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Updated: June 3, 2025
In 1856 he made the acquaintance of Jules Barbier and Michel Carre, and asked them to collaborate with him in an opera. They assenting, he proposed Goethe's "Faust" as a subject, and it met with their approval. Together they went to see M. Carvalho, who was then director of the Theatre Lyrique. He, too, liked the idea of the opera, and the librettists went to work.
Some years since, Mdlle Zélie, a singer of the Théâtre Lyrique at Paris, made a professional tour round the world, and gave a concert in the Society Islands. In exchange for an air from Norma and a few other songs, she was to receive a third of the receipts.
Carvalho therefore advised a change of subject, which was such a blow to Gounod that he was incapable of applying himself to work for a week. Finally, Carvalho came to the rescue with a request for a lyric comedy based on one of Moliere's plays. Gounod chose "Le Medecin malgre lui," and the opera had its production at the Theatre Lyrique on the anniversary of Moliere's birth, January 15, 1858.
Piccolomini as Arline; and also had the honor of being selected for the state performance connected with the marriage of the Princess Royal. The French version, under the name of "La Bohémienne," for which Balfe added several numbers, besides enlarging it to five acts, was produced at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, in December, 1869, and gained for him the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
He made me an unlimited offer of his services with the manager of the Theatre Lyrique, a personal friend of his, amongst other people. Well, we must see what will come of it; in any case, I should surrender, without much scruple of conscience, "Rienzi," to gain me an entry, but of course only on the supposition that considerable pecuniary advantages would accrue to me.
He was at that time an editeur on a small scale, as well as a postal official, and the venture put him on the road to fortune. For the English rights Gounod is said to have received only forty pounds sterling, and this only after the energetic championship of Chorley, who made the English translation. The opera was given thirty-seven times at the Theatre Lyrique.
A. Jeanroy, Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France, 2nd edit., Paris, 1904. J. Anglade, Les troubadours, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy work, in popular style, with a good bibliography.
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