Adèle de Ponthieu is an opera by the French composers Jean-Benjamin de La Borde and Pierre Montan Berton, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris (the Paris Opera) on 1 December 1772. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto was written by Jean-Paul-André Razins de Saint-Marc, after a tragedy by Pierre-Antoine de La Place, staged at the Comédie-Française in 1757.[1]
The opera had little success in its first run and was only revived in 1775 in five acts, for 38 performances, before being withdrawn for good.[2] The three-act libretto, however, was later set by Niccolò Piccinni in 1781.
| Cast | Voice type | Premiere 1 December 1772 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guillaume, Count of Ponthieu | basse-taille (bass-baritone) | Henri Larrivée | |
| Adèle, the Count's daughter | soprano | Sophie Arnould | |
| Alphonse, a foreign knight | bass-baritone | Nicolas Gélin | |
| Raimond de Mayenne, a relative of the Count and a humble squire | haute-contre | Joseph Legros | |
| Alise, Adèle's confidante | soprano | Mlle Châteauneuf | |
| Juges du camp (judges of the camp) | 2 bass-baritones, haute-contre, taille (baritenor) | Cassaignade, de la Suze, Cavalier, Méon | |
| Un berger (a shepherd) | bass-baritone | Durand | |
| Une bergère (a shepherdess) | soprano | Mlle Beaumesnil (stage name of Henriette-Adélaïde de Villars) | |
| Une jongleuse (a female jongleur) | soprano | Mlle Beaumesnil | |
| Chorus: The court of the Count, knights, squires, king of arms, heralds, officers of the joust, fiddlers, male and female jongleurs, shepherds, shepherdesses | |||