Le faucon (opera)

Le faucon (English: The Falcon, Russian: Сокол) is an opéra comique in three acts by the Ukrainian composer Dmitry Bortniansky with a French language libretto by Franz-Hermann Lafermière [Wikidata].

It was first performed on 11 October 1786 at the Gatchina Palace in Russia by aristocratic amateur singers.

The plot is borrowed from Boccaccio's The Decameron (Fifth Day, 9th tale) which also served as the basis for Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny's 1771 comic opera Le faucon (libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine)[1][2] (and later for Gounod's La colombe).

Two arias from the opera, "Le beau Tirsis" and "Adieu, Adieu", were published in a 1793 collection of songs by Bortniansky (Recueil de romances et chansons, St. Petersburg: Breitkopf).

[4] Excerpts from the work were also performed at New York City's Avery Fisher Hall by the Choral Guild of Atlanta and the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera in 1988.