#gustave iii

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I know I made this post already in text form but here’s a stupid TikTok version:

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if I were in exile in France for assassinating someone only to find out that the goddamn Paris Opéra was staging a new opera based on that very assassination with me as a character, I would simply ✨pass away✨

rip to Adolph Ribbing of assassination-of-King-Gustav-III-of-Sweden fame but I’m different

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My Personal Opinions on Some French Grand Opéras

Here we go. I’ll be focusing solely on pieces in what’s widely considered the “Golden Age” of grand opéra (from 1828 to about 1870).

1828, Auber: La muette de Portici: never seen or heard so I cannot comment, but I do think it slaps that it helped start both the Belgian Revolution and the genre of grand opéra.

1829, Rossini: Guillaume Tell: I love this one. it’s one of the few grand opéras that has a happy ending and it’s fully deserved. it’s long but it all has a point-- the first act introduces us to the community spirit that drives the rest of the action; even though it’s called Guillaume Tell, it’s not just about Guillaume Tell. it’s about a whole movement coming together, with all these vividly-drawn people of different social statuses, ages, heritages, and livelihoods coming together to do good in the world in the face of oppression. also it’s Rossini so it bops start to finish. the finale is one of opera’s best. I could not have higher praise and admiration for this piece.

1831, Meyerbeer: Robert le diable: another rare case of a grand opéra with a happy ending, but it feels a bit more contrived, something I wrote about when I watched it about a year ago for the first time. it’s quite a clever ending, however, and I love that these lovely characters get a happy ending. Robert is the least interesting principal character both musically and dramatically; the musical highlights of the show are mostly Bertram and Isabelle’s big scenes. the former is also arguably grand opéra’s most exciting ballet sequence, the Act III ballet of the nuns (or as I like to call it, the Zombie Nun Ballet). it’s long but it is incredibly worth it. overall, I really do enjoy this opera although it is very much an uneven piece.

1833, Auber: Gustave III, ou le bal masqué: here’s a thing I wrote about it like 3 months ago and I stand by every word.

1835, Halévy: La juive: It’s damn near impossible to find an even remotely close to complete recording. However, what the recordings have is excellent. The score is marvelous all the way through, although for the most part I tend to prefer the ensembles to the arias (the exception, of course, being Éléazar’s 11 o’clock number). Speaking of Éléazar, he’s an extremely complicated and frankly uncomfortable character, toeing the line between being one of opera’s most complex characters, an even more complicated proto-gender-swapped-Azucena if you will, and being an unfortunate vessel of antisemitic stereotypes. This is made even more complicated because Halévy was an assimilated Jewish composer. On the whole, Rachel is the only wholly sympathetic character in the piece, although all five of the principals are lovingly scored. 

1836, Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots: *holds things in because otherwise I would write an entire essay about this opera and you all know that because I have done that several times* Both a great strength and a great weakness of this piece is its sheer wide-ranging-ness, particularly in terms of mood. Unlike, say, La juive, this opera does not have one overall mood, instead steadily progressing from bright, brilliant comedy to one of the most horrifying endings in opera. Dramatically, this is great for the most part, although the sheer amount of exposition in the first two acts may take getting used to. Just as the drama gets more intense and concentrated as the opera goes on, the music gets more intense- and frankly, more often than not better- as the opera goes on. The window/misunderstood engagement business is something I still struggle to see the exact dramatic purpose of, because I think the question of religious difference would likely be enough to separate Raoul and Valentine at the beginning anyway; to me, it feels like Scribe and Deschamps were struggling to find a way to integrate Nevers into the story, as he is crucial to the opera’s lessons about love and tolerance, so they stuck in a quasi-love-triangle in order to justify his presence earlier on. (Also, for goodness sake, could you at least have given him an onstage death scene?) Anyway, in this way the story can be a bit unwieldy and uneven at first, but stay the course with this one...and even a lot of the first couple of acts are wonderful. The characters are all wonderfully written if rather episodic in many cases, but this opera is ambitious and by the end, it’ll tear your heart to shreds. It’s amazing. Uneven, yes, but amazing nonetheless, and I will defend it to the death.

1840, Donizetti: La favorite: I’m not as familiar with La favorite as with some of the others on this list (I’ve seen two different productions once each and I have a recording of it saved to my Spotify library that I listen to bits and pieces of very occasionally) but I do think it’s an excellent piece overall. LÉONOR DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER. The music is lovely all around; I know Donizetti wrote at least one other grand opéra in full and part of another, both of which I need to check out because in its own way, Donizetti’s style works wonderfully with grand opéra.

1841: Halévy, La reine de Chypre: here is a post I wrote about La reine de Chypre. basically all my thoughts remain the same except I have to add: Halévy as a whole just needs more love. there’s a few other of his operas I have waiting (a recording of Le dilettante d’Avignon that has been sitting in my Spotify for who knows how long and a film of Clari with Bartoli and Osborn I’m also sitting on) but there are so many pieces that sound fascinating but have basically ZILCH in terms of recordings.

1849, Meyerbeer: Le prophète: before I say anything else about this opera, I need to ask a burning question: WHY THE HELL IS THERE ONLY ONE GOOD VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS OPERA?!?! on the one hand, I adore the Osborn/Aldrich/Fomina production; on the other, I would also like other productions, please. anyway, I said one time in the opera Discord that while Les Huguenots will probably always be my favorite Meyerbeer opera for an array of reasons, this one is definitely Meyerbeer, Scribe, and Deschamps’ strongest work. it is both unusually dark and unusually believable for an opera of its time—and the fact that it still holds up so well is disturbing to say the least. this opera thrives on complexity in all forms and yet has probably (and paradoxically) the simplest plot to follow of the four Meyerbeer grand opéras. the score is brilliant start to finish, mixing the best of bel canto, Romanticism, and something altogether darker, stranger, and more original. definitely one of the most underrated operas ever. the aforementioned production is on YouTube with French subtitles; give it a watch here.

1855, Verdi: Les vêpres siciliennes: Vêpres is an opera I love dearly although I have yet to find a production that is completely satisfying. I think it’s because this opera is a lot deeper, a lot more complex, and a lot more troubling, frankly, than people are willing to go. also it should be performed bilingually and I am dead-set on this: the dissonance of an opera about French capture of Italian land being sung entirely in either French or Italian is always a little off at least (and also part of the reason why my brain probably adjusted to hearing this opera in either language better than, say, Don Carlos). but anyway, neither side comes off particularly well here, particularly due to the violence and sexual assault on both sides of the equation: both Montfort and Procida are heavily in the wrong, and while Verdi sympathizes with both for personal reasons (Verdian Dad in the former case, Italian Liberator in the latter), there is a lot of troubling stuff in here. nevertheless, the music bops, the story is intriguing, and I think we can all agree that Henri and Hélène both deserved better, especially considering how close they got to bliss (although I think we can also all agree that the end of Act IV twist to almost-rom-com is pretty abrupt).

1863 (full opera: 1890), Berlioz: Les Troyens: I wrote this review of Troyens after watching it in the Châtelet 2003 production in December 2019 (first time ever watching it) and I still stand by just about every word. Such a fascinating opera, great adaptation of the first few books of the Aeneid, marvelous score (of course, it’s Berlioz!)...but could there be a ballet or two fewer, Berlioz? Or at least shorten them up? And that’s coming from someone who likes ballet. But anyway, in every other respect it’s absolutely marvelous. Some people say it’s the greatest French opera ever, and while I hesitate to say that, it comes pretty damn near close.

1865, Meyerbeer: L’Africaine (Vasco de Gama): Vasco da Gama/L’Africaine is even more troubling—much more troubling—of an opera than Vêpres to me and I wrote a whole thing here as to why. I still stand by most of it, although upon reflection, I feel like the ending that drove me so crazy has virtually the exact same idea behind it as the end of Troyens/Book IV of the Aeneid: empire has consequences and those consequences hurt real people, who, though different and not among those perceived as “heroic”, are worthy of being treated as human, not being collateral damage. (I’ve written at least two essays about this for different classes, both specifically in regards to the Aeneid.) It may be time to revisit this one. The score is lovely, after all, although it didn’t stand out to me as much as others by Meyerbeer.

1867, Verdi: Don Carlos: *holds myself back from writing a 10-page essay* y’all, there is a reason that when someone asks me what my favorite opera is, I always choose this one even though I’m horrible at favorites questions. it’s Verdi, grand opéra, romantic drama (SO MUCH romantic drama and SO MUCH gay), political drama, religious/social struggle, personal struggle, social commentary, spectacle, intimacy, masterful characterization all in one. what more could you want? I first saw/heard this opera in Italian long before I did in French, so my brain is more hardwired to hearing the Italian but both are good. my motto is “Italian or French, I don’t care, but Fontainebleau has to be there.” fuck the four-act version. I mean, I will watch four-act versions but five-act versions are just superior. I’d prefer uncut performances (the first part of the garden, the Lacrimosa, the extended opening and ending), but these aren’t dealbreakers for me. it’s the perfect synthesis of Verdi and grand opéra, much less unwieldy than Vêpres (as much I love that one), both musically and dramatically.

1868, Thomas: Hamlet: Part of me wishes this was more faithful to the actual source play (why??? the??? fuck??? does??? Hamlet??? live??? although there are alternate endings), but part of me also realizes that the play is already four hours long as is and singing it plus ballet would make it WAY too fucking long. This does a pretty respectable job. The music is gorgeous, by turns almost sugary-sweet and thrillingly ominous. The Murder of Gonzago scene is an absolute masterpiece. The Mad Scene is justifiably one of opera’s best (although I’m not sure it was a good idea to have that and a frequently-cut 20-minute ballet with no relation whatsoever to the main plot to make up all of Act IV). There are a lot of bops in this one. The four principals are closely followed and still very well-drawn. Both of the stagings I have seen were excellent. An underrated opera.

1869 (grand opéra version), Gounod: Faust: Another of my absolute favorite operas. Since this existed for a decade before its transformation into the grand opéra we all know and love, I won’t comment much about its actual format and adherence to grand opéra tropes aside from saying the Walpurgisnacht ballet is one of grand opéra’s best and extremely good at giving off Vibes TM. I used to hate how the character of Faust was written and thought he was incredibly boring. Not anymore (although of course, I still hate him as a person. fuck him tbh). This opera has a reputation for being saccharine and old-fashioned and I think that’s a bunch of garbage right there. It’s about the search for eternal youth and the expectations of conforming to social values and people’s struggles with themselves when a) they “fall short” and b) when the world ostracizes them for being “different” and “out of line”. I am also firmly convinced that Marguerite is the real protagonist of Faust (like how I’m convinced that Valentine is the protagonist of Les Huguenots if there even is a singular protagonist in that opera but I digress). The music slaps. People need to stop cutting whole scenes out of this. I’m still undecided on the order of the church and square scenes of Act IV. Marguerite and Siébel just need everything good in this world.

Anyway, those are my two cents! I tried to keep these pretty short, so if y’all want any follow-ups, let me know!

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if I had a nickel for every time someone in an 1850s Verdi opera based on a Eugène Scribe libretto originally written for a different opera by a different composer unsuccessfully attempted to get the ruler of a place to leave a masked ball they were hosting at their house in their capital city because the significant other of the person warning was planning to attempt to assassinate them with some other characters‘ help in the middle of the party and the person being warned didn’t listen, I’d have two nickels.

which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

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Oscar on Gustave in Act I of Gustave III:

Oh! notre souverain Dicte comme César, à plus d'un secrétaire!

(Oh! Like Caesar,

our sovereign dictates to more than one secretary!)

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Month of New Operatic Works #5: Gustave III (live audio recording from the 90s although I couldn’t find the location)

Generally, when experiencing a new opera, even if I know the story and/or some of the music, I try --and am able-- to go in with little to no actual expectations. This is what I like to do. I like to give things a chance and let them impress me (or not, in some cases).

However, I simply was not able to do that with Auber’s Gustave III, ou le bal masqué. Not the “give things a chance” part, but the “go in with no expectations” part. Reason being: Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, which is one of my favorite operas by my favorite opera composer, was based on this opera, and this was considered the inferior opera that had already, deservedly fallen into obscurity by the time Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma borrowed the libretto to last-minute fill a commission (which, ironically, due to censorship they never actually filled, but I digress). So as much as I wanted to go in neutral, that was in the back of my head.

And well, in short, while I still agree that Ballo is absolutely the superior opera, Gustave III holds up surprisingly well.

So Ballo and Gustave have basically identical plots (obviously) and structure, with a few changes:

Where Ballo divides 3 acts into multiple scenes, Auber mostly stays away from scene divisions in order to stick to the general grand opéra principle of 5 acts: Scenes 1 and 2 of Act I in the Verdi correspond to Acts I and II of the Auber; Act II of the Verdi is Act III of the Auber; the three scenes of Act III in the Verdi are Act IV and Act V, Scenes 1 and 2 in the Auber.

Gustave III has a bunch of characters with only a line or two who don’t add much to the story, so the cast list is significantly longer. However, all the principals are basically the same, down to voice type (except Anckarstrom is a bass and one of the two head conspirators is a tenor, so that means people would actually be able to tell the two head conspirators apart @simone-boccanegra).

Gustave III has two ballets: one in the first act when Gustave (who IRL was a major arts patron) oversees rehearsal of a ballet to be premiered soon during his morning routine, and one in Act V, Scene 2, that’s just...people dancing at the ball. The former particularly overstays its welcome just a bit (although the latter ballet is longer, but I think it Bops More and it would be more fun to watch), but I think my experience would improve if I were able to actually watch them (there is no filmed production available).

Anckarstrom does not get an aria in Gustave III. His Act I aria in the Verdi is a full-fledged duet with Gustave here (which I admit is probably better; I love that these two now get a full duet, and also unless your baritone can pull it off, “Alla vita che t’arride” is...somewhat boring). However, nothing in the Auber even remotely corresponds to “Eri tu che macchiavi quell’anima”, which... :(.

Technically, Gustave doesn’t actually die in the Auber, which is admittedly more historically accurate (he died about two weeks after the shooting) but is less theatrically effective (he just gets carried offstage while dying).

I’ve never heard or seen a full Auber opera before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect musically. To me, this sounds like a little of everything: a little Gluck, a little Rossini, a little of his grand opéra contemporaries (for reference, the original quartet of singers for whom the roles of Gustave, Anckarstrom, Amélie, and Oscar were created [Adolphe Nourrit, Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur, Marie-Cornélie Falcon, and Julie Dorus-Gras] all also appeared in the world premieres of Halévy’s La Juive [as Eléazar, Brogni, Rachel, and Eudoxie] in 1835 and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots [as Raoul, Marcel, Valentine, and Marguérite] in 1836, so their roles would all be relatively vocally similar across operas and composers), and intriguingly, stuff that could only be described as either proto-Verdi or proto-Offenbach.

Generally, I find it is in the more comic scenes that Auber is best able to marry music with situation and stands up best in the shadow of Verdi. Particularly impressive are the ensembles that end Acts I and IV, as well as the entire “grand bal” section of the climactic masked ball. There are some places where Auber attempts the kind of musical irony that Verdi hits so perfectly on the head, such as in the ensemble that ends Act III and the dialogue at the ball between Gustave and Amélie, and while he makes a good attempt at it, it just doesn’t have the same effect.

The more serious scenes are overall not as effective, but there are some exceptions: both Madame Arvedson’s and Amélie’s big scenes (respectively in Acts II and III) are Gothic brooding leaping off the pages of the score (the former also throws in some rollicking vibes). The love duet in Act III has the seeds of Verdi’s writing in some places, and while it takes some time to get going, it stands up admirably in the end. The final scene doesn’t have the sheer heartbreak of Verdi’s take, but it gets a great mood.

(Unusually for grand opéras, the fourth act, which usually at the very least has a showstopper aria if it isn’t the strongest scene in the opera, is the weakest act, with the only highlight being the really wonderful quintet that ends the act.)

Scribe’s libretto is pretty much everything you’d expect based on either a) other Scribe libretti (I stg 99.9% of libretti for French operas over an about 50-year period were at least partly his doing. the man is indefatigable.) or b) the Ballo libretto. Some of Ballo’s best masterstrokes, such as the “laughing chorus” of the conspirators and the lot-drawing scene, have their origins here, and while Auber (as already stated) doesn’t quite live up to the dramatic potential, it must be said that at the very least, it’s there. Also, there’s a lot of innuendo and insinuating that Gustave is bisexual, which? we love to see it. (Also, it is more likely than not that the real Gustave III was gay, so there’s that.) Gustave, Anckarstrom, and Amélie should have just had a threesome.

In short: it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s good. a pity (although somewhat understandable) it’s been virtually completely forgotten. there are Bops. the story is great, if not ideally realized. I enjoyed this a lot.

Links:

the recording I listened to

and the French libretto (there were some small cuts in the performance, so be prepared to skip a few lines every so often)

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I love how in this version, there’s a bunch of stuff going on but Gustave’s like “yeah lemme watch this freaking BALLET REHEARSAL here in this palace hall” and then it actually happens (and takes up like ten minutes of Act I)

dude has his priorities in order