La rencontre imprévue

Performance history#

Gluck’s longest opéra-comique and considered his finest, La rencontre imprévue was his most popular work in the genre in the 18th century. It was performed in French in Brussels (1766), Bordeaux (as Ali et Rezia, 19 May 1766), Amsterdam (1768), The Hague (1768), Mannheim (1768), Copenhagen (1772), Liège (23 December 1776), Cassel (1780), Lille (17 November 1783), and Marseille (1784). It was translated into German as Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft oder Die Pilgrimme von Mecca and performed in Frankfurt (16 April 1771), Vienna (1776 at the Kärntnertor Theater; 26 July 1780 at the Burgtheater), Munich (9 March 1779), Berlin (17 October 1783, the first Gluck opera to be performed there), and many other cities. The opera was first performed in Paris on 1 May 1790 by the Opéra-Comique at the first Salle Favart in an arrangement by Jean-Pierre Solié with the title Les fous de Médine, ou La rencontre imprévue. It was revived by the Opéra-Comique in Gluck’s arrangement (as Les pèlerins de la Mecque) on 20 December 1906, and also produced at the Trianon Lyrique on 8 November 1923. A new German translation by with the title Die Pilger von Mekka was performed in Wiesbaden (October 1922), Basel (26 September 1924), Berlin (18 February 1928), and Vienna (June 1931).

Legacy#

La rencontre imprévue was adapted and supplied with new music by Haydn as L’incontro improvviso (1775) and the 1780 Vienna revival of Gluck’s version presumably inspired the plot of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In 1784 Mozart wrote a set of variations for piano (K. 455) on Calender’s aria “Unser dummer Pöbel meint” (“Les hommes pieusement”). In 1887 the variations were orchestrated by Tchaikovsky as the final movement of his orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana.

Recordings#

• 1990 – Guy de Mey (Ali), Lynne Dawson (Rezia), Catherine Dubosc (Dardané), Sophie Marin-Degor (Amine), Claudine Le Coz (Balkis), Jean-Luc Viala (Osmin), Guy Flechter (Le Sultan d’égypte), Jean-Philippe Lafont (Vertigo), Gilles Cachemaille (Le calender), Francis Dudziak (La chef de Caravane) – Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner – 2 CDs Erato (world première recording; in cooperation with MusiFrance and Radio France).
• 1990 – Robert Gambill (Ali), Julie Kaufmann (Rezia), Annegeer Stumphius (Dardané), Anne-Marie Rodde (Amine), Iris Vermillion (Balkis), Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö (Osmin), Ulrich Reß (Le Sultan d’égypte), Malcolm Walker (Vertigo), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Le calender), Paolo Orecchia (La chef de Caravane) – Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Leopold Hager – 3 CDs Orfeo (issued 2016).

References#

Notes Sources * Brown, Bruce Alan (1992). “La rencontre imprévue” in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, pp. 1288–1289. * Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). Annals of Opera 1597–1940 (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Rushton, Julian (2001). “Christoph Willibald Gluck”, pp. 313–327, in The New Penguin Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden. London: Penguin Books. . * Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. . * Wild, Nicole; Charlton, David (2005). Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762–1972. Sprimont, Belgium: Editions Mardaga. . * Wolff, Stéphane (1953). Un demi-siècle d’Opéra-Comique (1900–1950). Paris: André Bonne.

External links#

• Amazon review of John Eliot Gardiner’s recording
• ms full score (n.d. 1764 or later ) at Gallica
• 1767 libretto (Munich: Mayrin) at Google Books
• 1768 libretto (The Hague: Constapel, et le Febure) at Google Books
• 1776 libretto (Paris: Duchesne) at Google Books
• 1780 libretto: Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft oder die Pilgrime von Mecca (Vienna: Logenmeister) at the Internet Archive.