| Jacques
Fromental Halévy
(1799-1862): La Juive (15th century Switzerland) Act IV, Chapter 8, (duration:10") |
| Éléazar
(Neil Shicoff) Rachel, quand du Seigneur La grâce tu tutélaire A mes tremblantes mains confia ton berceau, J'avais à ton bonheur Voué ma vie entière. Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau! J'avais à ton bonheur Voué ma vie entière, Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau, Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau! |
Éléazar
(Neil Shicoff) Rachel, when the Lord's grace committed your cradle into my hands I made your happiness the avowed aim of my whole life And it is I who am sending you to your execution. I made your happiness the avowed aim of my whole life And it is I who am sending you to your execution. |
| Mais j'entends
une voix qui
me crie: Sauvez-moi de la mort qui m'attend! Je suis jeune et je tiens à la vie, Ô mon père épargnez votre enfant, Je suis jeune et je tiens à la vie, Ô mon père, ô mon père, épargnez votre enfant! |
But I can hear a
voice calling
to me: "Save me from the death which awaits me! I am young and I cling to life! O my father, spare your child! I am young and I cling to life! O my father, spare your child! " |
| Ah! Rachel,
quand du
Seigneur La grâce tu tutélaire A mes tremblantes mains confia ton berceau, J'avais à ton bonheur Voué ma vie entière. Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau, Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau! Et c'est moi qui te livre au bourreau, Rachel, je te livre au bourreau! Rachel, c'est moi, moi, moi qui te livre au bourreau! |
Rachel, when the
Lord's grace committed your cradle into my hands I made your happiness the avowed aim of my whole life And it is I who am sending you to your execution. And it is I who am sending you to your execution. And it is I who am sending you to your execution. Rachel, I am sending you to your execution Rachel, it is I, I I who am sending you to your execution. |
|
Synopsis
Set in Switzerland, at the beginning of the 15th Century, a time of religious upheaval, the story revolves around the Jewish goldsmith Eleazar, his daughter, Rachel and her love for Prince Leopold who has won her heart in the guise of a humble Jew. Unfortunately Leopold is already wed to an extremely jealous princess. Invited to a Passover seder at the home of Eleazar and Rachel, he is surprised by his spouse and forced to reveal his true identity, if not his exact marital situation. Although shocked that her lover is a Christian, the still-smitten Rachel convinces her father to allow her to elope with Leopold. At Eleazer’s grudging consent, the princely suitor flees, shouting that he cannot marry a Jew. He obviously had a less permanent arrangement in mind. This rejection results in Rachel’s denunciation of her false lover to the Cardinal at a state dinner. (The Jews have not been invited. They’re just delivering some jewelry). Since it was a crime to become romantically involved with a Jew, Leopold is excommunicated and thrown in prison, along with Eleazer and Rachel. At the urging of the Princess, Rachel recants her denunciation of Leopold whose death sentence is changed to exile. The Jews are given a chance to save themselves by renouncing their faith and converting, but they proudly refuse and, after a few more twists and turns of the plot, involving Rachel’s true identity as the long-lost daughter of the Cardinal, the aforementioned business with the boiling oil ensues. http://www.culturevulture.net/Opera/Juive.htm |