Frédégonde - unreleased Opera of Saint-Saëns

Frédégonde is an 1895 drame lyrique by Camille Saint-Saëns to a libretto by Louis Gallet. The Opera will be played in Ho Chi Minh on 21 October 2017.

Frédégonde is an opera in 5 acts by Ernest Guiraud and Camille Saint-Saëns on a libretto by Louis Gallet, created in Paris on 16 December 1895 at the National Academy of Music.

The composition of the opera was completed by Saint-Saëns after the death of Guiraud in 1892. Saint-Saëns is the author of the War Anthem and ballet that complete act III and acts IV and V. The orchestration of the opera is almost entirely of Paul Dukas, who was a pupil of Guiraud.

Saint-Saëns spent 3 months in southern Vietnam in 1895, mainly in Saigon and Poulo Condor (Con Dao) where he took over the writing of an opera initially called Brunehilde, initiated by Ernest Guiraud who died 3 years earlier.

Creating this opera for the first time in Ho Chi Minh City where it was completed by Saint-Saëns is a beautiful and unusual Franco-Vietnamese operation.

The Orchestra was only played once when created in 1895 and was never played since, so this premiere is really unique et very exciting !

This opera is directed by Caroline Blanpied, with the help of the stylist Dan Arama, the French artists of La Fabrique and Vietnamese artists of the Vietnam Opera, the HBSO symphonic orchestra under the direction of the conductor Patrick Souillot.

"Frédégonde" is the main character of this opera, a scandalous and pitiless French queen. At first she is a servant, but she likes the King Chilperic. Under his incitement, King Chilperic disgraced his first wife, Audovera, assassinated his second wife, Galswinthe, the sister of Queen Brunehaut. A few days after the assassination, Chilperic finally marries Fredegonde.