The Meyerbeer Libretti (PDF)

Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most important and influential opera composers of the nineteenth century, enjoyed a fame during his lifetime hardly rivalled by any of his contemporaries. This ten volume set provides in one collection all the operatic texts set by Meyerbeer in his career. The texts offer the most complete versions available. Each libretto is translated into modern English by Richard Arsenty; and each work is introduced by Robert Letellier. In this comprehensive edition of Meyerbeer's libretti, the original text and its translation are placed on facing pages for ease of use. The eighth volume presents the third of Meyerbeer's great tetralogy of grands opéras. In Le Prophète Meyerbeer's dramatic language shows further evolution in refinement. The music, in the richness of harmony, the sophistication of orchestral colour, the vitality of rhythm, and the expressive flexibility of melody, seeks to explore a complex scenario. The discourse of faith is a crucial subtext here, as in all of Meyerbeer's four principal operas. The progressive unfolding of this concept establishes a definite thematic dialectic that is consistently commenting on the surface action in its direct handling of religion and power. In the third stage of religious consideration, depicted in Le Prophète, the focus has shifted from the grand scale of metaphysical struggle in Robert le Diable, and socio political conflict in Les Huguenots, to an examination of the impact of corrupted faith upon the individual and its consequences for those around him. Once again, an organised faith fails to bring peace. Indeed, it brings the most abhorrent conflict and abuses of personal liberty. The ultimate redemption of the hero is mediated through the actions of individuals, his mother and fiancée. Powerful biblical images are used in this process. The composer achieved his master portrait in the character of Fidès, one the noblest conceptions of the lyric stage. Meyerbeer forged a magnificent maternal character, and with the tremendous tenor part of the Prophet John of Leyden, created a powerful mother-and-son drama. The high seriousness of the subject, and the dark sublimity of the music, won for this opera a unique regard: "People of my father's generation would rather have doubted the solar system than the supremacy of Le Prophète over all other operas" (Reynaldo Hahn).