Le peintre amoureux de son modèle

Le peintre amoureux de son modèle ('The Painter in Love with his Model') is an opéra comique in two acts by the composer Egidio Duni with a libretto by Louis Anseaume. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Foire Saint-Laurent in Paris on 26 July 1757. The Italian Duni had been working at the court of Parma, where French culture was highly fashionable, and travelled to Paris to see the premiere of his opera. He remained in France for the rest of his career. Le peintre marked an important stage in the development of opéra comique, since its musical numbers were almost entirely original music, whereas previous opéras comiques employed either popular vaudevilles or ariettes appropriated from other works.[1]

The melody of "Maudit Amour, raison sévère",[2] one of the opera's ariettes, was used by Sweden's bard, Carl Michael Bellman, for his song Glimmande nymf, one of his Fredman's Epistles published in 1790.[3]

Roles

Cast	Voice type	Premiere cast
Alberti, an elderly painter	bass	Jean-Louis Laruette
Zerbin, a young apprentice	tenor	M Bouret
Jacinte, an old governess	soprano	Mlle Deschamps
Laurette, a young girl	soprano	Mlle Rosaline

References

1. Cook 1992.
2. Music and words for "Maudit Amour, raison sévère" in a 1767 score at Gallica.
3. "Fredmans Epistel N:o 72". Bellman.net. Retrieved 17 March 2016.

Sources

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Le peintre amoureux de son modèle, 26 July 1757". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
• Cook, Elisabeth (1992). Peintre amoureux de son modèle, Le in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7.
• The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera ed. Parker (Oxford University Press, 1994).

External links

• 1757 Livret (libretto, in French) at Gallica