GIACOMO MEYERBEER
Robert Le Diable
A French Opera with English Surtitles
Friday, April 25, 2025 8 pm
at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre
Running Time: TBA
Premiered in Paris in 1831, Meyerbeer's opera took Europe by storm and made its composer the most important musician in the world. It is about the moral redemption of the sensualist son of a mortal woman and a demon.
Robert Cooper, Chorus Director
Helen Becqué, Music Director and Pianist
Featuring
Scott Rumble as Robert
SYNOPSIS
Robert, Duke of Normandy, is really the son of the Devil by a mortal
woman, the chaste Princess Bertha of Normandy. Disguised and under the name
of Bertram, the fiend follows his son about, constantly leading him into
temptation in hope of winning his soul for Hell. The mother's good
influence clings to Robert in the form of a foster-sister, Alice. Banished
from Normandy because of evil deeds inspired by Bertram, Robert has come to
Sicily where he has fallen in love with the beautiful princess Isabella, and
she with him. Bertram does his best to interfere with the match, and by his
wiles keeps Robert from attending the tournament, the winner of which is
supposed to have the right to claim Isabella's hand. Having thus
seemingly lost his chance to win her honestly, Robert is led by Bertram to a
ruined convent at midnight. There Bertram summons the ghosts of faithless
nuns, singing the impressive invocation: "Nonnes, qui
reposez.
The ghosts dance about Robert in wild diabolical revelry. With a magical
branch he obtains here, Robert puts to sleep Isabella's guards and
tries to force her to his will, but she pleads with him so earnestly that he
breaks the branch and thus loses its supernatural power. Once more Bertram
tempts Robert and tries to induce him to sign a contract yielding his soul;
he reveals himself as his father and the young man, overcome by emotion, is
about to sign. But Alice repeats the last words of his mother, warning him
against the fiend and thus delays the signing of the pact until the clock
strikes twelve. The spell is broken, Bertram disappears to the nether
regions, and Isabella is revealed in her bridal robes waiting at the altar
for the redeemed Robert.
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