United States Meyerbeer, Le prophète: Soloists, ‘Marche du Sacre’ Banda, Bard Pageant Refrain, Dancers, Enfants, American Symphony Orchestra / Leon Botstein (conductor). Bard SummerScape, Fisher Heart at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 4.8.2024. (RP)
Manufacturing:
Director – Christian Räth
Units – Christian Räth and Daniel Unger
Costumes – Mattie Ullrich
Choreography – Catherine Galasso
Lighting – Rick Fisher
Projection – Elaine McCarthy
Refrain grasp – James Bagwell
Solid:
Jean de Leyde – Robert Watson
Fidès – Jennifer Feinstein
Berthe – Amina Edris
Jonas – Brian Vu
Mathisen – Wei Wu
Zacharie – Harold Wilson
Oberthal – Zachary Altman
Tenor Soloist – Rashard Deleston
Bass Soloist – Aaron Theno
If it weren’t for Leon Botstein and Bard Summerscape, simply the place would New Yorkers get their annual repair of opera rarities? Arguably, New York Metropolis Opera would as soon as have claimed a few of that turf. And, in fact, Eve Queler, now in her nineties and current within the viewers for this efficiency, made such uncared for gems her area with the Opera Orchestra of New York. However in 2024, there may be solely Botstein and Bard SummerScape within the sport.
Meyerbeer’s Le prophète is that this yr’s providing. The Metropolitan Opera final staged it in 1977 with James McCracken, Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto. Star tenors gravitate to the opera, and the Met additionally produced it for Enrico Caruso in 1918. The place to go to expertise Le prophète lately has been Europe, however Botstein modified that trajectory with this gripping manufacturing.
The French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps is loosely based mostly on the lifetime of the sixteenth-century Dutch Anabaptist chief, John of Leiden, or Jean de Leyde in French. His resemblance to an image of King David within the cathedral is an indication that he has been chosen to ascertain a ‘Kingdom of God’ in Münster, Germany. Jean de Leyde turns into a prophet to his followers and an anathema to his foes.
The historic Jean de Leyde deserted the pacifist tendencies of the Anabaptists and promoted a social agenda that may be thought-about progressive right this moment. The sect’s embrace of polygamy went past the pale. After their downfall, these excesses made it open season on all Anabaptists for Catholics and Protestants alike.
Scribe and Deschamps’s libretto doesn’t dwell on such issues, however facilities on Jean de Leyde’s messianic complicated and his relationship with Berthe. That younger girl was unlucky to have caught the attention of Rely Oberthal, who is keen to destroy Jean de Leyde and his Münster stronghold. The opposite central determine is Jean de Leyde’s mom, Fidès. To avoid wasting her son, Fidès endures ignominy and betrayal, finally dying beside him because the partitions of his palace crash down upon them. The position is alleged to have impressed Verdi in crafting the position of Azucena in Il trovatore.
Intrigue is essential to the plot. One is rarely fairly sure whether or not Jean is answering a divine calling or is a charlatan. The three Anabaptists, Jonas, Mathiesen and Zacharie, are scheming opportunists, prepared to jettison Jean to save lots of their skins. Fidès and Bertha each despise the Prophet, not understanding who he really is. As soon as conscious of his identification, a mom’s intuition was to forgive, whereas the zealotry of the younger girl opts for destruction.
Director Christian Räth’s idea is straightforward and simple however highly effective. The interpretation of the Bible into the vernacular through the Reformation opened the door for various and typically radical interpretations of Holy Writ. The set drives this theme dwelling.
Three huge and richly sure French-language Bibles dominated the stage. Reconfigured and with imaginative lighting, they grew to become a a number of of locales, together with cathedrals, palaces and prisons. Single pages from the Bible, appropriately French translations of the ‘Apocalypse of Saint John’ or the ‘E book of Revelation’, additionally served as backdrops to the motion.
Time was fluid in Räth’s staging. The lads’s costumes tended in the direction of stylized Medieval garb as seen in any variety of blockbuster movie collection. Fidès and Bertha wore modern garments. Within the pivotal scene the place Fidès acknowledges the person who’s about to be topped king as her son, she is a lowly road individual pushing a battered child carriage and cradling a bundle of bloody rags. When reunited with Jean and Fidès, Berte is dressed as a commando with a shiny purple bomb in her package.
Räth had a message or two to impart. The risks of demagoguery are illustrated by way of historic footage of marching Fascist troopers. Issues over a dystopian future are expressed by the ladies of the refrain dressed as Handmaids, the fertile girls became breeding inventory in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Story. The opera itself speaks to non secular fanatics.
Botstein assembled a advantageous solid for the manufacturing. Tenor Robert Watson had the vocal attract, together with the uniquely French sound in his higher vary, stamina and charisma required for Jean de Leyde. Watson’s voice had little spin or luster within the long-sustained notes that Meyerbeer calls for of the tenor, however they’re a take a look at of endurance greater than skill.
Within the opening scene, Amina Edris sang Berthe’s enchanting aria, ‘Mon coeur s’élance et palpite’, with simplicity and attraction. Reunited with Jennifer Feinstein’s Fidès, Edris’s Berthe was a girl intent on revenge with a blazing voice stuffed with her coloration, depth and power. Sparks flew each time Edris and Feinstein joined their voices within the searing duet.
Fidès just isn’t a lot of a presence within the opening scenes of the opera, however that modifications as soon as she acknowledges her son because the detested Prophet. Meyerbeer gave her outstanding music to sing, and Feinstein was super, demonstrating her vocal agility, spectacular vary and emotional honesty in Fidès’s two nice arias, ‘Ah! mon fils, sois béni’ and ‘O toi qui m’abandonne’. She all however stopped the present with each.
The three Anabaptists had been carried out by tenor Brian Vu and basses Wei Wu and Harold Wilson. The latter was significantly spectacular dramatically and vocally as Zacharie. Bass-baritone Zachary Altman was rich-voiced and appropriately despicable as Oberthal, Jean de Leyde’s rival in love and energy.
Meyerbeer’s rating is a wealth of attractive melodies and stirring musical and instrumental solos. His incorporation of Latin hymn tunes of his personal creation, significantly ‘Advert nos advert salutarem’, provides authenticity in addition to a sinister sense of the macabre to the drama. The trumpet solos within the Coronation March, just like the position of Fidès, additionally caught Verdi’s consideration, as is quickly obvious from the Triumphal March in Aida. Members of the Princeton Brass Band, styled because the ‘Marche du Sacre’ Banda, added to the tonal impression of the march.
Botstein led orchestra, bands, refrain and soloists in a efficiency that bristled with power and resonated with emotion. The opera is on the lengthy aspect. Though the ballet music was carried out throughout intermissions within the foyer, the efficiency clocked in at properly over 4 hours. Nonetheless, time stood nonetheless for individuals who love French grand opera with all its excesses and rewards.
Rick Perdian
