Here are ten minutes of Sergei Prokofiev's great opera 'The fiery angel', french version. The opera was completed in 1927, but the World Premiere was only after Prokofiev's death (March 5th, 1953, the same day as Stalin's death), on the 25th of November 1954 in Paris.

This recording is taken from the world premiere recording in 1957, also in Paris. It's a great recording, at least as much as enjoyable as the available Russian ones that I'm also familiar with, the ones greatly conducted by Järvi and by Gergiev. In this french version Jane Rhodes sings Renata and Ruprecht is sung by Xavier Depraz. Charles Bruck conducts the Orchestre du Theatre National de L'Opera de Paris. The only real disadvantage of this french version recording is that it is in mono and of course it lacks somewhat of the dynamics we are used to nowadays in a modern recording.

The Libretto is also by the composer, after the 1908 novel by Valery Bryusov.
a very brief outline: The story is set in sixteenth century Germany. Renata recognizes in count Heinrich her childhood visitor, Madiel, the fiery angel. Heinrich takes Renata as his mistress, but then abandons her. Renata enlists the knight Ruprecht in an obsessive search for her angel, through many bizarre adventures in the world of sixteenth century occultism. In the end Renata is convicted for heresy and condemned to death by the inquisition, by burning at the stake.

The Fiery Angel is a masterpiece, the orchestration, for instance, is brilliant. Besides Renata and Ruprecht there appear many other weirdo's in the story, like Faust and Mephistopholes and the famous occultist/philosopher Agrippa von Nettesheim.

Featured here are two segments, a long one from the Third Act's premier and second tableau, followed in the end by a short great excerpt from Act Four, premier tableau. The pictures are from several of my books and cd's and from the worldwideweb and of course no-one should be surprised that I've also selected pictures of two more or less modern "Renata's" in two great films: Isabelle Adjani in 'Possession' and Laura Linney in 'The excorcism of Emily Rose'.

The opera is based on the great novel 'The fiery angel: a sixteenth century romance', by the Russian Symbolist writer Valery Bryusov. It's a book full of fantasy, adventure, philosophy, religion, horror, occultism and last but not at all least: masochism. A fantastic read!

You also might be interested to know that almost all material of Prokofiev's third symphony is derived from his 'Fiery Angel'-opera.

Have fun...

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