Corneville Bells

Louis Kantin, director of the Foley Dramatic Theater, originally planned to order the opera Florimon Herve ^[2] , but changed his mind and in 1876 ordered it to Robert Planket. The premiere of the opera took place in the Foley Dramatic Theater in Paris on April 19, 1877 , where it was performed 408 times. Although the storyline was criticized for its resemblance to the operas “The White Lady” and “ Martha ”, despite the mixed initial reviews, this opera became one of the most popular in the world and was praised for its melodic and cheerful, elegant and memorable music. a variety of playful dance rhythms, an abundance of a variety of folk song and dance genres, spectacular mass choral numbers and interesting orchestral colors ^[1] . For many years, the melodies of this operetta were sung not only in Paris, but throughout the country, and they were played by garden orchestras and street organ-grinders ^[3] .

October 22, 1877 under the name "The Chimes of Normandy" operetta was first staged in New York , in the "Fifth Avenue Theater." On February 28, 1878 , with the English libretto of Farni and Rhys , “The Corneville Bells” were first staged in the Folly Theater in London , and then on August 31 of the same year, the production was transferred to the Globus Theater. Performed 705 times in London, the operetta overtook Gilbert and Sullivan's “ Ship of Her Majesty's Pinafor” by the number of performances and until 1886 (the opera “ Dorothy ”) occupied the first place among all the musical and theatrical productions of London.

On April 21, 1902, as the "The Bells of Corneville", the operetta was again staged in New York, in the Victoria Theater.

The opera “The Corneville Bells” was first performed in Russian on May 8, 1880 by the enterprise of Mikhail Lentovsky at the Hermitage Garden Theater in Moscow . His later production is mentioned in A. P. Chekhov 's Shards of Moscow Life:

In November, Lentovsky frantically hit his fist on the table, stole his “great task” and took on the good old “Corneville Bells” ... “Look here, look there ...” ^[4] gave the sweetest results. And the collection is full, and the audience happy. After ringing the Rönil bells, Lentovsky, more than ever, satisfied Moscow tastes: he made a volley of hundreds of guns.

• Gaspard, a rich farmer ( bass )
• Germain, his niece ( soprano )
• Serpoletta, his adopted daughter (soprano)
• Jean Grenisch, his worker ( tenor )
• Marquis Henri de Corneville ( baritone )
• Jeanne, Manetta, Suzanne, Catherine - maids
• Gripparden, Fuinar - clerks
• village headman
• Notary
• Scribe
• Peasants and peasant women, rural watchmen, sailors, coachmen, servants.

The action takes place in Normandy at the end of the reign of Louis XIV .

In the town of Corneville, life goes on as usual: petty accidents, funny gossip. Gaspard wants to give her niece Germain prudently. She promised to unite her fate with Grenishe, who had saved her recently from misfortune, when she nearly drowned. Hiding from her uncle, Germain runs to the market of Corneville. Here you can engage in a maid, thus finding a master defender. In his role is the Marquis de Corneville, who returned from foreign lands to his native castle. There are strange rumors about the abandoned castle: a ghost settled there. Marquis hired, in addition to Germain, Serpolettu and Grenishe, also left the evil Gaspard. With his assistants and new servants, he enters the castle. It turns out that the ghost is Gaspard himself, who scares the locals away from the castle (the old man hides a treasure chest here).

The Marquis, ever more penetrating with sympathy and tenderness for Germain, learns of her promise to this Greniche. Germain also regrets that she did not answer Grenische in Norman: “neither yes nor no”. The young de Corneuil is outraged by the deception: Germain was saved from misfortune by no means Greniche, but himself. There comes a happy ending. Germain responds to the feelings of the Marquis. Korneviltsy welcome new mistress of the castle. At her request, the Marquis forgives Gaspard and Grenisch and leaves the cheerful Serpoletta in the castle. The bells of the Corneville Castle tower came to life, heralding the beginning of a new happy life ^[5] .

The opera “The Corneville Bells” is repeatedly mentioned in the literary works of A. P. Chekhov : “A Contract of 1884 with Humanity”, “Fantastic Theater of Lentovskiy”, “Fragments of Moscow Life”, “My Domostroy”, “ Three Years ”, and also in the story "The death of the official ":

One fine evening, an equally beautiful executor, Ivan Dmitrich Chervyakov, sat in the second row of chairs and looked through his binoculars at the “Corneville Bells”. He looked and felt on top of bliss. But suddenly…

And also mentioned in the "Earthquake" A. V. Amphitheatrov and the novel " Chastity " N. A. Krasheninnikov .

The melody and words of the maidservants choir “Look here, look there” are used in D. D. Shostakovich’s “ Anti-Formalist District District ”. In the original, these words are sung by flirtatious maidservants, demonstrating their charms from all sides, and the number itself became one of the symbols of the operetta, so to speak, “playfulness” (which attracted such connoisseurs of art as Worms from Chekhov's story). In Shostakovich, the words “Look here, look there” are a call for vigilance in the Stalinist understanding of the word, and, quite simply, for squealing . ^[6] .

• Operetta. 109 libretto / aut.-status. M.M. Godlevskaya, M.G. Efremova. - SPb. : “Composer • Saint Petersburg”, 2014. - P. 310—316. - 472 s. - 500 copies - ISBN 978-5-7379-0584-2 .
• PLANKET, Plunkett (Planquette) Jean Rober Julien / Bronfin EP // Okunev - Simovich. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia: Soviet composer, 1978. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Directories: Musical Encyclopedia : [in 6 tons.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysh ; 1973-1982, v. 4).
• Vladimirskaya A.R. Operetta. Starry hours. - 3rd ed. - SPb. : Lan, Planet of Music, 2009. - P. 43-44. - 288 s. - ISBN 5-210-00257-8 .
• Kudinova T.N. New trends in the French operetta // From vaudeville to the musical. - M .: Owls. composer, 1982. - p. 47-51. - 175 s. - 20 000 copies

• Robert Planett's “Corneville Bells”: scores from the International Music Score Library Project