Act III opens with the famous chorus of the Huguenot soldiers in

which, while they imitate with their hands the beating of drums, they sing their spirited "Rataplan." By contrast, the Catholic maidens, who accompany the bridal cortège of _Valentine_ and _de Nevers_ to the chapel, intone a litany, while Catholic citizens, students, and women protest against the song of the Huguenot soldiers. These several choral elements are skilfully worked out in the score. _Marcel_, coming upon the scene, manages to have _St. Bris_ summoned from the chapel, and presents _Raoul's_ challenge to a duel. The Catholics form their plot to assassinate _Raoul_, of which _Valentine_ finds opportunity to notify _Marcel_, in what is one of the striking scenes of the opera. The duel scene is preceded by a stirring septette, a really great passage, "En mon bon droit j'ai confiance" (On my good cause relying). The music, when the ambuscade is uncovered and _Marcel_ summons the Huguenots to _Raoul's_ aid, and a street combat is threatened, reaches an effective climax in a double chorus. The excitement subsides with the arrival of _Marguerite de Valois_, and of the barge containing _de Nevers_ and his retinue. A brilliant chorus, supported by the orchestra and by a military band on the stage, with ballet to add to the spectacle forms the finale, as _de Nevers_ conducts _Valentine_ to the barge, and is followed on board by _St. Bris_ and the nuptial cortège.

The fourth act, in the home of _de Nevers_, opens with a romance for _Valentine_, "Parmi les pleurs mon rêve se ranime" (Amid my tears, by dreams once more o'ertaken), which is followed by a brief scene between her and _Raoul_, whom the approach of the conspirators quickly obliges her to hide in an adjoining apartment. The scene of the consecration of the swords is one of the greatest in opera; but that it shall have its full effect _St. Bris_ must be an artist like Plançon, who, besides being endowed with a powerful and beautifully managed voice, was superb in appearance and as _St. Bris_ had the bearing of the dignified, commanding yet fanatic nobleman of old France. Musically and dramatically the scene rests on _St. Bris's_ shoulders, and broad they must be, since his is the most conspicuous part in song and action, from the intonation of his solo, "Pour cette cause sainte, obéisses sans crainte" (With sacred zeal and ardor let now your soul be burning),

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to the end of the savage _stretta_, when, the conspirators, having tiptoed almost to the door, in order to disperse for their mission, suddenly turn, once more uplift sword hilts, poignards, and crucifixes, and, after a frenzied adjuration of loyalty to a cause that demands the massacre of an unsuspecting foe, steal forth into the shades of fateful night.

Powerful as this scene is, Meyerbeer has made the love duet which follows even more gripping. For now he interprets the conflicting emotions of love and loyalty in two hearts. It begins with _Raoul's_ exclamation, "Le danger presse et le temps vole, laisse-moi partir" (Danger presses and time flies. Let me depart), and reaches its climax in a _cantilena_ of supreme beauty, "Tu l'as dit, oui tu m'aimes" (Thou hast said it; aye, thou lov'st me),

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which is broken in upon by the sinister tolling of a distant bell--the signal for the massacre to begin. An air for _Valentine_, an impassioned _stretta_ for the lovers, _Raoul's_ leap from the window, followed by a discharge of musketry, from which, in the curtailed version, he is supposed to meet his death, and this act, still an amazing achievement in opera, is at an end.

In the fifth act, there is the fine scene of the blessing by _Marcel_ of _Raoul_ and _Valentine_, during which strains of Luther's hymn are heard, intoned by Huguenots, who have crowded into their church for a last refuge.

"Les Huguenots" has been the subject of violent attacks, beginning with Robert Schumann's essay indited as far back as 1837, and starting off with the assertion, "I feel today like the young warrior who draws his sword for the first time in a holy cause." Schumann's most particular "holy cause" was, in this instance, to praise Mendelssohn's oratorio, "St. Paul," at the expense of Meyerbeer's opera "Les Huguenots," notwithstanding the utter dissimilarity of purpose in the two works. On the other hand Hanslick remarks that a person who cannot appreciate the dramatic power of this Meyerbeer opera, must be lacking in certain elements of the critical faculty. Even Wagner, one of Meyerbeer's bitterest detractors, found words of the highest praise for the passage from the love duet, which is quoted immediately above. The composer of "The Ring of the Nibelung" had a much broader outlook upon the world than Schumann, in whose genius there was, after all, a good deal of the _bourgeois_.

Pro or con, when "Les Huguenots" is sung with a fully adequate cast, it cannot fail of making a deep impression--as witness "les nuits de sept étoiles."

A typical night of the seven stars at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, was that of December 26, 1894. The _sept étoiles_ were Nordica (_Valentine_), Scalchi (_Urbain_), Melba (_Marguerite de Valois_), Jean de Reszke (_Raoul_), Plançon (_St. Bris_), Maurel (_de Nevers_), and Édouard de Reszke (_Marcel_). Two Academy of Music casts are worth referring to. April 30, 1872, Parepa-Rosa, for her last appearance in America, sang _Valentine_. Wachtel was _Raoul_ and Santley _St. Bris_. The other Academy cast was a "Night of six stars," and is noteworthy as including Maurel twenty years, almost to the night, before he appeared in the Metropolitan cast. The date was December 24, 1874. Nilsson was _Valentine_, Cary _Urbain_, Maresi _Marguerite de Valois_, Campanini _Raoul_, Del Puente _St. Bris_, Maurel _de Nevers_, and Nannetti _Marcel_. With a more distinguished _Marguerite de Valois_, this performance would have anticipated the "nuits de sept étoiles."

LE PROPHÈTE

THE PROPHET

Opera in five acts, by Meyerbeer; words by Scribe. Produced, Grand Opéra, Paris, April 6, 1849. London, Covent Garden, July 24, 1849, with Mario, Viardot-Garcia, Miss Hayes, and Tagliafico. New Orleans, April 2, 1850. New York, Niblo's Garden, November 25, 1853, with Salvi (_John of Leyden_), Steffanone and Mme. Maretzek. Revived in German, Metropolitan Opera House, by Dr. Leopold Damrosch, December 17, 1884, with Anton Schott as _John of Leyden_, Marianne Brandt as _Fides_ and Schroeder-Hanfstaengl as _Bertha_. It was given ten times during the season, in which it was equalled only by "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin." Also, Metropolitan Opera House, 1898-99, with Jean de Reszke, Brema (_Fides_), Lehmann (_Bertha_); January 22, 1900, Alvarez, Schumann-Heink, Suzanne Adams, Plançon and Édouard de Reszke; by Gatti-Casazza, February 7, 1918, with Caruso, Matzenauer, Muzio, Didur, and Mardones.

CHARACTERS

JOHN OF LEYDEN _Tenor_ FIDES, his mother _Mezzo-Soprano_ BERTHA, his bride _Soprano_ JONAS } { _Tenor_ MATTHISEN } Anabaptists { _Bass_ ZACHARIAS } { _Bass_ COUNT OBERTHAL _Baritone_

Nobles, citizens, Anabaptists, peasants, soldiers, prisoners, children.

_Time_--1534-35.

_Place_--Dordrecht, Holland, and Münster.