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La Juive (review)
- The Opera Quarterly
- Oxford University Press
- Volume 19, Number 3, Summer 2003
- pp. 565-575
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
The Opera Quarterly 19.3 (2003) 565-575
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La Juive. Jacques Fromental Halévy
[Figures]
| Eléazar: Richard Tucker | Ambrosian Singers |
| Rachel: Yasuko Hayashi | Anton Guadagno, conductor |
| Princess Eudoxie: Michèle Le Bris | Live performance, 4 March 1973 |
| Léopold: Juan Sabaté | Opera d'Oro (distributed by Allegro) opd-1333 |
| Cardinal Brogni: David Gwynne | (2 CDs) |
| New Philharmonia Orchestra | |
| Eléazar: Richard Tucker | New Orleans Opera Orchestra and Chorus |
| Rachel: Marisa Galvany | Knud Andersson, conductor |
| Princess Eudoxie: Rita Shane | Live performance, 18 October 1973? |
| Léopold: Gene Bullard | Historical Recording Enterprises hre 212-3 |
| Cardinal Brogni: Paul Plishka | (3 LPs) |
| Eléazar: José Carreras | Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus |
| Rachel: Ilona Tokody | Gerd Albrecht, conductor |
| Princess Eudoxie: Sonia Ghazarian | Live performance, 26 January 1981 |
| Léopold: Chris Merritt | House of Opera (houseofopera.com) cd108 |
| Cardinal Brogni: Cesare Siepi | (3 CDs) |
| Eléazar: José Carreras | Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Rachel: Julia Varady | Ambrosian Opera Chorus |
| Princess Eudoxie: June | Anderson Antonio de Almeida, conductor |
| Léopold: Dalmacio Gonzales | Philips (distributed by Universal Classics) |
| Cardinal Brogni: Ferruccio Furlanetto | 420 190-2 (3 CDs) |
| Eléazar: Francisco Casanova | Dallas Symphony Chorus |
| Rachel: Hasmik Papian | Eve Queler, conductor |
| Princess Eudoxie: Olga Makarina | Live performance, 13 April 1999 |
| Léopold: Jean-Luc Viala | House of Opera (houseofopera.com) cd426 |
| Cardinal Brogni: Paul Plishka | (3 CDs) |
| Opera Orchestra of New York | |
| Eléazar: Neil Shicoff | Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus |
| Rachel: Soile Isokoski | Simone Young, conductor |
| Princess Eudoxie: Regina Schörg | Live performance, 23 October 1999 |
| Léopold: Zoran Todorovic | RCA (distributed by BMG Classics) 74321 79596 2 |
| Cardinal Brogni: Alastair Miles | (3 CDs) [End Page 565] |
| Highlights | |
| Eléazar: Richard Tucker | New Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Rachel: Martina Arroyo | Ambrosian Opera Chorus |
| Princess Eudoxie: Anna Moffo | Antonio de Almeida, conductor |
| Léopold: Juan Sabaté | RCA arl1-0447 (1 LP) |
| Cardinal Brogni: Bonaldo Giaiotti |
| Excerpt compilation |
| Eléazar: Enrico Caruso, Pierre Lamy, Max Lorenz, Joseph Mann, Louis Morisson, |
| Jan Peerce, Augusto Scampini, José de Trevi, César Vezzani |
| Rachel: Cecilia David, Amelia Pinto, Rosa Ponselle, Dorothy Sarnoff |
| Léopold: Pierre Lamy |
| Cardinal Brogni: Nazzareno de Angelis, Richard Mayr, Francesco Navarini, |
| Juste Nivette, Paul Payan, Ezio Pinza |
| Malibran-Music (distributed by Qualiton) cdrg 144 (1 CD) |
Richard Wagner would have had no reason to apologize for his anti-Semitism in an age when that kind of prejudice was all too common, but I can't help wondering whether he ever declared that some of his favorite operas were Jewish.
Wagner proclaimed his antipathy to Jewish musicians in the essay "Das Judenthum in der Musik," published in 1850 and again, after some revisions, in 1869. Nonetheless, he greatly admired an opera by a (nominally) Jewish composer that boldly proclaimed its identity in its very title: La Juive (The Jewess) by Jacques-François-Fromental-Elie Halévy, born Fromental Elias Levy. Wagner indulged in hoary stereotype when he wrote that Halévy was, "like all the Paris composers of our time, only inspired with enthusiasm for his art so long as success was still to be won; once that was achieved and he was safely ranged with the lions of the world of composition, all he thought of further was to manufacture operas, and to pocket the money." 1 However, he paid Halévy a back-handed compliment (and smeared a different Jewish composer at the same time) by describing him as "frank and honest; no sly, deliberate swindler like [Giacomo] Meyerbeer." 2 Wagner could also offer untempered praise. He admired in La Juive "the pathos of high lyric tragedy" 3 and "drew attention to Halévy's sense of historical period, achieved without recourse to mock-antique devices: 'For my part,' he wrote, 'I have never heard dramatic music which has transported me so completely to a particular historical epoch.'" 4 In 1842, seven years after La Juive's historic premiere at the Paris Opéra, Wagner published three very long articles in La Revue et Gazette Musicale, lauding the composer for putting French opera on a creative new path. In addition, Cosima Wagner's diary reveals that in his last years "he kept a score...
