, Bruce Alan. “Cadi dupe, Le.” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. [Accessed 14 July 2005]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Druilhe, Paule. Monsigny : sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris: La Colombe, 1955.
Howard, Patricia. Gluck: An Eighteenth-century Portrait in Letters and Documents. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
_____________. Gluck and the Birth of Modern Opera. London : Barrie and Rockliff, 1963.
Moser, Hans Joachim. Christoph Willibald Gluck : die Leistung, der Mann, das Vermächtnis. Stuttgart : Cotta, 1940.
Pougin, Arthur. Monsigny et son temps. Paris: Fischbacher, 1908.
Physical
Dimensions:11.5 x 18.5 cm.
Conservation: Bleed-through; bleed-across; staining; frass; cockling.
Binding:Orange buckram binding; spine contains title and author's name stamped in black.
Comments: Front pastedown contains Ex Libris Isaac Lloyd Hibberd; front page contains pencil marking reading, "$20 1964".