Composer Giacomo Meyerbeer was to opera in mid-19th century Europe what Cecil B. DeMille was to Hollywood in his heyday. A master of the historical and religious spectacular, a partisan of the big theatrical and musical moment, Meyerbeer was grand opera. It seemed that his extravaganzas, notably Le Prophete and Les Huguenots, would never lose their hold on the public. But in the early decades of this century, they disappeared from view.
Last week New York's Metropolitan Opera brought back Le Prophete like treasure hunters raising a sunken hull. What the Met found was...
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