Perhaps the most celebrated Jewish heroine was Rachel, of Jacques Halévy's grand opera La Juive (1853).
Scribe was writing to the tastes of the Opéra de Paris, where the work was first performed – a work in five acts presenting spectacular situations (here the Council of Constance of 1414), which would allow a flamboyant staging in a setting which brought out a dramatic situation which was also underlined by a powerful historical subject.
La Juive |
In 1904 he provided pre-opera lectures for Charles Manners' (1857–1938) Moody-Manners touring company (the larger) for its performances at Theater Royal, Drury Lane lecturing on Charles Gounod's Faust and Fromental Halévy's La Juive, and Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin.
He made his professional opera debut in 1887 at the opera house in Nîmes as Eleazar in Halévy's La Juive.
In her 21 years with the company, Lehmann sang more than fifty different roles at the Vienna State Opera, including Marie/Marietta in Die tote Stadt, the title-roles in La Juive by Fromental Halévy, Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, and Manon by Jules Massenet, Charlotte in Werther, Marguerite in Faust, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin.
His fame spread so far that Toscanini appealed to him to sing the leading role in Fromental Halévy's La Juive, but Rosenblatt replied that he would only use his vocal gift for the glory of God, in service to his religion.
His opera repertoire includes many Verdi operas, including Aida, Simon Boccanegra, La Traviata, Rigoletto and Nabucco; Puccini operas such as Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot; as well as Andrea Chenier (Giordano), Norma (Bellini), La Juive (Halevy) and Carmen (Bizet).
Halévy was elected to the Institut de France in 1836, but after La Juive,his real successes were relatively few, although at least three operas, L'éclair, La reine de Chypre and Charles VI received some critical and popular acclaim.