Before we summarize Liszt’s Robert le Diable, it is
important to summarize the plot.
Bertram confronts his friend Robert, and he takes away
Robert's wealth. Robert realizes
that he needs money and armor
to realize his dream of getting
the princess Isabella and to
stand a good chance of winning the
knights' tournament. Bertram
beckons the demons in the cavern
scene to bring out the nuns in
the subsequent cloister scene to
tempt his friend. Robert comes
very close to facing a hellish
death when Helena and his nuns
finally beckoned him to pull off
the talisman near St. Rosalie.
In the castle scene, Robert,
holding the branch containing a
powerful sleeping potion, runs
into Isabella, who is immune to
the potion. He gets unlucky when
he breaks the branch and ends
up arrested. In the final church
scene, Bertram realizes almost
at the last moment that Robert is
going to fall in love with
Isabella. Bertram and Robert try
to reconcile themselves by
making up a demonic pact. Bertram
is unsure about the validity
of the pact so he waits to sign
it. But at that point the clock
in the church strikes midnight and
he is dragged to hell, and
Robert finally marries Isabella.
Franz Liszt's Robert le Diable was the only arrangement in
this study which focused on the
ballet elements in the les
séductions. In the séduction de jeu (or "play of seduction"), Liszt
begins the part in a lighthearted
manner as in the original
score, and then bursts into a
fearful version at the end of the
section. Although he left out the
nuns' procession, the bac-
chanale, the seduction of love and
the final Act III chorus,
this depicts Robert's temptation
for breaking the branch (the
lower notes) and the nuns continuing
their dancing (the upper
notes) in the molto più agitato (or "very much agitated") section.
Robert's "fear motive" in the
Liszt arrangement (mm. 492-
495), clashing against the first
part of the waltz-chorus, was
also a deception by Franz Liszt
because he used that with
virtually no introduction.
The quick change to the revelation of the
ending of the
waltz theme to the restatement of
the "Gloîre au maître" (Glory To
The Master) in the final bars was Liszt's attempt to
cover the whole valse
infernale within the
scope of a condensed arrangement.
How Liszt’s Robert le Diable Relates
to the Original Score
The longer version of Liszt’s Reminiscences of Robert le
Diable started off
with the Act IV cavatine, "Robert, Robert,
toi que j’aime" before going
to the Act III valse infernale.
Meaning "Robert, Robert, you that I
love", this is an F
minor 3/4 cavatine that seems to
have 2 parts; the latter part
ends in a F major key, and both
parts are repeated. One revision
of Franz Liszt's Reminiscences of Robert le Diable begins
with
the cavatine a semitone up (F#),
before the famous Valse
infernale. The shorter
version of Liszt piece had the valse
only. This was taken from Act IV,
scene II (mm. 1-96, no. 18C)
of the original opera.
Liszt starts off the first four measures
as in the score,
but in the next four measures, he
improvises the right hand
without the recitative-like effect
as in the original score.
He starts measures nine through twelve as
in the score,
then in the next 24 measures,
instead of going immediately into
the Meyerbeer score of the waltz,
he gives only a portion of the
waltz theme, and he interrupts
that with four crashing chords:
F#-B-D-F#/F#-B-D-E#-G/F#-B-C#-E-G/F#-A#-C#-E-G,
and an easy
octave cadenza between both hands
follows. Eventually, the
actual rendition of the "O
demons, fantomes" (or, "Oh, demons,
phantoms") comes to light.
In the les
triolets du diable (the running triplet
sixteenths in the lower register,
pictorially called
devil triplets, because it depicts
the fluctuating flames
from the cavern), Liszt shortens
the passage
for only ten measures, while in
the Meyerbeer version, it has
sixteen measures.
It is not until Liszt reaches the "O,
mon fils" ("Oh, my son")
section of the cavern chorus does Liszt try
to imitate the actual score,
using the ‘Gloire au maître’
chorus chant in the left hand in
different parts of the piano
register with an antiphonal effect
(in order to imitate the different
voci, or voices, of the chorus). At that
point, Liszt reiterates the
27-measure theme of "O, mon fils"
there (the second time) in a more
gentle, more cantabile (or "singing") matter,
with a flowing accompaniment,
omitting the "Gloire au maître"
chant and making the tempo meno mosso (or "slower").
The piano part gives the second part of
the "O demons,
fantomes," and go back to the beginning of the chorus,
elimi-
nating the introduction and
cadenza. Meyerbeer does go back,
but Liszt goes to the words
"Gloire au maître qu’il preside"
(the third part of the waltz).
Liszt goes on to the séduction de jeu (or "Play of seduction") but he
starts of in
B major, and holds the key for 28
measures until he goes to the
key center of D major and goes on
for another sixteen measures.
What is different in th score is
that Liszt extends the
séduction a lot
more—using it in addition to the "O, mon fils"
used by Liszt earlier in B
major—but now, he does the reprise of
"O, mon fils" in A-flat
major, and continues the séduction
theme
in a very strong development
section filled with continually
changing harmonies, cumilating to
another rendition of the "O,
mon fils" and the séduction de jeu
melodies—-more grand, more
difficult, and even louder.
He returns to the main first theme, in the
key of the
Meyerbeer score, and in the
open-fifths ‘syncopation’ theme
(Molto piu animato--or much more lively), he omits the Bertram line that supersedes
fifths as in the original score.
Then he moves on to the Marche des
chevaliers (or le theme
du tournoi --The March of the Knights--Tournament Motive),
but
Liszt it close—-he goes down a semitone
to B major (from the original
score’s C major), and the tempo
seems to be rather close to the
score’s tempo.
