Richard Coeur-de-lion (opera)

[1] It is based on a legend about King Richard I of England's captivity in Austria and his rescue by the troubadour Blondel de Nesle.

He arrives in Linz where he meets the English exile Sir Williams and his daughter Laurette, who tell him of an unknown prisoner in the nearby castle.

Richard recognises the music and tries to communicate with Blondel, who is seized by the guards, but he is freed when he tells Florestan of an assignation Laurette wants with him the following night.

First performed in three acts by the Comédie-Italienne at the first Salle Favart in Paris on 21 October 1784, it was described by Frances Anne Crewe as “a more beautifull, and splendid Opera,” than she had ever seen in England.

The opera reached the United Kingdom in 1786 where it was performed at Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Drury Lane Theatre,[2] and Boston, USA, in 1797.

[5] A translated semi-opera version of Sedaine's work Richard Cœur de lion was written by John Burgoyne with music by Thomas Linley the elder for the Drury Lane Theatre where it was very successful in 1788.

Grétry attempted to imitate Medieval music in Blondel's song Une fièvre brûlante and his example would be followed by composers of the Romantic era.

In Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades, Laurette's aria "Je crains de lui parler la nuit" is sung by the Countess, remembering her days in 18th century Paris, just before she is frightened and dies from a sudden heart attack.

The energetic, anguished overture depicts the capture of King Richard, en route back to England from the Crusades.

Left alone onstage, Blondel sings his aria, “O Richard, o mon roi,” asserting his faithful, selfless love for his king, whom all the world has abandoned.

Blondel then gets Antonio to read the letter out loud: Florestan wants to come woo Laurette in person, but he can't leave his high-security prisoner alone in the fortress.

She doesn't know anything about the prisoner, but she sings an aria, “Je crains de lui parler la nuit,” describing the passion she feels for Florestan.

Marguerite is surprised to hear that tune in this remote location and stops to talk with Blondel; “Have mercy on a poor old blind man,” he says, “and grant me shelter for the night.” She agrees—on condition that he entertain them with music.

Left alone, Richard broods over his fate and sings of his love for Marguerite in the aria, "Si l'univers entier m’oublie."

Hoping Richard will hear him, Blondel sings the tune he was playing on the violin in Act 1, now with passionate words describing the pain of love.

A war council follows, in dialogue; one of the soldiers objects that they don't have enough men to storm the fortress, but Blondel's reconnaissance mission that morning discovered a weak spot in the castle wall.

Following this lively patter trio, the old couple's fiftieth anniversary party gets going with a jolly, silly peasant song and a dance.

In the midst of the excited ensemble that concludes the opera listen for the sweet trio sung by Richard, Marguerite, and Blondel, saluting the minstrel's faithful love.