Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 composers Henri Desmarets

Henri Desmarets

Henri Desmarets was a French composer of the Baroque period primarily known for his stage works, although he also composed sacred music as well as secular cantatas, songs and instrumental works....

 and André Campra

André Campra

André Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...

. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 is by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy

Joseph-François Duché de Vancy

Joseph-François Duché de Vancy was a French playwright.-Life:He was the son of a gentleman in the household of Louis XIV and was himself a valet de chambre du roi. He followed Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles to Spain as his secretary...

 with additions by Antoine Danchet

Antoine Danchet

Antoine Danchet was a French playwright, librettist and dramatic poet.-Biography:Danchet was born in Riom, in the Auvergne, France. Having been a professor of rhetoric at Chartres and then a tutor at Paris, Danchet gaveup teaching to write for the theatre. He wrote some opera libretti which, set...

. Desmarets had begun work on the opera around 1696 but abandoned it when he was forced to go into exile in 1699. Campra and his regular librettist Danchet took up the piece and wrote the prologue, most of Act Five, two aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

s in Act One, an aria for Acts Two and Three, and two arias for the fourth act. The plot is ultimately based on Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...

' tragedy Iphigeneia in Tauris

Iphigeneia in Tauris

Iphigenia in Tauris is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama or an escape play.-Background:...

.

Performance history

Iphigénie was first performed at the Académie royale de musique

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

 on 6 May 1704 with Françoise Journet

Françoise Journet

Françoise Journet was a French operatic soprano.Beginning her career at the Lyon Opera, Journet eventually became a pupil of Marie Le Rochois in Paris. In 1699 she appeared as Mélisse in the premiere of Amadis de Gréce by Destouches and subsequently created a number of important roles in operas by...

 as Iphigénie and Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard

Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard

Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard was a French operatic baritone .Thévenard was born at Orléans or possibly Paris. Arriving in Paris in 1690, he studied under the composer André Cardinal Destouches and went on to become a member of the Académie Royale de Musique...

 as Oreste. It was coolly received at first, but enjoyed several revivals in the 18th century, the last being in 1762.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 6 May 1704
L'ordonnateur des jeux/L'Océan	basse-taille (bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... )	Charles Hardouin Charles Hardouin Charles Hardouin was a French operatic baritone .Beginning his career as a cathedral singer, Hardouin was engaged by the Paris Opéra as a principal singer around 1693-1694, though from 1697 onwards he was eclipsed by the more powerful Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard...
Diane/Thétis	bas-dessus (contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... )	Julie d'Aubigny Julie d'Aubigny Julie d'Aubigny , better known as Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, was a 17th-century swordswoman and opera singer. Her tumultuous career and flamboyant life were the subject of gossip and colorful stories in her own time, and inspired romances and novels afterwards... , known as La Maupin
An inhabitant of Délos	haute-contre Haute-contre The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:...	Antoine Boutelou
Iphigénie	dessus (soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... )	Françoise Journet Françoise Journet Françoise Journet was a French operatic soprano.Beginning her career at the Lyon Opera, Journet eventually became a pupil of Marie Le Rochois in Paris. In 1699 she appeared as Mélisse in the premiere of Amadis de Gréce by Destouches and subsequently created a number of important roles in operas by...
Électre	dessus	Mlle Armand
Oreste	basse-taille	Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard was a French operatic baritone .Thévenard was born at Orléans or possibly Paris. Arriving in Paris in 1690, he studied under the composer André Cardinal Destouches and went on to become a member of the Académie Royale de Musique...
Pylade	haute-taille (baritenor Baritenor Baritenor is a musical term formed by a blend of the words "baritone" and "tenor". It is used to describe both baritone and tenor voices. In Webster's Third New International Dictionary it is defined as "a baritone singing voice with virtually a tenor range"... )	Poussin
Triton	haute-contre	Pierre Chopelet
Thoas	bass	Jean Dun (père)
Ismène	dessus	Mlle Savigny
Le grand sacrificateur	haute-contre	Louis Mantienne