On April 24, 2020, Lisette Oropesa was one of several Met Opera stars to perform on a special webcast concert wherein everyone sang from their homes. Lisette sang an aria from Meyerbeer’s ROBERT LE DIABLE, live from her hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Michael Borowitz is the pianist.
Watch and listen here.
To date, this concert performance of LES HUGUENOTS presented at Carnegie Hall in 1969 is the only Meyerbeer opera I have experienced live. Listening to Lisette Oropesa’s recent performance of the aria “Robert, toi que j’aime” from ROBERT LE DIABLE put me in mind of that Carnegie HUGUENOTS which marked one of many high points in the era of Beverly Sills Mania.
Die-hard Meyerbeer admirers continually clamor for more productions of his operas, yet to me they always seems like musically sprawling works wherein a few stimulating arias or ensembles are to be found amidst much that is merely workaday. Here is New York City, Meyerbeer fared quite well during the first 50 or so years at the Old Met, where productions of ROBERT LE DIABLE, LE PROPHETE, L’AFRICAINE and especially LES HUGUENOTS (the fabled ‘nights of the seven stars’) were given fairly regularly; but by the mid-1930s they all seem to have faded away. A production of PROPHETE – starring Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, and James McCracken – was given at the New Met in 1977 and repeated in 1979 before vanishing.
Over the years, I have made numerous attempts to connect with these antique operas: a recording of ROBERTO IL DIAVOLO from the Maggio Musicale 1968 with Scotto and Boris Christoff held by attention for a while, as did a video from San Francisco of L’AFRICAINE with Placido Domingo and the sultry-voiced Shirley Verrett. I bought the commercial recording of LE PROPHETE but never made it past the first LP before turning it over to the library.
Sutherland had her HUGUENOTS at La Scala (with Corelli and Simionato driving audiences to distraction), and ROBERT LE DIABLE has been revived for Samuel Ramey and, more recently, for Bryan Hymel.
But, getting back to that 1969 HUGUENOTS at Carnegie Hall, my opera diary (volume 1) reveals that Licia Albanese, Régine Crespin, Bidu Sayão, and Dame Alicia Markova were among the audience.
The evening essentially was a Sills triumph. She wore a queenly white and gold gown and sang all of Marguerite de Valois’ fanciful coloratura brilliantly, tossing off strikingly clear notes in alt and driving her fans to distraction. Here is a sample of Sills in this music:
Beverly Sills – O beau Pays ~ LES HUGUENOTS
There was also excellent singing from Justino Diaz as Marcel (who intones the old Lutheran hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God‘), and fine work from Thomas Jamerson (de Nevers) and Joshua Hecht (St Bris). As the desperate lovers, Angeles Gulin (Valentine) and Tony Poncet (Raoul) were less impressive. Despite some attractive passages, Gulin’s “almost painfully huge” voice was beset by pitch problems. Poncet, who had had an estimable career singing demanding roles from the French and Italian repertoire starting in 1957, had been in vocal decline. This performance was viewed as something of a comeback, but it was not very successful.
The queen’s page Urbain was beautifully sung by mezzo-soprano Kay Creed (above, after singing Angelina in LA CENERENTOLA at NYC Opera). At the time, I had a huge crush on Ms. Creed, who in 1960 had been named Miss Oklahoma. I saw her many times at NYC Opera: as Suzuki, and as Maddalena, Siebel, Mlle. Clairon in CAPRICCIO, Cherubino, Annina in ROSENKAVALIER, and as Nancy in a delightfully-cast performance of ALBERT HERRING.
Oberon's Glade 