Mireille is an 1864 opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mirèio. The vocal score is dedicated to George V of Hanover.Mireille, opéra en 5 actes et 7 tableaux. Editions Choudens, Paris, 1976.
Composition history Mistral had become well known in Paris with the publication of the French prose translation of Mireio in 1859, and Gounod probably knew the work by 1861.Huebner 1992. He was charmed by its originality, the story being much less contrived than many of those on the operatic stage at the time.Condé G. Mireille (notes for the 1979 EMI recording). The action of the opera is quite faithful to Mistral, although the sequence of events of the Val d’Enfer (Act 3, Scene 1) and Mireille's avowal of her love of Vincent to her father (Act 2 finale) are reversed in the opera.Huebner 1990, p. 138. Gounod's biographer James Harding has argued that "what matters in this extended lyric poem is not the story but the rich tapestry of Provençal traditions, beliefs and customs that Mistral unfolds."Harding 1973, p. 127.
During the course of composition Gounod spent much time in Provence (12 March to the end of May 1863), visiting the sites of the action in the poem/opera, and met Mistral on several occasions at his home in Maillane.Bonnet M. Le Souvenir de Gounod. Saint-Rémy, (Exhibition Guide), 1963. Gounod stayed at the Hôtel de la Ville Vert in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and was treated to a banquet by the townspeople on 26 May. Presenting class differences in a rural setting was not usual at the time, and as the musicologist Steven Huebner comments "some early reviewers had difficulty accepting that a 'mere' country girl could sing an aria with heroic cut such as 'En marche'."Huebner 1992, p. 410.
Performance history A pre-performance run-through of the work at Gounod's house included Georges Bizet on the piano and Camille Saint-Saëns on the harmonium. Gounod and the Vicomtesse de Grandval (a composer herself) sang the solo parts.Curtiss 1958, p. 146.
Théâtre Lyrique The opera premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 19 March 1864; the first night was attended by Ivan Turgenev, who in a letter to Pauline Viardot, ridicules part of Act 3.Huebner 1990, p. 151,
As with the role of Marguerite in Faust, Gounod's demands on his principal soprano are particularly onerous – from light soprano in Act I to more dramatic singing in Act IV. Even before the premiere Gounod had been forced by his prima donna to make many changes to the form and content of his opera.Huebner 1990, pp. 146–150. This caused vocal problems for Miolan-Carvalho - wife of the theatre director - who got Gounod to make the role easier for her and particularly more 'brilliant'. Gounod even marked in the manuscript that the roulades at the end of her Act 2 air were demanded by her.Ferrant 1942, p.
Critical reaction to the first performances was negative with accusations of Wagnerism.Curtiss 1958, p. 147. The criticisms led to a revised version first presented on 15 December 1864, in three acts with a happy ending.Huebner 1990, p. 141. The happy ending (lieto fine) had first been presented in London in Italian on 5 July. The December production at the Théâtre Lyrique compressed the last three acts of the 5-act version into a single act, omitting the encounter between Ourrias and Vincent, Ourrias's death scene on the Rhône, the "Choeur des moissoneurs", and Mireille's big aria in the Crau scene. Miolan-Carvalho, a lyric coloratura soprano, was apparently incapable of singing this dramatic soprano music satisfactorily. However, this version also failed to find an audience.Walsh 1981, p. 177.Huebner 1990, p. 141. The December performances of Mireille also included a revised ending to the overture (which has been used ever since, although the original slower coda is printed in the 1970 vocal score) and the 'valse-ariette' "O légère hirondelle" for Mireille in Act I.Huebner 1990, p. 153.
Opéra-Comique After Carvalho's company went bankrupt in 1868, the opera transferred to the Opéra-Comique, where it has had a long and varied career. The first production at the Salle Favart was on 10 November 1874, in four acts, but was poorly received. This production featured Miolan-Carvalho again in the title role, Galli-Marié as Taven and Andreloun, and Ismael appeared this time as Ramon, while Léon Melchissédec sang Ourrias; Deloffre conducted, as in the premiere run.
A revival on 29 November 1889, presented by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Chatelet, with Cécile Simonnet as Mireille and Edmond Clément as Vincent, was in three acts with a happy ending in which Mireille and Vincent marry. This version did much better, and the opera became a repertory piece, receiving 226 performances by the end of 1894.Wild & Charlton 2005, p. 333;Letellier 2010, pp. 361–363. Wolff 1953, p. 123–124, states that the 1874 version was in three acts. Letellier says the 1889 revival was first performed on 29 October.
The three-act version pleased some later writers, who admired "warmth and colour" and found it "glows with the life and sunlight of the south".Streatfield RA. The Opera. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1925.
A new production at the Opéra-Comique, which opened on 13 March 1901, was again in five acts (although acts 4 and 5 were both abridged), used spoken dialogue, and reinstated the tragic ending.Gounod 1901; Wild & Charlton 2005, p. 333; Letellier 2010, pp. 361–363. The 500th performance at the Opéra-Comique took place on 19 December 1920.Wolff 1953, p. 123–124.
On 6 June 1939 Reynaldo Hahn and Henri Büsser mounted a new production at the Opéra-Comique (revived in Arles on 28 June 1941), in which an attempt was made to revert to Gounod's original thoughts.Hahn R. La version originale de Mireille. La Revue d'Arles, June 1941. Büsser edited the music and provided orchestrations for some passages for which Gounod's full scoring had been lost (most notably, much of the aria in the Crau scene, and Mireille's death in the finale).Wild & Charlton 2005, p. 333; Huebner 1990, pp. 141–143. According to Huebner, although Büsser consulted the full-score autograph, many pages of cut music had been removed during the first run of the opera, and these are the passages which Büsser orchestrated. Subsequently, in 1980 during the transfer of material from the archives of the Opéra-Comique to the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, original orchestral parts were discovered which revealed much of the lost instrumentation, including 34 bars in the 'Air de la Crau' and almost the complete finale of the last act. Subsequent productions have generally followed Büsser's edition. Whether it is a true reflection of the original score is doubtful: spoken dialogue was probably used at the première rather than recitatives, and the end of Act II was originally a repeat of the concertato, not a recollection of the Chanson de Magali.Huebner1990, pp. 141–143. Huebner makes several arguments, including that the recitatives are not in the original orchestral parts and are also not found in the first edition of the vocal score, and that several reviews of the premiere refer to the work as an opéra-comique. However, the work continued to be successful and by 1950 over 800 performances of Mireille had been given at the Opéra-Comique.
Other productions in France Mireille was produced at the Gaîté-Lyrique on 11 May 1930.Loewenberg 1978, column 967.
A notable production was given on 24 July 1954 at the Baux de Provence with five thousand seats borrowed from the arenas in Nîmes and Arles, as part of the Aix-en-Provence Festival; the same cast and orchestra recorded the work under Cluytens a few days later in Aix.Baeck E. André Cluytens: Itinéraire d’un chef d’orchestre. Chapter V - 3 Festival d'art lyrique d'Aix en Provence. Éditions Mardaga, Wavre, 2009.
Mireille was given its Paris Opera premiere in September 2009 in a production by the company's new director and was released on DVD.The DVD is the only recording of the opera recommended in The Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2012 and was "Editor's Choice" in the Gramophone (March 2011). It was also given generally positive reviews by Eric Myers in Opera News (April 2011) and Barry Brenesal in Fanfare (January/February 2012).
Productions outside France The opera was never as popular outside France. James Henry Mapleson produced the London premiere on 5 July 1864 at Her Majesty's Theatre (in Italian as Mirella). It was presented in five acts but with a new happy ending that Gounod later incorporated into the 3-act version at the Théâtre Lyrique in December. It was also likely the first version of the opera to include the recitatives (which Gounod originally intended for use in foreign productions). The cast included Thérèse Tietjens as Mireille (Mirella), Antonio Giuglini as Vincent (Vicenzo), Zelia Trebelli-Bettini as Taven (Tavena), Charles Santley as Ourrias (Urias), Mélanie-Charlotte Reboux as Vincennette (Vincenzina), Elisa Volpini as Andreloun (Andreluno), Marcel Junca as Ramon (Raimondo), and Édouard Gassier as Ambroise (Ambrogio), with Luigi Arditi as the conductor, but it was only a succès d'estime.Rosenthal 1958, p. 145; The Musical World, July 16, 1864; The Reader, July 9, 1864; Loewenberg 1978, column 967; Huebner 1990, p. 141. (Huebner mistakenly places this performance at the Covent Garden theatre; corrected in Huebner 2001, p. 338). On 29 April 1887 Mapleson revived the opera with Emma Nevada as Mireille at the Covent Garden theatre, where it was also given in Italian with the happy ending, but in the compressed 3-act form.Rosenthal 1958, p. 219; The Athenaeum, May 7, 1887; Gounod (n.d. [c. 1880]). On 10 June 1891 it was sung at the same theatre in French, and on 4 December 1899 at the Guildhall School of Music (in an English translation by Henry Fothergill ChorleyGounod n.d. [c. 1880].). It was seen in Dublin on 29 September 1864 (in Italian).
Mireille was presented in French in Belgium: in Antwerp on 10 March 1865 and Brussels on 12 May, with further performances in later years. The Italian version was presented in St Petersburg on 9 February 1874, starring Adelina Patti in the title role and her future husband Nicolini as Vincent.
The opera was first seen in the United States at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on 17 November 1864 (in German).Huebner 2001; Loewenberg 1978, column 967. It was first given in Chicago on 13 September 1880 (in English), and in New York on 18 December 1884 (in Italian). It was performed in the original French at the French Opera House in New Orleans on 29 January 1885. The Metropolitan Opera presented the opera on 28 February 1919, with Maria Barrientos as Mireille, Charles Hackett as Vincent, Kathleen Howard as Taven, and Clarence Whitehill as Ourrias and Pierre Monteux conducting. Despite the line-up, the production was only given four times, and the opera was never revived.Mireille at the Met Opera Archive.
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