Opera no 139
Meyerbeer: L’Étoile du Nord
Soloists
Wexford opera
Wladimir Jurowski
For somebody like me with an interest in 19th century French Opera Meyerbeer is one of the key figures. His four grand operas were the cornerstone of the operatic repertoire in France for most of the middle years of the 19th century and spread his fame throughout the world. But he also wrote two late operas in the Opéra Comique tradition - this is one of them. I knew it by name and that it had a mad scene with obligato parts for two flutes but I don’t think that I had heard any of the opera before.
It was a real delight. It has all of the characteristic touches one expects from Meyerbeer, though on a slightly smaller scale. The rhythms were infectious and the comic moments were nicely balanced with the more serious episodes. I’ve commented before that Meyerbeer was not a master of transition - in this opera with spoken dialogue you, fortunately, don’t get quite as many of those jarring joins between sections as you do in the through composed works. I said that I hadn’t heard any of the music before but in fact some of it was familiar from the ballet Les Patineurs. That was largely based on the ballet in Le Prophet, but in putting the score together Constant Lambert also took some music from this opera, including the.big tune for the soprano soloists.
Then there is the mad scene. This was the most gloriously over the top mad scene I have ever heard and was quite irresistible in its bonkers way. I knew that it involved two flutes but I thought for a while that I was mistaken because it went on for ages with just one flute - eventually the second flute joined in and the piece went on even longer. I’ve not heard anything like it before. It was written especially for Jenny Lind and must have created a sensation when she first sang it.
So I thoroughly enjoyable experience - there’s another late opera Dinorah which I need to catch up with. I look forward to that but I can’t break my rule in this project by having more than one opera by the same composer so it may have to wait a while.
