Prométhée, Op. 82, (Prometheus) is a tragédie lyrique (grand cantata) in three acts by the French composer Gabriel Fauré with a French libretto by the Symboliste poets Jean Lorrain and André-Ferdinand Hérold (1865–1940). It was partly based on the opening of the Greek tragedy of Prometheus Bound. The first performance at Arènes de Béziers on 27 August 1900 involved almost 800 performers (including two wind bands and 15 harps) and was watched by an audience of 10,000. Between 1914 and 1916, Jean Roger-Ducasse reworked the score for a reduced orchestra. This version (which was later revised by Fauré) made its debut at the Paris Opéra on 17 May 1917 but never became popular. Designated as a tragédie lyrique, the work resists easy categorisation. It was intended to be on a large-scale with spoken and musical sections. Warrack and West call it a grand cantata, arguing that since "only some of the characters participate in the stage action it is scarcely an opera, though Fauré's conception of the work is at times more operatic than merely choral ... [and] the clearest example to date of Wagner's influence on his music."

Roles

Plot

The plot on which the opera was based has been deprecated as "patchy, and for the most part mediocre". It suffers particularly from the introduction of Pandore as the counterpart in importance of Prométhée. At the close of act 1 "she falls as if dead" and act 2 accordingly opens with the powerful funeral procession carrying her body. Illogically, but necessarily because of her balancing role, she revives later in the act and continues to take part in the action.

Productions

The opera has been presented very rarely, but in July 2011 there was a Brazilian production by the Núcleo Universitário de Ópera in São Paulo. This Brazilian production included recitatives instead of spoken lines and a new orchestration by their conductor and director, Paulo Maron.