They come to the Tree
of Human Knowledge on the banks of the Styx and Faust picks the fruit.
From this detail it is easy to imagine that the libretto is bizarre.
The authorship of this amazing libretto is unknown, but it is not
strange that Meyerbeer soon abandoned it. From this still-born _Faust_,
Scribe, at the request of the author, constructed _Robert le Diable_. An
aria sung by Faust on the banks of the Styx becomes the _Valse
Infernale_.
The necessity of utilizing pre-existing fragments explains some of the
incoherence of this incomprehensible piece. It also explains the
creation of Bertram, half man, half devil, who was invented as a
substitute for Mephistopheles. The fruit of the Tree of Human Knowledge
became the _Rameau Veneree_ in the third act, and the beautiful
religious scene in the fifth act, which has no relation to the action,
is a transposition of the Easter scene.
So Scribe should not be blamed for making a poor piece when he had so
many difficulties to contend with. He must have lost his head a little
for Robert's mother was called Berthe in the first act and Rosalie in
the third. However, the answer might be that she changed her name when
she became religious.
Later, Scribe was put to another no less difficult test with _L'Etoile
du Nord_.
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