Nephté is an opera by the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 15 December 1789. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, is set in Ancient Egypt but is based on the story of Camma, Queen of Galatia taken from the ancient historian Plutarch.
The plot concerns Nephté, Queen of Egypt, whose husband King Séthos has been murdered by his brother Pharès. The widowed queen seeks revenge with the help of the high priest Amédès. However, Pharès has the support of the army and aims to take the throne and to marry Nephté himself. He also threatens the life of Nephté's son. Eventually, Nephté agrees to marry Pharès but she poisons the wedding cup, killing both the usurper and herself, thereby allowing her son to succeed to the throne as king of Egypt.
Background and composition Libretto Camma in Plutarch Hoffman based Nephté on the story of Camma, Queen of Galatia, which occurs in Plutarch's essay "Virtues in Women"Part of the Moralia. Plutarch also tells the story—slightly differently—in another essay, "Eroticus". See Plutarch, Selected Essays and Dialogues translated by Donald Russell (Oxford University Press, World's Classics, 1993), pp. 327–328 and 278–279 Hoffman summarised Plutarch thus: Camma, daughter of Leonorius, married Silatus, King of Galatia. Sinorix, Silatus' kinsman, had him assassinated so he could seize his crown and his wife. As he was loved by the soldiers, he took the throne with ease; but Camma continued to maintain an inflexible resistance to him. Finally, the queen, abandoned by everyone, threatened by Sinorix, little respected by her rebellious people, was forced to give her hand in marriage to the murderer of her husband. But, faithful to her previous vows, and preserving in her heart as much love for Sinatus as horror for his murderer, she poisoned the wedding cup, and died with the usurper."Trait historique" in the published libretto, p. 9
Thomas Corneille's Camma, Reine de Galatie In his preface to the printed libretto, Hoffman noted that the story had been used before on the French stage. In 1661, Thomas Corneille (brother of the more famous Pierre) had presented his tragedy Camma, Reine de Galatie. However, Hoffman avoided using Corneille because, to suit the fashion of the times, Corneille had introduced love interest to the plot. The widowed queen is not devoted to her dead husbandDarlow, p. 234, says this is unfair to Corneille's play. but in love with a young prince she wishes to make king in the usurper's place. Hoffman writes that he had preferred to "preserve the historical episode in all its purity", refusing such additions.Hoffman in the published libretto, pp. 9–10
The Egyptian setting The major change Hoffman made was to alter the names and setting. He moved the scene of the action to ancient Egypt (in "mythological times") "to introduce new costumes and new manners to the stage of the Opéra". Plutarch's Camma is renamed Nephté, Sinatus becomes Séthos and Sinorix becomes Pharès. Hoffman writes that he had not invented the name "Nephté". Citing the German theologian and antiquarian Paul Ernst Jablonski, he says that "Nephté" is a conflation of two Egyptian gods, Neith (the equivalent of the Roman Minerva) and Ptah (the Roman Vulcan), signifying "wisdom" and "courage".Hoffman in the published libretto, p.10 Hoffman was also struck by the similarities between the plot of the opera and the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris. The goddess Isis "was always faithful to Osiris, her brother and husband; she took vengeance on Typhon, Osiris' murderer, and saved the crown for her son Horus."Hoffman in the published libretto, pp. 10–11
From the Dutch scholar Cornelius de Pauw, Hoffman took the idea that it was forbidden for women to inherit the throne of Egypt, an important plot point in the opera. He also researched details of Egyptian funerary rites in Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.Darlow, p. 236
Lemoyne and the Opéra management Lemoyne spent a long time working on the score. There are references to its composition as early as November 1787.Dratwicki, Antoine Dauvergne, p.387, footnote 156 Antoine Dauvergne, of the Opéra management, complained that Lemoyne and his pupil, the leading soprano Antoinette Saint-Huberty, only liked operas with "plots concerning incest, poison or assassinations". The response of the Opéra committee to Nephté was more positive, their report describing the work as "one of the darkest and most beautiful, both in its libretto and its score".Darlow, p. 218
Scenery Hoffman also used his research into Egyptian history to provide detailed descriptions for the scenery, which was designed by Pierre-Adrien Pâris.Darlow, pp. 235–236 Hoffman printed one such description in the stage directions for act 1 of Nephté: The whole of the right-hand side of the theatre should represent an arid mountain, beneath which twelve crypts or sepulchral grottoes have been carved out of the rock. Each of these grottoes contains the tomb of one of the kings of Egypt and each is lit by a funeral lamp. Séthos' tomb is the first and appears the newest to be built. Four priests, robed in linen, are sitting on four stones placed at the four corners of the tomb. The left-hand side is occupied by the façade of the palace of Memphis. At the far edge of the mountain rises the Great Temple of Osiris (or the Sun), of which only the doors are visible. This temple occupies only part of the background so that in the gap between it and the caves we can see in the distance some of the fertile fields which border the Nile, and one of the pyramids, whose top is lost on the horizon. An avenue of colossal sphinxes leads from the temple to the palace portico. The space remaining between the sphinxes and the caves is planted with cypress trees. Day has not yet broken and the theatre seems illuminated only by the light from the funeral lamps.Published libretto, beginning of act 1
Performance history Nephté was first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 15 December 1789. The young soprano Madame Maillard took the title role, replacing Lemoyne's protégée Antoinette Saint-Huberty.Darlow, p. 232, footnote 49 According to some sources, the premiere was so successful, Lemoyne was called onto the stage after the final curtain, the first time this had happened in the history of the Opéra.Darlow, p. 232. However, a similar claim has been made for Étienne-Joseph Floquet at the premiere of his L'union des arts et de l'amour at the Opéra in 1773 Nephté ran for 39 performances, the last given on 18 March 1792. Hoffman angrily claimed that the withdrawal of the work was to prevent him receiving the pension which would have been his due had it reached 40 performances. In support of Hoffman's argument is the fact that the season did not end until 27 March, allowing time for another staging. Hoffman had also dedicated the libretto to Antoinette Saint-Huberty, who was disliked by the Opéra management, and had refused to add dance divertissements to Nephté on artistic grounds, against the recommendations of the Opéra board. On the other hand, ticket receipts had recently been falling off as the opera was losing popularity in spite of the good press it enjoyed.Darlow, pp. 232–233
Reception Reviews were generally favourable, with praise for the music, the scenery and the singing of Maillard and Lainez.Darlow, p. 233, referring to the reviews of the Chronique de Paris (16 December 1789), the Journal de Paris (December 20), the moniteur (21 December) and the Mercure de France (26 December). The Correspondence littéraire was more guarded, liking some aspects, but finding the work too static and emotionally uniform. It suggested this might have been remedied had Nephté's motivation been changed: instead of guessing Pharès' guilt almost from the beginning, she might have only slowly come to realise the truth, possibly after being infatuated with the usurper.Darlow, p. 234 Other critics complained about the lack of the dance—customary in French opera—, which in their opinion made the work monotonous.Darlow, p.240 In a later assessment, Jean-François de La Harpe criticised the music for being "harsh and loud, with the exception of a few pieces, as one would expect from a disciple of Gluck".Quoted by Dratwicki, in "Foreigners", p. 61
The work Nephté appeared when the French musical world was still divided between the supporters of two foreign composers who had made their mark on Paris in the 1770s: the German Christoph Willibald Gluck, famous for his operatic reforms, and Niccolò Piccinni, representative of the Italian school. This caused difficulties for native French composers, such as Lemoyne, who found it hard to devise a style of their own. Lemoyne had promoted himself as a member of the Gluckist camp with his first opera for Paris, Électre, in 1782. However, it failed and Gluck refused to accept Lemoyne as his disciple, so for his next work, Phèdre (1786), Lemoyne tried a more Italianate style in the manner of Piccinni.Dratwicki, "Foreigners", pp. 61–62 Nephté was regarded as an opera in the Gluckian vein, with its emphasis on "majesty and sobriety" and its simple, direct plot (there are only four main characters). It was dedicated to Gluck's champion, Queen Marie Antoinette. On the other hand, some features, such as the lavish and exotic scenery were not part of the Gluckian aesthetic.Darlow, pp. 234, 240–247
Nephté was premiered towards the beginning of the French Revolution. The exotic subject was seemingly at a safe remove from the political situation of 1789, but the scholar Mark Darlow believes that the opera's themes of royal legitimacy and usurpation and concern for the future survival of a dynasty would have had contemporary resonance.Dalow, pp. 231–232, 242–243
Roles +CastVoice typePremiere cast, 15 December 1789NephtésopranoMarie Thérèse Davoux MaillardPharèstenorÉtienne LainezAmédèsbasse-taille (bass-baritone)Martin-Joseph AdrienChemmisbasse-taille (bass-baritone)DufresneMaiden of the Temple of OsirissopranoMarie-Wilhelmine de RousseloisPriests of the tombsbasses-tailles (bass-baritones)Châteaufort, Poussez, LegrandPierre-Charles Le Roux (the younger),Châteaufort (ad nomen in ), and Le Roux cadet, were soloist of the Paris Opéra, while Poussez and Legrand were members of the choir classed as basses-tailles (cf. list of "actors and actresses singing in the choirs" reported in the original libretto of Salieri's Tarare). In the same list Le Roux, as a former member of the choir, was numbered among the tailles.High Priest of Hymenbasse-taille (bass-baritone)ChâteaufortNephté's infant sonmute roleMlle. RosetteChorus: 25 young maidens of the Temple of Osiris; grandees of the state, priests, Nephté's waiting women; soldiers, Egyptian people
Synopsis Setting: the palace of the Kings of Memphis
Act 1 Scene: the tombs of the kings of EgyptSee section "Scenery" for a fuller description