Le chevalier d'Harmental (opera)

Le chevalier d’Harmental is an opéra comique in five acts of 1896, with music by André Messager and a French libretto by Paul Ferrier, after Dumas père and Auguste Maquet.

[3] Messager's biographer Michel Augé-Laribé contends that the fault lay with the dull words, rather than the music, which he claims contains a prototype of the "style dialogué, juste, rapide, naturel, aisé", which will reach its height in the final works, and its beautifully coloured orchestration.

[4] The rehearsals were fraught, with the director of the Opéra Comique, Léon Carvalho, constantly interrupting the performers over movements, actions, even criticizing the orchestration at one point; Messager responded robustly to this excessive interference.

Raoul d'Harmental, an impetuous young cavalier in the service of Louis XIV, loses all his position on the death of the king as a result of the accession of the new regent Prince Philippe d'Orléans.

He joins the conspiracy of the Prince of Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador, an envoy of Alberoni, who is at the heart of a plot involving the Duke and Duchess of Maine, which aims to capture the royal regent at a party, then gather together the Etats-Généraux and confer the regency on the King of Spain, Philippe V.[2] While awaiting the moment of the abduction Raoul d'Harmental falls in love Bathilde du Rocher.