Jacques Fromenthal Hal鶹 was, along with Giacomo Meyerbeer and Daniel Francois Auber, one of the three giants of French opera in the mid-nineteenth century. Since these three composers had a great deal in common, it seems appropriate to provide a joint introduction (in two parts) to all three: This can be accessed under The three Giants

A biography of Halévy can be accessed under Halévy Biography

At the turn of the previous century (about 100 years ago) Halévy and Auber were practically household words among lovers of classical music, with several of their operas still being given. As a result, a number of excerpts from these operas were recorded on 78 rpm records--some as late as the 1920s. But the revival of Italian ottocento operas (Bellini, Donizetti, Mercadante, Pacini, etc.) did not arouse a similar interest in France in their own musical history until very recently. It seems that while some Auber was performed, especially in Compiègne and by French radio, this enthusiasm did not carry over to Halévy until 2005 when Charles VI was given in Compiègne. His La juive was performed occasionally in cities like New Orleans, New York, Vienna and Barcelona, but rarely so far in France or Belgium. There have been several recent productions of La juive, and I am delighted to provide a review of two performances in Vienna starring Neil Shicoff by Ms. Claire Butler: Claire's review

Thus, while we do have several recordings of La juive, as well as one recording of L'éclair in German, very little is available at this time on the other works, although Charles VI is promised.

	Philips 420 190-2	Legato LCD 224-2
Rachel	Julia Varady	Ilona Tokody
Eudoxie	June Anderson	Sona Ghazarian
El顺ar	Jos頃arreras	Jos頃arreras
L鯰old	Dalmacio Gonzalez	Chris Merritt
Cardinal Brogni	Ferruccio Furlanetto	Cesare Siepi
Conductor	Antonio de Almeida	Gerd Albrecht

Several other complete recordings of La juive had been available on LP and in the early days of CDs. Most prominent among these are a London performance starring Richard Tucker, another performance with Tony Poncet, as well as commercial highlight discs with each of them. An even earlier version with Miklos Gafni should also be mentioned.

To return to the two recordings listed in the above table, both of these feature Jose Carreras as Eléazar. Both are heavily cut, the cuts being somewhat different in each. Thus, there is much more of the final trio in Act II in the Legato recording with Merritt as Leopold, while the Phillips recording with Gonzalez as Leopold has two verses of his serenade to one in the Legato. The Phillips also has more of the great confrontational duet in Act IV between Eléazar and Brogni.

My own personal view is that, for anyone who appreciates La juive as much as I do, both of these, as well as the Tucker (if you can find it) are essential.

Finally, there is an old LP of excerpts with Richard Tucker, These are poorly chosen in my opinion, since the big confrontational duet for El顺ar and Brogni is missing, as are the act endings. However, it does have some magnificent singing by Tucker.

Details of the recording of L'eclair will be provided shortly at L'eclair

As said before, very little has been recorded from Halévy's other works. What there is is listed below:

L'eclair
Aria: "Quand de la nuit" (1)Jerry Hadley: in RCA CD 09026-68030
(2)Benjamin Butterfield in CBC Records SMCD5196
La reine de Chypre
Duet: Salut, salut a cette noble France: Benjamin Butterfield and Brett Polegato in CBC Records SMCD 5196
Duet: "Triste exilé" 034; (the middle portion of the above duet)Henri Beyle and Hector Dufranne in Rubini RS 302
Charles Fontaine and Jean Noté in Cypres CD 3603
Charles VI
Aria: "Guerre aux tyrans" Jean Not頯n Cypres CD 3603 and Daniel Vigneau on IRCC CD 821
Aria: "C'est grand pitié" 034; Henri Albers IRCC CD 821
Aria: "Avec la douce chansonette" Jean Noté IRCC CD 821
Les mousquetaires de la reine
Duet: "Saint Nicolas o mon patron" 78 rpm
Le val d'Andorre
: "Chanson du Chévrier" Peter Russel on LP NZOS 2

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