Polyeucte

Despite their determination to break with Classicism, the Romantics found a form of the sublime in the works of Pierre Corneille, which accounted for the paradoxically favourable reception given to the playwright in the 19th century. His works inspired both writers and musicians. In 1840, Donizetti staged a loose adaptation of the myth of Polyeucte in Les Martyrs, composed to a libretto by Eugène Scribe. On 7 October 1878, a more faithful version of the original, a five-act opera by Charles Gounod, based on a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, was performed at the Palais Garnier. This opera had probably been planned as far back as Gounod’s stay in Rome in 1868-1869, during which the composer had allegedly seen it in a vision in a church on the Via Appia. The subject of the work, which chimed closely with the composer’s religious concerns, occupied him for several years, marked by the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian war—during which Gounod took refuge in England—and by health problems, which interrupted the writing of the score on several occasions. The action takes place in Melitene, capital of Armenia, in the 3rd century. Pauline, Polyeucte’s wife, has a fateful premonition: her husband will convert to Christianity and die for refusing to renounce his faith. Despite Pauline’s efforts to make the man she loves recant, the terrible prophecy comes true. The opera’s premiere was a failure. The critics in particular lamented the overly dry subject and the absence of emotion aroused by the character of Polyeucte. Oscar Commettant wrote in Le Siècle: “It is dangerous in the theatre to preach Christianity and to baptise people, even when the music is lovely”. At the end of his life, Gounod still regarded Polyeucte as his operatic masterpiece, ranking it far above Faust among his own operas.