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The Mapleson Cylinders - Program Notes
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Meyerbeer: LES HUGUENOTS
In 1896, Maurice Grau offered Metropolitan Opera audiences, at
advanced prices (a seven-dollar top), performances of Les
Huguenots that he billed as "Nights of the Seven Stars"; the stars of the
first one were Lillian Nordica (Valentine), Nellie Melba (Marguerite De
Valois), Sofia Scalchi (Urbain), Jean De Reszke (Raoul), his brother Edouard
(Marcel), Pol Plançon (St. Bris), and Victor Maurel (Nevers). Such
casting for Meyerbeer's historical epic remained a Met specialty even into the
years when Mapleson was recording, and at least three of the original "Seven
Stars" turn up on the cylinders from Huguenots. In the
three seasons from 1900-03, the opera was performed four, three, and
three times respectively--and, as the cylinders indicate, the language in
which the principals sang alternated between the original French and Italian
translation, presumably dependent on the casting (the chorus always sang in
Italian).
