First performance 4 September 2007 | Composer Vladimir Cosma | |
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Librettists Vladimir Cosma, Jean-Pierre Lang, Antoine Chalamel, Michel Lengliney, Michel Rivgauche, Michel Arbatz Similar Le jongleur de Notre, Le Cid, La rondine, Le roi d'Ys, Salammbô | ||
Marius et fanny ouverture
Marius et Fanny is an opera (opéra comique) in two acts composed by Vladimir Cosma. The libretto by Michel Lengliney, Jean-Pierre Lang, Michel Rivegauche, Antoine Chalamel, Michel Arbatz and Vladimir Cosma is based on Marcel Pagnol's stage and film trilogy Marius, Fanny and César (known as the Trilogie marseillaise). The opera premiered on 4 September 2007 at the Opéra de Marseille with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in the title roles.
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Synopsis
Setting: The Old Port of Marseille in the 1930s
Marius works in his father's bar at the port, but has dreams of becoming a sailor. His childhood sweetheart, Fanny, works in her mother's shellfish stall at the port. When Fanny becomes pregnant with Marius's child, their parents urge the young couple to marry. After their engagement, Fanny realizing his disappointment, encourages him to follow his dream of going to sea. Marius abandons her, and she marries her elderly admirer, Honoré Panisse, to provide a father for her baby. When Marius returns from sea and finds Fanny married, he tries to win her back, but to no avail. despite the fact that she still loves him. Their son, Césariot, is being raised as Panisse's legitimate child, and in the intervening years, Fanny has been transformed into "the perfect bourgeois wife".