Déjanire

Description

"It will be a strange score: it will either be completely disliked or greatly appreciated," prophesied Camille Saint-Saëns a few days before the premiere of Déjanire. Given in Monte-Carlo on March 14, 1911, the score draws from a stage music written as early as 1898 for the Arènes de Béziers. Passionate about the subject, the composer quickly wished to give it a second, more ambitious life. The ancient peplum he then imagines inspires him to create a "powerfully evocative music," according to Gabriel Fauré, who is struck by the strength of the choral writing. However, the romantic drama that tears at the heroine's heart favors desperately romantic duets and culminates in the public immolation of Hercules, engulfed by the poisoned tunic offered to him by the fallen queen. This new Déjanire receives praise from critics, who came in droves to discover it in the Principality of Monaco. But the paths of modernity that French opera was then taking would not allow the work to survive the upheavals of World War I. It would have been a shame to prolong this unjustified ostracism any further.