Reflections on the Vienna Staatsoper Production of Le Prophete of 1998

by Stephen A. Agus and Prof. Manuel Marquez-Sterling

(Mr. Agus' comments are from the live performance Saturday, June 6, 1998, revised upon reflection and multiple hearings of the recording of the opening night performance of May 21, 1998 performance, as broadcast on Vienna radio. Prof. Marquez-Sterling's remarks are based on the latter. Additional comments are welcome.)

Stars of Le Prophete / The Story of Le Prophete / London Times' review of 1849 / Essen-Werden Lecture concert / Home page / Index

Cast

Conductor Marcello Viotti

Director Hans Neuenfels

Jean Placido Domingo

Fidès Agnes Baltsa

Berthe Viktoria Loukianetz (June 6 -- Simina Ivan)

Comte d'Oberthal Davide Damiani

Zacharie Franz Hawlata

Mathisen David Cale Johnson

Jonas Torsten Kerl

Background

Meyerbeer fans worldwide looked with great anticipation toward the 1998 production of Le Prophète in Vienna. Following the unveiling of newly discovered music last year by Prof. Dr. Matthias Brzoska and the new critical edition of the opera (see November 30, 1997 lecture concert remarks by Dr. Brzoska, Essen-Werden) and reports that the little known and seldom heard complete orchestral overture was rehearsed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, hopes were heightened that the new production of Le Prophète might signal the dawn of a new era of public acceptance of this opera in particular and Meyerbeer's oeuvre in general.

There is little doubt that the Vienna Staatsoper maintains a reputation as one of but a handful of first class opera venues. With one of the world's finest orchestras is at its disposal, it maintains a world-class chorus, and hires first class singers. To its credit, in the 1997-1978 season, the Staatsoper decided to tilt its repertory offerings toward French Grand Opera. Thus, the same season saw productions of Richard Wagner's seldom performed Rienzi, Verdi's French language Jerusalem as well as Meyerbeer's Le Prophète, once one of the most popular operas of all time, but now seen less than once in a generation in any venue.

There were of course, pre-performance jitters, chiefly about the suitability of Domingo in this most demanding of tenor roles, which is clearly above his effective range. This writer expressed concerns about mezzo soprano Agnes Baltsa as Fidès.

The five act Grand Opera, which premiered at the Academie de la Musique in Paris in 1849, caused a sensation in Paris, and later, in the rest of the civilized world. Meyerbeer's unique gift, which by 1849 had already established him as the most successful composer of the world (following his Robert le Diable in 1831 and his 1835 Les Huguenots) was the creation and presentation of an integrated multimedia drama, capturing all of the senses of the audience and drawing them into the depths of emotion and feeling portrayed on stage.

Seen as the last of a religious trilogy, Le Prophète, through the story of the reluctant false-prophet Jean of Leyden, lays bare the hypocrisies that inevitably flow from religious extremism. Drawing upon the biblical language of the old testament, Meyerbeer and his librettist Eugene Scribe powerfully portray the conflicting forces of familial love, religious zealotry and despotism leading downward to a final destructive conflagration of the cathedral at Munster in which the guilty and innocents alike perish.

The Performance

"[F]or the one thing on which all parties have always been agreed is that Meyerbeer must be done properly or not at all..." writes Bernard Levin in London Times, July 19, 1978, "-- and properly means in sumptuous settings and, more to the point, with star casts."

Even as early reports filtered in that Artistic Director Hans Neuenfels had created a modernist interpretation for Vienna, we were unprepared for what turned out to be the disastrous results of an ill conceived, childish and mean-spirited production.

The mis-en-scene, so carefully crafted by Meyerbeer to evoke those regions of the Netherlands and Westphalia of medieval times, was non-existent in this production. Instead, all scenes of the opera were presented as a stadium facing us, with a staircase between the two sides. Act I is supposed to be Oberthal's castle. The members of the chorus, men on the left, and women on the right, were all dressed in evening wear (top hats and white gloves for the men). In later acts, the chorus members were dressed in fur suits, and in the last act, they disappeared altogether, having been replaced by robots. In Act II, which is supposed to be Jean's tavern, Domingo appears as a hayseed at the helm of a wagon full of hay. Later in the act, when he is supposedly pondering the "weighty" question of whether to save his mother, Fidès, or his fiancee, Berthe, Neuenfels has Jean lifting and carrying large boulders onto the stage, all to distract us from Fidès' aria. This is but one example of the depth of interpretive skill of Neuenfels -- at about elementary school level. Another example: the three Anabaptists are dressed at all times like punk rockers, and they are trailed by three monkeys. A third example: After Fidès' entrance in Act I, she is shown darning an enormous (and I mean truly elephantine) sock!

In the Act II opening "Waltz", several couples come on stage and purposefully make spasmodic movements to clash with the music. Evidently, the "spasmodic movements" of the characters was a precursor of the later development of Neuenfels theme of a drug addicted populace, eventually turned into robots! For some reason, Domingo did the original version of the Pastorale, first heard at Essen-Werden. In truth, we were so mortified by the horror of what we had seen on stage to this point that we hardly noticed.

Most of of this is masked completely in the recording. Those who have listened to the recording will be spared the diverting interpretation to which we were subjected.

All this prepares us for Act III, which the libretto says "frozen pond" but in this version has our fur clad chorus in their stadium seats -- and then, the white coated "doctors and nurses" come on stage with hypodermic needles, and, at the beginning of the dance, squirt them all over the stage. There are dancers also, in blood costumes. Though it is true that the libretto calls for the chorus to sing "Blood!" that theme gives way and should be overtaken in the ballet. At the conclusion of the dance on June 6th, the audience loudly booed. We understand that this was also the case also on May 21st, but the audience's negative reaction is delightfully cut from the recording.

There was one interval only, between Acts III and IV.

As if this was not enough of a visual assault, Acts IV and V were much worse. Neuenfels intentional destruction of Meyerbeer got ugly by opening Act IV not with any staged version of the Coronation March, which was done as a prelude, but with a pyre of garbage that erupted into hot flames. On the recording, we can hear the loud bangs. A large bust, perhaps three feet in height, of Meyerbeer sat next to the pyre and was dumped into the ashes and hauled off stage. In Act V the main characters are now dressed in 20th century business clothes, carrying on in a used furniture store or apartment complete with color TV facing the audience and showing tanks firing upon villages in Bosnia. Fidès is presented as a whorish mother carrying on an incestuous relationship with Jean, neither of whom care that Berthe is committing suicide.

Acts IV and V were grossly shortened. Large parts of the fifth act Cavatine, the Air, Duet and Terzetto were missing, the whole bacchanale-scene at the end was completely cut and the final mass-scene was not staged at all. The opera ends with Domingo about to push the plunger as in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

During various scenes in Acts IV and V, people walked across the stage carrying large placards with writing in German. We speculated that these were messages from the cast to the audience: "Dear members of the audience!! If you hate this production as much as we hate having to perform in it, please register your protest with unceasing applause!" Or, messages from Neuenfels: "Too bad you don't like this! Why don't you just leave?"

We considered it. However, the music was too powerful, even in this setting, to abandon.

Stripped of the staging, the opera was not all that bad, as a recording will demonstrate. In fact, Agnes Baltsa was remarkable as Fidès. Domingo, within his limitations, sang a fair Jean, and there was even some beauty at moments. But we missed the high notes! The orchestra was excellent, but Viotti, at least at the performance we saw on June 6th, missed the beat on two occasions and was sloppy and hurried at times, ruining key passages by playing ahead of the chorus. He sounded like he had a dental appointment to go to at times, especially in the finale. The recording I heard of the May 21 performance (the premiere) confirmed to my ear that he too quickly passed over many of the musical subtleties. The chorus of "Viva, viva, viva Le Prophète" so haunting in the CBS recording, is glossed over at breakneck speed.

At the conclusion of the opera, something extraordinary took place. The audience, sensing that they were robbed of an opportunity to see Le Prophète properly produced, gave Domingo and Baltsa an extraordinary number of curtain calls, lasting perhaps half an hour, until after the stiff fire curtain was lowered; the house remained noisy until Domingo and Baltsa appeared once again from a side door. There was no other way to express the displeasure we all felt -- Neuenfels and Ion Holender (the general director) were not there to boo.

Incidentally, we did not see Loukianetz. Simina Ivan substituted for the ill Loukianetz, and was more than adequate after a somewhat weak first act.

Will Meyerbeer survive this? Of course he will! Most of those who were present were already Meyerbeer fans; and despite the interference from the production, the beautiful music shone through. Our disappointment arises from the lost opportunity to see a proper production. That makes the job of MFC even harder, but we are up to the challenge!!

Onward and upward to Berlin 2000!!

From Manuel Marquez-Sterling

Finally I was able to listen to the Vienna Le Prophète. Here are my initial reactions after one listening. Viotti's tempos are very erratic and always leaning toward the Italian side. None of Meyerbeer's piquant French accents. I hated the accelerando that he gives to the ending of the march. It sounded as if they were running out of tape and wanted to get it all, or worse, as a local circus band which did not know what to do with the piece. I must say however that as he was leaning toward the Italian the string part after the opening fanfare was really beautiful.

Domingo: Though he sang adequately well, it is a pity he did not pick up this role ten years ago. With his "red" throaty voice he might have been spectacular. Now he was just barely up to the piece. He accounts for himself in Roi du Ciel, but Viotti failed to inflame the audience with a stirring finale. Did they have the sun shining at the very end? [No, they were in a used furniture store] The effect of the sun breaking through the clouds is a stirring effect which so enraged Wagner because he did not think of it before.

Loukianetz: I liked very much. Her first aria was wonderful. Her voice has warmth which Scotto did not.

But the star of the whole show was Baltsa, a much underrated performer. She was nothing less than spectacular. At times she struggled with the low register, but Schumann-Heink doesn't come every other year. However when she went up she blew me out of the room. Even writing these lines I get goose-pumps. I hope she knows what she did, so she could demand Prophète in other venues. In my opinion, in Fidès she has discovered her lifetime role and should do it more often, This should be recorded in a studio version for posterity. Next to Fidès, Carmen is just a street girl with no manners. In her duet with Bertha - I know that I am going to be struck by a bolt of lightning -- it was better than Horne-Scotto. Yes!!!! In fact, I liked Baltsa better than Horne. Horne at times in this opera sounded cold and academic. Baltsa was all fire and from the electrifying way that she did it I can imagine the histrionics. She must have been a tornado on the stage. The other performers were as good as the recording.

After listening to this recording I read Kobbes' description of Le Prophète, and found many things that agreed with the performance. Kobbes' article, by the way is very complimentary of this opera, without the stupid old cliches.

I found the finale a downer and I blame Viotti trying to Verdi-ize the ending a la Trovatore. It simply did not work. Perhaps it was the recording which sounded at times as compressing music and bars missing, perhaps a flaw in the recording or something. [it is not a flaw of the recording -- Viotti just blew it]

All in all I deem it a success which may develop interest in the piece and Meyerbeer. And oh yes, I disliked the tempo of the ballet, but apparently the audience loved it because the reaction was very favorable. [the recording deletes the negative reaction of the audience. All reports of the May 21st and later performances confirm a chorus of boos overwhelming the applause.The ballet was amateurishly presented] It must be recognized that it was in this point that Meyerbeer demonstrated superiority over Verdi. Both hated writing ballet but Meyerbeer rose to the challenge leaving behind some glorious music. Verdi, realizing he could not, moved away from it like from poison.

I do really think that the club ought to congratulate the performers, specially Baltsa. How can we reach them? Also they will discover that we exist and realize that out there there is a public which likes Meyerbeer. Baltsa, has discovered the role of her career. She should do it more and this will pique interest for other Mezzos to rival her.

Stars of Le Prophete / The Story of Le Prophete / London Times' review of 1849 / Essen-Werden Lecture concert / Home page / Index

Comments? Discussion Page

meyerb@meyerbeer.com (Stephen A. Agus)

fides@meyerbeer.com (Prof. Manuel Marquez-Sterling)