Le cadi dupé
| Christoph Willibald Gluck |
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Operas
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Le cadi dupé (The Duped Qadi, or The Duped Judge) is an opéra comique in one act by Christoph Willibald Gluck. It has a French-language libretto by Pierre-René Lemonnier. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 8 December 1761. The libretto had already been set by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny in an opera that had premiered on 4 February of the same year at the Paris Foire St-Germain.
The music belongs to the Turkish-influenced fashion of the period and features janissary music, represented by piccolo, drums, and cymbals.
Roles
| Role | Voice type[1] | Premiere Cast, November or December, 1761 (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Cadi, the judge | bass-baritone | |
| Fatime, his wife | soprano | |
| Zelmire | soprano | |
| Nouradin | haute-contre | |
| Omar, a dyer | bass-baritone | |
| Ali, Omar's daughter | tenor (travesti) | |
| An Aga, or Lieutenant of the Cadi | spoken role?[2] | |
Synopsis
The Cadi has been flirting with other women and neglecting his wife, Fatima. The mischievous Zelmire, who is in love with Nuradin, tricks the Cadi in order to teach him a lesson. She pretends to be Omar's daughter, Ali, who is considered less than desirable. The Cadi plans to divorce Fatima in order to marry the pretending Zelmire, but the truth is eventually revealed.
References
- Notes
- ↑ Brown; Alfred Wotquenne, Catalogue Thématique des Œuvres de Chr. W. v. Gluck, Leipzig/Bruxelles/London/New York, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904, p. 202 (copy at Internet Archive)
- ↑ The role is not listed by Wotquenne (cf. above) and, according to the complete score edited by Daniela Philippi (Christoph Willibald Gluck, Le Cadi dupé. Opéra-comique in einem Akt (Gluck. Sämtliche Werke. Serie IV, Band 6), Kassel, Bärenreiter, 1999, ISMN 979-0006495528), the opera is set for: 2 soprano voice solos, 2 tenor voice solos, 2 baritone voice solos, speaker and orchestra.
- Bibliography
- Original Paris libretto: Le Cadi dupé, Opera-comique en un acte par l'Auteur du Maître en Droit, Répresenté pour la premiere fois sur le Théâtre de l'Opera-Comique de la Foire S. Germain, le 4 Fevrier 1761, Paris, Duchesne, 1761 (a copy at books-google)
- Bruce Alan Brown, Cadi dupé, Le, in Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, I, p. 675, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2