Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Classical Music Discoveries
Episode: 18191 Meyerbeer: Robert le diable (Robert the Devil)
Description: Robert le diable (Robert the Devil) was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers, and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin, who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendor shown in Robert...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal". Robert initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new director of t...