La naissance de la lyre
single act opera
La naissance de la lyre (The Birth of the Lyre) is an opera (styled a conte lyrique) in one act by the French composer Albert Roussel. The libretto, by Théodore Reinach, is based on the satyr play Ichneutae by Sophocles. It was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 1 July 1925 with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska.
Roles
Synopsis
The newborn god Hermes steals his brother Apollo's cattle. The satyrs, led by Silenus, track him down and find Hermes has made a new musical instrument, the lyre, from the horns of one of the cattle. Apollo is so pleased with the lyre that he adopts it as his own and forgives his young brother.
References
Further reading
The Viking Opera Guide, ed.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “La naissance de la lyre” is single act opera. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through naissance, lyre and single, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3211042. VIAF identifies the subject as 175520310. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925.
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This entry incorporates text from “La naissance de la lyre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.