Sémiramis

Premiered at the Théâtre de la République et des Arts on 15 Floréal Year X (4 May 1802), Sémiramis was Charles-Simon Catel’s first opera. The libretto by Philippe Desriaux draws on the tragedy of the same name by Voltaire (1748), revealing the characteristic taste of the period for a return to classical sources, even though the presence of supernatural elements and the pursuit of exoticism took it in a different direction. In fact, by electing to situate his plot in the Orient, the author was contributing to the break with a tradition that had hitherto favoured Greco-Roman subjects, just as Les Mystères d’Isis had done the previous year or Lemoyne’s Nephté, several years before. These deviations from the norm came in for harsh criticism immediately after the first performance. Although the newspapers praised the choice of a subject perfectly suited to an operatic adaptation (a large number of characters, soldiers, priests and even a talking spectre), they accused the librettist of misrepresenting Voltaire’s text and producing a “mutilated work”, that was “lacking in interest” (Le Censeur du théâtre). Neither did the music escape unscathed: several reviews lamented an “overly uniform colour” as well as “pretensions to grand harmonic effects” (Observateur des spectacles), and “masses of noisy harmony, interlayered with short random phrases which neither satisfy the ear nor the mind” (Les Tablettes de Polymnie). Accusing composers in this way of being overly scholarly in their approach was entirely in keeping with the controversies raging among supporters and critics of the new Conservatoire where Catel – professor of harmony and a close friend of the director Sarrette – was the number one enemy for champions of Le Sueur, who had recently been dismissed.