1

La Maison du docteur

opéra-comique en un acte

1Couplets (Eva) 'Je veux me marier' - 81 bars

[musical score]

2Couplets (Lord Harley) 'Depuis ma jeunesse' - 91 bars

[musical score]

3Trio (Eva, Toby, Le Docteur Job) 'Quel bruit !' - 262 bars

[musical score]

4Air (Toby) 'Dieu du mal, esprit fatal' - 186 bars

[musical score]

5Duo (Eva, Toby) 'C’était vous !' - 97 bars

[musical score]

6Duo bouffe (Toby, Lord Harley) 'Sort qui traverse' - 330 bars

[musical score]

7Final (Eva, Toby, Lord Harley, Le Docteur Job) 'Nous avons le cœur en fête' - 93 bars

[musical score]

  • Le Docteur Job – basse
  • Eva, sa fille - soprano
  • Toby – ténor
  • Lord Harley – baryton
  • Un Domestique – speaking role
piano

Libretto: Henry Boisseaux (1820–?67), prolific author of opéras-comiques, including Offenbach’s Barkouf (in collaboration with Scribe). A similar libretto, La Maison du Docteur, was set by the Marquis Paul de Richard d’Ivry (1829–1903), performed in Dijon in 1855, and published as a vocal score by Choudens in 1864 (copy at F-Pn D 6178 ). It was dedicated to Gounod. None of the seven numbers composed by Bizet correspond exactly to Boisseaux’s libretto as set by d’Ivry, and two of them have entirely new words. Whether the revised libretto is the work of Boisseaux himself is not known. The action, involving the threatened suicide of a despairing lover, takes place near London in the doctor’s country house. An English version by William E. Girard was made in 1989.

Composition: c. 1854–55. There is no documentary basis for dating this work, presumed to belong to Bizet’s student years since the manuscript includes a fugue subject set by Halévy. There is no evidence that he either orchestrated or performed the work.

Autograph score:

F-Pn MS 426, gift of Reynaldo Hahn. 38 f., 60 p. of music. Nos 1, 2 and 5 are on 12-stave piano-trio paper, nos 4, 6 and 7 and the wrapper of no. 2 are on evenly ruled 12-stave paper, no. 3 is on 20-stave paper, and the whole manuscript is enclosed in a wrapper of 30-stave paper, probably attached some years later. Each number is a separate fascicle with a separate title page. Bizet paginated nos. 1, 2, 4 and 6 separately. Nos 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have the names Gounod Halévy inscribed at the top of the title. The manuscript bears many collettes and corrections. The title page of no. 2 has on its verso, f. 4v, upside-down, a title page of La Foi, l’espérance et la charité. The title of no. 3 on f. 8r also carries a fugue subject headed Sujet de Mr Halévy, a subject also worked as a fugue in MS 479B:

[musical score]
The contents of the manuscript are:
folios pages
La Maison du Docteur / Op: Comique / I acte 1 title page, blank
La Maison du docteur / Opéra-comique en un acte / Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / Musique de Georges Bizet / No I Couplets d’Eva / G.B. 2-3 title page, music p. 1-2, blank
La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / Musique de Georges Bizet / No 2 / Couplets de Lord Harley / GB 4 title page, title page of La Foi, l’espérance et la charité upside-down
(La maison du docteur) / no. 2 5-6 music p. 1-4
folio 7 (wrapper of no. 2)
La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / Musique de Georges Bizet / No 3 Trio / Eva, Toby, Le docteur Job / GB 8-15 title page, music p. [1-15]
(Gounod Halévy) / La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Musique de Georges Bizet Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / No 4 Air de Toby 16-19 title page, music p. 1-7
No 5 / La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Musique de Georges Bizet Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / No 5 Duo Eva Toby 20-23 title page, music p. [1-7]
(Gounod Halévy) / La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Musique de Georges Bizet Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux / No 6 Duo Bouffe / Toby Lord Harley / GB 24-34 title page, music p. 1-20, blank
La Maison du docteur / Opéra Comique en un acte / Paroles d’Henry Boisseaux Musique de Georges Bizet / No 7 Final / Eva, Toby, Lord Harley, Le docteur Job / GB 35-37 title page, music p. [1-5]
wrapper 38 blank, blank

Printed score:

William Eugene Girard, A Performing Version of Georges Bizet’s “La Maison du Docteur”, UMI Dissertation Services (Ann Arbor, 1990), 349 p., DMA Dissertation, University of Texas, August 1989. The score is on p. 95–197. Girard’s orchestration of the opera appears on p. 199–346. Girard gives the dialogue in English only.

Performances: 23-2, 25-2, 2-3 and 4-3-1989, University of Texas, Austin.

  • Le Docteur Job – Marcus Silvanus Nance, Mark de Veer
  • Eva, sa fille – Marilyn J. Pierce, Matherine Kelton
  • Toby – Michael Winikoff, Brad Williams
  • Lord Harley – Paul Cummings, Wayne Schroder
  • Un Domestique – Terry N. Tice
  • Conductor – William E. Girard
Bibliography: