La fausse esclave

"La fausse esclave" {"The False Slave") is an opéra comique in one act by Christoph Willibald Gluck. It has a French-language libretto based on Louis Anseaume and Pierre-Augustin Lefèvre de Marcouville’s libretto for "La fausse aventurière" ("The False Adventuress"), an opéra comique by Jean Louis Laruette. It was first performed on January 8, 1758, at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The full score is lost, but a keyboard version is extant.

Klaus Hortschansky has noted that "La fausse esclave" is one of Gluck's few stageworks where the composer did not use musical material from prior works, or recycle material from it into future works. [Selden, Margery Stomne, Review of "Parodie und Entlehnung im Schaffen Christoph Willibald Glucks" by Klaus Hortschansky (Spring 1976). "Journal of the American Musicological Society", 29 (1): pp. 148-151.]

Roles

*Agathe, soprano
*Lisette, soprano
*Valère, tenor
*Chrisante, baritone

ynopsis

The story is of an intrigue undertaken to secure a father’s assent to his daughter’s marriage.

References

*Casaglia, Gherardo, [http://www.amadeusonline.net/almanacco.php?Start=0&Giorno=8&Mese=01&Anno=1758&Giornata=&Testo=&Parola=Stringa Amadeus Almanac] . Accessed 30 September 2008.
*Naxos Records, "Fausse esclave, La (The False Slave)". Accessed from [http://www.naxos.com/education/opera_composer.asp?char=G# Index of Operas by Composer] , 30 September 2008.