Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, which had its premiere in Paris in 1831, was immensely popular in its day and profoundly influenced even those who hated it, like
Wagner. The opera fuses Italian melody, German treatment of the orchestra, and both French gravity and transgression into an indissoluble unit. The opera is not so often heard nowadays; staging it requires major expenditures (even this recording, an important Meyerbeer project, relied on a semi-staged version), and it challenges the best of singers. This recording injects life into what is undoubtedly a heavy work, and it is worth the time of opera lovers. The singers, headed by tenor
John Osborn as the titular devilish duke, are a big attraction; without exception, they handle the mix of bel canto and big dramatic high ranges in Meyerbeer's writing, and conductor
Marc Minkowski, leading the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, keeps the dramatic arc moving along. His background in Baroque music actually serves him well here; the opera's mixture of formality and spectacle is not strange to him. The Palazzetto Bru Zane label, which has been championing the operas of Meyerbeer, steps up with a luxurious booklet (numbered for physical album buyers) that delves deeply into the opera's history, style, and context. It is hard to think of anyone interested in French Romantic opera who would not benefit from hearing this. ~ James Manheim