Lully, Jean Baptiste. (1632–1687) [Corneille, Thomas. (1625–1709)] [Molière. (1622–1673)]
Psyché, Tragedie en Musique: represente?e par l'Academie royale de musique. LIBRETTO
Paris: sur l'imprime?.. 1688. 12 mo. [15 cm]. 59, [1] p. Three quarter blue morocco over blue marbled boards, gilt title to spine. Two bookplates to inner front board. In fine condition. Rare. Worldcat locates one copy of this edition, published a decade after the premiere and still in advance of the first Parisian revival.Psyché is an opera (tragédie lyrique) in a prologue and five acts composed to a libretto by Thomas Corneille adapted from Molière's original 1671 play for which Lully had composed the intermèdes. Based on the love story of Cupid and Psyche, Psyché was premiered on April 19, 1678 by the Académie Royale de Musique at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
Lully's usual librettist, Philippe Quinault, was in disgrace at court over his previous opera Isis and the task fell to Thomas Corneille, very likely at the bidding of the same cabal that had sought to disgrace Quinault. Whether by choice or out of necessity, Corneille's text is not a synthesis of Molière's, but rather a profoundly different plot for a profoundly different genre.
"Les paroles ... sont de Quinault, à l'exception de celles du premier intermède, attribuées à Lulli et dues probablement à la collaboration de Molière. Quant à la tragédie ellemême, composée par Molière, Quinault, et Corneille, elle parut la même année sous le nom de Molière"--Barbier, A.A. Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, vol. 3, col. 1006. (11903)
Printed Music Opera