Giacomo Meyerbeer The Complete Libretti in Eleven Volumes (in

Giacomo Meyerbeer
The Complete Libretti
in Eleven Volumes
(in the Original and in English
Translations by Richard Arsenty with
Introductions by Robert Ignatius Letellier)
Volume 8
The Meyerbeer Libretti
Grand Opéra 3 Le Prophète
Edited by
Richard Arsenty (translations)
and Robert Letellier (introductions)
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
The Meyerbeer Libretti: Grand Opéra 3 Le Prophète, Edited by Richard Arsenty (translations)
and Robert Letellier (introductions)
This book first published 2006 as part of The Complete Libretti of Giacomo Meyerbeer in Five
Volumes. This second edition first published 2008.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2008 by Richard Arsenty (translations) and Robert Letellier (introductions)
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-84718-967-9, ISBN (13): 9781847189677
As the eleven-volume set: ISBN (10): 1-84718-971-7, ISBN (13): 9781847189714
Giacomo Meyerbeer: Lithograph after a drawing by Franz Kriehuber
(Vienna, 1847)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ........................................................................................................ ix
Introduction ................................................................................................ xi
The Libretti:
Le Prophète ................................................................................................. 1
PREFACE
Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most important and influential opera
composers of the nineteenth century, enjoyed a fame during his lifetime
unrivalled by any of his contemporaries. His four French grand operas
were in the standard repertory of every major opera house of the world
between 1831 and 1914. But his stage works went into an eclipse after
the First World War, and from then until the 1990s were performed only
occasionally. Now a rediscovery and reevaluation of his lyric dramas is
under way. More performances of his operas have taken place since 1993
than occurred during the previous twenty years. This presents a problem
for anyone who wants to study the libretti of his operas. The texts of
his early stage works are held by very few libraries in the world and
are almost impossible to find, and the libretti of his more famous later
operas, when come across, are invariably heavily cut and reflect the
performance practices of a hundred years ago. This eleven-volume set,
following on from the original five-volume edition of 2004, provides
all the operatic texts set by Meyerbeer in one collection. Over half of
the libretti have not appeared in print in any language for more than
150 years, and one of the early German works has never been printed
before. All of the texts are offered in the most complete versions ever
made available, many with supplementary material appearing in addenda.
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.
INTRODUCTION
Le Prophète
WORLD PREMIÈRE
16 April 1849
Paris, Le Théâtre de la Nation [L’Opéra]
Jean de Leyde ....................................................... Gustave-Hippolyte Roger
Fidès ......................................................................... Pauline Viardot-Garcia
Berthe ........................................................................... Jean Anaïs Castellan
Le Comte d’Oberthal....................................................(Monsieur) Brémond
Zacharie ...............................................................Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur
Mathisen ............................................................................ (Monsieur) Euzet
Jonas. ...................................................................................Louis Gueymard
The year 1838 saw Scribe and Meyerbeer building on the huge success
of their first two collaborations: on 1 August they drew up a contract for
L'Africaine, but because of the illness of Cornélie Falcon, extended the
terminus for the completed composition to 24 August 1842. On 2 August
they signed a second new contract setting out the conditions for
cooperation on another new text, Le Prophète, which Scribe undertook to
provide for Meyerbeer.
The issues raised by religion led Scribe to propose another
Reformation theme, this time a plot based on the revolt of the Westphalian
Anabaptists under the leadership of Johann Buckholdt (1509-36), a tailor
from Leiden, during 1534-35.1 The heart of Scribe’s inspiration came from
a discussion of the Anabaptists by Voltaire in his Essai sur les moeurs et
l'esprit des nations (1756), 2with other possible literary sources furnished
by Van der Velde’s novel Die Anapabtisten (1826)3 and by Jules Michelet’s
1
See Anthony ARTHUR, The Tailor-King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist
Kingdom of Münster (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1999).
2
VOLTAIRE, or François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), a major figure of the
Enlightenment, influential on European thought for generations.
3
Carl Franz VAN DER VELDE (1779-1824), known for his stories and historical
romances.
xii
Giacomo Meyerbeer
The Coronation Procession in Act 4. Painting by Ferdinand Keller.
The Meyerbeer Libretti
xiii
Mémoires de Luther (1835), a collection of letters, anecdotes and articles
assembled by the historian.4 Scribe’s story is loosely based on history,
with alterations to suit his dramatic purposes. The historical figure was a
charlatan whose profligate leadership of the millenarian sect led to the
establishment of theocracy, a "new Zion", in the city of Münster. His rise
from obscurity to absolute power, the luridness of the Anabaptist
despotism, and his subsequent betrayal and gruesome execution, provided
vivid material for a dramatic scenario. One of Michelet’s essays,
“Anabaptistes de Münster” refers to John of Leyden as ‘prophète’, and
mentions his premonitions of being crowned long before the event took
place. Scribe succeeded in combining the incidents of history with his own
fiction to create a moving and exciting story. Conventional love interest
was overshadowed by many other strong and tender passions, both
religious and personal.
The heart of this dramatic shift is focused on the mysterious, indeed
ambiguous nature of the Prophet, and his relationship with his mother,
Fidès. She is a deeply interesting fictional character, a pious woman,
tenderhearted and yet energetic, seeking to save a son she believes she has
lost, drawn through torment and abjection, betrayal and scandal, to the
exercise of supreme forgiveness and ecstatic self-sacrifice.
John of Leyden is almost certainly the most unusual and complicated
character created by Scribe and especially Meyerbeer. The weak-willed
and vacillating Waverley-type hero is given an altogether unique reworking. Is John a genuinely pious man, deeply religious, indeed a
visionary? How much is he motivated by idealism and outraged justice? Is
it simply personal revenge? What does his career mean once he has gone
over to the Anabaptists? Are they using him, or is he actually in control?
Does he mean to do any good? 5
Confronting the moral difficulty of a hero who becomes a conscious
imposter is a considerable challenge, but one that offers great potential and
dramatic rewards in the analysis of fraud and idealism that mysteriously
seem to blend. Scribe probably used the character of the false Dimitri in
Pushkin's Boris Godounov (1825), as Mussorgsky would do later.6 But
Jean de Leyde is, in his own right, an extremely interesting figure,
spiritually speaking: he is a genuine man of faith, but also an imposter who
4
Jules MICHELET (1790-1874), the first nationalist, romantic and liberal historian
of France.
5
John W. KLEIN "Meyerbeer's Strangest Opera". Introduction to the MRF
recording of the Turin Radio Broadcast (1970); pp.4-6.
6
Karin PENDLE. Eugène Scribe and French Opera of the Nineteenth Century.
(Studies in Musicology, 6.) Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1979.
xiv
Giacomo Meyerbeer
is ruthless but not entirely despicable. The depth of his human dilemma is
successfully realized. George Bernard Shaw described him as alive and
romantic, and there can be no doubt that the composer succeeded in
heightening the effect of the drama by his deepening of the hero's
psychology. From the outset, in his Dream Narrative, his music has a
visionary quality, his Pastorale a note of genuine idealism. When he goes
with the Anabaptists, the intense and mournful quality of the music
suggests his perception of the pain and moral ambiguity of his situation, as
though he understands the true nature of their motivation. He has genuine
agony over his leadership of a bloody movement in act 3, and when he is
confronted with their treachery and inefficiency, he becomes a real hero,
imposing his will over a dejected and demoralized rabble, turning them
into an army with a cause in the irresistible power and charisma of his
great marching hymn. Here, at once, he becomes prophet, priest and king,
fulfilling the prophetic likeness he bears to the portrait of King David in
the Cathedral of Münster:
Roi du ciel et des anges
Je dirai tes louages
Comme David ton serviteur.
Car Dieu m’a dit: ceins ton écharpe
Et conduis-les dans le salut!
Réveille-toi ma harpe,
Réveille-toi mon luth,
Éveille, éveille-toi, ma harpe!
In giving utterance to messianic rapture, he expresses a genuine belief in
God and his cause. At the pinnacle of his earthly glory he really does seem
to believe that he is the 'son of God'. The role he must play at his
'Coronation', the maintenance of his power and deception at any cost,
including that of rejecting his mother publicly, his tone of lofty
detachment, his remote and priestly utterances, the incandescent and yet
hieratic 'exorcism' he prays over her, is both a charade and very much
more. It captures the essence of this amazing complex dramatic
realization.
The depiction of the Anabaptists as a trio who move, act and sing
together like some unholy parody of the Trinity is another dramatic
masterstroke. (One is reminded of the symbolic power and mystique other
such triple groupings, like the Three Ladies and Three Boys in Die
The Meyerbeer Libretti
xv
Zauberflöte, and Ping, Pang and Pong in Turandot.)7 From their first
gloomy appearance with their chant and modal style mocking at church
music, they cast a sinister spell. Their speech, or 'preaching', is
inflammatory politics, revealing all the power of revolutionary demagogues.
They blend hypocrisy, brutality, cunning and bigotry most eerily in the
dishonor of true religion, and exercise an almost visceral hold, giving them
a supernatural aura and quasi-mythical status. As another variation on the
power and danger of religious fanaticism, characterization of this kind is
again the measure of the immense dramaturgical imagination and
effectiveness of this libretto.
On 7 September, on his way back to Paris from a sojourn in Germany,
Meyerbeer records a visit to Scribe's country estate Séricourt near Ferté
sous Jouarre, a week later prepared a set of observations for the librettist
(on 15 and 16 September), and then attended a series of meetings with him
(19 September, 30 September, 6 October, 25 October, 29 October, 6
November). So work on the libretto must have been progressing. Late
November and December were taken up with the revival of Les
Huguenots, and there is neither diary nor appointment book for the first
half of 1839. Two further contracts (16 and 26 January, with a supplement
of 27 March) mark the progress of work on Le Prophète, until on 9 June
when the diary is resumed, and it is clear that Meyerbeer had already
begun the composition of the score.
There is also a fascinating set of notes on the empty page facing 31
December at the end of the Meyerbeer's diary for 1838. It is worth quoting
this in full for the light it sheds on the practical involvement of the
composer in the librettist's work.
What if Jean seriously believed in his mission, and Massol [i.e. the
Anabaptists] was the one who wrote the letter to the commandant of
Münster? People should believe that the Prophet does not have human
origins in order the better to motivate his horror at being recognized by his
mother. “Peuple, je Vous ai trompé, c’est ne pas mon fils!” The people
“Miracle! Miracle!” Attend to the poetry. From the beginning the peasants
speak of Jean as a visionary. It would be more evocative if the coronation
ceremony were to take place in front on the steps of the church, rather than
have a coronation procession that would be too reminiscent of the cortege
in La Juive. Be brief, biblical language. Read W. Scott’s Puritans [i.e Old
Mortality] and Schiller’s Jungfrau von Orleans. Revise my rhythms. No
fire-and-brimstone sermon. Massol the treasurer [of the Anabaptists]: a
7
Barrymore Laurence SCHERER. "Meyerbeer: The Man and His Music".
Introductory essay to the CBS Recording of Le Prophète 1976. Now SonyClassical 1988.
xvi
Giacomo Meyerbeer
trio in which he cheats the others on dividing the spoils.8
At the end of the diary for 1844, there are further fascinating undated notes
concerning his ideas for the dramaturgy of the new opera:
In the closing scene, when the gates close, one hears a funeral march
behind the scene: “‘Listen,’ says Jean, ‘that is the march for our burial
which I am playing for you, since in a few minutes we will all be dead.’
—Could Jean’s romance in act 2 not weave its way through the opera? In
act 3 it could reappear in the recitative before the rondo ‘Berthe, ah, tu
n’es plus’. Also in the recitative with Jonas,...Jean could remember Berthe
when he recalls his mother, and further in the same act when he speaks of
Berthe to Oberthal. In act 4, at the coronation, when he himself says, ‘Jean
tu régneras,’...the orchestra could play the ritornello of the romance. Also,
in the closing scene of act 5, one could find a moment for its reappearance.
—The ballabile of the Bacchanale on act 5 must be arranged...with
grotesque dances that could be seen as the result of opium addiction
promoted by the three Anabaptists.
Meyerbeer's alertness to pertinent literary sources is evident: he refers
to Sir Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality (1816), a story of the Old
Covenanters in late seventeenth-century Scotland, which, like the new
libretto, has a concern with militant Protestantism, and its chiliastic
idealism. Schiller's famous play about Joan of Arc (1801) is also about a
visionary call to arms, and also has a dramatic public confrontation
between the heroine and her sceptical father. A letter from Meyerbeer to
Scribe of 30 November 1838 further discusses textual changes to acts 1
and 2 of the new libretto. The composer asks for a pastoral refrain in Jean's
romance, and for alterations in the 'sermon' that one of the Anabaptists is
to preach. For this he recommends the model of the Capuchin's harangue
in Schiller's Wallensteins Lager, the prologue to his great trilogy (1799).
As Scribe was traveling at the time, Meyerbeer also undertook to send him
a Protestant Bible to provide linguistic models. His researches continued
even during the composition: on 16 March 1840 he was reading chapter 6
of the Book of Jeremiah about the prophet's consecration to his mission,
and studying the score of Handel's oratorio Joshua and later attending a
performance of Jephtha to steep himself in the spirit of Biblical oratorio.
The first three months of 1841 saw the provisional completion of the score
(16 March) so that Meyerbeer could keep to the letter of the contract
which Scribe was insisting on, and deliver a completed copy of the score
into the hands of a Parisian notary for safekeeping (24 March). Further
8
The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer (Madison, NJ: AUP, 1999), 1: 523-24.
The Meyerbeer Libretti
xvii
composition took place during a cure undertaken at Alexisbad near
Bernburg (September-October 1841).
Rumors of difficulties besetting the planned production were in
circulation, and a new contract was signed with the Paris Opéra (20
December 1842). However, the fundamentally inimical situation at the
Paris Opéra during the directorship of Léon Pillet (1840-47), and the
heavy obligations that came with Meyerbeer's new post as
Generalmusikdirektor to the King of Prussia, meant that work on Le
Prophète was not resumed until he returned to Paris on 31 October 1847.
He began a revision of the libretto with Scribe in early 1848, and resumed
composition of the score. On 11 March 1848 Meyerbeer signed a new
contract with the Opéra, and on 14 March reached a secret agreement with
Émile Deschamps for alterations to the verses wanted by the composer
("He will receive 1,000 fr. to make any such alterations; but these will
appear in the printed text without any further demands on his part; his
name will not be mentioned, and he guarantees complete confidentiality...
since Scribe will otherwise take it badly"). There were nine meetings until
25 March, and changes resulted, especially in the characterization of the
hero. These, not reflected in Scribe's version in his completed works,
reflect subtle but clear differences between the concept of John as seen by
librettist and composer.
Some of the most arresting pieces of the score were composed at this
stage, including the inflammatory Prêche in act 1 in which the Anabaptists
whip the populace into revolutionary frenzy, and the celebrated Marche du
couronnement that begins the great scene in the cathedral when John is
crowned king of the new Zion. The pieces are all the more remarkable
when one realizes that they were written during the weeks of the 1848
revolution in Paris that marked the end of the restored, or 'July' monarchy,
the reign of the 'citizen king', Louis-Philippe.9 The score was now
completed and thoroughly revised: firstly, during a sojourn in St Johann
Gastein and Bad Ichl in Austria, which Meyerbeer's undertook from 10
June to 30 August; and, secondly, in Paris before and during the rehearsals
(13 September 1848 to 13 April 1849). The première on 16 April 1849
was once again a colossal success for both poet and composer.
Le Prophète in many ways seems both an opera and an oratorio, and in
this mixture of modes strikes a new note on the history of the lyric drama.
In act 1 it is pastoral, and almost demi-genre; act 2 is passionately lyrical,
while act 3 is sweepingly epic, with its depiction of fanaticism, the people
at war and play, its inspiring religious and martial vigor. Act 4 presents the
immense dramatic and musical fresco of the Cathedral Scene, while act 5
9
The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer (2000), 2:283-84.
xviii
Giacomo Meyerbeer
is a culminating combination of the intimately personal and the vastly
public.10
The fusion of pastoralism, religion and militarism is the key to the
dramatic implications of the plot. Le Prophète is unified almost
organically by these distinctive modes. The first two acts are characterized
by the pastoral idiom, the bucolic Dutch countryside near the River Meuse
in the first act, the small-town inn in Leyden in the second, with all the
appropriate pastoral genres of Choeur pastorale, Valse villageoise,
Pastorale. The pastoral recurs in the midst of the Camp Scene in the
legendary Skaters' Ballet which represents a vision of communal peace
and joy, a countersign to the surrounding images of war and hatred; and
also in the reminiscence of Jean's song of love for Berthe, a symbol in the
midst of his military power of his confused feelings and yearning for the
lost innocence of his previous life. In act 5 the doomed trio of John, Fidès
and Bertha, briefly celebrate a doomed moment of shared joy and hope
amidst the encroaching horrors of betrayal and annihilation.
Meyerbeer himself described the fundamental tone of the opera as
"sombre and fanatic" which is achieved principally by the Anabaptist
chant ("Ad nos, ad salutarem undam") which like the chorale in Les
Huguenots threads through the opera as a recurring motif. Prayers (solo
and communal) occur in acts 2, 3 and 4, and the famous Cathedral Scene
Latin hymns, a large role for the organ, a children's chorus and the
evocation of the vast spaces of the church. The military mood dominates
act 3 with its alarums and trumpet calls, its choruses of pillage, revolt, and
triumphal progress. Antiphonal offstage military signals, numerous march
rhythms, and opulent brassy scoring sustain the exhilarating mood, the
spirit of conflict and danger.
As usual, the scenario unfolds purposefully along the lines of Scribe's
close control of the five-act structure. Act 1 begins in obscurity and peace,
in the early morning, as peasants prepare for their day's work. The entry of
Bertha, full of innocent hopefulness at seeing her fiancé, and the arrival of
her future mother-in-law, establishes an expectation of domestic
tranquillity and normality. The advent of the Anabaptists is a moment of
awakening: the peasants are made aware of the injustice of the social
system, and the entry of the lord of the manner, and his abduction of
Bertha, ruptures the innocence and trust of the social scene.
Act 2, at sunset, presents the hero, still naively idealistic, but the
subject of disturbing and violent dreams. His striking resemblance to a
10
PENDLE and Stephen WILKINS. "Le Prophète: The Triumph of the
Grandiose", part of "Paradise Found: The Salle le Peletier and French Grand
Opera." In Opera in Context (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1998), pp. 198-206
The Meyerbeer Libretti
xix
representation of King David in the Cathedral alert the opportunist
Anabaptists to his political potential, and this is confirmed when the horror
of the violations of human and social codes exposed in act 1 are now
developed by Oberthal's vicious treatment of his mother and Berthe. John
is now ready to resort to revolutionary means to change society.
Act 3 is the epic depiction of the scale and extent of the Anabaptist
uprising, like the central act of Les Huguenots which shows the degree of
religious hatred in Paris on the eve of the massacre. The times of day again
symbolically underscore the moral implications of the action. As night
falls, the Anabaptist leadership is revealed as corrupt and hypocritical: at
the very center of the work is the dark and mysterious Trio bouffe, in
which two of the Anabaptists cross question a prisoner, and discover him
to be Oberthal in disguise. Far form being a diversion, this piece, with its
biting irony and boisterous humor, lays bare the hypocrisy at the heart of
the religious practice and social status, the tragic abuse of power and
bankruptcy of value underpinning the upheaval of the age. Significantly,
they try to strike a light in the darkness, only to compound the deception
and confusion.
The scene is set for the exposure of Jean's ambiguous feelings and
confused motivation. Only the crisis in the movement, and Jean's mastery
in controlling the revolt of the troops and rekindling their enthusiasm
saves the situation. His role as leader and prophet are vindicated, and as
day begins to break, his religio-political mission fulfilled in the assault he
leads on Münster in the brilliant light of sunrise, the climax of the action.
The truth of the suffering of the people in these upheavals, and the
tyranny of the Anabaptist reign of terror, in both public and personal
spheres, is explored in the first scene of act 4: first in the fear of the
oppressed townspeople of Münster, the destitution of Fidès, and the
piteous reunion of Berthe with the old woman. The second scene in the
Cathedral, the coronation of the Prophet, is the symbolic highpoint of the
issues explored in the opera, the paradoxes and inversions of values and
expectations, first set out in Jean's dream in act 2. The action finds its
tragic denouement in the recognition by a peasant woman of her lost son
in the demi-divine leader, and his skillful control of the situation to his
own advantage. He appears to have gained the world but lost his soul.
Act 5 might seem an anticlimax after the pinnacle of dramatic truth
adumbrated in the Cathedral Scene, but is in the pattern of the thematic
resolution of the plot. The Anabaptists confirm their opportunism in their
planned betrayal of Jean to the imperial authorities. Mother, son and
beloved are all brought together: forgiveness and reconciliation are sought,
but they are not able to ward off the inexorability of the fateful action and
xx
Giacomo Meyerbeer
ironies already set into motion. After Berthe's suicide in her horror at
discovering that her lost fiancé and the dreaded Prophet are one and the
same person, the moment is ripe for Jean to cut through the web of deceit
and betrayal. He uses Berthe's plan of revenge to blow up his enemies,
and cleanse the corrupt system. His banquet is a type of Last Supper, and
his drinking song not really a brindisi at all, but a variant of the lost
pastoral: he ironically bids farewell to his foes and the world of tears, and
with his mother who joins him in death, exultantly welcomes the
purification of love in the cataclysmic flames. Only human love, even to
the point of death, can make sense of barren hearts and a world devoid of
trust and value in which history itself appears demonized.
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).11
Le Prophète was another worldwide success. It was performed 573
times in Paris until 29 May 1912, 315 times in Berlin (-1910), 251 times in
Hamburg (-1929), 180 times in Vienna (-1911), 113 times in London (1895), and 56 times in New York (-1928). Modern revivals have been at
Zürich (1962), Berlin (1966), New York (1975) and Vienna (1998). A
selection of reviews are reprinted by Becker (Briefwechsel und
Tagebücher, 4:621-32) (Berlin, 1985); also see the section on Le Prophète
in M.-H. Coudroy, La Critique parisienne de "grands opéras" de
Meyerbeer (Saarbrücken, 1988). The political and social implications of
the opera are discussed by J.Fulcher in Ch.3 "Radicalization, Repression,
and Opera: Meyerbeer's Le Prophète" of The Nation's Image (Cambridge,
1987), pp.122-63.
11
Reynaldo HAHN, Thèmes variés (Paris: J. B. Janin, 1946).
The Meyerbeer Libretti
xxi
The Librettist
Augustin-Eugène Scribe (b. Paris, 14 Dec. 1791; d. Paris, 20 Feb. 1861).
He began his theatrical career as a writer of comedies, but by appreciation
of the theatrical condition in Paris and of the sensibility of his audience, he
gave opéra comique a new strength (Le Maçon, 1825), and animated the
genre of French grand opéra (La Muette de Portici, 1828). His keen sense
of historical awareness was inherited from Jouy's work for Spontini, and
he fully utilized the opportunities for staging on an elaborate scale at the
Paris Opéra. His plots draw on historical sources, but are reworked rather
than adapted. He often dealt with the clash of religious, national and
political issues, and the lives of famous and ordinary people caught up in
crisis. He captured an epic sense of the movement of peoples, and gave the
chorus a more dramatically functional role. He also used collaborators to
write verse for his strong stage situations. The effectiveness of his texts
resulted in great success for him and his composers. His brilliant sense of
the stage is confirmed by the number of composers who turned to him:
Adam (9), Auber (38), Audran (1), Balfe (1), Bellini (1, La Sonnambula),
Boieldieu (4, incl. La Dame blanche), Boisselot (1), Cherubini (1), Cilea
(1, Adriana Lecouvreur), Clapisson (6), Donizetti (5, incl. L'elisir d'amore
and La Favorite), Fétis (1), Gatzambide (1), Gomis (1), Gounod (1, La
Nonne sanglante), Grisar (1), Guénée (1), Halévy (6, incl. La Juive),
Hérold (2), Kastner (1), Kovarovic (1), Lavrangas (1), Macfarren (1),
Marliani (1), Massé (1), Meyerbeer (6), Moniusko (1), Montfort (2),
Offenbach (2), Reber (1), Rossi (1), Rossini (2 incl. Le Comte Ory),
Setaccioli (1), Södermann (1), Suppé (1), Verdi (2, Les Vêpres siciliennes,
Un ballo in maschera), Zandonai (1), and Zimmermann (1) (120 libretti
alone or in collaboration).
Émile Deschamps (Deschamps de Saint-Armand) (b. Bourges, 20
February 1791; d. Versailles, 22 April 1871), a minor poet of the
Romantic Movement. His brother Antony (1800-1869) was also a minor
poet, a translator of Dante (1829), but he was of a more feverishly
romantic disposition, and his mental health failed in 1834. Émile was one
of the founders of La Muse française (1823), a good friend to younger
authors, notably Vigny and Hugo. His writings, mainly translations and
imitations, stimulated interest in German, Spanish, and English literature,
and included Études françaises et étrangères (1828), poems prefaced by
an essay on Romantic doctrines, and also translations of plays like Romeo
and Juliet (1839), Macbeth (1844), and libretti.
LE PROPHÈTE
OPÉRA EN CINQ ACTES
Paroles de
Eugène Scribe et Emile Deschamps
Musique de
Giacomo Meyerbeer
THE PROPHET
OPERA IN FIVE ACTS
Libretto by
Eugène Scribe and Emile Deschamps
Music by
Giacomo Meyerbeer
2
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Personnages (Dramatis Personae)
Jean de Leyde (John of Leyden)
Fidès, sa mère (Fides, his mother)
Berthe, sa fiancée (Bertha, his betrothed)
Le Comte d’Oberthal (Count Oberthal)
Zacharie, un Anabaptiste (Zachary, an Anabaptist)
Mathisen, un Anabaptiste (Mathisen, an Anabaptist)
Jonas, un Anabaptiste (Jonas, an Anabaptist)
Deux Paysans (Two Peasants)
Deux Bourgeois (Two Townsmen)
Deux Officiers (Two Officers)
Deux Enfants du Choeur (Two Children of the Chorus)
Un Soldat (A Soldier)
Choeur de paysans, d’Anabaptistes, de soldats, de bourgeois et
d’enfants (Choruses of peasants, Anabaptistes, soldiers, townspeople
and children)
La scène se passe en 1530: le premier acte dans une campagne près
de Dordrecht en Hollande; le second,dans un faubourg de la ville de
Leyde; le troisième,dans une forêt de la Westphalie; les quatrième et
cinquième, dans la ville de Munster.
The action takes place in the year 1530. The first act is set in the
countryside near Dordrecht, in Holland; the second in a suburb of
Leyden; the third in a forest of Westphalia; the fourth and fifth in the
city of Münster.
The Meyerbeer Libretti
3
WORLD PREMIÈRE
16 April 1849
Paris, Le Théâtre de la Nation [L’Opéra]
Jean de Leyde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . Gustave-Hippolyte Roger
Fidès . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pauline Viardot-Garcia
Berthe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jean Anaïs Castellan
Le Comte d’Oberthal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(Monsieur) Brémond
Zacharie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur
Mathisen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(Monsieur) Euzet
Jonas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Gueymard
SOURCES CONSULTED FOR TRANSLATION
Le Prophète; opéra en cinq actes.
Eugène Scribe et Emile Deschamps (paroles), Giacomo Meyerbeer
(musique). Paris: Brandus et Cie, 1850.
[Second edition of the full orchestral score; includes supplementary
material. The composer’s manuscript score is held at the Biblioteka
Jagiellonska in Cracow.]
Le Prophète; opéra en cinq actes.
Eugène Scribe et Emile Deschamps (paroles), Giacomo Meyerbeer
(musique). Paris: Brandus et Cie, 1849.
[First edition of published libretto; used for additional stage directions
and scenic descriptions.]
4
Giacomo Meyerbeer
TABLE OF MUSICAL NUMBERS
ACTE I
1. Prélude et Choeur Pastoral .................................. La brise est muette
2. Air ....................................................... Mon coeur s’élance et palpite
3. Scène .............................................................. Fidès, ma bonne mère
4. Le Prèche Anabaptiste (morceau d’ensemble) ................. Ad nos, ad
salutarem undam
Récitatif ............................. Le comte d’Oberthal, le seigneur châtelain
5. Romance à Deux Voix ................ Un jour, dans les flots de la Meuse
6. Récitatif et Final ......................................... Eh quoi! tant de candeur
ACTE II
7. Valse Villageoise (morceau d’ensemble)
Valsons toujours
Scène ............................................................ Ô ciel! — Qu’as-tu donc?
8a. Récitatif .................................. Ami, quel nuage obscurcit ta pensée
8b. Le Récit du Songe .................. Sous les vastes arceaux d’un temple
magnifique
9. Pastorale ................................................ Pour Berthe, moi je soupire
10a. Scène ........................................................ Ils partent, grâce au ciel
10b. Morceau d’Ensemble ............................ Ah! cruel, prenez ma vie!
11. Arioso .......................................................... Ah! mon fils, sois béni
12a. Scène ............................................... Ô fureur! le Ciel ne tonne pas
12b. Quatuor, 1re partie ............................ Oui, c’est Dieu qui t’appelle
12c. Quatuor, 2me partie ................. Ô sainte extase, qui nous embrase
ACTE III
13. Entr’acte et Choeur des Anabaptistes ............ Du sang!... que Judas
succombe!
Récitatif .................................................. Quoi! ton coeur connaîtrait la
pitié
14. Couplets de Zacharie ..................... Aussi nombreux que les étoiles
Scène ....................................................................... Voici la fin du jour
The Meyerbeer Libretti
5
15. L’Arrivée des Patineurs (choeur) ........ Voici les fermières, lestes et
légères
16.Divertissement
16a. 1er Air de Ballet, Valse
16b. 2me Air de Ballet, Pas de la rédowa
16c. 3me Air de Ballet, Quadrille des patineurs
16d. 4me Air de Ballet, Galop
Scène ......................................................... Livrez-vous au repas, frères
17a. Trio Bouffe, 1re partie .... Sous votre bannière que faudra-t-il faire?
17b. Trio Bouffe, 2me partie .................................. La flamme scintille
17c. Trio Bouffe, 3me partie....................... Grand Dieu, ta juste colère
Scène ......................................................... Qu’on le mène au supplice!
18. Choeur des Soldats Révoltés ........ Par toi Munster nous fut promis
19. Scène ..................................... Qui vous a sans mon ordre entraînés
Récitatif ...................................... Grand Prophète, ton peuple se relève
20. Hymne Triomphal ...................................... Roi du Ciel et des anges
ACTE IV
21. Entr’acte et Choeur des Bourgeois ................. Courbons notre tête!
22. Complainte de la Mendiante ....... Donnez, donnez pour une pauvre
âme
Scène ....................................................... C’est l’heure, on nous attend
23a. Scène ................................................................ Un pauvre pélerin!
23b. Duo, 1re partie ............................ Pour garder à ton fils le serment
23c. Duo, 2me partie .............................. Dernier espoir, lueur dernière
23d. Duo, 3me partie ................................................. Dieu me guidera!
24. Marche du Sacre
25. Finale
25a. Prière et Imprécation ........................... Domine salvum fac regem
25b. Choeur d’Enfants et Choeur Général ..... Le voilà le Roi Prophète
25c. Scène ........................................... Mon fils! — Son fils? son fils?
25d. Couplets ............................ Je suis, hélas! je suis la pauvre femme
25e. Morceau d’Ensemble ............... Arrêtez! — Il prend ma défense!
25f. L’Exorcisme .................................................... Tu chérissais ce fils
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Giacomo Meyerbeer
ACTE V
26. Entr’acte et Scène ........................................... Ainsi, vous l’attestez
27a. Scène ................................................................... Ô prêtres de Baal
27b. Cavatine .................................................... Ô toi qui m’abandonne
27c. Air ........................................................ Comme un éclair précipité
28a. Scène ............................................................... Ma mère! ma mère!
28b. Grand Duo, 1re partie ......................... Mon fils?... je n’en ai plus!
28c. Grand Duo, 2me partie .................................. À la voix de ta mère
28d. Grand Duo, 3me partie ..................... Ah! viens, il est temps encor
29a. Scène ................................. Voici le souterrain et la dalle de pierre
29b. Trio, 1re partie ....................................................... Loin de la ville
29c. Trio, 2me partie ....................... Ô spectre, ô spectre épouvantable!
30. Finale
30a. Bacchanale (choeur dansé) ................... Gloire, gloire au Prophète
30b. Couplets Bachiques ................... Versez, que tout respire l’ivresse
30c. Duo Final avec Choeur .......................... Ah! viens, divine flamme
8
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Prélude
ACTE PREMIER 1
Le théâtre représente les campagnes de la
Hollande aux environs de Dordrecht. Au fond on aperçoit la Meuse; à droite un château-fort avec pontslevis et tourelles; à gauche, fermes et moulins dépendant du château. Du même côté, sur le premier plan,
des sacs de blé, des tables rustiques, des bancs, etc.
Au lever du rideau, le théâtre est vide. Un
berger arrive, et avec son chalumeau donne l’éveil.
Un autre berger – censé dans les coulisses – lui répond de loin. Alors les portes des cabanes s’ouvrent,
les paysans sortent avec leurs outils, les meuniers avec des sacs de farine sur le dos; les moulins commencent à tourner, etc.
CHOEUR GÉNÉRAL
La brise est muette,
Le jour est serein,
D’échos en échos
Sonne la clochette
De nos gais troupeaux.
PAYSANS et PAYSANNES
Trop souvent l’orage
Attriste nos coeurs...
CHOEUR GÉNÉRAL
Attriste nos coeurs...
PAYSANS et PAYSANNES
D’un jour sans nuages,
Goûtons les douceurs,
Ah! goûtons les douceurs!...
CHOEUR GÉNÉRAL
Oui!... La brise est muette,