9. Medieval Mayhem. Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (1831) was one of the most successful operas ever written. It launched the dominant French genre of Grand Opéra. It was imitated by Donizetti, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, and Gounod among many others. Over the next six decades, it had 741 performances in Paris alone. And then it completely dropped from sight. The reasons are not hard to understand: even by opera standards it had a creaky plot, it was expensive to mount, it called for singers of a type no longer available, and its many imitators came up with further innovations of their own. So it was put up on a museum shelf, dusty and out of sight.

Yet many of the reasons that made it popular in 1831 apply again today. It has tuneful music and evocative orchestration. It makes an ideal showcase for star singers. Its numerous scenes and spectacular effects make it a close cousin of today's mega-musical. And it contained spectacular dance sequences such as the notorious Ballet of the Dead Nuns in Act III. It might have seemed bold for the Royal Opera House in London to have programmed it in 2010, but in retrospect that decision seems a no-brainer.

Yet it must have posed a challenge for it director, Laurent Pelly. The class will suggest two main reasons for his success. First, his embrace of artifice and consequent decision to tie it to popular forms of storytelling with roots in the past: toy theaters, paper models, and pop-up books. Second, the essential ability of any director to work closely with his collaborators, in his case set designer Chantal Thomas who floods the stage with color, and choreographer Lionel Hoche who gets his dancers to do things Meyerbeer would barely have dreamed. The result is very much a "director's opera." Yet for all that, it is still Meyerbeer's music that triumphs; Pelly merely makes it possible.

Script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class. rb.