La Juive - powerful theatre

We were lucky to be in Nice, France, this May when Halevy's opera La Juive had four performances at the Nice Opera House. Written in 1835, this opera was widely performed for the next 100 years and then fell out of favor. The recent staging packed a powerful punch. The basic story line is a variation on the eternal triangle with racism thrown in. Rachel, the daughter of the Jewish goldsmith Eleazar, is in love with "Samuel," who is actually the Christian general Leopold, just returned from vanquishing the Hussites, but who claims to be Jewish to win her favor. He attends a Passover Seder wearing a skull cap but remaining silent during prayers and trying to discard his matzoh. Also in love with Leopold is the princess Eudoxie, who asks Eleazar to make a pendant for her fiancee. Rachel denounces Leopold at the banquet as having slept with a Jew, her. Rachel, her father and Leopold are all condemned. Eudoxie visits the doomed Rachel and begs her to recant to save Leopold and after much soul-searching, Rachel does just that. A twist is that the leader of the Christians is Cardinal Brogni, who came late to the clergy after his family and possessions were burned by invaders. Eleazar tells him that his daughter was actually saved by a Jew and that he knows their whereabouts, but refuses to tell him as punishment. Eleazar asks his daughter if she will save her life by converting but she refuses. At the final scene, Rachel is cast into the flames and then Eleazar tells Brogni that it is HIS daughter who is dying. All of the lead roles had powerful voices and all wonderfully expressive faces that added to the drama. The Nice Opera Orchestra was superb. The only detraction was the heat in the venue, which is beautiful but lacked functioning air conditioning. If you have the chance to see this opera, grab it.