(complete)
R. Cipolla, illustration for Act 4 in The Victor Book of Opera(1917)
Marguerite de Valois .................. Louise Lebrun
Valentine ..................................... Kathie Clarke
Raoul ............................................ Alain Vanzo
Nevers ..................................... Robert Massard
Saint-Bris ...................................... Jules Bastin
Marcel ............................................... Will Roy
Urbain ........................................... Della Jones
and
Jean-Claude Orliac; Bernard Plantey; Jacques Trigeau; Jean-Philippe Lafont; Jacques Bona; Gérard Friedmann; Pierre d'Hollander; Bernard van der Meersch; Philippe Rouillon; Thérèse Cedelle; Micaëla Etcheverry
Choeur et Orchestre de la ORTF
Henri Gallois, cond.
French Radio, 12 January 1976
Giacomo Meyerbeer (Berlin, 1797 - Paris, 1863) was born Jakob Liebmann in a wealthy Jewish family and became the most important composer of French grand opera of his generation. Partly as the result of his compositional skill and partly due to his financial independence, Meyerbeer was meticulous about his opera productions and was able to control the choice of singers and, to a large extent, the publicity his operas received.
Meyerbeer's first major success was at the Paris Opéra with an 1831 production of Robert le Diable. This was followed over the next three decades by triumphant productions of Les Huguenots, Le Prophète and finally by L'Africaine, staged in Paris a year after the composer's death.
Act I
