Influenced by Gluck and admired by Berlioz, Mehul was also a friend and rival of Cherubini. In the April 1, 1793 edition of La chronique de Paris a music critic described Mehul’s opera Le jeune sage et le vieux fou, “by turns original, witty and romantic,” marking the first printed reference to the Romantic style of music.
Etienne Méhul teaches his patriotic songs to the people of Paris
Napoleon commissioned his friend Mehul to compose numerous songs used in festivals of the new French Republic to which Mehul added symphonies, ballets, piano compositions, and cantatas. However, he is best known for his many dramatic operas including Cora, Stratonice, Mélidore et Phrosine and Adrien, the subject of our letter.
Originally titled Adrien, empereur de Rome and composed in 1791, the intended premiere on March 13, 1793 was aborted due to public protests linking the production with France’s enemy Austria and included rumors that horses from the stable of French Queen Marie Antoinette, the sister of Austrian Emperor Leopold II, were intended for the production. The eventual 1799 premiere scrubbed the word “emperor” from the work and portrayed Hadrian as a general. Nonetheless, some politicians believed the work alluded to Napoleon pressuring the Minister of the Interior, Lucien Bonaparte, to pull the plug on the opera after a mere four performances.
Our letter is interesting as Mehul frequently changed the makeup of the orchestra to suit his compositions, replacing violins with violas in his Uthal and adding horns to his piece about the hunt, La chasse du jeune Henri.
From March 1792-September 1793, French composer Louis-Joseph Francœur and Cellerier served as co-managing directors of the Paris Opera. A friend of Voltaire who ascribed to the Lumières philosophical movement, Cellerier was an architect of many neoclassical mansions, monuments and public buildings including Paris’ Théâtre des Variétés and Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique as well as the Grand Théâtre de Dijon. In 1793, Francoeur and Cellerier ran afoul of the Revolution when they refused to stage Louis-Emmanuel Nadine’s lyrical drama Siége de Thionville which dramatized the 1792 battle of the same name and were ordered to be arrested. Francoeur spent a year in prison and his career was ruined, but Cellerier escaped and went on to enjoy Napoleon’s commissions for public monuments.
Folded with normal foxing and wear; in overall fine condition. Scarce.
