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Lot Essay
The author's proofs for the first edition of the foundation work of grand opera.
The exhaustive corrections range from adjustments of punctuation and technical notation to rewording of the libretto and rephrasing of whole bars of the music. Meyerbeer was an inveterate reviser of his works, often recasting the vocal lines well into rehersals. The major manuscript sources for Robert le Diable are in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow.
The opera had its première at the Paris Opéra on 21 November 1831, an occasion which was the most dazzling success of Meyerbeer's career and perhaps of all 19th-century opera. Its fantastical plot, lavish sets and demanding vocal parts set the standard for grand opera, and established Meyerbeer as the dominant opera composer of his generation. The same characteristics have made it rare in performance in the 20th-century, although revivals in Paris in 1985 and in concert at the Carnegie Hall (1988) have been acclaimed.
The exhaustive corrections range from adjustments of punctuation and technical notation to rewording of the libretto and rephrasing of whole bars of the music. Meyerbeer was an inveterate reviser of his works, often recasting the vocal lines well into rehersals. The major manuscript sources for Robert le Diable are in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow.
The opera had its première at the Paris Opéra on 21 November 1831, an occasion which was the most dazzling success of Meyerbeer's career and perhaps of all 19th-century opera. Its fantastical plot, lavish sets and demanding vocal parts set the standard for grand opera, and established Meyerbeer as the dominant opera composer of his generation. The same characteristics have made it rare in performance in the 20th-century, although revivals in Paris in 1985 and in concert at the Carnegie Hall (1988) have been acclaimed.