Orlando Figes, in his magisterial historical past The Europeans, described Giacomo Meyerbeer as “the primary nice composer of Grand Opera” and an enterprising artist who “embraced the commercial age”—becoming characterizations for a musician whose lavish and technologically spectacular blockbusters dominated the Parisian scene for the larger a part of the 19thcentury. His compositions, an eclectic amalgam of “German concord, French rhythm and orchestration, and the Italian bel canto fashion,” turned autos for sensational melodramas that embodied the template for creative success at Paris’s prestigious Académie Royal de Musique. Meyerbeer’s sprawling creations for the French stage propelled his standing to nice celeb and have become essentially the most regularly staged works on the world’s main opera homes throughout his lifetime.
At this time, Meyerbeer’s operas have change into largely relegated to footnotes within the performing canon—a destiny that may be partially attributed to the staggering bills required to mount his works, in addition to the extraordinary caliber of vocal music he demanded from his soloists. Meyerbeer’s status as a dramatist has additionally diminished in some circles, with some criticizing his emphasis on theatrical spectacle and visible opulence as compensating for the inconsistent dramatic pressure and paper-doll-like characterization present in his plots and orchestration.
Whereas these criticisms could be legitimate for Meyerbeer’s earlier works, his extra mature operas like Les Huguenots and Le Prophète combine his eager imaginative and prescient for extravagant theater into coherent and even highly effective narratives that justify his significance as a determine in opera. A compelling new recording of Le Prophète, recorded throughout a live performance efficiency with Mark Elder and the London Symphony Orchestra from 2023’s Aix-en-Provence Competition, makes a persuasive case for a reappraisal of one in every of Meyerbeer’s most vital contributions to the artwork type.
In Le Prophète, Meyerbeer and his librettist Eugène Scribe painting a gripping melodrama that explores the perils of non secular fanaticism and political ambition. Impressed by the historic Westphalian rebel that occurred throughout the 16thcentury, Scribe’s narrative facilities round Jean de Leyde, a humble Dutch innkeeper who turns into entangled in a political rebellion orchestrated by a gaggle of Anabaptists. Jean’s campaign positive aspects momentum when he’s topped because the Anabaptist’s prophet, and his followers set up a theocratic group within the city of Münster.
Intoxicated by his newfound authority and consumed by spiritual delusions, Jean turns into a zealous theocrat, his ethical compass wavering till the ultimate act’s militaristic confrontations. It’s only via the intervention of his mom Fidès that Jean acknowledges the errors of his methods and seeks redemption. In a climactic act of retribution towards the corrupt political institution and the traitorous Anabaptists, Jean lures his enemies into the palace of Münster, which he engulfs in a fierce conflagration that brings about their collective destruction.
Le Prophète, like a lot of Meyerbeer’s work for the Paris Opera, is a colossal endeavor that dazzled audiences with its exuberant ballets, awe-inspiring technical results, extravagant orchestration, and monumental choruses. Amid this grandeur nevertheless, the opera’s emotional core lies in Jean de Leyde’s relationships, significantly along with his beloved Berthe and, most crucially, along with his mom Fidès. Though the opera bears Jean’s identify, it’s Fidès who serves because the linchpin upon which the work’s tragic energy hinges, undoubtedly a results of Meyerbeer’s collaboration with the legendary mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot.
The opera could abound in massive set items that showcase Meyerbeer’s mastery over marshalling the totality of the opera’s forces, however its most poignant moments are rooted within the profoundly human interactions between Jean and Fidès. It’s via these characters that the opera’s exploration of non secular fanaticism finds its decision, as Jean’s redemption and supreme sacrifice are guided by the unwavering love and ethical fortitude of his mom.
Mark Elder’s new recording of Le Prophète units a brand new commonplace for this monumental work, surpassing the one two earlier official recordings within the discography when it comes to its musicality and the power of its casting. The primary, performed by Henry Lewis almost half a century in the past, stays noteworthy for Marilyn Horne‘s legendary portrayal of Fidès, whereas the second from 2017, utilizing the crucial version of the rating, was assembled from a run of performances in Essen. Elder’s remarkably balanced and detailed interpretation, brilliantly executed by the virtuosic London Symphony Orchestra and the superb Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, advantages from the conductor’s in depth exploration of a breadth of 19th century operas, starting from the extra fashionable works by Wagner and Verdi to rarities by Rossini, Gounod, and Donizetti.
Elder’s instrumentalists imbue the grandeur of Meyerbeer’s spectacles just like the magnificent coronation scene of Act IV and the Westphalian Götterdämmerung of the finale with an influence and precision unparalleled within the discography. The conductor’s mastery of the Romantic style’s various kinds allows him to navigate the idiosyncrasies of Meyerbeer’s writing, effortlessly shifting between the blockbuster grand opera moments and the fragile traces of Rossinian-inspired lyricism that characterizes its extra intimate scenes. His nuanced strategy to the music permits the London Symphony Orchestra to convey the work’s moments of beautiful magnificence and emotional depth, leading to a efficiency that’s as spectacular in its scope as it’s charming in its subtlety.
Equally as commanding are Elder’s vocal soloists, who capably rise to Meyerbeer’s myriad technical and theatrical challenges. John Osborn right here reprises his function because the eponymous prophet Jean from the sooner Essen recording. Whereas his tenor could have misplaced a few of its freshness within the intervening years, Osborn’s interpretation stays complicated and dramatically charming. Whereas earlier recordings and broadcasts of Le Prophète assigned the title function to extra fashionable dramatic tenors like James McCracken, Osborn’s extra limber instrument and his fashionable, period-appropriate musicianship contribute to a extra charismatic and compelling portrayal. As an example, Osborn’s rendition of his first aria, “Pour Berthe moi je soupire,” is lyrical, tender and introspective, whereas his nice scene from Act III “Dieu Puissant…Roi du ciel” showcases his mastery of the character’s dynamic vary, transitioning seamlessly from the solemnity of the prayer to the heroism of the cabaletta with exceptional finesse.
Much more spectacular is Elizabeth DeShong as Jean’s mom Fidès, a job that Meyerbeer conceived for the nice Pauline Viardot because the opera’s ethical fulcrum. As Orlando Figes famous in The Europeans, “Meyerbeer believed that an opera’s success depended above all on the main singers’ vocal and dramatic abilities. […] In Pauline he had discovered the vary of voice and performing qualities that made her excellent for the all-important function of Fidès.” DeShong, stepping in for an indisposed Anita Rachvelishvili, not solely wields an instrument of outstanding depth and astonishing agility that encompasses the music’s unimaginable calls for, but additionally possesses the size to fulfill the opera’s grandeur and the legendary musical and interpretive vary of Fidès’s creator.
Her poignant rendition of Fidès’s Act II arioso “Ah! Mon fils” stuns with its tenderness and heat, whereas she brings severity and outrage to her confrontation with Jean in Act IV. Nonetheless, it’s maybe DeShong’s transcendent studying of Fidès’ nice dungeon scene, “Ô prêtres de Baal,” that alone justifies the existence of this new recording, as she dispatches the music’s vocal challenges with an amazing tide of sound and jaw-dropping vocal agility.
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The function of Jean’s lover Berthe is sung with dazzling sweetness and surefooted vocal method by the younger Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan. Though Berthe’s extra acquainted Act I cavatina, “Mon cœur s’elance et palpite,” is changed by the alternatively scored “Voici l’heure où sans alarmes,” Galoyan however sculpts her opening piece with a stupendous sense of line and a fluidity of phrasing that displays her character’s love for Jean. Later within the opera, she instructions each energy and agility within the last trio, “Ô spectre épouvantable!”, convincingly portraying Berthe’s seething rage towards the corrupted Jean and shifting the listener together with her character’s final act of suicide.
Whereas Meyerbeer’s antagonists could lack the complexity and depth of characterization afforded to the opera’s leads, the pageant forged options musicians with distinctive voices who imbue theatricality to those supporting characters. Bass-baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer incarnates an oppressive Depend D’Oberthal, his wealthy, imposing voice completely suited to the function of the tyrannical feudal lord. The libretto’s sinister Anabaptists, embodied by James Platt’s Zacharie, Guilhem Worms‘s Mathisen, and tenor Valerio Contaldo‘s Jonas, are memorable for the nuanced vocal colorations and characterizations they bring about to those thinly drawn villains.
The Palazzetto Bru Zane deserves excessive reward for sponsoring this collaboration with the Competition d’Aix-en-Provence and bringing to the general public this vital recording of Meyerbeer’s now not often carried out grand opera. As revivals of the composer’s sprawling works symbolize a frightening expense for a lot of opera homes, exceptionally forged recordings of such live performance performances function precious paperwork that foster appreciation for his achievements. Whereas Le Prophète in its entirety nonetheless presents sure dramatic challenges—the acquainted criticism of Meyerbeer’s music being in service to an general, sensational spectacle can nonetheless ring true, significantly within the tedious longueurs of Act III—it’s unquestionably a delight to listen to the composer’s music carried out with the finesse evinced on this recording. The orchestra’s nuanced taking part in, mixed with the stellar forged’s vocal and dramatic portrayals, actually brings depth and immediacy to Meyerbeer’s opera about spiritual fanaticism—themes which are more and more turning into politically resonant within the current day. With the success of this live performance model of Le Prophète behind them, one hopes that the Fondation Bru Zane will give the postponed Les Vêpres Sicilienne the same remedy when it returns to the pageant stage in 2026.
Pictures: Vincent Beaume
