Soloists and orchestra make short work of Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, says Christopher Cook in his review
Meyerbeer
Le prophète
John Osborn, Elizabeth DeShong, Mané Galoyan et al; London Symphony Orchestra/Mark Elder
LSO Live LSO0894 195:35 mins (3CD)
Clip: Meyerbeer – Le prophète, Act V 'Versez! Que tout respire'
Meyerbeer’s Le prophète has everything you could hope for in a Paris opera. Five acts crammed with love and death and the clash of arms, a vast orchestra, massed marching choruses and a ballet on roller skates.
Who better than Mark Elder to make you believe in this tale of the Anabaptist’s false Prophet, based on John of Leiden, who seized the city of Münster in the 16th century?
Elder and the LSO bring unerring musical conviction to a performance recorded at the Aix Festival in 2023.
Meyerbeer’s penchant for using solo instruments to introduce his numbers is scrupulously observed with fine playing from individual woodwind players and the harpist, while the brass are positively chilling as they intone the Anabaptist’s hymn ‘Ad nos ad salutarem undam’ a kind of leitmotif throughout the opera.
All credit to the Lyon Opéra chorus who have much to sing, but it’s the soloists who make Meyerbeer and the leading trio are cast from strength.
Mané Galoyan is a tender-toned Berthe as the Prophet’s fiancé with plenty of vocal heft when hellbent on revenge. John Osborn’s Prophet has a properly French tone to the upper voice and Heldentenor stamina.
However, Elizabeth DeShong’s Fidès, the Prophet’s abandoned mother, is something else.
Written for Pauline Viardot, whose range spanned two and half octaves, DeShong is a worthy successor who delivers ‘Ah! mon fils, sois béni’ and then ‘O toi qui m’abandonne’ in Act 5 with visceral drops into the chest register and dazzling octave leaps to a refulgent top.
This is a voice that without the libretto’s promise of high explosives could destroy Münster Palace in the final scene singlehandedly! Christopher Cook