Opera, Liberalism, and Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France

This comprehensive critical study of the nineteenth-century French grand opéra La Juive (Paris Opéra, 1835) is a powerful and successful work by the leading dramatist and librettist Eugène Scribe, and Conservatoire-trained composer, Fromental Halévy. Hallman explores the politically charged messages of the opera within the context of French social and cultural history. The book addresses the opera's portrayal of religious intolerance and Jewish-Christian conflict in subject, setting and characterization, viewing the anticlerical thrust of its critique as a reminder of the historical abuses of an autocratic Church and State and as reflection of the era's liberal ideology. It also considers the portrayal of the central Jewish characters in light of literary stereotypes and contradictory, antisemitic attitudes toward Jews in French society.