Erin Morley - Meyerbeer: ROBERT LE DIABLE, Idole de ma vie, 2021 High E

THE SONGBIRD: American soprano Erin Morley was born in Utah in 1980 to musical parents. She studied at Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School. Morley made her debut with New York City Opera in 2006 as Giannetta in "L’Elisir d’amore" and sang Zerbinetta at Wolf Trap in 2008. Her Met debut came in 2008 in a small role in "Manon Lescaut" followed by several seasons there in similar small roles until her breakout appearance stepping in as Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier" in 2013. More leading roles for The Met followed including Olympia, Pamina, Gilda, and Eurydice in the premiere of Aucoin's opera. She has sung at Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Washington Concert Opera, and has made international appearances at La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne Opera. I was fortunate to have heard Morley as Tytania in Santa Fe.

THE MUSIC: It's hard to overstate how successful Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable" was in its day. It premiered in Paris in 1831 as one of the first in the genre of French "grand opera" and was given a spectacular stage production with star singers. Meyerbeer's then fresh compositional style and innovative storytelling created a sensation -- notably the prurient “Ballet of the Nuns" (a dance where nuns rise from their graves, all dressed white, and give over to craven sins to try to seduce the title character). The opera has two soprano characters: Alice and Princess Isabelle. Isabelle’s entrance is a long scene with a romantic aria soon followed by news of her love Robert, which triggers one of the more elaborate coloratura cabalettas in the canon -- which Morley ends with an interpolated, spectacular High E6. (Note: I cut out a lengthy interstitial section for chorus between the aria and cabaletta in the interest of time). The role was sung at the premiere by the much-admired French soprano Laure Cinti-Damoreau, who was also the first to sing many florid roles by Rossini and Auber.