Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

and despairing Bertha to the tyrant. Whilst Fides endeavours vainly to comfort her son the
Anabaptists appear again and once more make their offer to the visionary; and John, smarting
under his wrongs, no longer hesitates, but gladly joins them in their rebellion. Fides having
already departed before their entrance, he decides to let her believe that he has been slain, and so
leaves a bloodstained garment behind him; and he then departs with the Anabaptists, who make
him their leader and cause him to be regarded as a prophet.
In Act 3 the Anabaptists are found encamped in the forest near the German city of Miinster, where
provisions are brought to them by skaters over a frozen lake. Amongst the prisoners brought in is
Count Oberthal, who is about to be executed, when John of Leyden interferes, and he agrees to
spare the captives life in return for news of Bertha. Having learnt that she is not only still alive but
is actually in Münster, he calls his forces together, and proceeds to storm the city at once.
Act 4 takes place in a street of the captured city, where Fides appears begging for food, as she
searches for her son, whose bloodstained garments did not deceive her, and whom she believes to
be with the Anabaptists. She is presently joined by Bertha, in a pilgrims dress, who is seeking
means to revenge herself upon the Prophet, who she believes slew her lover, not knowing that he
is in reality John himself, and the pair betake themselves to the Cathedral, where the ceremony of
crowning the victorious Prophet is about to take place. The ceremony commences amidst a scene
of great splendour and pomp, but it is quickly interrupted by the joyful voice of Fides declaring
that the great leader is her son. John does not wish to be recognised by her, being desirous that the
people shall regard him as a Heavenly Messenger, and he repudiates her statement utterly,
commanding his followers to slay him should she continue to assert her relationship. Rather than
that her son should thus lose his life, Fides withdraws her assertion, and is carried away to prison
for her rash declaration. In prison, she is visited by John, upon whom she pours forth strong
reproaches, and whom she finally persuades to realise the wickedness of deceiving the ignorant
people by representing himself to them as a Prophet; and they are soon interrupted by the entrance
of Bertha, who unfolds a plan for destroying the Prophet and his supporters. She is, however, filled
with amazement and despair on discovering that the despised Prophet and her beloved John are
one and the same person; and overcome with grief at the fall of her idol, she stabs herself, and as
she expires pours forth curses upon him. In the last scene the Anabaptist leaders have learnt that
their enemies are about to overpower them, and they basely plan to save their own lives by
betraying their leader. Consequently, when John is holding revel in the palace they enter with the
leaders of the opposing force, including the Bishop of Munster and Count Oberthal; but John has
learnt of their treachery, and has means for revenge at hand. As he is about to be seized a terrific
explosion is heard, and the palace bursts into flames, and John of Leyden, his mother, Fides - who
forgives him ere she dies- and all his enemies die together in the burning palace.
105. ROBERT THE DEVIL.
Grand Opera in Five Acts By Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto By Scribe and Delavigne
First Produced Paris, November, 1831
Chief Characters Isabella, Alice, Robert Bertram, Raimbaud