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Proserpine 2nd edition, 1707
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Background
With Proserpine, composer Jean-Baptiste Lully returned to his collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault, which had been interrupted when the poet was banned from Court for offending Madame de Montespan (the king's mistress) with unflattering references in Isis. By 1679, Quinault had been restored to favor. Proserpine was first performed at St. Germain-en-Laye in February of 1680. Though seventeenth-century audiences were familiar with the story of Proserpine being carried off into Hades from numerous ballets and stage plays, Quinault returned to the source in Ovid's Metamorphoses to embellish the plot. In addition to details drawn from Ovid, Quinault added some of his own, making Proserpine among the most convoluted of Lully's operas. While the prologue alludes to King Louis XIV in the guise of Jupiter, the play itself refers specifically to the king's recent victories over the Spanish and Dutch when Jupiter battles and defeats the giants. Robert Isherwood notes that Jupiter's trip to Phrygia may represent Louis' inspection of Flanders after its defeat in 1679.
Plot
The opening curtain for the Prologue finds Peace, Felicity, Abundance, the Games and the Pleasures chained in the cave of Discord. As Peace cries out for deliverance, Discord's chorus sing about their victory over happiness. Discord gloats that new battles have enticed the hero (Louis XIV) and that his passion for conquest has been renewed. However, as trumpets blast, Victory descends and unchains the captives while banishing Discord and her entourage into the bowels of the earth. Discarding the trappings of war, Peace and Victory hail the triumph of peace.
As Act I begins, the Palace of Cerés, goddess of the earth, is the setting for a celebration marking the victory of Jupiter, king of the gods, over the giants whose chief was buried underneath a mountain (Mt. Etna). Mercure tells Cerés that Jupiter is nearby and that the great warrior wishes to see her when he visits Phrygia. Cerés does not believe that the busy god has time to see his former lover, but Mercure insists that Jupiter still cares for her. Cerés summons the nymph Aréthuse to guard her daughter Proserpine. Aréthuse protests, telling Cerés of her love for Alphée, the river god. The anxious mother warns the nymph not to let her own feelings interfere with her duty. Alphée assumes that he has displeased Aréthuse, since she has abandoned him to look after Proserpine. The act concludes with Cerés charging them all to take care in her absence.
Act II takes place in the Gardens of Cerés. Alphée laments to Crinise that his heart is broken; both agree that happiness is inconstant. Ascalaphe, confidant of Pluto, god of the underworld, enters to encourage Alphée's belief in his lover's supposed infidelity. Aréthuse returns to make amends but Alphée is still suspicious. Ascalaphe slyly suggests that Pluto take Aréthuse's place, hiding in the bushes to watch Proserpine. Alphée and Aréthuse agree. Plute and Ascalaphe sing of the overwhelming power of love in an usual duet for two basses: "L'amour, comblé de gloire" ("Love, combined with glory"). Proserpine and her nymphs enter, making a delightful picture of bucolic innocence. Pluto waits until Aréthuse's attention wanders and, in a moment, he and his lackeys seize Proserpine.
Act III begins with a spectacular scene of the eruption of Mt. Etna. Alphée and Aréthuse begin searching for Proserpine. Aréthuse surmises that Pluto has taken Proserpine back to the underworld. She sets off to cross the infernal river. Alphée insists that his unceasing love requires him always to follow her. They descend into the underworld as Cerés' chariot approaches. In the remainder of the act, Cerés learns of her daughter's disappearance and, in a virtuoso lament spanning emotions from grief to rage, concludes in despair that she must withhold her gifts that give prosperity to the earth.
Act IV finds Proserpine in the Elysian fields, lamenting her loss of freedom in a moving aria, "Ma chere liberté" ("My dear liberty"). Ascalaphe tries to ease her distress, assuring the unhappy lady that Pluto has offered her his heart. When Alphée and Aréthuse finally reach Proserpine, they find that she has already eaten of the grain and tasted the fruit of the underworld, condemning her to Pluto's control. In an extended duet, Proserpine begs Pluto for mercy, but the lovestricken god refuses to free her.
Act V begins in the Palace of Pluto. The god of the underworld has summoned his judges and the three furies, who support Pluto's claim to keep Proserpine with him, even though this will mean a devastated earth. The scene changes, revealing Cerés alone. Pitying her situation, the voices of the underworld cry out to her. Alphée and Aréthuse return and tell Cerés that Proserpine is held by Pluto and that she is now the queen of the vast underworld empire. Since the underworld refuses to release their new queen, Cerés summons Jupiter to demand the return of Proserpine. Mercure descends to tell Cerés that the gods have heard her plea. [Not explained to the audience: Mercure has also brokered a compromise to allow Proserpine to be Pluto's wife and queen, while spending several months of each year with her mother]. The opera concludes with the heavens and earth parting as gods descend and the underworld rises to celebrate the union of their new king and queen. Jupiter officiates and promises that that all will now enjoy eternal peace.
Bibliography
Title: PROSERPINE, / TRAGEDIE / MISE EN MUSIQUE
Genre: tragédie lyrique (Tragédie en musique)
Siglum from Lully thematic catalog: LWV 58
Composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully, 1632-1687
Librettist: Philippe Quinault, 1635-1688
Libretto based on: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Setting: various mythological settings
Premiere: St. Germain-en-Laye, court, 3 February 1680.
First published: Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1680
Volume in the UNT Lully Collection: Second edition, Paris: Ballard, 1707.
For further reading on Proserpine, see:
Newman, Joyce. Jean-Baptiste Lully and his Tragédies Lyriques. UMI Research Press, 1979.
Rosow, Lois. "Proserpine." In Grove Music Online. Edited by Laura Macy. Accessed 4 May 2005. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
See the Lully bibliography for more suggested reading.
Physicals
M1500 .L95 P7 1707
Full score: Typeset. 2°: ² A-5P². P4, 1-135, 130 [i.e.136], 137-310, [311], 312-427. 39 ½ x 26 cm.
This volume is a second edition of Proserpine published by Christophe Ballard in 1707.
Condition: The binding is a contemporary full calf with blind-tooled rules at margins, gilt floral designs in the panels of the jointed spine, a red morocco paste-on label with title, colorful marbled endpapers, trimmed edges. Some spots and foxing, tears in margins mended, paper discoloration.
Provenance: Marks indicating previous ownership include: a North Texas State College Library bookplate and a Kenneth Mummery label, both on the front paste-down endpaper.
RISM A/I L3015
Comparison of the two Ballard volumes
These first and second editions of Lully's Proserpine are the only pair in the Lully collection that are both printed from movable type by the Ballard printing firm (the other second editions are engraved). A comparison of the two volumes may offer insight into changes taking place in the firm in the intervening 27 years. Both the first and second editions are printed in folio. However, the first is signed in 4s, while the second is signed in 2s. In both volumes, the paper varies widely in weight. In the second volume, however, the paper is in general softer and thinner. The print quality in the first edition is clear and sharp, while the print in the second edition is fuzzy and uneven, showing evidence of worn type. While it is unlikely that the type was kept standing for 27 years, the second edition may have been typeset using the first as exemplar; the distribution of musical material among pages is almost identical between the two.
In the 1680 first edition, the stamp on p. 1 of the Prologue and the looping scribble of Jean-Baptiste Lully's signature on the verso of the final leaf fulfill the contractual obligation that each copy be marked by both composer and printer or their representatives before being put up for sale. A similar protocol may have been carried out in the 1707 2nd edition; however, the "J.-B. Lully" signature on p. 1 is in a round and very legible hand (perhaps that of Jean-Baptiste Lully fils or a representative of the family) and "C B" (Christophe Ballard?), also on p. 1, apparently replaces the stamp.
The title pages of both the 1680 and 1707 editions credit "Christophe Ballard, seul Imprimeur du Roy pour la Musique"; however, the device in the center of the printer's mark is different. In the 1680 edition, the center of the printer's mark shows an elaborate scene with two female figures, one embracing a pillar around which a ribbon is entwined. On the ribbon appears the phrase "VIRTU FORTUNA CEDIT" ("Virtue yields to fortune"). The same area in the printer's mark on the title page of the 1707 edition shows a trompe-l'oeil design of three fleurs-de-lys on a rounded oval. While Proserpine is the earliest volume in the Lully Collection to show this new printer's mark, the trompe l'oeil device of the three fleurs-de-lys on the raised oval appears in the smaller printer's mark in Achille et Polixene, the small printer's mark in Le Triomphe de la Raison sur l'Amour, and in the center of the graphic on the dedication page of Triomphe de la Raison. The same graphic appears in the center of two additional graphics in Proserpine, on the dedication page and page 1 (the beginning of the Prologue). In all cases except the large printer's mark on the title page of Proserpine, the oval supporting the three fleurs-de-lys is topped by a crown.
The use of graphics also shows some changes between the two editions. Those in the 1680 edition are generic stock woodcuts whose use is ornamental rather than illustrative; they appear to be chosen more for size than for any relation to the material. In the 1707 edition of Proserpine, on the other hand, the woodcut at the beginning of Act I is a dramatic scene showing an abduction like that in the opera, while the woodcut at the beginning of Act II, set in the garden of Céres, shows a secluded bower. These images are by no means as specific as the illustrations at act divisions in the engraved second editions, they show a greater degree of care in the selection of images than in the Ballard first editions.