Customer Reviews

Halevy - La Juive

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The costuming of this opera, presumably set in 1414, reminds me more of the early 1930s than the turn of the last century. It is chillingly real, especially by acts IV and V. The DVD is, I believe, a record of a 1999 performance in Vienna. I saw Shicoff perform in this same production in New York in 2003--and he was devastating. I don't know if a different tenor would have had the same effect. There were rumors that Domingo was contracted by Vienna long ago to do this, but somehow never got to it. I have no doubt he would have been superb: this is not a case of "you have to be Jewish." After all, Caruso wrapped Eleazar around himself and is still the shadow against whom all tenors measure themselves. For whatever reason, Domingo withdrew and I can guess that Shicoff took up the cause to get this thing mounted. He is a natural. As he explains his working methods on the supplemental "Finding Eleazar," he is a high-strung nervous person (no kidding) who has to use those qualities to deliver his dramatic impact. Use it he does. "Rachel quand du Seigneur" knocks the wind out of you; he is caressing and snarling and vindictive; there is no point when he's onstage that you can't sense his total commitment to the role and the story. Nobody else is bad...Stoyanova is excellent...but I miss the incomparable Ferruccio Furlanetto, who was a tremendous Cardinal Brogni in New Yori

Grand 19th Centruy operas have been long out of style. Halevy's La Juive deals with the corrosiveness of hate in frank and disturbing way. It isn't an easy opera to like, but it is a significant work of art. It must have been a shocker in 1835. The plot seems to relfect conditions in the modern mmiddle East.

Musically it contains a series of fine arias combined with large choral interludes. All the singers get a chance to show off. All take full advantage of the opportunity. Shicoff is supurb, but all do well. Walter Fink's deep bass is particualrly effective as he tries to avoid the final tragedy.

The sets and production are ordinary and unhelpful. Dressing all the bad guys in white and the good guys in black was an unwise choice. The production confuses rather than enriches the opera.

The opera and the cast deserve a first rate production.

One of the most popular operas in Europe before World War II quickly became one of the least performed afterwards. "La Juive" was composed by Jacques Fromantel Halevy to give a certain tenor (Adolphe Nourrit) a good part as the lover. But the singer found the role of Eleazar, the Jewish merchant, more to his liking and asked for an aria to soften the character's affect on the audience. It is said that Nourrit even wrote the words to support his request. And so Halevy set to music the only song that remains popular from this work, "Rachel, quand du Seigneur." (Eleazar was said to be Caruso's favorite role and this selection his favorite aria.)


The libretto is by the incredibly prolific Eugene Scribe, whose plays were mocked by many and admired by many more. (Among the latter was Sarah Bernhardt, who was always on the look for a juicy part.) He was master of what is called "the well wrought play" and many a composer turned to him for texts.
Now you can judge the merits of this score on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD (00440 073 4001) in a 2003 production at the Wiener Staatsoper, conducted by Vjekoslav Sutej.


The leads are strong ones. Neil Shicoff throws voice and soul into the role of Eleazar, bringing down the house with his "Rachel" and in general giving a strong and believable performance of a man living in a town in which the citizenry would love nothing better than either drowning or burning him and his daughter. As Rachel, Krassimira Stoyanova sings beautifully but looks a little too old to be Shicoff's daughter, no matter how much they whiten his hair. As her suitor (Leopold, a member of the royal family posing as a Jew), Jiany Zhang sings well but hardly creates a character.


Walter Fink makes the Cardinal a basically good man bound to Eleazar more than he realizes. The end is practically that of "Il Trovatore," if I am not giving too much away.


Since the action takes place in 1414, the director opted for a setting that seems to be around 1900, with the Jewish characters dressed in black suits or dresses and the chorus in Tyrolean garb out of some forgotten operetta. In keeping with the "who cares what the text says" staging today, references to soldiers are addressed to no such characters on stage and so on.


The bare stage consists of a ramp that runs upward from audience's left to right, upon which is a table and chairs with up-ramp legs sawn off so their surfaces can be horizontal. That area represents the court and the streets (complete with table and chairs), while the lower downstage is first the outside of a church and then Eleazar's house. Pretty boring to watch all through a production that clocks in just short of 3 hours.


All of this is a shame, because the performances and the work are certainly of a fine enough quality to make me recommend this set. When else will you ever get to see this important opera? This will do until a more intelligent production comes along.


There is an hour-long documentary that is rambling and seems to be all about a 10-minute film that shows Shicoff singing "Rachel" in an actual synagogue. I stopped watching the documentary shortly after interviewer and interviewee could not resist the current trend to lace their conversation with words for which teachers today can suspend young students. What chance do the teachers have? This is not what opera should be about. The short film is vocally impressive but it seems merely an ego-trip for the tenor.

I love Grand Opera. What a kick! And I've always had a passion to see Juive - probably because of the fiery ending. Turns out its not much here - some men in red inquisition robes rush on stage and surround Rachel. Not spectacular, but effective. I finally heard Juive in the Carreras recording. But this is something else again. I was not put off by the unit set. It made sense - the great divide between the Jews and Christians. Vienna created a good performing version of this over four hour work. I followed along with the Carreras libretto - and the choices of Vienna were best - especially losing the ballet which would have broke the tension and plot arc. The singers are quite good. I especially relished the rich bass of Walter Fink. But make no mistake - this is Neil Shikoff's night. And his rendition of "Rachel, quand le dieu" in the fourth act had me breathless and brought down the house. This is the performance of a lifetime - something we see all too seldom. For Shikoff alone this is worth it for any opera lover.

This is one I kind of picked on a whim, as it were. It was the rare instance where the librettist's name was more familiar to me than the composer's. Eugine Scribe is also well-known as a playwright of his time, and a librettist for other French grand opera composers (if memory serves, he provided libretti for Verdi, Donizetti, and Meyerbeer).

Jacques Fromental-Halevy (1799-1848) is not remembered today, other than as the teacher of Saint-Saens, and the composer of this opera. To give an idea of what his music sounds like, bear in mind that he is a half-generation older than Wagner, Verdi, and Schumann, and younger than Rossini by about the same distance. The famous composer he is closest to in terms of age is Bellini -- but this is merely a coincidence. Halevy's orchestration is heavier, more fully worked-out than Bellini's, but his melodic gift is not on par with the Sicilian's.

In any event, the overture, with its busy strings and full-bodied brass choir, is reminiscent of late Rossini (the rich, brassy orchestration of the overtures to "La Gazza Ladra" and "William Tell" spring to mind). Although not as fully developed as Rossini's pieces, there is one moment toward the overture's end that is particularly effective. The entire orchestra, having just finished a long crescendo capped off by strong accents, rests for a measure -- the tension is enormous. On my listen, I figured Halevy would recapitulate the opening tune, quietly, perhaps in the winds, and then build back to a large coda. Instead, the orchestra jumps out of the silence right into the coda, which features massed brass and strings playing a new theme (a reharmonized, extended version of the opening). Highly effective.

On to the performances themselves. This is not a "pretty" production -- that is, it seems that the players were selected for their acting ability and suitability for the roles. That is to say, Neil Shicoff absolutely becomes (or is) Eleazar. It's hard to imagine someone more physically suited for the role. However, his voice is not the best -- it is, at least, good enough.

The same goes for Walter Fink, as Brogni -- although here, the suitability to the role is more questionable than Shicoff (although, it should be noted, no one has ever been more perfectly cast). Fink does not project enough personality in the role; his Brogni is too anguished, too full of self-doubt. To the credit side of the ledger, this teases out the question of the legitimacy of the daughter (that is, whether Eleazar is lying to Brogni about the girl's identity). Fink's voice, too, I found unappealing. It is awfully buzzy. Again, though, the same could be said of Shicoff's voice, so perhaps the voices were well-matched. Nonetheless, Fink has the best piece in the opera, his Act I Cavatine ("If they ignore your sacred law").

After having watched it several times, the thing that really stands out is Scribe's libretto. The "doubling" of scenes (Christians having a procession on one part of the stage, while Jews pray on the other) is particularly effective. In all, the libretto manages to cover quite a bit of ground without losing its dramatic "snap."

Strongly recommended for fans of grand opera of the Verdian stamp.

Esta es una de las mejores grabaciones de una ópera, tanto en la calidad de los cantantes como del maravilloso sonido, especialmente en DTS. El escenario quizás es un poco parco, pero no importa, la grandiosidad de la obra y la excelencia de los intérpretes supera cualquier carencia, que en mi opinión no la hay ya que la escenografía es moderna y adecuada; en cuanto a la época en que transcurre la acción no tiene la menor importancia porque al fin y al cabo la música es lo importante. El gran bajo austriaco Walter Fink nos ofrece una impresionante voz y presencia escénica; me recuerda en su primera aria una grabación de hace muchos años del gran Ezio Pinza. Recomiendo de todo corazón esta ópera a los verdaderos amantes de la música operística. No quedarán defraudados. En cuanto a Neil Shicoff sólo tengo palabras de admiración y encanto sobre su voz y actuación. Sigue siendo uno de los grandes tenores de nuestros tiempos.

One of the most invigorating, challenging operas I've seen in a long time. Neil Shicoff's performance is so musically and dramatically memorable, along with a superb cast, I found myself for long periods of time meditating on the concepts presented for contemplation. To say nothing of the underlining score.

I am not exactly an expert in opera. I do not presume to understand the subtleties of the bel canto or this or that off-key note sang by the soprano, and so on. Only recently I have begun to study seriously opera (musical appreciation, of course, because I have no musical training!). Being so, I have seen and heard DVDs and CDs, read commentaries and critics to learn about the art of opera. But now, after almost a year and more than 50 DVDs seen and heard meticulously, I consider myself not a critic, but a person that loves music and can FEEL the arias and the orquestrations of various composers. I have bought this DVD out of curiosity, because I have never heard about the composer or the opera, but the idea of an opera about the love between a Jewish girl and a Christian prince in the 1400 seemed interesting. When I watched the spetacle I was stunned by the delicate melody of the orquestration, the force of the choir music, the astounding representation of the bass that plays the Cardinal (I do not remember his name, but he is an impressive actor and sings with feeling and conviction). The beauty of the voice of the soprano that sings Rachel and her dramatic quality as an actress makes the commentary that she did not looked young enough to be the daughter of Eleazar irrelevant. Opera singers are AGELESS! Joan Sutherland sang Lucia di Lamemoor and we saw the wrinkles in her face, as well as in the face of her partner Alfred Kraus, and NOBODY said that she was too old to sing a aria about a young bride...But the nucleus, the center and the heart of the opera is the Jew Eleazar, superbly sang by Schicoff, a tenor I did not know before this opera. It is not the fact that he looks the part physically, he plays the part EMOTIONALLY and is so intense that it seems he is filling the theater with his energy, his pain and suffering, his hate and scorn. To do this, the tenor must be a extremely good actor. The others singers complement the production with composure and their voices and perfomances blend well with the three main characters. The clothes are intentionally minimalist and I did not perceive this good guy in black, bad guy in white, because, honestly, good guy-bad guy, this is not the old West! The drama is too complex to label the characters like that! For some, Eleazar would seem to be a bad guy, by denying his daughter, who was really the long-lost daughter of the Cardinal, the right to know the truth about her birth BEFORE asking her to choose between dying with him or become a Christian! The personality of Rachel, well delineated by the libretto makes us believe that even knowing the truth she would choose to die a Jewess instead of being saved by her real father, the Cardinal, but...that should have been HER choice, not Eleazar's. And we understand that he did it of spite, taunting the Cardinal about his long lost daughter and refusing to say who she was, in a veritable spirit of hateful vengeance.Righteous, but also hateful. Even with this shortcomings Eleazar IS the truly unforgettable character of the opera, the one that from now on every tenor will dream to sing, as they dream to sing Cavaradossio, Manrico , Des Grieux or Samson. I loved the minimalist decor of the stage; I only think that the glasses of the first act were not quite the thing. Concluding: This forgotten opera, very much aprecciated before the decade of 1930 is a Jewel among the international repertoire and merits many and many performances from now on.
Deniza Futuro-Brazil

I WAS REALLY SURPRISED THAT THIS OPERA, RARELY PERFORMED, WAS SO WONDERFUL. SHICOFF WAS BORN FOR THIS ROLE. HIS VIDEO OF RACHEL, AN EXTRA INCLUDED IN THIS DVD, IS EXCELLENT. AN UNFORGETABLE OPERA BY AN UNFORGETABLE TENOR.

The production of this DVD is great, music, singing, etc, are as good as it gets, Very interesting interviews also.