Teacher's Guide Cambridge Pre-U MUSIC Available for teaching ...

Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
Meyerbeer composed three further grand operas: Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849) and
L’Africaine (produced posthumously in 1865). Each of them contains at least one famous example
of these characteristics. In Robert le diable the central character is the son of the devil and its most
sensational scene is a ballet in Act III danced by the ghosts of nuns who have broken their vows. Les
Huguenots is set in France during the Wars of Religion and culminates in a representation of the St
Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572. Le Prophète is based on the Anabaptist rebellion of 1534 in
Münster. It contains a ballet in which roller skates were used to simulate ice skating and a coronation
scene of vast proportions; the mezzo-soprano aria ‘O prêtres de Baal’ (sung by the character of Fidès,
mother of the prophet king) is one of Meyerbeer’s most elaborate virtuoso solos. L’Africaine was
composed over a period of some 27 years and completed by François-Joseph Fétis after Meyerbeer’s
death. Its main character is the explorer Vasco da Gama and Act III involves a stage set that
represents an entire Spanish galleon seen in cross-section, with action taking place simultaneously
on the decks and in the cabins below.
The style of Meyerbeer’s grand operas is a fusion of French declamation, florid Italianate vocal
writing and a Germanic emphasis on harmonic and orchestral colour. His orchestration is often
highly inventive, especially in his use of woodwind, brass and divisi strings. He frequently employed
saxhorns (often in large numbers in on-stage bands), and cornets à cylindres alongside natural
trumpets.
Meyerbeer also composed two opéras-comiques (L’Étoile du nord, 1854, and Dinorah, also known as
Le Pardon de Ploërmel, 1859). A German Singspiel entitled Ein Feldlager in Schlesien was produced
in Berlin in 1844. Though successful, these works had neither the historical importance nor the
widespread influence of the grand operas.
Meyerbeer was a very influential figure in his day. Some of his orchestral innovations paralleled
those of Berlioz, while his approach to grand opera was widely imitated (by Rossini and Verdi, among
others) and made an impact even on Wagner. The subsequent decline in his standing was largely due
to Wagner, who attacked the aesthetic of Meyerbeer’s works without fully acknowledging the debt he
owed to them in terms of the vocal demands, orchestral technique and stagecraft that these grand
operas had first required.
A French contemporary of Meyerbeer, Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799–1862), was a prolific
composer who wrote five grand operas. The most famous of them is La Juive (1835), which was
significant in its use of chromatic brass and its subtle woodwind writing. Halévy was also very
important as a teacher: he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils
included Gounod, Bizet and Saint-Saëns.
Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) is now widely regarded as the most important French composer of
the nineteenth century, and he wrote some of the most vividly dramatic music of any Romantic
composer. His contribution to the operatic repertoire, however, was relatively small, despite the fact
that the operas of Gluck (and later Spontini and Weber) were among the most significant formative
influences on him. There were several reasons for this. He was neither a pianist nor an organist, so
the conventional routes to prominence in the Parisian musical establishment were barred to him; he
was an outspoken critic with very strong views which often antagonised those who might otherwise
have supported him; and his uncompromising idealism in matters of musical performance meant
that he was seen as too much of a risk in the highly commercial world of the Parisian opera theatres.
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