Brzoska review of Le Prophete-Stockholm

Review of 1999 Stockholm Le Prophete

From Prof. Dr. Matthias Brzoska (editor of the score of the new edition)

Dear Meyerbeer Fans !

For several personal reasons I coudn't give you a report of this very fine production of Le Prophete in Stockholm until now. I see that of course MFC is faster, because MFC has just done a first report! Doesn't matter, as editor of the score, I give you my impressions nevertheless.

To say it in brief: It was the best performance of the score I ever heard. This is a most remarkable production, because it was a private enterprise done without much money, but with very big enthusiasm. At the center of the enterprise is a private theatermaker, Matthias Clason and his wife Sofia Nyblom; thogether they form a kind of new Diaghilev who frenetically wanted to perform a Prophète... nothing lesser than that!!! They found a very skillful, experienced and enthusiastic chef, Gunnar Staern, who arranged the score with much taste to create a "chamber version" for a small orchestra. The normally large chorus was replaced by a very good quartet of soloists whose members also rendered the different minor parts. They performed Le Prophète without ballets, big scenes and choruses and reduced it to focus on the soloist's tragedy.

Can such a Prophète really work on stage? In my heart, this was the big question. Dear friends, I can give you the answer: YES; IT WORKS. I dare say, even admirably well. Were I to compare the 1998 Vienna Staatsoper production with this Stockholm Prophete I would say this: The production cost probably no more than 1% of the entire budget of the Vienna Prophete, but if you were to give me the choice, I would prefer 100 Stockholm performances to one Vienna.

What was announced as a partial semi-staged concert rehearsal turned out to be a full scenic version without the third act and with a cut in the fourth between the duet and the recall of Jean's dream in the coronation scene. Clason and Nyblom's staging-idea presented the opera as an original dress rehearsal of the Parisian premiere; as such, the singers were in costumes of the time of Meyerbeer, and at the backstage there were projections of the original stage - prospects. Clason and Nyblom's stage direction of the movements of the singers was oriented to the movements and space-arrangements of the original stage manuals; this gave a wonderful and charming effect of moving opera-figurines of the time. The singers played very well and fascinated the public.

But the most remarkable effect was due to the wonderful voices Clason found for his project. Ingrid Tobiasson gave the fully original version of the part of Fides, never before heard, even not at the Paris premiere, without cuts and with every note. Especially the fifth act which is horrifying virtuoso in my original version proved that this version is the one to be done in the future... if you have the singers capable to do it. I just heard it one time in my own piano-accompained concert with Gloria Schalchi, so I knew that one could make it. With Tobiasson I found another singer capable to do it: So I can just say: the first argument against Le Prophète often heard - "You can't find a proper Fidès" - is definitely proven wrong. Ingrid Tobiasson has a wonderful warm voice in the lower registers and very much "eclat", ability and skill in the high coloratura parts. Jean-Pierre Furlan, young french singer, gave an admirable Jean of Leyden. He also always chose to sing the original version and especially the interpretation of the original version of the Pastorale. Here I heard it for the first time with orchestra and because it is very hard to sing, it pleased me very well. The role of Jean in such a good interpretation turned out to be very dramatic and fascinating.. Berthe was given by Christina Knochenhauer who developped the role from the beginning as a simple farmer girl to the mostly dramatic end of the suicide scene in an admirable way. In the moment of her suicide the whole public was literally shocked by this scene. I can say without reservation that I never felt such a general collective tension in a theater before. The three anabaptists (Zacharie, anabaptist: Stig Tysklind, Mathisen, anabaptist: Fredrik Zetterstroem, Jonas, anabaptist: Torbjoern Lillieqvist) played the double minded character of the parts very well and turned out also the buffoonesquel aspects of those roles, even with the buffo terzettos of the third act missing. Together, the three voices formed an ideal cast of those very long and demanding parts: Tord Wallstroem gave a real diabolic Oberthal, especially in his rape scene of Berthe against the life of Fides in the second act - one could understand that Jean was motivated to go whith the anabaptists just for the sake of killing such a monster!

One should also note the great enthusiasm and inventness of those singers - all of them are respectable stars of the Stockholm Royal Opera - who helped in many ways to the success of this low budget production: For example, one of the anabaptist singers constructed as requisite for the coronation scene three crucifixes hollowed out to hide knives within it. This gave a very good scenic effect in the exorcism scene when Jean ask the anabaptists "tirez vos glaives" -- the anabaptists pull out the knives from the crosses.

In summary: This production was wonderful and very important for me because it proved definitiely three things: 1) that a Meyerbeerian Grand Opera can be staged without the grand apparatus and can be performed (to my own surprise) very well without much stage effects; 2) that today you can find admirable singers to perform those very virtuoso parts; and 3) that, if one found such singers, one should absolutely give the original version without any cuts or changings of the parts.

Best regards.

Matthias Brzoska

June 30, 1999

Performance details from MFC:

Jean of Leyden: Jean-Pierre Furlan
Fides, his mother: Ingrid Tobiasson
Berthe: Christina Knochenhauer
Zacharie, anabaptist: Stig Tysklind
Mathisen, anabaptist: Fredrik Zetterstroem
Jonas, anabaptist: Torbjoern Lillieqvist
Count Oberthal: Tord Wallstroem
Smaller roles and choir parts were sung by Jessica Forsell, Ulrika Jaeder,
Karl Rombo and Ulf-Crister Jansson
Conductor:; Gunnar Staern
Producers: Mathias Clason and Sofia Nyblom.
Costume and scenery: Mathias Clason
Light: Dag Engstroem
Mask and wig: Robin Karlsson

Orchestra
7 violin I, 7 violin II, 4 viola, 4 celli, 2 contrabass, 2 flute, 2 oboe, 2 clarinet, 2 bassoon, 3 horn , 3 trumpet, 2 trombone, 2 bass trombone, timpani, 2 other percussionists, harp.

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