La rencontre imprévue, ou Les pèlerins de la Mecque Wq. 32 is a three-act opéra comique, composed in 1763 by Christoph Willibald Gluck to a libretto by Louis Dancourt after the 1726 comédie en vaudevilleLes pèlerins de la Mecque by Alain-René Lesage and d'Orneval. The death of Isabella of Parma, the archduke's wife, occasioned a revision of the spoken text downplaying the feigned death by which princess Rezia tests her beloved. The work was first performed in this form as La rencontre imprévue at the Burgtheater, Vienna on 7 January 1764. Dancourt's original text, titled Les pèlerins de la Mecque and designated as a comédie mêlée d'ariettes, was not premiered until 1990.
Performance history
Gluck's longest opéra-comique and considered his finest, La rencontre imprévue was his most popular work in the genre in the 18th century. It was performed in French in Brussels, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, The Hague, Mannheim, Copenhagen, Liège, Cassel, Lille, and Marseille. It was translated into German as Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft oder Die Pilgrimme von Mecca and performed in Frankfurt, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and many other cities. The opera was first performed in Paris on 1 May 1790 by the Opéra-Comique at the first Salle Favart in an arrangement by Jean-Pierre Solié with the title Les fous de Médine, ou La rencontre imprévue. It was revived by the Opéra-Comique in Gluck's arrangement on 20 December 1906, and also produced at the Trianon Lyrique on 8 November 1923. A new German translation by with the title Die Pilger von Mekka was performed in Wiesbaden, Basel, Berlin, and Vienna.
Legacy
La rencontre imprévue was adapted and supplied with new music by Haydn as L'incontro improvviso and the 1780 Vienna revival of Gluck's version presumably inspired the plot of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In 1784 Mozart wrote a set of variations for piano on Calender's aria "Unser dummer Pöbel meint". In 1887 the variations were orchestrated by Tchaikovsky as the final movement of his orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana.
