La Juive at Nationaltheater Mannheim

Cardinal Brogny and the Jew Eléazar have a common history: Brogny condemned the sons of Jews to death at the stake, Eléazar Rescued undetected Brognys daughter from a burning house. Under the name of Rachel he bring them up in the Jewish faith. Your biological father he has never forgiven. Imperial Prince Léopold falls in love with the beautiful Jewess supposed, although he is already connected to the niece of the emperor. A marriage with Rachel is impossible, but father and daughter feel betrayed. Rachel makes her relationship with Léopold publicly Brogny leaves all three thrown into prison for this. Subsequent relief saves Léopold, the Jew and his supposed daughter but be sentenced to death. In the moment in which Rachel died, Eléazar Brogny opened her true identity. The plot embeds a private conflict in a historical situation, the Council of Constance in 1414, and opened Halévy diverse compositional possibilities. On the one hand he characterizes the main characters in a dramatic way, as evidenced in an expressive melody. On the other hand, he uses the folk scenes to large tableaus, outfitted in their strength and develop a strong sonic maelstrom. Here Halévy used a then new sound mix, in which he emphasizes the deep brass. The continuing success of this opera made Halévy the greatest exponents of grand opera by Meyerbeer.