La statue

La statue (The Statue) is an opera in three acts and five tableaux by Ernest Reyer to the libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on tales from One Thousand and One Nights and La statue merveilleuse, an 1810 carnival play (pièce foraine) by Alain-René Lesage and Jacques-Philippe d'Orneval.

Although in its story opera possesses a certain Oriental climate, musically it has very little resemblance to its locale, remaining in core of the French music tradition of 18th and early 19th century. It was originally conceived and performed as an opéra comique (with some spoken dialogue instead of all recitatives).

Performance history

The opera received its premiere at the Théâtre Lyrique on 11 April 1861 and was very successful (Jules Massenet, who at that time himself participated in that performance (playing timpani in the orchestra), described it as "a superb score and tremendous success"). Until the year 1863 it received total of 59 performances, impressive figure for those times. It was then performed in Brussels at La Monnaie in 1865, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1878, Monte Carlo in 1890 and finally in completely revised version the Paris Opéra in 1903 (at that time receiving only just 10 performances). Since that time it has slipped into total oblivion and has not been performed ever since.