Le prophète

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Work data
Title: the Prophet
Original title: Le prophète
Title page of the piano reduction from 1849

Title page of the piano reduction from 1849

Shape: Grand opéra in five acts
Original language: French
Music: Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto : Eugène Scribe ,
Émile Deschamps
Premiere: April 16, 1849
Place of premiere: Paris Opera
Playing time: approx. 4 hours
Place and time of the action: Holland, in and around Münster, 1533–1535
people
  • Jean de Leyde ( tenor )
  • Zacharie, Anabaptist ( bass )
  • Jonas, Anabaptist (tenor)
  • Mathisen , Anabaptist (bass or baritone )
  • Comte d'Oberthal (bass)
  • Two pawns (tenor, bass)
  • A soldier (tenor)
  • Four citizens (2 tenors, 2 basses)
  • Fidès, Jeans mother ( mezzo-soprano or alto )
  • Berthe, Jeans Bride ( soprano )
  • Two choirboys ( boy soprano , alto)
  • Two peasant women (soprano, mezzo-soprano)
  • Four Anabaptists (tenor, 3 basses)
  • Two officers (tenor, bass)
  • Peasant women, peasants, gentlemen, soldiers and pages in the entourage of Count von Oberthal, Anabaptists with their wives and children, prisoners (richly dressed women and men, castle ladies, barons, a monk, children), guards, a drummer, citizens, Trabants, electors, halberdiers, people, flower girls, dignitaries, officers, ten choirboys, pages, servants, girls, imperial soldiers, bishop of Munster, elector of Westphalia, first officers of the imperial army, princes of the empire ( choir , extras)
  • Peasant women, farmers, ice skaters, ice skaters, girls (ballet)

Le prophète (German: The Prophet ) is a grand opéra in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer . The libretto was created in collaboration between Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps .

The first performance took place on April 16, 1849 in the Paris Opera . The German premiere in the translation by Ludwig Rellstab was in Hamburg in 1850 .

action

The background to the opera is the story of the Anabaptist Empire of Münster and Jan van Leiden (Jean de Leyde), who was crowned king by the Anabaptists . Most of the opera's protagonists are an invention of the librettists and, with the exception of Jan van Leiden and Jan Matthys (Mathisen), have no historical record. Jan van Leiden's mother, one of the main characters in the opera, was not Fidès, but Alit Bockel , who died in 1521. Jan Matthys, who baptized Jan van Leiden and sent him to Münster as an “apostle” , was hacked to pieces by soldiers in April 1534 when he was riding unarmed from Münster . A historical fact that is also dealt with in the opera is that in September 1534 Jan van Leiden had himself proclaimed “King John I”.

The theatrical end of the opera, with the fire and collapse of Münster Castle, is a free invention. In fact, the Anabaptist Empire of Münster ended on the night of June 24th to 25th, 1535, when the troops of Franz von Waldeck , the Bishop of Münster, and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse took Münster. The leading Anabaptists Jan van Leiden, Bernd Knipperdolling and Bernd Krechting were tortured to death on January 22, 1536, and their bodies were hung up in iron cages on the tower of St. Lamberti and displayed.

first act

Dutch landscape near Dordrecht on the Meuse

After a short orchestral prelude, the action begins. The serf Berte is engaged to Jean de Leyde, but cannot marry him without the consent of her overlord, the Comte d'Oberthal. Together with Jean's mother Fidès, she sets off for the Count's castle. They meet a group of three Anabaptists dressed in black who are singing a Latin psalm: "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam." The sectarian preachers Zacharie, Jonas and Mathisen call on the peasants present to revolt to get out of slavery, bondage and the forced labor to free. The peasants arm themselves to storm the castle. The Comte d'Oberthal steps out of the castle gate with his entourage. He notices the preacher first and has his soldiers lead them away. Fidès and Berthe ask the Count's permission to marry Jean. However, he refuses permission and has Berthe kidnapped together with Fidès to his castle. The frightened peasants withdraw. Behind the scenes, the three Anabaptists sing their psalm again. When the peasants hear him, they run towards the sectarians. They bless the people and make threatening gestures in the direction of the castle.

Second act

Jean de Leyde and his mother's inn near Leiden

The Anabaptists Jonas, Zacharie and Mathisen, who have stopped at the inn, believe in the face of Jean that he looks like a portrait of King David from Munster . Since they lack a figurehead , called apôtre ( apostle ) in the libretto , they try to persuade Jean to go with them towards Münster. Jean, who had a nightmare the night before, in which he foresaw his future role as blood-stained king, tells of his dream and says no. His only wish is to marry Berthe and live with her.

Suddenly Berthe appears. She was able to escape from Oberthal's captivity, but the latter pursues her. After Jean has managed to hide her, Oberthal takes the stage and demands Berthe's extradition. Otherwise, he will kill Jean's mother Fidès, who is being dragged over by his soldiers, in front of his eyes. After unsuccessful requests, Jean pulls his horrified bride out of hiding in order to save his mother. Oberthal releases Fidès and the soldiers drag Berte away. In desperation, Jean joins the three Anabaptists.

Third act

Draft of the set for the third act by Edouard Despléchin in 1849

First picture. Camp of the Anabaptists on a frozen lake near Munster

After the first military successes, the Anabaptists dragged some captured nobles over. An Anabaptist choir demands a bloodbath ("  You sang! You sang!  "), But Mathisen wants to release the nobles instead for a ransom. Zacharie already believes that the opponents are defeated. Some farmers come across the lake in horse-drawn sleighs, others on ice skates to sell goods to the Anabaptists. This is followed by a 16-minute ballet performance Les Patineurs with the following parts:

Second picture. Zachary's tent in the Anabaptist camp

Comte d'Oberthal was picked up by Jonas as a stray wanderer. Oberthal apparently joins the Anabaptists and swears to spare the peasants, burn down monasteries, hang up the nobles, live as a good Christian and help to take Munster. Likewise, after much pressure, he swears to grab Oberthal and hang up. When Zacharie and Jonas light a fire, they recognize Oberthal and demand his death.

Jean sees his job finished and wants to see his mother again. In a conversation with Oberthal he learns that Berthe was able to escape from Oberthals Castle and is supposed to be in Münster. He orders Oberthal to be spared for the time being and to let Berthe speak the verdict. At this moment Mathisen rushes over and reports that the Anabaptist siege army was put to flight in front of Münster.

Third picture. Camp of the Anabaptists

After the failed attack on Munster, soldiers of the Anabaptist army mutinied against Jean, insulted him as a false prophet ("faux prophète") and demanded his death. However, Jean can justify himself to them for not having ordered this attack. He again took over the supreme command of the Anabaptists in order to finally conquer Münster.

Fourth act

First picture. Town hall square of Munster

As a conqueror, Jean rules the city of Münster with a hard hand. The Anabaptists call him the prophet , while the people fear him. In a chorus of “  Couchons notre tête  ” the citizens cheer in the face of the Anabaptist patrols : “  Vive le Prophète  ” ( Long live the Prophet ), but quietly say to one another: “  À bas le Prophète  ” ( Down with the Prophet! ). Berthe disguised herself as a pilgrim and finds Fidès begging. One morning she found blood-soaked clothes in her hut and now believes that the false prophet killed her son. To avenge this injustice, Berthe decides to kill the prophet.

Second picture. Inside the cathedral of Münster

Scene from the fourth act of the opera, published in L'Illustration magazine on April 24, 1849

To the sound of the coronation march, Jean leads a procession into the cathedral to be crowned king. In the meantime, the Anabaptists spread the legend that the prophet Jean had a supernatural origin, was the chosen one ( l'Élu ) and was not born to any woman. After the coronation, Jean declares himself the Son of God («  le fils de Dieu  »). Fidès recognizes him and exclaims: “  Mon fils!  " (my son). Mathisen threatens Jean to kill Fidès if he confesses to her. When Fidès insists on her testimony, many of those present doubt Jean and call him a fraud. Jean then claims that Fidès is mad and confuses him. In a speech to the people, he offers his death if he is the son of Fidès. In view of the daggers pointing threateningly at Jean, she states that Jean is not her son. The Anabaptists now believe that Jean worked a miracle in curing the madman from madness and cheer him on. Fidès rushes off to prevent Berthe from the planned murder.

Fifth act

First picture. Cellar vault in the City Palace of Münster

An army from Charles V is approaching Munster. The emperor has demanded the extradition of Jean de Leyde and in return offers the Anabaptists safe conduct. In order to obtain impunity, the Anabaptists want to hand Jonas, Matthisen and Zacharie over to the prophet Jean. Fidès is dragged in prisoner. She laments that she was denied by her son. When Jean arrives, he greets her as his mother. Fidès, on the other hand, no longer sees him as the son, but as the tyrant. Jean explains to her his motives for going to the Anabaptists to avenge Berthe on all nobles. Fidès begs him to repent. Berthe, with a torch in hand, approaches a stone slab, behind which saltpeter is stored, in order to destroy the hated prophet and his followers in an explosion. When she sees jeans, she initially only recognizes him as the lost groom. Fidès, Berte and Jean are already making plans to escape when a captain reports that enemies have sneaked into the palace. Only now does Berthe recognize the prophet in Jean, curses him and stabs himself.

Second picture. A large hall in the city palace

At a banquet and bacchanal with dance, a choir of his supporters cheers Jean. During the festivities, Comte d'Oberthal rushed into the hall at the head of the imperial troops to arrest Jean. However, Jean is prepared for this situation. He set fire to the saltpetre stored in the vault, an explosion caused the castle to collapse and destroyed all those present. Jean dies in his mother's arms.

music

Orchestral line-up

After the critical edition by Matthias Brzoska , the following orchestra is planned for the opera:

Piccolo flute , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , English horn , 2 clarinets , bass clarinet , 4 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 pump valve horns, 4 trumpets (2nd also pump valve trumpet), 3 trombones , ophicleide , 4 timpani , percussion : bass drum , Cymbals , triangle , tam-tam , military drum , 4 harps , strings

Incidental music

  • behind the scene: clarinet, 4 trumpets, 4 military trumpets, organ (4 hands);
  • on the scene: 2 small cornets in Eb, 4 alto cornets in Eb, 2 rotary valve horns or pump valve horns, 2 rotary valve trumpets or trumpets, 4 tenor horns or rotary valve horns or pump valve horns, 2 baryton horns or trombones, 4 bass tubas or ophicle dresses, 2 double bass tubers or bombardons, 4 military drums, Bells in A, sound stone, rattle.

Details

In the chorale “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”, which serves as a characterization of the Anabaptists especially in the first act, Meyerbeer did not use a traditional chorale, but composed a melody “in the style of early Protestant hymns” based on a specially created Latin text by the librettist Scribe. The chorale, which resembles a litany , is given a “dark and eerie character” by the accompanying deep wind instruments (bassoons, horns, ophikleide) and becomes threatening.

Work history

Emergence

Pauline Viardot as Fidès in the world premiere production

After Meyerbeer had shaped the genre of the grand opéra with his French operas Robert le diable (1831) and Les Huguenots (1836) , he quickly became known outside of France. In 1836 he was planning another grand opera and was looking for a suitable subject. In the end he chose the African woman and the prophet . At first Meyerbeer began composing the African , but gave up the project after Marie-Cornélie Falcon , who was slated for the title role, lost her voice. At the latest since March 25, 1841, he was instead occupied with the composition of the Prophet , which is evident from the autograph. However, the composition was delayed due to disputes over the cast. It was not until July 1, 1847, that an agreement was reached between the new opera directors Nestor Roqueplan and Edmond Duponchel . The most important result for Meyerbeer was that Pauline Viardot-García should take over the role of Fidès. Thereupon Meyerbeer revised and expanded her part. On December 12, 1848, Meyerbeer finally arrived in Paris with the full score, and after extensive copying work, rehearsals began. This production of Meyerbeer's third great opera was followed closely and commented on by the press.

Meyerbeer revised the score several times during rehearsals, as well as making various cuts. Nevertheless, the opera was still considered too long, so that Meyerbeer stated with resignation after the rehearsal on April 1, 1849: “General rehearsal of all 5 acts. It lasted with the unreacted, which lasted 1 hour 20 minutes, from 1/28 to 1 a.m., i.e. 4 hours 16 minutes of music. So I have to cut at least 40 minutes of music: a hard and difficult task. "

After he had already been advised on March 22, 1849 to shorten the overture because it did not achieve the desired effect, it was completely deleted along with other parts and Meyerbeer replaced it with a short orchestral prelude.

After the successful world premiere of The Prophet in Paris, Meyerbeer premiered some of the canceled parts of the work in a concert on April 25, 1849, including the so-called Chœur des mères (Choir of the Mothers), but not the omitted overture. This more symphonic overture, which consists of 600 bars , was actually premiered on November 27, 1998 by the Bochum Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane after Meyerbeer's original score was found again in the Paris National Library in the 1990s .

reception

After the triumphant premiere of the Prophet in Paris, the first performance in London took place a few weeks later , before the work was performed by all opera houses around the world in the course of the 19th century.

Even Richard Wagner was impressed after attending a performance by the Prophet and wrote in a letter of March 13, 1850 to Theodor Uhlig : “It was during this time that I saw the Prophet for the first time - the prophet of the new world: I felt myself happy and exalted, let go of all the burdensome plans that seemed so godless to me [...] If the genius comes and throws us into other paths, an enthusiast likes to follow everywhere, even if he feels unable to achieve something in these paths . ”Under the anti-Semitic influence of Uhlig, however, he changed his mind in the same year, which was already evident in his essay Judaism in Music . In his autobiography Mein Leben , Wagner finally claimed, in contrast to his impression at the time: "I felt sick from this performance [...] I was never again able to pay the slightest attention to this work."

In 1850, under the influence of the opera, Franz Liszt wrote a Fantasy and Fugue for organ about the chorale of the Anabaptists Ad nos, ad salutarem undam .

A critical edition of the opera, including all deleted parts, was published in 1997 with the major contribution of the musicologist Matthias Brzoska. This edition was the basis of the performances at the Vienna State Opera in 1998 and a re-performance in Münster (Westphalia) in 2004. In May 2007, an international symposium on the opera Le Prophète took place at the Folkwang Hochschule .

In his grotesque novel Die Merowinger or Die totale Familie, Heimito von Doderer uses the coronation march as an acoustic accompaniment to an absurd anger therapy.

Discography

literature

  • Giacomo Meyerbeer: The Prophet. Great opera in 5 acts . Reclam, Leipzig 1950.
  • Giacomo Meyerbeer: The Prophet. Great opera in 5 acts . Peters, Leipzig 1930 (piano reduction)
  • Horst Seeger : Opera Lexicon . Heinrichshofen Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1979, ISBN 3-7959-0271-1 , p. 450.
  • (o. Vf.) Literal translation of the libretto in: Supplement to CD Sony M3K 79400

Web links

Commons : Le prophète  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Dahlhaus and Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht : Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon. Fourth band R-Z . Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 3rd edition 2001, ISBN 3-254-08399-7 , p. 31, keyword Rejdovák .
  2. Information based on the critical edition by M. Brzoska ( Memento from March 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ^ Sabine Henze-Döhring and Sieghart Döhring : Giacomo Meyerbeer. The master of the Grand Opéra. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66003-0 , p. 122
  4. a b c Matthias Brzoska: Remarks about Meyerbeer's Le Prophète ( Memento from August 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ A b c Matthias Brzoska: Concert overture “Le Prophète” - world premiere ( Memento from December 5, 1998 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ^ Quotation from Meyerbeer's diary of April 1, 1849, from Matthias Brzoska: Concert overture “Le Prophète” - world premiere ( Memento of December 5, 1998 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. Discovery and premiere of the overture ( Memento from December 5, 1998 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Quote from Matthias Brzoska: Remarks about Meyerbeer's Le Prophète ( Memento from August 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. Quoted from: Sabine Henze-Döhring and Sieghart Döhring: Giacomo Meyerbeer. The master of the Grand Opéra. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2014, p. 147
  10. ^ Program of the congress on the opera Le Prophète ( Memento of April 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  11. Reading sample (see p. 11)