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85-452: Charles Manners (27 December 1857 – 3 May 1935) was a British bass singer and opera company manager. His earliest performances were with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company , first as a chorus member and then as a principal, creating the role of Private Willis in Iolanthe in 1882. After leaving D'Oyly Carte the following year, he sang with several opera companies, most notably

170-447: A bag of gold and advises him not to marry Alice as his new wealth will attract plenty of women ( Ah! l’honnête homme ). Raimbaut leaves and Bertram gloats at having corrupted him. Bertram reveals that Robert, to whom he is truly devoted, is his son; he then enters an adjoining cave to commune with the spirits of hell. Alice enters and expresses her love for Raimbaut ( Quand je quittai la Normandie ). She overhears strange chanting coming from

255-527: A ballad about a beautiful princess from Normandy who married a devil; the princess had a son, Robert, known as 'le diable'. Robert indignantly reveals that he is the son in question and condemns Raimbaut to death. Raimbaut begs for pardon and tells Robert that he is engaged to marry. Robert relents and relishes the thought of the droit du seigneur . Raimbaut's fiancée arrives; Robert recognizes her as his foster-sister Alice and pardons Raimbaut. Alice tells Robert that his mother has died and that her last words were

340-675: A composer, M. Meyer-Beer, who, having acquired a brilliant reputation in Germany and Italy, is extending it to our country, where several of his works have been already successfully represented.' The libretto was fabricated on the basis of old legends about Duke Robert the Magnificent of Normandy , the father of William the Conqueror , alleged in some versions to have been the son of the Devil . The librettists padded out this outline with

425-535: A cost of a farthing to the rates or taxes." In 1926 he wrote a long article on "The Financial Problem of National Opera. By the People for the People", explaining his rationale. He disapproved of public subsidy, insisting that opera could be self-supporting and even profitable. Although later attempts to follow his precepts, such as those of Raymond Gubbay at the Savoy Theatre in 2004, have failed, his dream of

510-709: A load of anxiety had been taken off his mind." During the early twentieth century, Meyerbeer's operas gradually disappeared from the stage, partly due to their length and expense to mount, partly due to their denigration by supporters of Wagnerian opera. In 1898, George Bernard Shaw , in The Perfect Wagnerite , had already cast scorn on Robert and commented that "Nowadays young people cannot understand how anyone could have taken Meyerbeer's influence seriously." Nevertheless, productions of Robert included those in New Orleans and Nice in 1901, Paris (at

595-405: A magic branch from the tomb of Saint Rosalia in a nearby deserted cloister. Although to take it is sacrilege, the branch will give Robert magical powers. Robert declares that he will be bold and do as Bertram instructs. Bertram leads Robert to the cloister. The ghosts of nuns rise from their tombs, beckoned by Bertram, and dance , praising the pleasures of drinking, gambling and lust. Robert seizes

680-454: A national opera company presenting operas in English has been realised. Manners and Moody retired to Ireland, where he died at Dundrum, County Dublin , aged 77. Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types . According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , a bass is typically classified as having

765-619: A nearby forest, claiming that the Prince of Granada, his rival for Isabelle's love, wants to fight with him. When Robert has left, the court gathers to celebrate the marriage of six couples with dancing. The Prince of Granada enters and asks Isabelle to present him with arms for the tournament. Isabelle expresses her sorrow at Robert's disappearance but prepares to open the tournament, singing in praise of chivalry ( La trompette guerrière ). The countryside near Palermo Bertram meets Raimbaut, who has arrived for an assignation with Alice. He gives him

850-465: A solid coloratura technique, a capacity for patter singing and ripe tonal qualities if they are to be brought off to maximum effect. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the comic-relief fool in bel canto operas. English equivalent: dramatic bass Basso profondo (lyric low bass) is the lowest bass voice type. According to J. B. Steane in Voices, Singers & Critics ,

935-554: A three-act opéra comique for the Opéra-Comique theatre. Meyerbeer stopped work on the opera in 1827 when the theatre underwent financial difficulties. In August 1829, the composer and librettists agreed to refashion the work in a five-act form to meet the requirements of the Paris Opéra. This entailed some significant rewriting of the storyline, reducing the essentially comic role of Raimbaut (who vanishes after Act 3 in

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1020-403: A variety of melodramatic incidents. The plot reflected 'the fantastic legendary elements which fascinated the opera public of 1830', a taste which had evolved from the 1824 Paris production of Carl Maria von Weber 's Der Freischütz (in its French version Robin des bois ), which also features a doubtful hero befriended by a demon promising him success. The libretto was originally planned as

1105-416: A vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E 2 –E 4 ). Its tessitura , or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef . Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the basso cantante (singing bass), basso buffo (comical bass), or

1190-458: A warning about a threatening dark force ( Va! Va! dit-elle ). She offers Robert his mother's will. Robert is too overcome to read it and asks Alice to keep it for the present. Robert expresses his longing for his beloved Isabelle and Alice offers to take a letter to her. Alice warns Robert to beware of Bertram but he ignores her. With Bertram's encouragement, Robert gambles with the knights and loses all of his money, as well as his armour. A room in

1275-577: A whole, and for ballet. The fortuitous timing of the opera's premiere, not long after the July Revolution , and its sensational and novel effects, meant that it was widely identified with the new, liberal, ideas of the July Monarchy . As Berlioz commented, Meyerbeer had "not only the luck to be talented, but the talent to be lucky." Honoré de Balzac (in his novella Gambara ) and Heinrich Heine (in his poem Angélique ) are just two of

1360-859: A wide variation in range and quality of bass singers. Parts for basses have included notes as low as the B-flat two octaves and a tone below middle C (B ♭ 1 ), for example in Gustav Mahler 's Symphony No. 2 and the Rachmaninov 's All-Night Vigil , A below that in Frederik Magle 's symphonic suite Cantabile , G below that (e.g. Measure 76 of Ne otverzhi mene by Pavel Chesnokov ) or F below those in Kheruvimskaya pesn (Song of Cherubim) by Krzysztof Penderecki . Many basso profondos have trouble reaching those notes, and

1445-485: Is a higher, more lyrical voice. It is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone . Hoher Bass or "high bass" or often a dramatic bass-baritone . Jugendlicher Bass (juvenile bass) denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer. Buffo , literally "funny", basses are lyrical roles that demand from their practitioners

1530-649: Is in the Victoria and Albert Museum , London. The work's popularity spawned many parodies and pastiches including one by W. S. Gilbert , Robert the Devil , which opened at the Gaiety Theatre, London in 1868. It is referenced in the opening scene of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera , where one of the items being auctioned off is described as "Lot 664: a wooden pistol and three human skulls from

1615-503: Is least diabolical in Robert le diable is Robert himself." But the critic Fétis gave the consensus opinion: " Robert le diable is not only a masterpiece; it is also a remarkable work within the history of music ...[it] seems to me to unite all the qualities needed to establish a composer's reputation unshakeably." The success of the opera led to Meyerbeer himself becoming a celebrity. King Frederick William III of Prussia , who attended

1700-477: Is using witchcraft, but begs her not to reject him. She expresses her love for him and implores him to repent ( Robert, toi que j'aime ). Robert breaks the branch and the spell it has created, and is taken into custody by Isabelle's attendants. Outside Palermo Cathedral A group of monks extol the power of the Church. Bertram has freed Robert from the guards and the two arrive to prevent the marriage of Isabelle to

1785-628: The Carl Rosa Opera Company and Covent Garden . In 1898, he and his wife, the singer Fanny Moody , set up their own company, dedicated to presenting opera in English. The Moody-Manners company performed in London, the British provinces, North America and South Africa from 1898 to 1916. After his retirement, Manners continued to campaign for a national opera company , which was eventually founded forty years after his death. Manners

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1870-884: The Carl Rosa Opera Company as a principal bass, making his début as King Henry in Lohengrin . His early roles for the company included Peter the Great in Meyerbeer 's L'étoile du nord , the King of Spain in Maritana , Pietro in Auber 's Masaniello , and Bertram in Robert the Devil . His later roles included Mephistopheles in Faust , and Cardina Brogni in La Juive . A fellow member of

1955-589: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a chorus member. In early 1882, he appeared on tour in the chorus of Claude Duval and, later in the same year, in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance . He was promoted to the roles of Dick Deadeye in Pinafore and Samuel in Pirates in August 1882. He also appeared as Mr. Wallaby in the companion piece Quite an Adventure . In November 1882, he created

2040-690: The Gaité Lyrique ) in 1911, Barcelona in 1917, at the Vienna Volksoper in 1921 and Bordeaux in 1928. The first production after the Second World War was in Florence in 1968, a shortened version with a cast including Renata Scotto and Boris Christoff . In 1984 the revival at the Paris Opéra with Rockwell Blake (Robert), Samuel Ramey (Bertram), Walter Donati (Raimbaut), Michèle Lagrange (Alice) and June Anderson (Isabelle)

2125-709: The Glasgow Grand Opera Society , which continued his work in popularising opera in English between the two World Wars. By 1910, Manners faced financial difficulties and had to disband one of his two companies, and the remaining Moody-Manners Company gave its last performance in May 1916. Manners retired from singing in 1913. In its final season, playing to capacity audiences, the Moody-Manners company offered Il trovatore , The Bohemian Girl , Martha , Faust , The Lily of Killarney , The Daughter of

2210-472: The Lyric Theatre when the repertoire included The Merry Wives of Windsor , The Marriage of Figaro , Tannhäuser , Lohengrin , Tristan and Isolde , Faust , Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci , Madame Butterfly , Aïda and Il trovatore . There were Moody-Manners tours not only of Britain but also of North America and South Africa. The opera historian Harold Rosenthal wrote of

2295-509: The Paris Opéra . The success owed much to the opera's star singers – Levasseur as Bertram, Nourrit as Robert — and to the provocative " Ballet of the Nuns " in the third act, featuring the great ballerina, Marie Taglioni . The choreography for the ballet was elaborated by the ballerina's father, Filippo Taglioni . The audience's prurient delight in this scandalous scene is well conveyed by

2380-571: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Moody as Arline. In 1896–97 he made a successful and remunerative tour of South Africa with Moody. When they returned to England in 1898, they formed the Moody-Manners Company. Manners's ambition was to found a company to give opera in English that would, in time, become a permanent national ensemble based in London. With limited capital at their disposal (Manners later stated that they founded

2465-804: The ballet , and was frequently mentioned and discussed in contemporary French literature. Robert continued as a favourite in opera houses all over the world throughout the nineteenth century. After a period of neglect, it began to be revived towards the end of the twentieth century. Giacomo Meyerbeer's early studies had been in Germany, but from 1816 to 1825 he worked in Italy. There he studied opera, then dominated by Gioachino Rossini , and wrote his own Italian operas, which were moderately successful and also had some performances in other European countries. The success of Il crociato in Egitto (1824) throughout Europe, including at Paris in 1825, persuaded Meyerbeer, who

2550-511: The 1838 revival included Julie Dorus-Gras (Alice), Prosper Dérivis (Bertram) and François Wartel (Raimbaut). By Meyerbeer's death in 1864 the opera had been performed over 470 times in Paris alone. A succession of representations throughout Europe and in the Americas launched Meyerbeer's international fame. A version of the opera – under the title of The Fiend-Father , by Rophino Lacy –

2635-528: The Commendatore in Don Giovanni . For another touring company he played in the comic opera, Falka : "as Boleslas there is opportunity for display of a powerful physique and a good voice that Mr. Charles Manners is not slow to make use of." With the same company he played General Bombardos in the English première of Charles Lecocq 's Pepita . In June 1887, Manners signed a two-year contract with

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2720-514: The Guard , have at least one lead bass. Notable roles include: Robert le Diable (opera) The opera was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin , who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in

2805-487: The Moody-Manners company: "With the Carl Rosa company, it was the principal training ground for British artists in the years before World War I." Manners held strong views about the training given by British music academies to young singers. In his view students were not equipped for a professional career because they were trained in the principal operatic roles rather than in the chorus parts, which almost all singers new to

2890-506: The Prince of Granada. Bertram attempts to get Robert to sign a document in which he promises to serve Bertram for all eternity. He reveals to Robert that he is his true father and Robert decides to sign the oath from filial devotion. Before he can do so, Alice appears with the news that the Prince has been prevented from marrying Isabelle. Alice prays for divine help ( Dieu puissant, ciel propice ) and hands Robert his mother's will. Robert reads his mother's message, in which she warns him to beware

2975-463: The Regiment , Carmen , and Eugene Onegin , with Moody as Tatiana. After the closure of his companies, Manners continued to campaign for a national opera company. He wrote to The Musical Times in 1921, "I here assert for the thousandth time that National Grand Opera can be given in an all round way at popular prices – I repeat, popular prices – far better than it has ever been given, without

3060-639: The academies of any value to me." Manners encouraged British composers to write for his company, offering prizes for the best operas: one of the prize-winners was Colin McAlpin 's The Cross and the Crescent (1903). He sponsored opera festivals in Sheffield in 1904 and 1906, whose profits helped to found Sheffield University . He also used profits from a successful season in Glasgow in 1906 to help create

3145-425: The administration sixty thousand francs of his own money"; and Chopin lamented "Meyerbeer had to work for three years and pay his own expenses for his stay in Paris before Robert le diable could be staged ... Three years, that's a lot – it's too much." The success of Robert had profound consequences, for the institution of the Paris Opéra itself, for the music, staging and popularity of nineteenth century opera as

3230-528: The aria "Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori" in Handel's serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo , Polifemo reaches an A 4 . Within the bass voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories: basso cantante (singing bass), hoher bass (high bass), jugendlicher bass (juvenile bass), basso buffo ("funny" bass), Schwerer Spielbass (dramatic bass), lyric bass, and dramatic basso profondo (low bass). Basso cantante means "singing bass". Basso cantante

3315-527: The basso profondo voice "derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a wall-like front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato, the slow beat or dreaded wobble." English equivalent: dramatic low bass. Dramatic basso profondo is a powerful basso profondo voice. All of the Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy operas , except Patience and The Yeomen of

3400-460: The bourgeoisie to the opera, until then regarded as primarily an aristocratic entertainment. The success of the opera also justified the government's policy of ' privatization ' in selling the management to Véron, and this was a landmark in the dilution of state control and patronage in the fine arts. Although Véron had not commissioned it (having taken control only after the Revolution), Robert

3485-456: The branch and fends off the demons who surround him. A room in the palace Isabelle is preparing for her marriage with the Prince of Granada. Alice rushes in to inform her of what she has learnt about Robert, but she is interrupted by envoys of the Prince who enter bearing gifts. Robert arrives and, using the power of the branch, freezes everyone except himself and Isabelle. Unsettled by the power he's wielding, he confesses to Isabelle that he

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3570-413: The cave and decides to listen; she learns that Bertram will lose Robert forever if he cannot persuade him to sign away his soul to the Devil by midnight. On emerging from the cave, Bertram realizes that Alice has heard everything ( Mais Alice, qu’as-tu donc? ). He threatens her and she promises to keep silent. Robert arrives, mourning the loss of Isabelle, and Bertram tells him that to win her he should seize

3655-599: The changes in taste of the new opera clientele. They established Paris as Europe's opera capital , with the Opéra itself as its centre, in the period 1830 until 1850. The Act 3 ballet is regarded by some as the first of the ballets blancs (whereby the principal ballerina and the corps de ballet are all clothed in white) which became a favourite of the nineteenth-century repertoire. Later examples include La Sylphide (1832) (also choreographed by Filippo Taglioni and danced by his daughter), Giselle (1841), Pas de Quatre (1845) and Les Sylphides (1909). Music from

3740-549: The company on £1,700 borrowed from friends, and repaid it all within a year), they began with a provincial tour, starting in Manchester in September 1898. The Manchester Guardian commented, "There can be no greater proof of the energy of Mr Manners as a director than the fact of his having produced during the second week of his career as a manager no fewer than seven different operas, two of which were absolute novelties in

3825-742: The company was the Cornish soprano Fanny Moody , whom Manners married at St George's, Hanover Square on 5 July 1890. When not touring in opera, Manners took part in concerts in London and the provinces, gaining favourable reviews. He was one of three singers invited to tour with Sims Reeves in Reeves's farewell series of concerts. In October 1890 Manners joined the Covent Garden company, making his debut in Roberto il Diavolo . "The English basso-profondo, Mr. Charles Manners, sang with grand effect

3910-414: The contemporary writers to express their fascination with the opera. Alexandre Dumas set a chapter of The Count of Monte Cristo between two acts of Robert ; and George Sand wrote about it at length in her Lettres d'un voyageur . It is the only nineteenth-century opera to have a rose named after it. Also, the absence of starchy historical content in Robert doubtless played a part in attracting

3995-509: The dramatic basso profondo (deep bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German Fach system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can overlap. Rare is the performer who embodies a single Fach without also touching repertoire from another category. Cultural influence and individual variation create

4080-494: The edition of 500 was completely sold out and it had to be immediately reprinted. Indeed, the success of Robert , whose score was also published by Schlesinger, was said to have saved him from bankruptcy. Frédéric Chopin and Auguste Franchomme jointly composed a Grand duo concertant on themes from the opera, for cello and piano, in 1832, and the Italian pianist and composer Adolfo Fumagalli composed an elaborate fantasy on

4165-405: The final version, but whose antics – including the spending of Bertram's money – continued throughout in the earlier libretto). It also meant that the traditional 'pairing' of lovers in opéra comique (Robert/Isabelle paralleled throughout by the 'lower-class' Raimbaut/Alice) was swept aside in favour of concentration on the more sensational story-line of Robert's diabolic ancestry. The contract for

4250-558: The first movement of his choral work Rejoice in the Lamb ) that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C (i.e. E 2 –C 4 ). In SATB four-part mixed chorus, the bass is the lowest vocal range, below the tenor , alto , and soprano . Voices are subdivided into first bass and second bass with no distinction being made between bass and baritone voices, in contrast to

4335-458: The lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D 2 , sung by the character Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , but few roles fall below F 2 . Although Osmin's note is the lowest 'demanded' in the operatic repertoire, lower notes are heard, both written and unwritten: for example, it is traditional for basses to interpolate a low C in the duet "Ich gehe doch rathe ich dir" in

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4420-403: The man who seduced and ruined her. Robert is wracked by indecision. Midnight strikes and the time for Bertram's coup is past. He is drawn down to hell. Robert is reunited with Isabelle in the cathedral, to great rejoicing. The costumes were designed by François-Gabriel Lépaulle . A number of factors influenced the opera's very favourable reception. The initial cast contained leading singers of

4505-832: The music allotted to Bertram, and his acting was powerfully impressive." For the same management, this time at the Olympic Theatre , he appeared as King Henry in Wagner 's Lohengrin (given in Italian: his role was billed as "Enrico l'Ucellatore") with Emma Albani as Elsa; and as Gremin in the British première of Eugene Onegin conducted by Henry Wood , with Fanny Moody as Tatiana. In 1893 he made his New York début, and on his return he and Moody signed to appear with Augustus Harris 's opera company. Among other roles, Manners played Devilshoof in The Bohemian Girl at

4590-433: The only record of Filippo Taglioni's original. In 1847 Felix Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Robert – an opera which musically he despised – in order to hear Jenny Lind 's British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley , who was with him, wrote "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if

4675-428: The opera became the subject of numerous virtuoso works of the time. The brilliant transcription of its themes ( Reminiscences de Robert le diable ) made by the composer and virtuoso Franz Liszt was so popular that it became his calling card: on more than one occasion he was forced to interrupt his programmed concerts to play it because of the demands of the audience. On the day of its publication by Maurice Schlesinger,

4760-479: The opera for left hand alone as his Op. 106. Other pieces based on the opera included works by Adolf von Henselt and Jean-Amédée Méreaux . Edgar Degas painted the scene of the Nuns' ballet twice. The earlier version (1871) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York. In 1876 Degas painted a larger version for the singer Jean-Baptiste Faure (who had sung the part of Bertram); this version

4845-529: The opera has been often cut or rearranged in various productions. The outline given below follows the description given in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992). On the shore at Palermo Robert and his mysterious friend Bertram are among a group of knights who are preparing to compete in a tournament for the hand of Princess Isabelle. They all praise wine, women and gambling ( Versez à tasses pleines ). Robert's attendant Raimbaut sings

4930-598: The opera in early 1831, converting spoken passages to recitatives and adding ballet episodes, including, in Act 3, the " Ballet of the Nuns ", which was to prove one of the opera's great sensations, and which Henri Duponchel had suggested to replace the original humdrum scenario set in Olympus . He also rewrote the two major male roles of Bertrand and Robert to suit the talents of Nicolas Levasseur and Adolphe Nourrit , respectively. The opera premiered on 21 November 1831 at

5015-531: The opera, directed by Laurent Pelly , was premiered at the Royal Opera House London on 6 December 2012, the first time it had been performed there since 1890. At La Monnaie , Brussels, there were concert performances of Robert le Diable in April 2019, with Dmitry Korchak as Robert, Nicolas Courjal as Bertram and Lisette Oropesa as Isabelle, conducted by Evelino Pidò . The plot of

5100-560: The opera, specifying it as a "grand opera in five acts and seven scenes", was signed by the then director of the Opéra, Émile Lubbert, on 29 December 1829. Meyerbeer completed the composition of the work in Spa, Belgium in June and July 1830. Its characterisation as a "French grand opera" placed it in succession to Auber 's La muette de Portici (1828) and Rossini 's William Tell (1829) in this new genre. The composer undertook further work on

5185-707: The original French at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans. Italian versions were given in Lisbon in 1838, and in Florence in 1840. Meyerbeer took particular care over the first London and Berlin productions. He travelled to London to check the singers and production for the original version, and requested that the German translation for Berlin be undertaken by the poet Ludwig Rellstab , strongly recommending that Taglioni and her father Fillipo be re-engaged, and that Ciceri's sets should be reproduced. Although Taglioni danced and

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5270-436: The palace at Palermo Isabelle is sad at Robert's absence and expresses her unease that their marriage will never take place ( En vain j’espère ). She is delighted when she receives Robert's letter. Robert arrives and the pair express their pleasure at being together again. Isabelle provides him with new armour for the tournament . Robert is preparing for the tournament when Bertram suddenly appears and persuades Robert to go to

5355-416: The part, and she made a vivid impression on the public, which included on that night Auber , Berlioz , Halévy , Maria Malibran , Giulia Grisi , Honoré Daumier , Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo . On hearing her in the role, Meyerbeer himself declared his opera at last 'complete'. By April 1834 the opera had received over 100 performances in Paris. Nourrit sang the role of Robert until 1837, when he

5440-435: The period and, as it changed, equally brilliant stars (e.g. Falcon) were introduced as replacements. The sensational plot and the notoriety of the Nuns' ballet ensured that the opera was a hot topic in journals and reviews. This was assisted by the marketing skills of the director Véron and the publisher Schlesinger . The scenery was of exceptional quality: "This was as much an opera to see as to hear, and it has been argued that

5525-509: The profession would need to sing before being promoted to leading roles. He instanced his own early career: "I studied both at the Royal Academy, Dublin, and the Royal Academy, London, and then in Italy, and when I came back to London, all I could get was an engagement in comic opera where I sang for eighteen months before I could become a principal. It was not till over six years after I left my studies that I found anything I had learnt at

5610-582: The provinces." Of Manners himself, the paper wrote, "a highly gifted artist … whose voice seems to have lost none of the beauty which was so much admired in the far-away days when he was the Lifeguardsman in Iolanthe ." Moody was the company's leading soprano. By 1902 there were two Moody-Manners touring companies. The larger of the two had 175 members and gave London seasons in 1902 and 1903 at Covent Garden, in 1904 at Drury Lane, and in 1907 and 1908 at

5695-558: The real hero behind Robert le diable was Cicéri, the designer." Meyerbeer was keen to keep influential persons on his side. For example, he sent free tickets for 'a good box' to Heinrich Heine . And of course the businessman Véron knew how to use (and pay) the claque and its leader Augustin Levasseur. But undoubtedly the novelty and colour of the music of Meyerbeer deserves major credit. The alliance of his German musical training, along with his study of opera for many years in Italy,

5780-457: The reviewer for the Revue des Deux-Mondes : A crowd of mute shades glides through the arches. All these women cast off their nuns' costume, they shake off the cold powder of the grave; suddenly they throw themselves into the delights of their past life; they dance like bacchantes , they play like lords, they drink like sappers . What a pleasure to see these light women... The set for the ballet

5865-526: The role of Private Willis in Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre . Manners left the D'Oyly Carte company in late 1883. In 1884, he sang Boleslas in Falka on tour. In 1885 he sang in light opera at the new Empire Theatre , and played Wickermark in a romantic opera, The Fay o' Fire at the Opera Comique with the young Marie Tempest . In 1886, he joined a touring opera troupe called "The Royal English Opera Company", later renamed "Sydney Leslie's Opera Company", playing Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro , and

5950-429: The same opera; in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier , Baron Ochs has an optional C 2 ("Mein lieber Hippolyte"). The high extreme: a few bass roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F ♯ or G (F ♯ 4 and G 4 , the one above middle C), but few roles go over F 4 . In the operatic bass repertoire, the highest notes are a G ♯ 4 (The Barber in The Nose by Shostakovich) and, in

6035-449: The second performance of Robert , swiftly invited him to compose a German opera, and Meyerbeer was invited to stage Robert in Berlin. In January 1832 he was awarded membership of the Légion d'honneur . This success – coupled with Meyerbeer's known family wealth – inevitably also precipitated envy amongst his peers. Berlioz wrote "I can't forget that Meyerbeer was only able to persuade [the Opéra] to put on Robert le diable ... by paying

6120-615: The sets were retained, the translation was eventually carried out by Meyerbeer's friend Theodor Hell . Meyerbeer wrote additional ballet music for Taglioni for the Berlin production. The Danish choreographer August Bournonville saw Fitzjames's performance as the Abbess in Paris in 1841, and based his own choreography, which was used in Copenhagen between 1833 and 1863, on this. This choreography, which has been fully preserved, represents

6205-462: The theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in Robert ...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal". Robert initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new director of the Opéra, Louis-Désiré Véron , as a purveyor of a new genre of opera. It also had influence on development of

6290-510: The three-fold (tenor–baritone–bass) categorization of solo voices. The exception is in arrangements for male choir (TTBB) and barbershop quartets (TLBB), which sometimes label the lowest two parts baritone and bass. Bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types , with the lowest tessitura . The low extreme for basses is generally C 2 (two Cs below middle C). Some extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos and oktavists , are able to reach much lower than this. Within opera ,

6375-520: The use of a brass band and male choir to characterise the demons in Act 3; and so on. Hector Berlioz was particularly impressed; he wrote an entire article in the Revue et gazette musicale , entitled 'On the Orchestration of Robert le diable ', which concluded: The opera was perceived to have weaknesses of characterization. For example, Robert's dithering behaviour led to one comment that "what

6460-539: The use of them in works by Slavic composers has led to the colloquial term "Russian bass" for an exceptionally deep-ranged basso profondo who can easily sing these notes. Some traditional Russian religious music calls for A 2 (110 Hz ) drone singing, which is doubled by A 1 (55 Hz) in the rare occasion that a choir includes singers who can produce this very low human voice pitch. Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass (such as

6545-460: Was already thirty-three years old, to fulfil at last his ambition to base himself in Paris and to seek a suitable libretto for an opera to be launched there. Meyerbeer first mentions Robert le diable in his diaries in February 1827. The Journal de Paris announced on 19 April 1827 that the libretto of Scribe and Delavigne had been passed by the censor and that 'the music is to be entrusted to

6630-414: Was an innovative and striking design by Henri Duponchel and Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri . Duponchel had also introduced technical innovations for the staging, including 'English traps' for the sudden appearance and disappearance of the ghosts. (Meyerbeer was led to complain that the spectacle was too much and was pushing his music into the background). Taglioni danced the Abbess only six times in Paris; she

6715-670: Was born Southcote Randal Bernard Campbell Mansergh in Hoddesdon , England, son of Colonel J. C. Mansergh, an Irishman. He was educated at Hoddesdon Grammar School and considered a career in the army. He tried engineering and stockbrokerage before deciding on music as a profession. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin , the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in Florence. In either 1881 or 1882 he joined

6800-593: Was first presented in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 20 February 1832; the original version appeared at the Haymarket Theatre on 11 June of that year. Lacy's version was given in New York on 7 April 1834. In 1832 the opera reached Berlin, Strasbourg, Dublin and Liège; in 1833 Brussels, Copenhagen, Vienna and Marseilles; in 1834 Lyon, Budapest, The Hague, Amsterdam and Saint Petersburg; in 1835 (12 May) it obtained its first American performance in

6885-450: Was highly attractive to a Parisian audience which 'asked only to be astonished and surprised.' The critic Ortigue wrote that Meyerbeer 'straight away [took] his position at the crossroads where Italian song and German orchestration have to meet.' Meyerbeer paid close attention to unusual combinations and textures and original orchestration, examples being the use of low brass and woodwind playing chromatic passages associated with Bertram;

6970-450: Was his first new production as manager of the Opéra, and its success underwrote his policy of commissioning similar works. These were to include Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots , Fromental Halévy 's La Juive , and Daniel Auber 's Gustave III . However, while they used 'the same dazzling theatrical rhetoric' as Robert , they led to 'uniformly horrific dénouements' with 'gripping moral urgency', their more sophisticated plot-lines reflecting

7055-449: Was replaced as premier tenor at the Opéra by Gilbert Duprez , whom, however, Meyerbeer did not like in the role; nor did he approve of an alternative, Lafont. However, he was impressed by the newcomer Mario (Cavaliere Giovanni Matteo di Candia), and wrote for him a new aria for Robert which was performed at his debut in the revival of the opera on 30 November 1838. Mario's debut was the launch of his very successful career. Others singing in

7140-430: Was replaced by Louise Fitzjames, (who danced the role 232 times). At the invitation of Nourrit, Cornélie Falcon made her debut at the age of 18 at the Opéra in the role of Alice on 20 July 1832. The cast included Nourrit. Although suffering from stage fright, Falcon managed to sing her first aria without error, and finished her role with "ease and competence." Her tragic demeanor and dark looks were highly appropriate to

7225-644: Was the first performance there since 1893. In 1999 a new production was mounted at the Prague State Opera . A performance of a new critical edition of Robert le diable by Wolfgang Kühnhold was presented at the Berlin State Opera in March 2000 with Jianyi Zhang (Robert), Stephan Rügamer (Raimbaut), Kwangchul Youn (Bertram), Marina Mescheriakova (Alice), and Nelly Miricioiu (Isabelle), conducted by Marc Minkowski . A new production of

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