Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots / Bonynge, Sutherland, Thane, Australian Opera

Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots / Bonynge, Sutherland, Thane, Australian Opera
by Virginia Lumsden

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Movie Reviews of Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots / Bonynge, Sutherland, Thane, Australian Opera

Movie Review: Wonderful opera, passable production.
Summary: 5 Stars

Meyerbeer has for long been disregarded as a great composer, and this because many other composers who now have a tremendous success (especially Schumann and Wagner) have made fun of him and ridiculised his musical skills. Today, peoples still find something bad to say of his music. Let me try to pop their balloons.

First, according to Meyerbeer bashers, his "melodic invention" is inferior to Bel-cantists, especially Verdi. His arias are, apparently, too short. I beg to differ. The only mistake Meyerbeer ever made in his arias was not to repeat himself. The arias in "Les huguenots" are, if you repeat their melodies like Verdi does in "Rigoletto", "La traviata" or "Il trovatore", are pretty much of similar length and expressivity. As an example, if you take, say, Raoul(the tenor)'s romance "Plus blanche que la blanche ermine" and make him repeat it completely, with other lyrics, we obtain an aria as long as "La donna e mobile", except with better orchestration. It is, however, comprehensible they may SEEM shorter, but their musical value is in no way inferior. If you want a longer aria, just play it's part of the dvd again; it'll do just like Verdi in his middle-period arias. And for those who say this composer couldn't create complex melodic episodes, just take the 16 minutes long love-duet that ends the fourth act of this opera!

Also, it would appear that Meyerbeer's operas are too pompous, give an exterior effect, and rely on "effects without causes", to quote Wagner. It supposedly threathens the building of the acts of his operas. Only a misunderstanding of the very essence of the "Historical grand opera" can lead to such beliefs. Meyerbeer's operas are deeply humane, showing how individuals at a given historical moment influence and see their lives be influenced (often tragically) by it. It is normal Meyerbeer includes "pompous" or "cause-less" episodes in his opera, to create a picture of society at that time, and thus put into relief the human drama that later unfolds before our eyes. The perfect example would be the finale of act 3, where women wish happy days to a newly married couple, while the bride must hide her pain about being married to someone else than the one she loves (don't worry, she's more strongly built than Lucia of Lammermoor).

Finally, some say such works could only appeal to the french middle-class "bourgeoisie" of the time, which had inferior musical tastes, only wanted big spectacles, etc. Well, it would then mean the territory of France extended at that time from Chicago to Moscow!

Having said what I felt necessary about Meyerbeer, I will give a few words about the production of this dvd. All sets are beautiful, but the singing is a mixed bag. John Pringle (Baritone) and Amanda Thane (Dramatic soprano) give very good performances. Anson Austin, the leading tenor, is in no way a Placido Domingo, but for a role as difficult as his, he manages pretty well. Clifford Grant (Bass) barfs his words more than he speaks them, but the singing itself is all right, though it may take time to get used to it. John Wegner (Bass I think) has a far too light voice for his role, I think, but he doesn't sing as long as some other main characters. Joan Sutherland (Coloratura soprano) is quite shaky (it is, after all, her last role), but still listenable. All of them (even Joan Sutherland) have good acting on their side, and only Grant, Sutherland and Thane have slight troubles at times with french diction. Subtitles are only in english, and the translating is quite passable. Good stereo sound, good conducting, good acoustics. The first scene of the fifth act was omitted, and what remains of it is considered as part of the fourth act.

To conclude, if you like operas with vivid and energetic orchestration, powerful chorus pieces, elegant yet expressive melodies, human dramas, grandiose finales and merry cathartic fun, this opera should be your next buy. Meyerbeer was the most successful composer of his time. We must now preserve his works, instead of denigrating them, for they are as important to french opera as Wagner's lyric dramas to germans and Verdi's last four operas to italians, and can be justly qualified as true musical powerhouses.

Summary of Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots / Bonynge, Sutherland, Thane, Australian Opera