FULL Le Jongleur De Notre-Dame Tallahassee FL 2012 Josh Efflin, Logan Rebstock, Alex Scheuermann
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Le Jongleur De Notre-Dame
- Composer: Massenet Jules
- Libretto: Maurice Léna Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Tallahassee, Florida State University FSU Opera
- Recorded: May 2012
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Josh Efflin, Logan Rebstock, Alex Scheuermann, Ryan Tucker, Brandon Lockhart, Garrison Carpenter, Blake Hudson
- Conductor: Douglas Fisher
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Sara E. Widzer
- Stage Designer: Gerry Leahy
- Costume Designer: Julia Mattenson
- Lighting Designer: Katie Redd
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Sara Widzer
- Date Published: 2018
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Quote from Wikipedia
Le jongleur de Notre-Dame is a three-act opera (labelled in the programme as Miracle in Three Acts) by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Maurice Léna. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Monte Carlo on 18 February 1902. It is one of five operas Massenet set in the Middle Ages, the others being Le Cid (1885), Esclarmonde (1889), Grisélidis (1901), and Panurge (1913).
Synopsis
Place: France
Time: Medieval period
Act 1, Place de Cluny
There is singing and dancing in front of the monastery; Jean, a juggler, wants to earn money entertaining passers-by. Rejecting his clumsy tricks, they demand a profane song ‘Halleluiah to wine’. He resists at first but then sings it. The Prior appears and takes Jean to task but seeing that Jean is filled with remorse, the Prior asks him to join the monks, to save his soul and body.
Act 2, the cloisters
Inside the monastery the monks undertake their various duties. Jean sees that although they honour the Virgin with beautiful Latin prayers, he is unable to offer her any thing. The other monks quarrel as they offer to take him as a pupil. Befriended by the monastery’s cook, Boniface sings him the legend of the sagebush which humbly opened its branches to shelter the Infant Jesus as He slept. When Jean sees that the other monks are offering lavish and beautiful gifts to the newly completed statue of the Virgin Mary, he, having no real gift, resolves to do what he can do best.
Act 3, in the chapel
The painter and sculptor monks admire their newly completed statue of the Virgin. As Jean enters the former hides behind a pillar, and watches as the juggler takes his habit off and puts his old street clothes on, at which the hidden monk goes to warn the prior. Playing his hurdy-gurdy, he dances, until the other monks enter, horrified, and are about to seize Jean to reprimand him for blasphemy. Boniface stops them as the statue of the Virgin comes to life, holds out her arms and blesses Jean. Jean falls to his knees as a heavenly light glows from the altar the Virgin ascends to Heaven. As the prior sings the words Massenet placed at the top of his score “Heureux les simples, car ils verront Dieu” (Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will find God), Jean dies, and the other monks, and angels, sing Amen.