PHILÉMON ET BAUCIS
Opéra en 2 ou 3 actes
Composer: Charles Gounod
Librettists: Jules Barbier & Michel Carré, after Jean de La Fontaine’s fable based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses
First performance: Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris, 18 February 1860

PLOT: Philémon and Baucis are a devoted elderly couple who unknowingly entertain the gods Jupiter and Vulcan to dinner. Because they have shown hospitality and piety, the gods restore the couple’s youth. (The second act, omitted in the 1876 two-act revision, is a choral ballet showing an orgy in Jupiter’s temple; it ends with the outraged gods sending a flood to destroy the sinners.) In the final act, Jupiter tries to seduce the now youthful Baucis, but she resists. Moved by the couple’s pleas to be old again, he refuses to take back his gift, but blesses them and promises never to threaten their happiness.

No. 7 – Quartettino: “Prenez place à la table”
No. 8 – Final: “Allons! triste buveur”
Philémon and Baucis prepare dinner for their guests, and learn to their surprise that they are gods. In return for their hospitality, the gods will make them young again and turn their home into a palace. Philémon and Baucis fall into a magical slumber.

Philémon (tenor): Jean-Claude Orliac
Baucis (soprano): Anne-Marie Rodde
Jupiter (bass-baritone): Pierre Néquecaue
Vulcain (bass): Felix Giband

Conductor: Henri Gallois
Orchestre Lyrique de l’O.R.T.F.
Paris, 1975

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