Customer Reviews

Halévy: La Juive

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first became interested in opera, I read a few things about LA JUIVE. It was a once popular opera that faded from the repertoire of most opera companies. For many years the opera was the Metropolitan Opera's equivalent to the Boston Red Sox's "Curse of the Bambino" since it was the last role sung by legendary tenor Enrico Caruso. More than likely the opera's few recent performances are due to its length, the need for five major performers to stage the work, including two top notch tenors, and the complexity of staging a work that was the nineteenth century's equivalent of today's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or LES MISERABLES.

The plot is complicated, which is characteristic of many French Grand Operas. It deals with Eleazar, a Jewish man who adopts a young girl he names Rachel. The two are outcasts due to their Jewish heritage. A young man falls in love with Rachel. His name is Leopold but he calls himself Samuel. He is Christian, married, and a prince, but he keeps all these things to himself. His wife, Princess Eudoxie wants to buy him a special gift and approaches Eleazar about buying a piece of jewelry that once belonged to the Emperor Constantine. In the meantime Rachel begins to work as a maid for the princess, not knowing Leopold's true identity. When Eudoxie presents the gift to Leopold, Rachel exposes her relationship with Leopold. Cardinal Brogni, the local religious leader condemns Leopold to death for cheating and Eleazar and Rachel to death for being Jewish. As Rachel dies, Eleazar informs Brogni that Rachel is his child. Brogni only became a priest after he believed his wife and child had tragically died, but Eleazar's adopted child is Brogni's long lost daughter.

I first came across this recording in 1990. After listening to it, I wondered why an opera with such wonderful music could remain virtually unknown to modern listeners. There are powerful moments for the chorus, great ensemble pieces, magnificent solos and duets, all which flow rather well.

Since this is the only studio recording of the work, it is the best by default, but it is worthwhile. Jose Carreras is cast as Eleazar. People may notice some vocal inconsistencies on Carreras' part, but this is easily excused when one takes into account that it was while recording this opera he was diagnosed with the cancer that almost claimed his life. He is able to manage some great vocal feats in the recording; especially his rendition of the opera's showpiece aria "Rachel Grand du Seigneur" Soprano June Anderson is magnificent in the role of Rachel as is Dalmacio Gonzalez in the role of Leopold. Julia Varady sings Eudoxie and Ferruccio Furlanetto sings the role of Brogni.

Though this recording has some cuts, most notably the overture, it is quite enjoyable. It is also worth reviving since the themes that run through this work: hate, revenge, anti-Semitism, and the like, are still relevant today.

This, the only studio recording of Halevy's greatest opera, has much to offer. Varady and Anderson are both in exquisite voice, pouring forth vocal gold to spare. Anderson in the difficult coloratura role of Eudoxie never did anything better on disc, and Varady perfectly captures the conflicted character of Rachel , sort of a female version of Verdi's Manrico in Trovatore. Carreras synched in his role in its entirety after the rest of the opera had been recorded, due to illness. It would be impossible to tell if one did not know this in advance. There is some strain on high from time to time, but this is still an excellent performance overall. If anything, the strain sometimes deepens the characterization of the tormented father. This is one of the best sounding opera recordings I've ever heard - demonstration quality. Highly recommended for fans of French grand opera.

SOURCE: Studio recording made over eight days in London during August 1986, with over-dubbing completed during a week-long session in Munich in February 1989.

SOUND: Good digital stereo.

CAST: Eleazar, a wealthy Jewish jeweler who holds a secret - Jose Carreras (tenor); Rachel, his daughter - Julia Varady (soprano); Leopold, a Christian prince and worthless hound dog who disguises himself as Samuel, a Jewish painter, in order to make time with Rachel - Dalmacio Gonzales (tenor); Princess Eudoxie, betrothed to Leopold (or perhaps his wife--the French, German and Italian versions of the libretto have it one way while the English version has it the other) - June Anderson (soprano); Cardinal Brogni, a one-time judge who, prior to taking priestly orders, had lost both wife and daughter when Rome was pillaged by the Venetians - Ferruccio Furlanetto (bass); Albert, an officer of the Emperor Sigismund's Imperial Guard - Rene Schirrer (baritone); Ruggiero, Provost of the City of Constance - Rene Massis. CONDUCTOR: Antonio de Almeida with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Ambrosian Chorus.

TEXT: An uncut performance of "La Juive" would be of Wagnerian length, well over four hours. It has probably never been performed in that way during a single evening. For this recording, the text has been cut to a little over three hours and fits comfortably on three disks.

The booklet accompanying the set has this to say: The cuts "included several spectacular crowd scenes, so beloved of Grand Opera, drinking choruses, and so on. The chorus opening Act V was cut" as was "Eudoxie's aria `Je l'ai revu' in favor of her show stopping Bolero.... We also included the ballet scene ... because ballet was such an indispensable element of Grand Opera."

DOCUMENTATION: Libretto in French, English, German and Italian. Pictures of Halevy, the recording session, performers from the original production of 1835, two shots of the conductor and portraits of the five principal singers. Brief history of and commentary on the opera. Short summary of the plot. Track list that identifies singers, provides timings and refers to the appropriate pages of the libretto.

COMMENTARY: This recording comes with a considerable amount of documentation but it omits one of the most salient facts about the production. The opera was laid down in 1986 without the part of Eleazar. At that time Jose Carreras was engaged in his battle against leukemia. After his recovery, a seven-day recording session in 1989 for the missing Eleazar marked the tenor's return to the recording studio. Eleazar was then over-dubbed on the existing recording and the set was issued to the public. No doubt, sharp-eared audiophiles with absolutely nothing better to do with their time will be able to detect the joins. I have not noticed them and I have no wish to find them.

"La Juive" was first performed in Paris in 1835, the year of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." It is a classic French Grand Opera in the canonical five-act form, with its ballets placed suitably for the convenience of the influential Jockey Club, whose members always arrived fashionably late at the opera house. (An example that pig-headed Wagner refused to heed some years later with his "Tannhaeuser.")

Halevy was very much a professional in the world of opera. His librettist was the ubiquitous Eugene Scribe, whose verses (often commissioned from others) were hardly memorable but who certainly knew how to construct a well-made play full of spectacles. All this makes his choice of casting doubly peculiar. His five main singers consist of two tenors, two sopranos and a bass. Admittedly, Eleazar is a dramatic part made for such heavyweight tenors as Caruso and Tucker, while Leopold is a very high-flying lyric tenor. On the other hand, the two sopranos, Rachel and Eudoxie, both in love with Leopold and inclined to talk about it, are destined to create aural confusion.

"La Juive" takes place 1414, during the Council of Constance, a town portrayed as a great deal more anti-Jewish than, say, Teheran today. The fairly intimate plot involving the five main characters was clearly designed to lead to and intertwine among a series of grandiose and expensive stage spectacles. The music has a more muscular nature than I, for one, associate with French opera and quite often sounds like early Verdi (who in 1835 had yet to compose his first opera.) There are also definite hints of things that would come to be known as "Wagnerian," not the least of which is the way the structure of the opening scene prefigures "Die Meistersinger."

"La Juive" was a popular opera in the Nineteenth Century but it effectively faded out of the standard repertory after the 1920s. It has always evoked mixed responses: Berlioz and Verdi disparaged it, while Mahler and Wagner (of all unlikely people!) were fans.

The performance is good. The orchestra and chorus are certainly up to the challenge, although I find some parts too slow for my personal taste. Carreras, here at the beginning of the second state of his voice, sounds fine, but he is clearly not what he had once been. Gonzales is good, too, but his voice is only a little lighter than Carreras' and hard to distinguish from it. Both sopranos are fine but even more difficult to tell apart. The bass, Furlanetto, is excellent and probably the best-suited of the five for the requirements of his part. This is a polyglot cast whose French may sometimes disturb linguistic purists, but that doesn't bother me a bit.

As a good performance in more-or-less up-to-date sound from a strong cast in an opera considerably better than its performance frequency would suggest, I think this "La Juive" is worth five stars.

However, there is a better performance available. Opera d'Oro has a live recording of Richard Tucker singing Eleazar in a production that squeezed Scribe's five flabby acts into three blazing ones. It fits onto two disks. The tenor who sings Leopold is a satisfactory high-flyer whom no one could ever mistake for Tucker. And Richard Tucker was born to portray Eleazar. Listen to him belt out that old warhorse "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" and hear the cheers that follow it--then you'll know what bringing down the house really means. The sound of the inexpensive Od'O set is just so-so.

Get the Carreras/Varady version for more music and better sound. Get the Tucker set to hear what opera should be.

I also heard this opera on the Met Broadcast and was immediately entthralled with the music. I'm no "Opera Expert", but just a dedicated listener, and La Juive has moved to the top of my list of Operas. This recording is wonderful with a superb orchestra and the performers are top notch in my book.

I have not been able to listen to the other recordings ot La Juive, but you will not make a mistake by purchasing this wonderful CD.

Halévy's La Juive was once widely popular (it was Caruso's last appearance in public, for example), but has more or less sunk like a stone in more recent years - yet there are, in fact, a couple recordings in the catalogue (I haven't heard any of the alternatives, so I cannot really compare). The one under consideration sports a starry cast and does, in the end, make a good case for this at least intermittently engaging and interesting grand opera - engaging in the parts featuring the traditional French grand opera spectacular splendor, but in the end more notable for its lyrical parts and in particular the pacing and thematic and structural cohesion; even the grand scenes work more as parts of the greater structure than ends in themselves. It is also imaginatively scored, more so, perhaps, than the operas of his more feted contemporary Meyerbeer, and Halévy's ability to create atmospheric and subtly distinctive scenes is admirable. On the other hand, Meyerbeer was clearly superior with regards to writing really memorable melodies - Halévy's are pleasant enough but usually forgotten as soon as they have been presented.

The orchestral contributions are generally very good, and the chorus even better, and Almeida drives a dramatic, cogent performance. One weakness when it comes to the vocal parts is Halévy's decision to flout tradition and cast the two main male characters as tenors and the female ones as sopranos. As a listening experience, and despite both the distinct sound of the voices the ability of the singers here to imbue their roles with character and personality, it sometimes becomes a little confusing. Julia Varady's performance is, however, superb; a tender and subtle portrait of Rachel, beautifully sung. June Anderson is also fine, especially in the coloratura arias, but a little more forceful in sound as Eudoxia. Furlanetto's Cardinal is stronger on character than agility or beauty of sound, but the performance still commendable. Prince Léopold is assigned to Gonzales, who gives a committed but sometimes a little roughly sung portrayal. Something of the same must be said of Carreras's Eleázar - the voice isn't quite as warm as it has been heard in earlier years; yet, he has still got the touch, so to speak, and the sound is often beautiful but with character aplenty. The supporting cast is generally satisfactory, sometimes excellent. So is the sound quality (i.e. excellent), and this generally very fine account of a very interesting work can be firmly recommended.

I listened to the Met brodcast of "La Juive" in December 2003 and I was taken! The Opera it's self is badly unproformed, it is possible to say that it is as good as Verdi's "I Lombardi" or Puccini's "Manon Lescaut". I would say to any one who wishs to buy a recording of this opera to do so.

The plot is about the Jews and Christians of Swiss decent.
The Jews, thou all the pain of this five act, long, opera win out in the fact that Rachael is a Gentile. Adopted by Elezar.

"LA JUIVE" is a five-act super-mega Opera like "Les Huguenots" or "L'Africaine" by Meyerbeer, all three with libretto by Scibe, who created Grand-Opera with Meyerbeer. Plot points in "LA JUIVE" could be deleted, Elezar does not have to die but Rachael must for the major plot point.