Les Amants de Vérone

Overview

Les Amants de Vérone is a lyric drama in five acts and six tableaux, music and text by Paul de Richard d'Ivry (1829-1903), the "marquis d'Ivry", imitated from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. D'Ivry, a keen Shakespearean, began the adaptation but was overtaken in 1867 by Gounod's Roméo et Juliette; he published his version under the title Les Amants de Vérone and the pseudonym Richard Yrvid. It was first staged on 12 October 1878 at the Théâtre-Italien, salle Ventadour, with Victor Capoul and Marie Heilbron in the leading roles, and revived on 15 February 1879 at the Gaîté-Lyrique (Wikipédia fr, "Paul de Richard d'Ivry"). Heilbron (1851-1886) had already sung Juliette in d'Ivry's piece in 1872 at the Cercle des Mirlitons (Wikipédia fr, "Marie Heilbron").

Marie and this work

Marie goes to the first run in Paris in November 1878 and records two evenings.

• 1878-11-02 (083.0089): she dresses carefully "pour entendre «Les amants de Vérone» du marquis d'Ivry aux Italiens, à Vantadour enfin"; but the box of the Marquis de Casa-Riera turns out to be two joined baignoires, a wasted effort. She explains for posterity that Casa-Riera is a rich, blind and slightly deaf Spaniard with subscriptions to all the theatres.
• 1878-11-03 (083.0098): "Il y a beaucoup de sentiment dans la musique du marquis d'Ivry. Il s'est pénétré de «Roméo et Juliette» de Shakespeare ... sa musique est délicieuse quoique simple et presque incolore à la première audition." She praises the staging and costumes: the real Middle Ages rather than the conventional one.
• 1878-11-23 (083.0255): she goes again with Nadine and Paul and invites Filippini. Capoul and Mlle Heilbronn "ont chanté et joué d'une façon adorable"; she is reconciled with Capoul. The score "s'ouvre comme une fleur à la seconde audition", needing a third hearing to give its full perfume. Her "Heilbronn" is Marie Heilbron.

Notes

• The earlier RSR comment in 083.0089 gives d'Ivry's name as "Richard de la Haye"; Wikipédia fr gives Paul de Richard d'Ivry. This entry follows Wikipédia; the diary tag MARQUIS_D_IVRY is the composer's person stub (not touched here).
• An IMSLP score page was not found; the libretto at Internet Archive is linked instead.

Sources

• Wikipédia fr, "Paul de Richard d'Ivry"; "Marie Heilbron".
• Libretto (Langlois, 1878) via Internet Archive.