Volume 25, Issue 2, 2004
An Old French Romance and its Adaptations
Alain Corbellari
Pages 79-91
De la "Bibliothèque Des Romans" au Grand Opéra
Les Métamorphoses de Partonopeus aux XVIII et XIXe Siècles
Forgotten in France for many centuries, the romance of Partonopeus de Blois was resurrected in the eighteenth century and enjoyed a certain notoriety which culminated in Massenet's opera Esclarmonde, a nineteenth-century adaptation of the tale by the librettist Alfred Blau. This paper reveals the story of the rediscovery and the dissemination of Partonopeus de Blois through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and explores the motivations of the early philologists for choosing this romance. The author then focuses on the sources of the opera Esclarmonde and on the possible inspirations and influences affecting its creators