Les Huguenots
Grand opera in five acts
Libretto by EUGÈNE SCRIBE and EMILE DESCHAMPS
Music by Meyerbeer (sung in French)
Les Huguenots, first performed in Paris in 1836, was Meyerbeer's greatest opera. The story centres on the 16th-century massacre on the night of St Bartholomew. Peace ostensibly exists between the Catholics and the Huguenots, but the Catholics, led by Saint-Bris, are determined to destroy the Calvinist Huguenots.
Courtiers, noblemen, soldiers, monks
CHORUS OF AUSTRIAN RADIO chorus-master
GOTTFRIED PREINFALK
WIENER SINGAKADEMIE chorus-master
HERMANN FURTHMOSER
VIENNA RADIO SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA conducted by ERNST MARZENDORFER
(Recording made available by courtesy of Austrian Radio)
The action takes place in France in the year 1572
Act 1 A room in the chateau of the Comte de Nevers
Act 2 The gardens of Chenonceaux in Touraine
3.50' Meyerbeer: Another Look A talk by JULIAN BUDDEN
4.5* Les Huguenots
Act 3 The Pre-aux-Clercs on the bank of the Seine
Act 4 A room in the house of the Comte de Nevers in Paris
Act 5 Se 1: A Huguenot church-yard: Sc 2: A square in Paris
(13 May: Meyerbeer's Le Prophete)