Apotheosis: Meyerbeer surrounded
by images of his characters
The King of
French Grand Opera
Of all composers Giacomo
Meyerbeer (1791-1864) has suffered the greatest fall from grace.
At the beginning of the last century, the French composer's operas
were a staple of all the great opera houses, but over the next
several decades, they began to slowly disappear from the
repertoire. Things began to improve in the early 1960s: the
legendary performances of Les Huguenots at La Scala with
Sutherland, Simionato and Corelli, Le prophète in Zurich
with the husband-and-wife team of James McCracken and Sandra
Warfield, and L'Africaine in Munich with Ingrid Bjoner and Jess
Thomas were all in 1962. This was the beginning of the Meyerbeer
revival.
In the popular view Meyerbeer
is still regarded as a permanently lost cause, and the questions
often asked are: What happened? How could a composer who was so
immensely popular have become so universally reviled?
It has been suggested that
Meyerbeer's musical effects serve to draw attention to themselves
without reflecting the drama; 'effects without causes', Wagner
called them. Even if true, Meyerbeer was simply mirroring the
Italian custom of the times. During the period when he was
learning his craft, Italian opera served to glorify the voice,
with dramatic truth often taking a back seat. For example,
Rossini's Semiramide ends with Arsace abruptly setting aside the
role of grieving matricide to become reigning monarch. Rossini's
later revision attempting to mitigate the weakness of the ending
is less than convincing - and probably unnecessary as the opera's
many effective opportunities for vocal display far outweigh its
structural weaknesses.
In his attentiveness to
Italian models, Meyerbeer followed in the footsteps of such great
composers as Handel, Gluck and Mozart, but it was enough to
condemn him in the eyes of his compatriots Schumann, Weber and
Mendelssohn. Schumann was also critical of Meyerbeer's use of
Martin Luther's 'Ein feste Burg' in Les Huguenots. But if Schumann
was particularly sensitive in this regard, the English were not so
uptight: a year later, Donizetti would use 'God Save the Queen' in
the prelude to his Roberto Devereux without negative reaction.
Furthermore, no less a master than Bach had already used 'Ein
feste Burg' to open his 80th cantata, admittedly a church rather
than a stage composition. How many hymns have ever found their way
even to a religious work? There was something special about 'Ein
feste Burg' which Bach and Meyerbeer both recognized.
Meyerbeer has also been
criticized for putting the entertainment value of his operas above
subtle characterization or psychological insight. However, as
Michael Scott wrote in his notes to the Opera Rara recording of
Dinorah, although the aims of French grand opera may not have been
elevating, its achievements within its chosen terms of reference
were considerable. It is true that Verdi expanded the potential of
French grand opera in Don Carlo, but only after he had succumbed
to its basic form in Les vêpres siciliennes.
Some have criticized
Meyerbeer's ability as a melodist, claiming that he was incapable
of connecting his short building blocks into larger connected
groupings. While it is true that 'Sur mes genoux' and 'Adamastor'
are indeed fragmentary in construction, such developed arias as
'Ombre legère' and especially 'O paradis' show us the
extent of Meyerbeer's talents as a composer.
Other criticisms have taken on
a life of their own. My favorite example occurs in Gerald Parker's
review in the May/June 1983 issue of Fanfare of Eve Queler's 1972
performance of L'Africaine on Historical Recording Enterprises
LPs. Parker says that the rather extensive cuts that Queler takes
'do not disfigure the opera to the extent that similar excisions
would in a work by a composer whose style relied on greater
continuity of effect'. In fact the cuts were probably due to
Queler's lack of familiarity with this repertoire at that time. In
contrast, Queler's April 2001 Les Huguenots with the Opera
Orchestra of New York contained only minor cuts.
So why did Meyerbeer's operas
fall out of favor? There may never be a definitive answer to this
question, but the brief notes about Meyerbeer in Kobbé give
a clue: 'His works were written for and produced with brilliant
casts, and had better not be sung at all than indifferently'.
Meyerbeer did not consistently write vocal music as difficult as
Rossini's, but he does sometimes require virtuoso ability, as in
the cabalettas to 'O beau pays' or 'O prêtres de Baal'.
Considering that modern singers are generally more able to cope
with the demands of bel canto than were their immediate
predecessors, it is only natural that the operas of Meyerbeer
should make their comeback as well.
These operas, besides being
successful, were also influential. The young Wagner, for all his
later theories and rantings, fell under the spell of French grand
opera, composing Rienzi in this style. One of the clearest
examples of Meyerbeer's influence can be seen in Verdi's 1849
opera La battaglia di Legnano. At the end of Act III, Rolando has
caught his wife Lida in a compromising situation with his friend
Arrigo in an upper room of a tower. He deliberately locks Arrigo
in the room in order to bring on him the shame of missing an
incipient battle. Arrigo, desperate to join in, hurls himself from
the balcony as Lida faints. The parallels between this situation
and the end of Act IV of Les Huguenots are obvious, but what
really demonstrates Meyerbeer's influence is the music
accompanying the tenor's jump: the four-note descending phrase,
although in a different key, is almost identical to that which
accompanies Raoul's leap from his balcony (Meyerbeer separates the
first two notes by a half tone, Verdi by a whole tone). Since
Verdi was an infrequent borrower, even from himself, this quote
from Meyerbeer was probably unconscious. Either way, it reflects
the influence of the older composer.
While many forgotten works by
lesser composers gather dust on library shelves, Meyerbeer's
operas have been quickly resurrected, because the famous arias
from them have remained familiar to the public. 'O beau pays' and
'Ombre legère' still tempt coloratura sopranos, and few
tenors can resist the charms of 'O paradis'. These and other
Meyerbeer arias deserve to be heard in their context: for example,
Catherine's aria with two flutes, 'La, la, la, air cheri' from
L'étoile du nord seems one of the silliest compositions
ever written, but relating to Catherine's madness it is effective.
This CD-ROM offers an
opportunity to hear many of Meyerbeer's works in complete or
reasonably complete versions - often in more than one performance.
The disc is basically divided into six sections: A Short
Biography, The Operas, Great Historic Recordings, Discographic
Remarks, Other Compositions, and of course, Technical Matters;
this last is a feature of all of Mike Richter's CD-ROMs.
The
Short
Biography provides some
fascinating information: the Paris Opera presented Les Huguenots
1,000 times between its premiere in 1836 and the turn of the
century, whereas the Metropolitan Opera required almost 100 years
to present the same number of performances of La bohème,
now considered to be the most popular opera ever written. And even
that comparison is not quite fair to Huguenots since Bohème
got a boost in its early Met performances when Melba, an early
champion of the opera, boosted attendance by offering Lucia's mad
scene afterward. Of course, Melba's connection to Meyerbeer is
also unimpeachable thanks to her legendary Mapleson cylinder of
the cabaletta 'A ce mot tout s'anime' from Les Huguenots.
(Recently, there have been unconvincing efforts to ascribe this
performance to Suzanne Adams, despite the clear similarity of the
recorded voice to Melba's other Maplesons rather than Adams's.)
The biography also gives some
information concerning recent revivals of the composer's operas.
There is also information concerning the Meyerbeer Fan Club
www.meyerbeer.com
which helps to unite the growing cadre of the composer's
aficionados worldwide and keeps track of performances and
recordings of operas by Meyerbeer and other grand opera composers.
The section of the disc
containing the operas begins with a page listing Meyerbeer's first
seven operas, none of which have received any performances in
recent decades. From there, the operas are presented in
chronological order, each with its own page. These later operas
themselves are consistently spaced roughly five years apart, which
gives some insight into Meyerbeer's inspirational and
compositional style.
The earliest opera represented
by a recording here is Il
crociato in Egitto, which
was premiered in 1824. This work is notable both because it was
Meyerbeer's last work for the Italian stage and because it
contains one of the last solo roles ever conceived for a soprano
castrato; at the premiere, Giovanni Battista Velluti sang this
role.
Il crociato in Egitto is not
as good a work as the later ones. The second act is, however, more
interesting than the first, particularly the stretta 'Ah, questo
è l'ultimo' and the duet finale 'Ravvisa quest'alma'. The
performance captured here, from Carnegie Hall in 1979 under
Gianfranco Masini, features a couple of singers known for their
excursions into the bel canto repertoire, Yvonne Kenny and
Rockwell Blake, as well as Justino Díaz and, in the
travesti role of Armando, Felicity Palmer. However the quality of
the recorded sound is not up to the level of the rest of the disc.
Meyerbeer's next opera,
Robert le
diable (1831), is the work
that put the composer on the map. Beginning with this opera we
hear the composer's 'voice' as it is throughout the rest of the
works on this disc. The plot line, involving a man selling his
soul to the devil, shows the influence of Weber's 1821 opera Der
Freischütz. The scene where the devil Bertram, Robert's
father, calls the dead nuns from their graves was a very popular
subject in contemporary lithographs.
We have two excellent
performances to choose from here. The 2000 Berlin performance
under Marc Minkowski, featuring Nelly Miricioiu as Isabelle, is
essential to any Meyerbeer collection - for its completeness and
because it is based on the new edition of the work - not to
mention its exemplary sound. The 1968 Florence performance under
Nino Sanzogno, despite being cut and in the wrong language, still
has plenty to recommend it, particularly the vivid
characterizations of Renata Scotto, in top form here, and that
devil par excellence Boris Christoff. This recording was
previously available on MRF Records.
The inspiration in
Les
Huguenots (1836) almost
never flags, and the gradual transition in the style of
composition within this work, from small-scale, light-hearted
solos and choruses in the first act to the enormous and dramatic
Blessing of the Swords and Grand Duet in the fourth, is
reminiscent of a similar transformation in style in Verdi's Luisa
Miller.
Raoul, the tenor lead of Les
Huguenots, is a difficult role to cast. The first act and most of
the second act of the opera call for a tenor such as Ernesto in
Don Pasquale, while the rest requires more of a Manrico.
We have three performances of
Les Huguenots here. Two of them are among the most famous this
opera has received, and have appeared on various pirate labels
over the years. The earlier of the two is the 1962 La Scala
performance under Gianandrea Gavazzeni, probably the closest we
have had in present times to the legendary 'nights of the seven
stars'. Top honors go to Franco Corelli who is of course a
Manrico. He is thrilling once he gets to the music that plays to
his strengths. Few sounds from the human throat can send chills up
the spine the way Corelli's high B-flat at the end of Act IV does.
With such other stalwarts as Sutherland (for once in a Huguenots
cast truly worthy of her talents), Simionato, Cossotto, Ghiaurov,
Tozzi and Ganzarolli, one cannot go wrong with this performance,
despite being, once again, cut and in Italian.
Despite all this, I have a
very slight preference for the 1971 Vienna performance under
Ernest Märzendorfer, mostly for the presence of Nicolai Gedda
as Raoul. He occasionally sounds a bit strained, but overall he
strikes a good balance between the lyrical and dramatic aspects of
the role. Despite the lack of big names, the others are generally
more than competent. Jeanette Scovotti contributes one of the most
delightful of page's arias.
Next to these two
performances, the 1955 Vienna rendition in German under Robert
Heger and featuring Maud Cunitz, Walter Berry and Gottlob Frick is
more of a curiosity. It represents a rare Meyerbeer performance
from the 1950s (there was also a 1955 performance from La Scala
starring Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, as well as a 1954 recording of
extended excerpts from the work with Renée Doria as
Marguerite that appeared on the Westminster label). This
performance also takes a different approach to the ending of the
opera: the final two minutes of Act V are tacked onto the Grand
Duo.
Ein Feldlager
in Schlesien ('A camp in
Silesia') of 1844 is remembered today for Meyerbeer's having
composed the role of Vielka for Jenny Lind and for its reworking
as L'étoile du nord. Vielka is sung in this 1984
performance from Berlin under Fritz Weisse by Norma Sharp, the
Woglinde and Forest Bird in the Boulez/Chéreau Ring from
Bayreuth. While it is interesting to hear the version, the
reworking is much better, particularly the later version of the
aria with the two flutes. Meyerbeer's next opera, Le
prophète, premiered in 1849. It is notable for several
things: the role of Fidès who was an inspiration for
Verdi's Azucena, the charmingly delicate skaters' ballet in Act
III, and the Coronation March, probably Meyerbeer's single
best-known piece of music.
The 1970 Turin Radio
performance (incorrectly identified as 1979 on the links) under
Henry Lewis, featuring Marilyn Horne and Nicolai Gedda, served to
introduce many to this opera by way of private issues. Gedda once
again sounds a bit strained in the heavier portions of the score,
but gives an ardent performance. Horne 'owned' the role of
Fidès. She gives a fiery performance of the cabaletta to
the aria 'O prêtres de Baal', which contains music so
fiendishly difficult that Agnes Baltsa omits part of it in the
1998 Vienna State Opera performance under Marcello Viotti. The
Vienna performance also features Plácido Domingo, less
involved than Gedda perhaps, but still a vocal miracle.
Now we come to 1854 and
L'étoile
du nord. The plot of the
opera has very little in common with Ein Feldlager in Schlesien,
other than a flute-playing protagonist. Our enjoyable performance
here, which has also circulated on a couple of pirate labels,
features Janet Price, Deborah Cook and Malcolm King, and is
conducted by Roderick Brydon. While Price's performance of 'La,
la, la, air cheri' does not efface memories of Sutherland's
wonderful recording made around 1970, it is still quite good.
Dinorah
was premiered in 1859. It is best known for the Shadow Song and
for the goat who accompanies the heroine everywhere. Michael Scott
relates an amusing incident from an 1882 Monte Carlo performance
of the opera where the goat butted the Dinorah into the ravine and
then jumped in after her 'with what effect on the dramatic
illusion need not be described'. It is also possibly the only
opera whose heroine is already mad when the curtain rises. The
disc features two charming performances from 2000, one in Italian
from Parma under Mats Liljefors featuring Eva Mei, and the other
in French from Dortmund under Axel Kobe and starring Eun-Joo Park.
Both Dinorahs sing well and are accurate in coloratura. There is
little to prefer between these two performances, both of which are
enjoyable.
Finally we come to Meyerbeer's
chef d'oeuvre, L'Africaine,
which premiered posthumously in 1865, and on which the composer
had been working since 1838. It features the wonderful aria 'O
paradis' and Meyerbeer's most forward-looking music, the storm
music at the end of Act III, effectively presented on the 1988
video from San Francisco.
Once again there are two
performances in different languages, this time both from the
1970s: an Italian performance from Florence under Riccardo Muti
featuring Jessye Norman, Veriano Lucchetti and Gian Giacomo Guelfi
(1971), and a French performance from Munich under Gerd Albrecht
starring Martina Arroyo, Giorgio Lamberti and Sherrill Milnes
(1977). Norman's grand interpretation, well suited to the queen,
is enjoyable, but I still like even more Arroyo's basic sound in
this music as I do in her other French grand opera recordings -
such as the Decca/London Les Huguenots and the RCA Victor I vespri
siciliani. Veriano Lucchetti from 1971 has a more dramatic and
attractive voice than the 1977 Giorgio Lamberti, although both
turn in impressive performances. Gian Giacomo Guelfi's fat sound
in 1971 allows him to turn in an overall more satisfying
'Adamastor' than Sherrill Milnes in 1977, although the latter
takes the piece at a faster clip that suits the aria better, and
there is no denying his involvement.
The page devoted to each opera
contains a plot synopsis keyed to the timings of each performance,
as well as attractive period drawings that can be enlarged. The
pages also contain links to historical excerpts mostly from the
years 1900-1930. The historical selections are accessible in one
of two ways: either through the main opera pages in the order in
which they appear in the score, and then chronologically; or else
through a separate page in alphabetical order by performer. There
are many fine artists here - for example the intensely dramatic
tenor of John O'Sullivan who is heard here in excerpts from Les
Huguenots and L'Africaine.
Discographic
Remarks provides a history
of Meyerbeer on record, listing all or most of the available
complete recordings and videos. There is also a page containing
three other Meyerbeer compositions, including an overture he wrote
for a play by his brother Michael Beer, plus the text only for his
Lyric Rhapsody: Gott und die Natur.
The presentation of this disc
is exemplary, with very few glitches: there is a problem with the
sound for about a minute of Act II of the 1971 Huguenots, and a
lesser problem with the sound at the very end of the 1998
Prophète. The recording identified as Eide Norena singing
'O beau pays' is actually a recording (by Norena?) of 'Sombre
forêt' from Guillaume Tell. Considering the magnitude of
this undertaking, these errors are small ones.
Meyerbeer is an important
operatic composer well worth getting to know. There is no better
or more convenient place to start than with the well chosen
performances on this disc, but the disc also is highly recommended
for Meyerbeer devotees, who will discover here many wonderful new
things. This disc is one of the best that Mike Richter has offered
us.
_________________________________________
The Operas of
Giacomo Meyerbeer is a CD-ROM published by Mike Richter, AE006 US$
10.00.
Additional information and a
source for ordering can be found at the Mike Richter website
www.mrichter.com
