Fantasio is an 1872 opéra comique in 3 acts, 4 tableaux with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto by Paul de Musset was closely based on the 1834 play of the same name by his brother Alfred de Musset. The opera found little success in Offenbach's lifetime, was revived in the 1930s and performed in a critical edition in the 2000s.
Background
The Musset play was published in the Revue des deux Mondes in 1834 and first performed at the Comédie-Française, Paris in 1866 where it was seen 30 times. Two "new" works were scheduled for the Salle Favart (Opéra-Comique) in 1872 as it regained momentum after the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune; Fantasio by Offenbach and les Noces de Figaro, Mozart's opera after Beaumarchais, which entered the Opéra Comique repertoire that February.
The choice of Fantasio as an operatic subject was considered a bold one, as Alfred de Musset's comedy had not seen great success at the Comédie-Française as a play. Rehearsals for the opera had begun in early 1870, but the Franco-Prussian War and the aftermath of defeat had delayed production for two years. At first the distribution was intended to be Capoul as a tenor Fantasio, Couderc as the Prince, Potel as Marinoni, Gailhard as Spark, Mlle Dalti as Elsbeth and Moisset as the page. However, at the premiere, two years on, only Moisset and Potel remained in their roles; Galli-Marié took over the title role, now a mezzo-soprano, Ismaël took over as the Prince, Melchissédec Marinoni, and Marguerite Priola Elsbeth.
Since his early successes in Paris, Offenbach had been the target of many vicious attacks in the press, and these had intensified during the Franco-Prussian War. Even Bizet was reduced to attacking the "infernal Offenbach", who had Boule de neige and Le roi Carotte premiered in the weeks prior to Fantasio. With Fantasio the criticism of wanting to conquer the Opéra-Comique was added to previous attacks. Yon argues that Offenbach's sensitivity to criticism was also due to his identification with the title character of Fantasio – the bitter clown.
Offenbach was heartbroken when the opera was taken off and wrote a letter of complaint to the director of the Opéra-Comique, Camille du Locle. He later re-used the chorus of students from the first act of Fantasio in The Tales of Hoffmann, where it becomes the student chorus at the end of that opera's first act, and the voice of Antonia's mother in act 3 of Hoffmann enters with a theme from the overture of Fantasio.
The work is dedicated to Eduard Hanslick.
Performance history
After its premiere at the Opéra-Comique (where it was only performed ten times before being dropped from the repertoire), Fantasio was produced at the Theater an der Wien on 21 February 1872, and also seen in Graz and Prague in October 1872, and Berlin in 1873. A revival in a new version was mounted in Magdeburg in June 1927 as .
It was revived in October 2000 at the in a version reassembled by Jean-Christophe Keck, conducted by Claude Schnitzler, in a production by Vincent Vittoz, and toured to Tours, Nantes and Angers. Martial Defontaine (tenor) was Fantasio and Iane Rouleau sang Elsbeth. The opera was also performed at the summer festival of Opernbühne Bad Aibling in 2003, with Johann Winzer (tenor) as Fantasio and Uta Bodensohn as Elsbeth. A Suite Orchestrale from the opera was performed at the Opéra-Comique in December 2009.
Fantasio was performed in concert by Opera Rara with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Sir Mark Elder, at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 15 December 2013, with Sarah Connolly (Fantasio), Brenda Rae (Elsbeth), Victoria Simmonds (Flamel), Russell Braun (Le Prince), Neal Davies (Sparck) and Brindley Sherratt (Le Roi) and a recording with the same cast was published in 2014.
Keck argues that one reason for the neglect of Fantasio was that it has been difficult to locate a performing edition; only a vocal score was published at the time of the premiere, along with a corrupt and re-orchestrated German version. Keck's researches have assembled many difficult to access manuscripts for a projected critical edition (Offenbach Edition Keck – OEK), leading to his claim that Fantasio is a rich and rounded masterpiece by the composer, and an important step towards his opera The Tales of Hoffmann.