OPERA FANS LIKE ‘DIABLE’ EVEN IF THE CRITICS DON’T

Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Robert le Diable” was looked on throughout the 19th Century as one of the glories of grand opera in Paris. For more than six decades, critics and opera lovers hailed it as a prized attraction of every season.

Then Meyerbeer fell out of favor. His music and his spectacle no longer excited audiences. In 1893, the Paris Opera dropped “Robert le Diable,” with its opulent sets, from the repertoire. All other opera companies of the world did the same.

Hardly anyone sees or hears the opera any more. In all the 20th Century--until this year--there have been only two known productions: in Vienna in 1921 and in Florence in 1968. Only one recording of the opera is listed in discographies.

This history explains why there was a good deal of expectation and some skepticism this year when the Paris Opera decided to mount a new production of “Robert le Diable” in late June and July, its first staging of the opera in 92 years. The results have been uneven.

While the packed audiences have been enthusiastic and evidently delighted by the five-hour evenings, the critics have not. The reviews have been condescending and sarcastic.

Critic Gerard Conde of Le Monde, France’s most influential newspaper, faintly praised Massimo Bogianckino, general administrator of the Paris Opera, for wanting “to reconcile the French people of today with those of 1830.” But, he went on, “an institution that offers so few productions that are different can hardly afford to transform itself into a museum.”

Conde admired some of Meyerbeer’s writing for the voice, but he dismissed him in general as “the worst composer of the 19th Century,” and said it was not necessary to sit through one of his operas to find that out.

Critic Pierre-Petit wrote in Le Figaro: “It is fascinating, when one listens attentively to ‘Robert le Diable,’ to realize at each instant how Meyerbeer, with the hand of a master, organizes the emptiness. Because there is hardly any true music in all its five acts.”

This sumptuous 1985 production of “Robert le Diable” clearly was not the hit of the Paris Opera season, but it certainly was its historical curiosity. While it failed to reconcile the French of today with those of the 1830s, it offered a fascinating look into the worlds of opera a century apart.

Meyerbeer was born in a wealthy Jewish family of Berlin in 1791 and named Jakob Liebman Beer. While writing music in Italy as a young man, he adopted the Italian version of his first name and added his mother’s family name to his last name, becoming Giacomo Meyerbeer. In 1824 he moved to Paris, then the world center of opera.

Paris was producing the first of what became known as French grand operas--lengthy, sumptuous productions of five acts with massive sets, glittering costumes, ballet troupes, large choruses and many soloists. Meyerbeer signed a contract to write the music for “Robert le Diable” with Eugene Scribe, a well-known playwright of the era, as the main librettist.

The story was an old French medieval tale reprinted many times in popular editions for the masses. The legend describes Robert, the young Duke of Normandy, as the son of a human mother who was seduced by a devil. The father, who takes the guise of a companion of Robert, tries to prevent the young man from marrying Princess Isabelle of Sicily and, after revealing his true identity, tries to persuade him to come home to hell. In the end, Robert chooses love, humanity and the memory of his mother.

The opera, premiering Nov. 21, 1831, was an instant and influential success. Within three years it had played 77 theaters in 10 countries. French news magazine L’Express recently called “Robert le Diable” “the first best seller in the history of opera.”

French composer Hector Berlioz wrote in a journal of music a few years after the premiere that “ ‘Robert le Diable’ offers the most astonishing example of the power of instrumentation applied to dramatic music.” Scholars believe that Meyerbeer also influenced Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.

Meyerbeer, who became the most popular operatic composer of Paris, went on to write such operas as “L’Africaine,” “Les Huguenots” and “Le Prophete” before he died in 1864. The Paris Opera dropped “Robert” after it had been performed by the company 758 times.

The lack of interest in Meyerbeer in the 20th Century has led to the conclusion that 19th-Century audiences were more fascinated by his spectacle than his music. The music, according to this view, does not hold up by itself in a century when budget problems limit sets and costumes.

Budget restrictions were not in evidence in the 1985 production by the Paris Opera. Petrika Ionesco, the Romanian-born director and set designer, created enormous, sometimes breathtaking monumental sets, presenting the illusion of a statue greater than those of Abu Simbel, of a cathedral greater than Chartres, of a barren rock greater than Gibraltar. The audiences could not complain that they were cheated of 19th-Century spectacle.

Ionesco, however, couldn’t seem to make up his mind how to treat the opera in his direction. An animated, comic film played across the curtain as the orchestra performed the overture. His dancers burlesqued one of Meyerbeer’s ballets and some of his sets had a craggy, futurist look of “Star Wars” movies. But most of the work was played very straight and very medieval. This confusion about whether to celebrate the opera or mock it seemed to confuse the Paris music critics.

The audiences, however, did not seem as critical and, with a few booing exceptions, applauded with great verve when performances ended. Both the critics and audiences singled out two Americans for the most attention--June Anderson, who sang the role of Princess Isabelle, and conductor Thomas Fulton. Basso Samuel Ramey sang the title role.