Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète album review — roller-skating opera gets rare recording

It is not hard to see why Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète goes largely unperformed today. Although it was massively successful in the composer’s lifetime, this is grand opera on a no-expense-spared scale.

Meyerbeer calls for extravagant forces, including large orchestra, several choruses, on-stage brass band, saxhorn fanfare and organ. The staging at the Paris premiere in 1849 was the first at the Opéra to use electric lighting, and the scenic spectacle included a massive on-stage explosion and — I jest not — a half-hour ballet on roller skates.

This new recording hails from a live concert performance at the Aix-en-Provence festival last year. It comes courtesy of Palazzetto Bru Zane, which is doing much for rare French operas. The story, based on true events in 16th-century Germany, focuses on the ever-topical themes of political demagoguery and popular uprising. Meyerbeer responded with music that impresses with its densely worked diligence allied to inevitable bursts of bombast, though there are few of the memorable arias found in Italian operas of the period.

Using the 2011 Ricordi edition, Mark Elder and the London Symphony Orchestra lead a brilliantly played performance. John Osborn is well cast as Jean de Leyde (John of Leyden); Elizabeth DeShong takes on the role of his mother Fidès, originally written for the legendary Pauline Viardot, and does not just meet its wild vocal challenges but takes the more extreme options where they are offered. Mané Galoyan and Edwin Crossley-Mercer complete a very decent cast.

★★★★☆

‘Meyerbeer: Le Prophète’ is out now on LSO Live