The Complete Opera Book Part 59

(Danger presses and time flies. Let me depart), and reaches its climax in a _cantilena_ of supreme beauty, "Tu l'as dit, oui tu m'aimes"

(Thou hast said it; aye, thou lov'st me),

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which is broken in upon by the sinister tolling of a distant bell--the signal for the ma.s.sacre to begin. An air for _Valentine_, an impa.s.sioned _stretta_ for the lovers, _Raoul's_ leap from the window, followed by a discharge of musketry, from which, in the curtailed version, he is supposed to meet his death, and this act, still an amazing achievement in opera, is at an end.

In the fifth act, there is the fine scene of the blessing by _Marcel_ of _Raoul_ and _Valentine_, during which strains of Luther's hymn are heard, intoned by Huguenots, who have crowded into their church for a last refuge.

"Les Huguenots" has been the subject of violent attacks, beginning with Robert Schumann's essay indited as far back as 1837, and starting off with the a.s.sertion, "I feel today like the young warrior who draws his sword for the first time in a holy cause." Schumann's most particular "holy cause" was, in this instance, to praise Mendelssohn's oratorio, "St. Paul," at the expense of Meyerbeer's opera "Les Huguenots," notwithstanding the utter dissimilarity of purpose in the two works. On the other hand Hanslick remarks that a person who cannot appreciate the dramatic power of this Meyerbeer opera, must be lacking in certain elements of the critical faculty. Even Wagner, one of Meyerbeer's bitterest detractors, found words of the highest praise for the pa.s.sage from the love duet, which is quoted immediately above.

The composer of "The Ring of the Nibelung" had a much broader outlook upon the world than Schumann, in whose genius there was, after all, a good deal of the _bourgeois_.

Pro or con, when "Les Huguenots" is sung with a fully adequate cast, it cannot fail of making a deep impression--as witness "les nuits de sept etoiles."

A typical night of the seven stars at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, was that of December 26, 1894. The _sept etoiles_ were Nordica (_Valentine_), Scalchi (_Urbain_), Melba (_Marguerite de Valois_), Jean de Reszke (_Raoul_), Plancon (_St. Bris_), Maurel (_de Nevers_), and edouard de Reszke (_Marcel_). Two Academy of Music casts are worth referring to. April 30, 1872, Parepa-Rosa, for her last appearance in America, sang _Valentine_. Wachtel was _Raoul_ and Santley _St. Bris_. The other Academy cast was a "Night of six stars,"

and is noteworthy as including Maurel twenty years, almost to the night, before he appeared in the Metropolitan cast. The date was December 24, 1874. Nilsson was _Valentine_, Cary _Urbain_, Maresi _Marguerite de Valois_, Campanini _Raoul_, Del Puente _St. Bris_, Maurel _de Nevers_, and Nannetti _Marcel_. With a more distinguished _Marguerite de Valois_, this performance would have antic.i.p.ated the "nuits de sept etoiles."

LE PROPHeTE

THE PROPHET

Opera in five acts, by Meyerbeer; words by Scribe. Produced, Grand Opera, Paris, April 6, 1849. London, Covent Garden, July 24, 1849, with Mario, Viardot-Garcia, Miss Hayes, and Tagliafico. New Orleans, April 2, 1850. New York, Niblo's Garden, November 25, 1853, with Salvi (_John of Leyden_), Steffanone and Mme. Maretzek. Revived in German, Metropolitan Opera House, by Dr. Leopold Damrosch, December 17, 1884, with Anton Schott as _John of Leyden_, Marianne Brandt as _Fides_ and Schroeder-Hanfstaengl as _Bertha_. It was given ten times during the season, in which it was equalled only by "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin." Also, Metropolitan Opera House, 1898-99, with Jean de Reszke, Brema (_Fides_), Lehmann (_Bertha_); January 22, 1900, Alvarez, Schumann-Heink, Suzanne Adams, Plancon and edouard de Reszke; by Gatti-Casazza, February 7, 1918, with Caruso, Matzenauer, Muzio, Didur, and Mardones.

CHARACTERS

JOHN OF LEYDEN _Tenor_ FIDES, his mother _Mezzo-Soprano_ BERTHA, his bride _Soprano_ JONAS } { _Tenor_ MATTHISEN } Anabaptists { _Ba.s.s_ ZACHARIAS } { _Ba.s.s_ COUNT OBERTHAL _Baritone_

n.o.bles, citizens, Anabaptists, peasants, soldiers, prisoners, children.

_Time_--1534-35.

_Place_--Dordrecht, Holland, and Munster.

Act I. At the foot of _Count Oberthal's_ castle, near Dordrecht, Holland, peasants and mill hands are a.s.sembled. _Bertha_ and _Fides_ draw near. The latter is bringing to _Bertha_ a betrothal ring from her son _John_, who is to marry her on the morrow. But permission must first be obtained from _Count Oberthal_ as lord of the domain. The women are here to seek it.

There arrive three sombre looking men, who strive to rouse the people to revolt against tyranny. They are the Anabaptists, _Jonas_, _Matthisen_, and _Zacharias_. The _Count_, however, who chances to come out of the castle with his followers, recognizes in _Jonas_ a steward who was discharged from his employ. He orders his soldiers to beat the three men with the flat of their swords. _John's_ mother and _Bertha_ make their plea to _Oberthal_. _John_ and _Bertha_ have loved ever since he rescued her from drowning in the Meuse. Admiring _Bertha's_ beauty, _Oberthal_ refuses to give permission for her to marry _John_, but, instead, orders her seized and borne to the castle for his own diversion. The people are greatly agitated and, when the three Anabaptists reappear, throw themselves at their feet, and on rising make threatening gestures toward the castle.

Act II. In _John's_ inn at Leyden are the three Anabaptists and a throng of merry-making peasants. Full of longing for _Bertha_, _John_ is thinking of the morrow. The Anabaptists discover that he bears a remarkable resemblance to the picture of King David in the Cathedral of Munster. They believe this resemblance can be made of service to their plans. _John_ tells them of a strange dream he has had, and in which he found himself standing under the dome of a temple with people prostrate before him. They interpret it for him as evidence that he will mount a throne, and urge him to follow them. But for him there is but one throne--that of the kingdom of love with _Bertha_.

At that moment, however, she rushes in and begs him quickly to hide her. She has escaped from _Oberthal_, who is in pursuit. _Oberthal_ and his soldiers enter. The _Count_ threatens that if _John_ does not deliver over _Bertha_ to him, his mother, whom the soldiers have captured on the way to the inn, shall die. She is brought in and forced to her knees. A soldier with a battle-axe stands over her.

After a brief struggle _John's_ love for his mother conquers. He hands over _Bertha_ to _Oberthal_. She is led away. _Fides_ is released.

The three Anabaptists return. Now _John_ is ready to join them, if only to wreak vengeance on _Oberthal_. They insist that he come at once, without even saying farewell to his mother, who must be kept in ignorance of their plans. John consents and hurries off with them.

Act III. In the winter camp of the Anabaptists in a forest of Westphalia, before Munster. On a frozen lake people are skating. The people have risen against their oppressors. _John_ has been proclaimed a prophet of G.o.d. At the head of the Anabaptists he is besieging Munster.

The act develops in three scenes. The first reveals the psychological medley of fanaticism and sensuality of the Anabaptists and their followers. In the second _John_ enters. _Oberthal_ is delivered into his hands. From him _John_ learns that _Bertha_ again has escaped from the castle and is in Munster. The three Anabaptist leaders wish to put the _Count_ to death. But _John_, saying that _Bertha_ shall be his judge, puts off the execution, much to the disgust of the three fanatics, who find _John_ a.s.suming more authority than is agreeable to them. This scene, the second of the act, takes place in _Zachariah's_ tent. The third scene shows again the camp of the Anabaptists. The leaders, fearing _John's_ usurpation of power, have themselves headed an attack by their followers on Munster and met with defeat. The rabble they have led is furious and ready to turn even against _John_.

He, however, by sheer force of personality coupled with his a.s.sumption of superhuman inspiration, rallies the crowd to his standard, and leads it to victory.

Act IV. A public place in Munster. The city is in possession of the Anabaptists. _John_, once a plain innkeeper of Leyden, has been swept along on the high tide of success and decides to have himself proclaimed Emperor. Meanwhile _Fides_ has been reduced to beggary. The Anabaptists, in order to make her believe that _John_ is dead--so as to reduce to a minimum the chance of her suspecting that the new _Prophet_ and her son are one and the same--left in the inn a bundle of _John's_ clothes stained with blood, together with a script stating that he had been murdered by the _Prophet_ and his followers.

The poor woman has come to Munster to beg. There she meets _Bertha_, who, when _Fides_ tells her that _John_ has been murdered, vows vengeance upon the _Prophet_.

_Fides_ follows the crowd into the cathedral, to which the scene changes. When, during the coronation scene, _John_ speaks, and announces that he is the elect of G.o.d, the poor beggar woman starts at the sound of his voice. She cries out, "My son!" _John's_ cause is thus threatened and his life at stake. He has claimed divine origin.

If the woman is his mother, the people, whom he rules with an iron hand, will denounce and kill him. With quick wit he meets the emergency, and even makes use of it to enhance his authority by improvising an affirmation scene. He bids his followers draw their swords and thrust them into his breast, if the beggar woman again affirms that he is her son. Seeing the swords held ready to pierce him, _Fides_, in order to save him, now declares that he is not her son--that her eyes, dimmed by age, have deceived her.

Act V. The three Anabaptists, _Jonas_, _Matthisen_, and _Zacharias_, had intended to use _John_ only as an instrument to attain power for themselves. The German Emperor, who is moving on Munster with a large force, has promised them pardon if they will betray the _Prophet_ and usurper into his hands. To this they have agreed, and are ready on his coronation day to betray him.

At _John's_ secret command _Fides_ has been brought to the palace.

Here her son meets her. He, whom she has seen in the hour of his triumph and who still is all-powerful, implores her pardon, but in vain, until she, in the belief that he has been impelled to his usurpation of power and b.l.o.o.d.y deeds only by thirst for vengeance for _Bertha's_ wrongs, forgives him, on condition that he return to Leyden. This he promises in full repentance.

They are joined by _Bertha_. She has sworn to kill the _Prophet_ whom she blames for the supposed murder of her lover. To accomplish her purpose, she has set a slow fire to the palace. It will blaze up near the powder magazine, when the _Prophet_ and his henchmen are at banquet in the great hall of the palace, and blow up the edifice.

She recognizes her lover. Her joy, however, is short-lived, for at the moment a captain comes to _John_ with the announcement that he has been betrayed and that the Emperor's forces are at the palace gates.

Thus _Bertha_ learns that her lover and the bloodstained _Prophet_ are one. Horrified, she plunges a dagger into her heart.

_John_ determines to die, a victim to the catastrophe which _Bertha_ has planned, and which is impending. He joins the banqueters at their orgy. At the moment when all his open and secret enemies are at the table and pledge him in a riotous baccha.n.a.le, smoke rises from the floor. Tongues of fire shoot up. _Fides_, in the general uproar and confusion, calmly joins her son, to die with him, as the powder magazine blows up, and, with a fearful crash the edifice collapses in smoke and flame.

_John of Leyden's_ name was Jan Beuckelszoon. He was born in 1509. In business he was successively a tailor, a small merchant, and an innkeeper. After he had had himself crowned in Munster, that city became a scene of orgy and cruelty. It was captured by the imperial forces June 24, 1535. The following January the "prophet" was put to death by torture. The same fate was meted out to Knipperdolling, his henchman, who had conveniently rid him of one of his wives by cutting off her head.

The music of the first act of "Le Prophete" contains a cheerful chorus for peasants, a cavatina for _Bertha_, "Mon coeur s'elance" (My heart throbs wildly), in which she voices her joy over her expected union with _John_; the Latin chant of the three Anabaptists, gloomy yet stirring; the music of the brief revolt of the peasantry against _Oberthal_; the plea of _Fides_ and _Bertha_ to _Oberthal_ for his sanction of _Bertha's_ marriage to _John_, "Un jour, dans les flots de la Meuse" (One day in the waves of the Meuse); _Oberthal's_ refusal, and his abduction of _Bertha_; the reappearance of the three Anabaptists and the renewal of their efforts to impress the people with a sense of the tyranny by which they are oppressed.

Opening the second act, in _John's_ tavern, in the suburbs of Leyden, are the chorus and dance of _John's_ friends, who are rejoicing over his prospective wedding. When the three Anabaptists have recognized his resemblance to the picture of David in the cathedral at Munster, _John_, observing their sombre yet impressive bearing, tells them of his dream, and asks them to interpret it: "Sous les vastes arceaux d'un temple magnifique" (Under the great dome of a splendid temple).

They promise him a throne. But he knows a sweeter empire than the one they promise, that which will be created by his coming union with _Bertha_. Her arrival in flight from _Oberthal_ and _John's_ sacrifice of her in order to save his mother from death, lead to _Fides's_ solo, "Ah, mon fils" (Ah, my son), one of the great airs for mezzo-soprano.

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Most attractive in the next act is the ballet of the skaters on the frozen lake near the camp of the Anabaptists. The scene is brilliant in conception, the music delightfully rhythmic and graceful. There is a stirring battle song for _Zacharias_, in which he sings of the enemy "as numerous as the stars," yet defeated. Another striking number is the fantastic trio for _Jonas_, _Zacharias_, and _Oberthal_, especially in the descriptive pa.s.sage in which in rhythm with the music, _Jonas_ strikes flint and steel, ignites a lantern and by its light recognizes _Oberthal_. When _John_ rallies the Anabaptists, who have been driven back from under the walls of Munster and promises to lead them to victory, the act reaches a superb climax in a "Hymne Triomphal" for _John_ and chorus, "Roi du Ciel et des Anges" (Ruler of Heaven and the Angels). At the most stirring moment of this finale, as _John_ is being acclaimed by his followers, mists that have been hanging over the lake are dispelled. The sun bursts forth in glory.

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In the next act there is a scene for _Fides_ in the streets of Munster, in which, reduced to penury, she begs for alms. There also is the scene at the meeting of _Fides_ and _Bertha_. The latter believing, like _Fides_, that _John_ has been slain by the Anabaptists, vows vengeance upon the _Prophet_.

The great procession in the cathedral with its march and chorus has been, since the production of "Le Prophete" in 1849, a model of construction for striking spectacular scenes in opera. The march is famous. Highly dramatic is the scene in which _Fides_ first proclaims and then denies that John is her son. The climax of the fifth act is the drinking song, "Versez, que tout respire l'ivresse et le delire"

(Quaff, quaff, in joyous measure; breathe, breathe delirious pleasure), in the midst of which the building is blown up, and _John_ perishes with those who would betray him.

During the season of opera which Dr. Leopold Damrosch conducted at the Metropolitan Opera House, 1884-85, when this work of Meyerbeer's led the repertoire in number of performances, the stage management produced a fine effect in the scene at the end of Act III, when the _Prophet_ rallies his followers. Instead of soldiers tamely marching past, as _John_ chanted his battle hymn, he was acclaimed by a rabble, wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, and brandishing cudgels, scythes, pitchforks, and other implements that would serve as weapons.

The following season, another stage manager, wishing to outdo his predecessor, brought with him an electric sun from Germany, a horrid thing that almost blinded the audience when it was turned on.

L'AFRICAINE

THE AFRICAN

Opera in five acts, by Meyerbeer; words by Scribe. Produced Grand Opera, Paris, April 28, 1865. London, in Italian, Covent Garden, July 22, 1865; in English, Covent Garden, October 21, 1865. New York, Academy of Music, December 1, 1865, with Mazzoleni as _Vasco_, and Zucchi as _Selika_; September 30, 1872, with Lucca as _Selika_; Metropolitan Opera House, January 15, 1892, Nordica (_Selika_), Pettigiani (_Inez_), Jean de Reszke (_Vasco_), edouard de Reszke (_Don Pedro_), Lasalle (_Nelusko_).