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| Seth Carico (center)as Count Oberthal |
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| Le Prophète at the Deutsche Oper |
For those not familiar with the rarely performed 4 1/2 French Grand Opera, the story charts the rise and fall of the regime that installed the Protestant Anabaptist sect in the Westphalian city of Münster in 1535. Jean de Leyde, an innkeeper, leads the band of fundamentalists in an act of defiance against the despotic Catholic authorities. However, he soon realizes that the revolutionaries are as corrupt as the rulers they have displaced.
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| Gregory Kunde and an angel in Le Prophète |
One thread running through Meyerbeer’s work is the corrupting effect of power. The only voice of reason is that of the women, the powerless, apolitical inhabitants of this world – headed by Jean’s mother Fidès, who warns her infatuated son to recant, proffering pure and total forgiveness in return.
There is one performance remaining on December 16 with the current cast. It then returns on January 4 and 7 with a different cast, including Australian barihunk Andrew Finden replacing Seth Carico as Count Oberthal.
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| Zachary Gordin and Gianluca Margheri from our 2018 Barihunks Calendar/photo book |
