«Маскот» операсының тарихы және «маскот» сөзінің шығу тегі

La mascotte (The Mascot) is a three act opéra comique with music by Edmond Audran and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. The story concerns a farm girl who is a "mascotte": someone with the mystic power to bring good luck to all around her, so long as she remains a virgin. The opera opened at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, on 28 December 1880, and had an initial run of 301 performances. Productions followed in other continental European countries, the Americas, Britain and Australia. The title of the piece introduced the word "mascotte" into standard French usage, "mascot" into English, and other variants of it into several more languages.

In 1880 "mascotte" was a fairly new French slang word derived from the Provençal term mascoto, meaning "spell" or "bewitchment". A journalist reported after the premiere of the opera that he had looked in vain for "mascotte" in the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française and four other authoritative dictionaries. The current (9th) edition of the Académie's dictionary defines the word as "Personne, animal ou objet qui est regardé comme fétiche, comme porte bonheur" – "Person, animal or object that is regarded as a fetish, as a lucky charm". The word was absorbed into English as "mascot" (1881)|group= n According to Audran's son, the inspiration for La mascotte came from a trinket given to Audran's wife, who was from Provençe, by her seafaring brother; it was a good luck charm that nobody but Madame Audran was allowed to touch: "Edmond, ne touche pas à ma mascotte". Audran conceived the idea that a person might also be a mascotte, and suggested this as a theme to his collaborators, the librettists Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. La mascotte came near the beginning of Audran's career as a composer of works for the Parisian stage. His first big success, Les noces d'Olivette, opened at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in 1879, and La mascotte was written for the same house. It opened on 28 December 1880 and ran for 472 performances, taking well over a million francs at the box office. The success of La mascotte was so great that the intendant of the Bouffes Parisiens and Audran entered into a five year contract under which Audran would compose for no other Paris theatre. At the premiere of the piece four principals were making their Paris debuts, all of them successfully. The two women were Marie Montbazon (later known as Marie Grisier Montbazon), who played Bettina, and Mdlle Dinelli (Fiametta). The former was from a theatrical family well known in the French provinces, making her Paris debut at the age of 21; she went on to a successful career, starring in new works by Audran and others during the 1880s and 1890s. Dinelli as Fiametta was equally well received, but had a short career, curtailed by mental illness in 1883. The two male débutants were the tenors: the lyric Lamy and the comic Raucourt, both praised by the Revue musicale.

RoleVoice typeOriginal cast Laurent XVII, Prince of Piombino baritone Paul Hittemans Fiametta, his daughter soprano Dinelli Prince Fritellini of Pisa, Fiametta's fiancé tenor Charles Lamy Rocco, a farmer tenor Raucourt Pippo, a shepherd baritone Louis Morlet Bettina, the mascot mezzo soprano Marie Montbazon Parafante, sergeant baritone Pescheux Mathéo, inn keeper bassDesmontsPeasants, lords and ladies of court, soldiers, etc. Source: Vocal score.

There were twelve revivals of the piece in Paris between 1883 and 1944. The work was presented in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien on 12 February 1881 and revived in 1893. The first production in New York was at the Bijou Opera House on 5 May 1881, starring Emma Howson. Ten New York revivals between then and 1887 (including one in German) are detailed in Gänzl's Book of the Musical Theatre, which notes that there were regular productions in subsequent years, including 1892, 1909 and 1926. There were productions in Italy (1882) and Brazil (1888). The town of Piombino in Tuscany, where the opera is supposedly set, staged a production in 2012. A film version of The Mascot was directed by Léon Mathot in 1935 starring Germaine Roger, Lucien Baroux|group= n The writer observed that he had judged the score by higher standards than applied to most light operatic shows, which was a compliment to Audran; of the twenty plus numbers in his score, there were five or six where the composer's personal imagination and musicianship were, the reviewer considered, displayed with complete originality. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "Many of [Audran's] operas, La mascotte in particular, reveal a degree of musicianship which is rarely associated with the ephemeral productions of the lighter stage."

The Académie Nationale de l'Opérette lists two complete recordings of the opera, one conducted by Ronald Benedetti, with Geneviève Moizan, Denise Cauchard, Robert Massard and Lucien Baroux, and the other conducted by Marcel Cariven, with Freda Betti, Huguette Hennetier, Willy Clément, Gaston Rey, Raymond Amade and Robert Destain. The Académie Nationale site lists two complete video recordings, the first from 1957, the second from 1961, both conducted by Georges Derveaux.