Le Cid

Composer: MASSENET, Jules

Quick Facts

  • Four-act opera with libretto by Louis Gallet, Édouard Blau, and Adolphe d’Ennery
  • Based on the 17th-century play, “Le Cid,” by Pierre Corneille about the 11th-century legendary Spanish hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (“El Cid”)
  • Written in 1884 and premiered at the Paris Opéra in 18851
  • Dedicated to “my dear directors and friends E. Ritt & P. Gailhard”2

About the Piece

  • By the time Le Cid premiered, Massenet had already established himself as a successful opera composer with works such as Le roi de Lahore (1877), Hérodiade (1881), and Manon (1884).
  • While the opera itself hasn’t become a standard repertoire in recent decades as Manon and Werther have, the ballet suite from the opera is consistently heard in concert halls worldwide, as well as a couple of the opera’s arias (ex: “Pleurez, mes yeux” and “O Souverain, o Juge, o Pere!“).
    • “Le Cid may not necessarily be Massenet’s masterpiece, but it could very well stand as a masterpiece belonging to just about anyone else.”3
  • Fun Fact – the overture of the opera is rooted in the key of E-flat, the traditionally heroic key used in such epic works as Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony (No. 3).4
    • Additional fun fact – both Bizet and Debussy also attempted to write operas based on Corneille’s play but never finished them.5

Ballet Suite

  • The ballet takes place at the end of Act II and consists of seven dances, each representing a different region of Spain:
    1. Castillane
    2. Andalouse
    3. Aragonaise
    4. Aubade
    5. Catalane
    6. Madrilène
    7. Navarraise6

Sources

  1. Annegret Fauser, Patrick Gillis, and Hugh Macdonald, “Massenet, Jules,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 3, 2023, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051469.
  2. “Le Cid (Massenet, Jules),” IMSLP, accessed July 3, 2023, https://imslp.org/wiki/Le_Cid_(Massenet,_Jules).
  3. Eleni Hagen, “Program Notes: Le Cid,” Odyssey Opera (2015), accessed July 3, 2023, https://odysseyopera.org/program-notes-le-cid/.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Annegret Fauser, Patrick Gillis, and Hugh Macdonald, “Massenet, Jules,” Grove Music Online.
  6. “Le Cid (Massenet, Jules),” IMSLP.

Cut IDs

44082 44083 44084 44080 20505 43381 45833