Pomone (opera)

Title page of the partial score of Pomone, published by Ballard in 1671
First page of the score

Pomone (Pomona) is a pastoral opera in a prologue and five acts by Robert Cambert with a libretto by Pierre Perrin. It has been described as "effectively the first French opera."[1] It was first performed in Paris at the Jeu de Paume de la Bouteille theatre belonging to Cambert and Perrin's Académie d'Opéra on 3 March 1671. The production had ballets choreographed by Des Brosses[2] and sets and machinery designed by Alexandre de Rieux, marquis de Sourdéac.[3] The novelty of the work drew large audiences and the opera enjoyed 146 performances over the eight months of its run.[4] The score of Pomone has only partially survived.[1]

  1. ^ a b Sadler 2001, p.180. Bashford 1992, p. 697: "Considered by modern scholars to be the first true French opera..."
  2. ^ Powell 1995, p. 179; Guest 2006, p. 7. The dances for Pomone have generally been attributed to Pierre Beauchamps, based on the 'Receuil de Tralage' (ca. 1697; MS 6544, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris), but an unnumbered manuscript in the archives of the Comédie-Française, discovered by John S. Powell, states that Beauchamps did not join the production until two months before the end of the run, and that Des Brosses had created all the dances before he relinquished his position. Apparently Des Brosses left Perrin's Académie in order to work on Jean Donneau de Visé's musical machine-play Le Mariage de Bacchus et d'Ariane, performed at the Théâtre du Marais in the winter of 1671–1672.
  3. ^ Jean-Claude Brenac.
  4. ^ Johnson 2008, pp. 100–102.