Horne aplenty
Recent discussion about the merits of Le Prophète has prompted Chris’s Cache to unearth a pirate recording of Meyerbeer’s opera with Marilyn Horne, Rita Shane and Guy Chauvet led by Charles Mackerras, along with an earlier collaboration of the mezzo and conductor: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in which Horne goes to hell to get back Adriana Maliponte with the help of Judith Blegen.
Was this revival of the Met’s 1977 Prophète the last US star-driven Meyerbeer staging? I know that a small Dinorah was done here not so long ago, and Bard Summerscape did mount Les Huguenots in 2009 but Erin Morley and Michael Spyres, its Marguerite and Raoul, were not all that well-known then. I did suffer through an Opera Orchestra of New York concert of L’Africaine in 2011. The friend with whom I attended (who never walks out of anything) fled at the intermission irritated by the campy excesses of Chiara Taigi. I remained and thought Marcello Giordani tried his best.
Horne was not in the best of health during the opera’s first Met run so that broadcast could have been better. In addition, some might argue that Shane is more appropriate casting than the late Renata Scotto and French tenor Chauvet superior to James McCracken, both on the broadcast and the CBS recording.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1j1fHrNe00
Horne’s five-performance run of Orfeo featured two Euridices and two Amores (the others were Lilian Sukis and Colette Boky, respectively). I’m grateful that the surviving recording features Maliponte (in her first Met Orfeo) and Blegen.
While Prophète and Orfeo were the only Met joint-ventures by Horne and Mackerras, they worked together more extensively on Handel’s Orlando which they performed in concert in New York, as well as in staged productions in Chicago, San Francisco and Venice.
I’ve been told that Leon Botstein announced a production of Le Prophète for next year’s Bard Summerscape.
Meyerbeer: Le Prophète
Berthe: Rita Shane
Fidès: Marilyn Horne
Jean of Leyden: Guy Chauvet
Zacharie: Jerome Hines
Jonas: Charles Anthony
Mathisen: Robert Goodloe
Count Oberthal: Morley Meredith
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Metropolitan Opera
3 October 1979
In-house recording
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo: Marilyn Horne
Euridice: Adriana Maliponte
Amore: Judith Blegen
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Metropolitan Opera
21 November 1972
In -house recording
Both Horne operas can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.
Christopher Corwin
Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.
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Topics: chris's cache, marilyn horne
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People: Adriana Maliponte, Charles Anthony, Charles Mackerras, Erin Morley, Guy Chauvet, James McCracken, Jerome Hines, Judith Blegen, Leon Botstein, Lilian Sukis, Marcello Giordani, Marilyn Horne, Michael Spyres, Morley Meredith, Renata Scotto, Rita Shane, Robert Goodloe
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Works: Dinorah, L'Africaine, Le Prophète, Les Huguenots, Orfeo ed Euridice, Orlando
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Places & Organizations: Bard SummerScape, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, San Francisco Opera
