Assimilationist Messaging in Fromental Halévy’s La Juive

Abstract

Fromental Halévy’s grand opera La Juive premiered in 1835 and was notable for its inclusion of Jewish characters. Halévy was not only an operatic composer, but a French Jew in Paris during a time when the Reform Judaism movement was developing, often leading to a more assimilated form of Judaism than traditional movements. This paper aims to analyse the portrayal of Jews in La Juive, through an examination of the differences between the Jew Eléazar and his daughter Rachel, a musical analysis of the Passover seder scene, and a grounding in the cultural zeitgeist of the Jewish communities of France in the nineteenth century. Through this analysis, Halévy’s musical portrayals of Eléazar and Rachel demonstrate the practice of assimilating into gentile society in order to avoid antisemitism.

Keywords

• Fromental HalévyLa Juive, grand opera, antisemitism, Jewish music
• Fromental Halévy
• La Juive
• Grand Opera
• Anti-Semitism
• Jewish Music