Set in Romantic verse, Victor Hugo’s 1838 drama, Ruy Blas, involves a nasty practical joke with tragic consequences.
Ruy Blas is a common poet who is forced to disguise himself as a nobleman to fulfill the vengeful plot of his aristocratic master. He falls in love with the Queen of Spain, who appoints him Prime Minister. When the deceit is revealed, his fall is abrupt and humiliating. Ruy Blas kills his master, Don Salluste, and then takes his own life.
Felix Mendelssohn hated the play. What he hated even more was the inference that he could not produce a spectacular overture in record time. In a letter home to his mother, dated March 18, 1838, the composer wrote,
You want to know how it went with my overture for Ruy Blas? Funny story… Six to eight weeks ago, a request came to me from the Theater Pension Fund (a really good and charitable institution here that was producing a benefit performance of Ruy Blas) to write an overture and a song to be included in the play, because they expected they would see better sales if my name was advertised above the title. I read the play, which was so absolutely ghastly and beyond contempt that you wouldn’t even believe it, and I decided that I didn’t have time to compose an overture and would only give them the song.
The performance was supposed to be Monday (eight days ago). On the previous Tuesday, the people came to me, thanked me profusely for the song, and said that it was too bad that I hadn’t written the overture. But they said they realize that one needs time to write a piece like that, and that next year they would try to give me more notice. That rankled me. I gave it some thought that evening and began my score. Wednesday was rehearsal all morning, Thursday a concert, but I still had the overture to the copyist early on Friday, rehearsed it Monday first three times in the concert hall, then once in the theater, and then that evening the infamous piece was performed, and it was all so much more fun than I’ve ever had writing one of my pieces. On the next concert, we performed it again by request; I didn’t call it the “Overture to Ruy Blas”, though, but the “Overture for the Theater Pension Fund.”
Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture, Op. 95 begins with a somber wind chorale, interspersed with sudden breezy lines in the violins which swoosh in and fade into comic pizzicati. It is as if Mendelssohn is poking fun at the drama which is about to unfold. The first theme sweeps in as if on a magical breeze. The doubling of violins and flute creates a uniquely bright and airy tone color. Throughout the Overture, the grim recurring chorale attempts to interject solemnity. Ultimately, Hugo’s tragedy is left behind amid an array of joyfully swirling instrumental voices and a celebratory conclusion in C major.
Recordings
- Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas Overture, Op. 95, MWV P15 ·Claudio Abbado, London Symphony Orchestra Amazon
Featured Image: a print depicting a scene from Victor Hugo’s “Ruy Blas,” (1838), Jean-Baptiste Julien Caboche