Class 6: An Operatic Assassination

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6. An Operatic Assassination. This class is about two German-born opera composers, Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) and Richard Wagner (1813–83). When they met in Paris in 1839, Meyerbeer was enjoying a fame comparable to that of an Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Wagner was his humble acolyte hoping for a similar breakthrough. That breakthrough never came, but Meyerbeer helped him achieve performances of his next two operas in Germany.

Fast forward to 1861. Meyerbeer is preparing his final opera, L’Africaine. Wagner has obtained the ear of the Emperor Napoleon III, who has arranged his long-desired Parisian debut, with a revised version of an older opera, Tannhäuser. It is an abject failure, and Wagner never sets his sights on Paris again. Yet by the start of the next century, Wagner’s operas would fill the playbills in Paris as elsewhere, while Meyerbeer is more or less forgotten.

Is this fair? Why should such a generous man and talented musician as Meyerbeer fail to retain his hold on posterity, while Wagner, a personally loathsome individual who made his former benefactor the target of his virulent antisemitism, both in speech and in print, is regarded as one of the great operatic innovators to this day? There are reasons, and we will winkle them out—but that does not make Meyerbeer any less deserving of sympathetic reassessment. rb.

The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.

Handout Class Script

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VIDEO LINKS

The only problem with the Meyerbeer selections this week is the London production of Robert le diable. We have only a very short clip of the nuns' ballet, but there are a couple of other scenes that give a very good idea of the style. The two documentaries are also interesting. On the other hand, the Australian production of Les Huguenots is available complete, with English titles. In addition to the scenes heard in class, I have added the love duet at the end of Act IV, which many people single out as the finest thing that Meyerbeer wrote, plus Joan Sutherland in the opening aria of Act II, as a comparison to the Lisette Oropesa clip which we watched part of in class. I did not play anything from Le prophète, but there is a complete production with titles online, albeit with a much smaller budget than Meyerbeer would have had. The complete San Francisco production of L'Africaine is also available.

I have two staged versions of the opening of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot which we heard in audio only; they are both great fun. I only played a scrap of the famous tune from Rienzi, but I include links to concert performances of the overture and Rienzi's prayer, in both of which it appears; I also add another aria in a staged production by the composer's great-granddaughter. The two Flying Dutchman links are the originals of music heard in audio. The other Wagner links are the same as those seen in class, and in many cases rather longer. I have given a link to the complete four-hour Wagner bio-pic, and also a much shorter one, The Brilliant Bigot, which is more manageable but marred by pedestrian narration. Finally, for those that can bear it, I attach a link to a translation of Wagner's Jewishness in Music essay; though not named in this 1850 edition, Meyerbeer is the subject of its final chapter.

This time, *asterisks refer to items that were played as videos in class. rb.

MEYERBEER
	Robert le diable	* Act I aria and chorus * Act III, ballet of the dead nuns (very brief clip) * Act IV finale * Laurent Pelly on his production * The Legacy of Robert le diable
	Les huguenots	* Australian production, complete (see below for specific cues) * — Act I drinking song (heard in audio only) * — Act II opening (Joan Sutherland) * — Act IV oath (John Wegner) * — Act IV blessing of the daggers * — Act IV love duet (Anson Austin, Amanda Thane) * Opéra Bastille 2118, Act II opening (Lisette Oropesa)
	Le prophète	* Complete opera (Bard Summerscape) * Conductor's comments on the above (Leon Botstein)
	L'Africaine	* Complete opera * — Sélika/Vasco duet (starting earlier than in class)
WAGNER
	Das Liebesverbot	* Luzio's couplets (Madrid; heard in audio only) * — the same from Rostov-on-Don (updated!)
	Rienzi	* Overture (Dresden State Orchestra) * Rienzi's prayer (Jonas Kaufmann, Spanish titles) * Act I finale (staged by Katharina Wagner)
	Der fliegende Holländer	* Overture (Frankfurt Radio Symphony) * Opening of Scene 3 (National Theater, Mannheim)
	Tannhäuser	* Entry of the Guests (Metropolitan Opera)
	Lohengrin	* Act II, complete * — end of Elsa/Ortrud duet (cued to start in class)
	Tristan und Isolde	* Act II, complete (La Scala) * — start of love duet * — climax of love duet (cued to start in class)
	Die Walküre	* Ride of the Valkyries (Metropolitan Opera) * Wotan's Farewell (George London, audio w/images) * Magic Fire music (Metropolitan Opera) * Very brief Ring synopsis (own video)
	Biographical	* Wagner film with Richard Burton * — Tannhäuser in Paris, 1861 * The Brilliant Bigot (good on facts, but pedestrian narration) * Jewishness in Music (PDF of full essay)


IMAGES
The thumbnails below cover the slides shown in class, though there may be a few small discrepancies. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image. Click on the right or left of the larger picture to go forward or back, or outside it to close.

	Giacomo Meyerbeer, 1791–1864. German opera composer. Although born and trained in Germany, Meyerbeer began his prolific opera career in Italy, writing six works under the mentorship of Rossini. He moved to Paris in 1826 and began a series of operas that essentially defined the notion of Grand Opera, among them Robert le Diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849), and L'Africaine (1865).
	Richard Wagner, 1813–83. German opera composer. Wagner almost single-handedly transformed the nature not only of opera but also of harmony and orchestration. His 10 mature operas include Tristan und Isolde (1865), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), and the vast tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (completed 1876), for which he had a special theater built at Bayreuth. His final opera, Parsifal (1882), was written for exclusive performance at that theater.
	— Richard Wagner, further notes: In his early career, Wagner bounced around various conducting jobs, just keeping ahead of his creditors, eventually landing in Paris in 1839, where he met Meyerbeer, his idol at the time. He never obtained a commmission in Paris, but Meyerbeer recommended his Rienzi and Flying Dutchman to Dresden, where he was able to present two more operas, Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1848), both of which show distinct signs of Meyerbeer's influence. As a result of involvement in the 1848 revolution, he had to flee to Switzerland, where he wrote a number of key theoretical works, among them a diatribe against Meyerbeer, Jewishness in Music.