Giacomo Meyerbeer – LE PROPHÈTE – Songe de Jean: ‘Sous les vastes arceaux’ (Nicolai Gedda)

LE PROPHÈTE Opéra en 5 actes Composer: Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) Libretto: Eugène Scribe First performance: Salle Le Peletier, 16 April 1849 SETTING: Dordrecht, Holland, and Munster, 1534–35, at the time of the Anabaptist revolution PLOT: The ‘prophet’ of the title is Jean de Leyde, a tailor, who becomes leader of the Anabaptists and captures Münster. Jean is motivated by revenge against the Comte d’Oberthal, who imprisons Jean’s mother Fidès and fiancée Berthe, the Count’s vassal, but commits crime after crime and ends by declaring himself the son of God. Fidès, whom he publicly repudiated, persuades him to renounce his titles; Berthe kills herself when she learns that Jean is the murderous prophet; and Jean blows himself up with his enemies and his mother. No. 7 – Le Songe: ‘Ami, quel nuage obscurcit ta pensée? … Sous les vastes arceaux’ Jean tells the Anabaptists of a dream in which he was crowned in a magnificent temple, and hailed as the Messiah and the Son of God—but he was accursed on earth, and his soul dragged by Satan before the throne of God. The Anabaptists tell him that he will reign. The music anticipates the Cathedral Scene in Act IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fggx…. Jean de Leyde (tenor): Nicolai Gedda Zacharie, un anabaptiste / an Anabaptist (bass): Robert El Hage Jonas, un anabaptiste / an Anabaptist (tenor): Fritz Peter Mathisen, un anabaptiste / an Anabaptist (baritone): Boris Carmeli Conductor: Henry Lewis Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI Torino, 1970