| The Meyerbeer Libretti: Grand Opă(c)Ra 1 Robert Le Diable Revised Edition Contributor(s): Letellier, Robert Ignatius (Author), Arsenty, Richard (Author) |
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ISBN: 1847189644 ISBN-13: 9781847189646 Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing OUR PRICE: $16.78 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Music | History & Criticism - General |
| Dewey: 782.12 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.7" W x 8" (0.52 lbs) 180 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most important and influential opera composers of the nineteenth century, enjoyed a fame during his lifetime unrivalled by any of his contemporaries. This eleven volume set provides in one collection all the operatic texts set by Meyerbeer in his career. The texts are offered in the most complete versions ever made available. Each libretto is translated into modern English by Richard Arsenty; and each work is introduced by Robert Letellier. In this comprehensive edition of Meyerbeer's libretti, the original text and its translation are placed on facing pages for ease of use. The fifth volume presents Robert le Diable (1831), the first of Meyerbeer's epoch-making grand operas. It had one of the most successful premieres in operatic history, and enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 19th century. Contemporary criticism showed that the French, and indeed all Europe, seemed to see in this opera a symbol of their own epoch, with all its ardors, despairs and ambiguities. The spirit of Romanticism had inspired both librettist and composer. By its vivid melodies and great dramatic power, by its color and contrast, its bold use of the religious idea, it appealed to the emotions and intelligence of the public. The authors had addressed the preoccupations and intimations of the age. The choice of the Norman legend, with its various hues and dramatization of the eternal struggle in the human soul between light and darkness, good and evil, was a skillful adaptation of the Faust theme central to so many Romantic concerns. The fundamental modernity of Meyerbeer's concept of opera was very clear to his contemporaries. After the premiere the critic and musicologist Francois-Joseph Fetis described the opera as a remarkable production in the history of art. Verdi, who knew Meyerbeer's work well and valued it highly, saw in Robert le Diable an outstanding alliance of the fantastic and the true in the manner of Shakespeare. |
