title: Pénélope (Piccinni)
text: # Pénélope (Piccinni)
  
  Pénélope is a French-language opera by the composer Niccolò Piccinni, first performed at Fontainebleau on 2 November 1785 in the presence of King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto, by Jean-François Marmontel, is based on the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) and Penelope in Homer's Odyssey. The opera transferred to the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris (the Paris Opera) on 6 December 1785, but it was not a success.
  
  ## Roles
  
  | Cast | Voice type | Premiere |
  | - | - | - |
  | Pénélope | soprano | Antoinette Saint-Huberty |
  | Théone | soprano | Marie-Thérèse Davoux Maillard |
  | Télémaque (Telemachus) | tenor | Étienne Lainez |
  | Ulisse (Ulysses) | basse taille (bass-baritone) | Henri Larrivée |
  | Laèrte (Laertes) | baritone | Louis-Claude-Armand Chardin ("Chardiny") |
  | Eumée (Eumaeus) | haute-contre | Jean-Joseph Rousseau [it] |
  | Nésus | bass-baritone | Moreau |
  | Minerve (the goddess Minerva) | soprano | Mlle Châteauvieux |
  | Une coryphée | soprano | Mlle Buret |
  | Chorus: Eight suitors of Penelope, people |||
  