Giacomo Meyerbeer, Il crociato in Egitto (1824)

I wanted to see this one for two related reasons. First, it's ("probably," per wikipedia) the last opera ever written with a castrato role, which gives it some historical interest. And second, that castrato role is here played not by a countertenor but by Michael Maniaci, a male soprano.

Now, the question of exactly what "male soprano" means is a bit slippery, but for Maniaci, what it means is that he's a freakish mutant (um, in a good way) whose larynx didn't develop normally. Countertenors are unique among classical singing types in that their singing register doesn't correlate in any way with their speaking voices: they're doing a different thing than other singers do. But a male soprano can sing high notes without having to do that. If that makes sense. Is this what castrati actually sounded like? I have my doubts, at least in Maniaci's case. His body manufactures male hormones normally (I assume); it's just this one aspect of his physiology that's different. But in any event, I really wanted to hear what he was about.

So. The story is that it's Crusader Times in Egypt. The Sultan, Aladino, wants his daughter Palmide to marry his friend Elmireno, who saved his life in battle and whatnot. But! Elmireno is already secretly married to Palmide, and they have a son together (I know stranger things have happened, but keeping a whole pregnancy secret like that is still quite a trick). Also! Elmireno is actually Armando, a Christian crusader, in disguise! Palmide herself has secretly converted to Christianity. But! Now some Frankish crusaders have arrived in Egypt to negotiate with the Sultan, including Armando's uncle Adriano and his former fiancée Felicia. Adriano recognizes Armando (who had been thought dead) and demands that he come back to fight for Christianity, which he agrees to. The crusaders and Aldino decide that though they're foes, they respect each other, and in recognition of their frenemiship, Aldino agrees to free all his Frankish captives (like Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail, this opera is a good illustration of the ambivalent European attitude towards the Muslim world). So that's good, but negotiations quickly break down when Armando reveals himself to have been deceiving the Sultan. He imprisons all the Christians, but when he meets his grandson, his heart softens. But then it hardens again when he learns his daughter has converted. He's going to have all the Christians executed, but when his vizier Osmino betrays him and tries to stage a coup, they protect him, and now it's Christians + Muslims Best Friends 4-Ever, apparently. Palmide and her son are going to go back to France with Armando, and Felicia is apparently resigned to the situation.

So the first question is, how is Maniaci as Armando? It's not that I'd never heard his singing before; I have a CD of him doing Mozart arias. But somehow that's not quite the same as actually seeing him, you know? And, well, I like him a whole lot. If I didn't know and you told me he was "just" a countertenor, I'd no doubt unquestioningly believe you, but there's definitely a difference. Countertenor voices are generally kind of "light;" his singing seems somehow more weighty. Like he can do things that they might struggle with. He sounds similar to a standard soprano, but not, somehow, identical. And his performance is all the more impressive given that he was a last-minute replacement and only had two weeks to learn a role in an opera he was totally unfamiliar with. He should definitely appear in a lot more operas--while he's young, you know.

But Maniaci aside, what did I think of the opera? Well...I absolutely loved it. Believe me, no one's more surprised about that than I am. This is the work that first brought Meyerbeer some degree of prominence, as I understand it, but inasmuch as he's remembered for anything these days, it's certainly not his Italian operas. Even the DVD notes only offer qualified praise, opining that "once the novelty of the first performances has passed, today it is difficult to fall in love with an opera that is so clearly a work in transition, no longer purely Italian and not yet French." I don't know. Maybe it depends what you're looking for. Certainly, of the three Meyerbeers I've seen, this is my favorite by a great margin.  It was the first one that made me understand why he would've been considered a Big Deal. I still badly need to see Les Huguenots, generally regarded as his masterpiece, but it might just be that I like a kind of opera that Meyerbeer, at the peak of his popularity, did not write. This feels very strongly like a throwback to the opera seria of yore; I'd think it would've felt extremely old-fashioned at its debut. But perhaps people didn't historicize in that way back in the day.

At any rate, it's just full of one great aria, duet, trio, quartet after another. Loved the music, loved the singing. Also, I was surprised by how engrossed I got in the story; it's easy to cavil about this or that aspect of it (I do wish Felicia got to have a better role), but I really was frequently thinking omg, what will happen next?!? And while it's certainly dated in its own way, I really did appreciate the interfaith accord that it ends with. I dunno; in this day and age, that kind of thing seems more important than ever.