Julien, ou La vie du poète (Julien, or The Poet’s Life) is a 1914 poème lyrique or opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Gustave Charpentier

Gustave Charpentier

Gustave Charpentier, , born in Dieuze, Moselle on 25 June 1860, died Paris, 18 February 1956) was a French composer, best known for his opera Louise.-Life and career:...

. The work is devised in a prologue and four acts and uses a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 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...

 by the composer. Julien is a sequel to Charpentier's Louise

Louise (opera)

Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....

 (1900) and describes the artistic aspirations of Louise’s suitor Julien. The opera premiered in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 at the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 on 4 June 1913.

History

Like Louise, Juliens plot is somewhat autobiographical and requires many characters and chorus roles, with the main female lead portraying four smaller characters in addition to the role of Louise. The opera integrates elements of an earlier piece, La vie du poète, a symphony-drama of 1888–1889. The chorus consists largely of ‘filles du rêve’ (girls of the dream), fairies

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...

, and chimeras

Chimera (mythology)

The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...

 as well as various men's roles, mainly different kinds of working class men. Charpentier described how, except for the prologue, "Louise and the various characters who surround Julien are not so much real people as an exteriorized realization of their inner souls". The opera was not well received and apart from two productions in 1914, one of which was at the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 with Geraldine Farrar

Geraldine Farrar

Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...

 and Enrico Caruso in the main roles. It has not been revived. The work did, however, gain the admiration of Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...

 who admired its expressionist

Expressionism

Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...

 qualities.

Synopsis

The opera begins with a prologue, subtitled "Enthousiasme" ("Filled with enthusiasm"), in which Julien, as a Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 winner, is studying in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 at the Villa Medici

Villa Medici

The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...

. This resembles the life of Charpentier as he too was a Prix de Rome winner. However, after this point, the opera moves from the real world into the imagination until the final tableau

Tableau vivant

Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move...

, set in Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...

, returns the plot to reality. Act 1, subtitled "Au pays du rêve" ("With the country of the dream"), contains three settings: the Holy Mountain, followed by a setting in the Accursed Valley, and lastly the Temple of Beauty. Act 2 takes place in the Slovakian countryside and follows Julien as he experiences doubts in creating his artwork. The third act, titled "Impuissance" ("Impotence"), takes place in Brittany's wild countryside. The fourth and final act, "Ivresse" ("Intoxication"), finishes in Montmartre, closing in Place Blanche

Place Blanche

Place Blanche in Paris, France is one of the small plazas along the Boulevard de Clichy, which runs between the 9th and 18th arrondissements and leads into Montmartre....

 with the sudden appearance of the Temple of Beauty.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 4 June 1913 (Conductor: Albert Wolff)
Julien	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Charles Rousselière
Louise/Beauty/homeless woman/young girl/old woman	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...	Marguerite Carré
Hiérophante/peasant/mage	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Raymond Boulogne
Painter	baritone	Andal
Bell ringer	tenor	Maurice Cazeneuve
Acolyte Acolyte In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone who performs ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In other Christian Churches, the term is more specifically used for one who wishes to attain clergyhood.-Etymology:...	tenor	Georges-Louis Mesmaecker
Student	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Éloi de Roqueblave
Bourgeoise	soprano	Berthe Marietti
A bourgeois	tenor	Daburon
First grisette Grisette (French) The word grisette has referred to a French working-class woman from the late 17th century and remained in common use through the Belle Époque era, albeit with some modifications to its meaning. It derives from gris, , and refers to the cheap grey fabric of the dresses these women originally wore...	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Pla
Second grisette	mezzo-soprano	Marguerite Julliot
Voice from the abyss/officer	tenor	Eugène de Creus
First comrade/Another voice from the abyss/stone breaker/	bass	Ernest Dupré
Second comrade/logger/bohemian	tenor	Maurice Capitaine
Third comrade	tenor	Donval
Fourth comrade	tenor	Pasquier
First café waiter	baritone	Corbière
Second café waiter	baritone	Pierre Deloger
First dream ('Chimère')	soprano	Madeleine Ménard
Second dream	soprano	Le Fontenay
Third dream	mezzo-soprano	Germaine Gallot
Fourth dream/country-woman	mezzo-soprano	Germaine Philippot
Fifth dream	mezzo-soprano	Cécilie Thévenet
Sixth dream	mezzo-soprano	Alavoine
First girl of the dream	soprano	Marie Tissier
Second girl of the dream	soprano	Marie-Louise Arné
Third girl of the dream	soprano	Germaine Carrière
Fourth girl of the dream	soprano	Jeanne Calas
Fifth girl of the dream	soprano	Marguerite Villette
Sixth girl of the dream	soprano	Marini
Voice offstage	mezzo-soprano	Reynald
Girl	soprano	Pesier