John Osborn - Giacomo Meyerbeer: Le Prophète on CD

Description

The opera Le prophète tells a true story: during the French Wars of Religion, a charismatic innkeeper manipulated by a religious sect finds himself crowned Emperor of Germany and placed at the head of a puppet kingdom of depraved fanatics, before being killed. Add to this a bride who is a fighter, and the most formidable mother figure ever shown on an operatic stage, and Le prophète is the quintessential grand opera, a spectacular large-scale work that made the Paris Opera the leading stage in Europe, and Meyerbeer a composer admired and envied by the greatest. This visionary historical drama, with its unique theatrical and vocal power and musical invention, succeeds like no other in capturing the spirit of its time – which is very similar to our own.