Meyerbeer - Robert le Diable

Robert le Diable (Robert the Devil) is a five act dramatic opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer to a libretto by Eugene Scribe & Germain Delavigne. It was first performed on 21st November 1831. Frederic Chopin was in the audience and was astounded, saying "if ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in Robert...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal."

It is certainly true that with Robert le Diable, Meyerbeer launched his career. He was given the libretto after it had passed by the censor in 1827; prior to this he had largely produced Italian operas. Originally Robert le Diable was to be a comic opera in three acts but following a change in theatre (owing to financial difficulties) the Paris Opera had ordered it to be re-written into a five act dramatic opera.

The storyline concerns various legends surrounding “Robert the Devil”. It has often been said that this was a nickname given to Duke Robert the Magnificent of Normandy, the father of William the Conqueror, who was alleged to be the son of the Devil. However, it is more likely that “Robert the Devil” was a fictional character around at a similar time and their names became confused sometime during the middle-ages.

By 1834 Robert le Diable had been performed over 100 times in Paris, performances followed in Berlin, London, Dublin & New York and Meyerbeer was launched as an international composer. The initial success of the opera was partly due to the to the provocative "Ballet of the Nuns" scene in Act 3 during which a crowd of ghostly nuns off their habits, dust themselves off and throw themselves into the delights of past lives. Robert le Diable continued to be a success throughout Meyerbeer’s lifetime, by the time of his death the opera had been performed over 470 times in Paris alone!

During the 20^th Century performances dwindled slightly, this may partly be due to the scorn pcast upon Meyerbeer by Wagnerians Wagner was not a big fan of Meyerbeer (putting it lightly) and many have accused him of creating the character Sixtus Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg as a parody of Meyerbeer. Nevertheless, there have been a few performances of Robert le Diable in recent years, particularly worthy of note is the Berlin State Opera's production from 2000 starring Jianyi Zhang as Robert and conducted by Marc Minkowski.

This new release comes from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and premiered on 6th December 2012, the first time Robert le Diable has been performed there since 1890. The production is directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Daniel Oren. Bryan Hymel – starring as Robert – was nominated for an Oliver award this year for his performance in Berlioz’s Les Troyens and gives an equally amazing performance here. This is a fresh and dramatic production on a grand scale and is certainly worth a watch. It is available both as a DVD and a Blu-Ray.

www.bathcds.co.uk
bathcds@btinternet.com
Written by Matt Elson