Robert le diable (Robert the Devil) is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil.
The dramatic music, harmony and orchestration of Robert, its melodramatic plot, and its sensational stage effects (especially the ballet of the nuns) made it an overnight success and instantly confirmed Me...
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Robert le diable (Robert the Devil) is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil.
The dramatic music, harmony and orchestration of Robert, its melodramatic plot, and its sensational stage effects (especially the ballet of the nuns) made it an overnight success and instantly confirmed Meyerbeer as the leading opera composer of his age.
The opera was the first new production by the new manager of the Opéra, Louis Véron, and its success underwrote his policy of commissioning similar works, which were to include Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Fromental Halévy's La Juive, and Daniel Auber's Gustave III.
It premiered on November 21st, 1831 at the Paris Opéra, and was the work that brought Meyerbeer international fame. The success owed much to the opera's star singers - Nicolas Levasseur as Bertram, Adolphe Nourrit as Robert.
The opera...
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