L'Africaine (Opera)

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Work data
Title: The African
Original title: L'Africaine
The four main characters of the opera in the world premiere: Emilio Naudin as Vasco da Gama, Marie Battu as Inès, Marie Sasse as Sélika, Jean-Baptiste Faure as Nélusco

The four main characters of the opera in the premiere: Emilio Naudin as Vasco da Gama, Marie Battu as Inès, Marie Sasse as Sélika, Jean-Baptiste Faure as Nélusco

Shape: Grand opéra in five acts
Original language: French
Music: Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto : Eugène Scribe
Premiere: April 28, 1865
Place of premiere: Paris
Playing time: approx. 3 ¾ hours or (as Vasco de Gama ) 4 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: Lisbon and East Africa in the late 15th century
people
  • Don Pédro, President of the Council of the King of Portugal ( bass )
  • Don Diégo, Admiral, Member of the Council (bass)
  • Inès, his daughter ( soprano )
  • Vasco de / da Gama , naval officer ( tenor )
  • Don Alvar, member of the Council (tenor)
  • The Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon (bass)
  • Nélusko, slave ( baritone )
  • Sélika, female slave (soprano)
  • The high priest of Brahma (Bass)
  • Anna, accompanist of Inès (soprano)
  • A council servant (tenor)
  • A priest (tenor)
  • Four sailors (2 tenors, 2 basses)
  • Eight bishops (8 basses)
  • A servant (silent role)
  • Members of the Council of the King of Portugal, council servants, guards of the Admiralty, naval officers, Portuguese prisoners, sailors, soldiers, Inès' entourage, priests of Brahma, Indians of various castes, Malagasy Brahmins of both sexes, Portuguese women, Bayaders, people ( choir , Extras)
  • Priestesses, Brahmins, the female guard, jugglers, warriors, the queen, Indian women (ballet)

L'Africaine (Eng .: Die Afrikanerin , alternative title: Vasco de Gama ) is a grand opéra in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer and the librettist Eugène Scribe . Meyerbeer was able to complete the composition of the opera before his death, but did not see the successful premiere on April 28, 1865 in the Paris Opera . The work was performed in an abridged and edited version by François-Joseph Fétis , with the plot of the fourth and fifth acts being transferred from India to East Africa. The German premiere on November 18 of the same year in Berlin in a translation by Ferdinand Gumbert was also a great success.

Fétis' interventions have only become apparent since Jürgen Schläder's critical edition based on Meyerbeer's autograph.

Action based on the Fétis version

place and time

The first two acts are set in Lisbon, acts three to five on the east coast of Africa at the end of the 15th century.

first act

Image: Meeting room of the High Council in Lisbon

Inès has been waiting in vain for two years for her lover Vasco da Gama to finally return home from his expedition, on which he set off to unknown countries with Bartholomew Diaz a long time ago . Surprisingly, Admiral Don Diego, Inès' father, receives the news that the expedition has failed and that everyone involved has died. He therefore orders his daughter no longer to wait for the missing person, but to marry Don Pedro, the king's supreme councilor.

While the gentlemen were deliberating, the news reached them that there was a survivor after all. He stands in front of the door and asks to be let in. His wish is granted. When the young man enters the hall, everyone is extremely surprised because it is Vasco da Gama, who was believed to be dead. As proof that there are not only foreign countries, but also unknown peoples, he bought two dark-skinned people at the slave market in Africa and brought them to Lisbon: the girl Sélika and the boy Nélusko.

Vasco has a head full of plans. He would like to start a new voyage the next day. His request to let him have a ship, however, is rejected by the Admiralty and above all by the Grand Inquisitor . Vasco da Gama gets so angry about this that he lets himself be carried away with insulting remarks. As a result, on the orders of the Grand Inquisitor, he and the two blacks are thrown into prison.

Second act

Victor Warot as Don Alvar at the opera's premiere in 1865

Image: In the Inquisition Prison

Vasco da Gama has to share his cell with Sélika and Nélusko. When the latter notices that Sélika is in love with Vasco, he becomes jealous because he, too, has a crush on the girl. He gets so furious that he approaches the sleeping Vasco with a knife. Sélika realizes his intention just in time and is able to prevent the murder. After Vasco wakes up, he learns that Sélika is queen in her homeland and has been kidnapped by slave hunters. In order to win his love, she reveals to Vasco a safe sea route to the east coast of Africa.

Inès and Don Pedro have now married. Together they go to Vasco da Gama in his cell. Inès explains to him that she has achieved his rehabilitation with the high council. Not only is he free, but he should stand by Don Pedro as an experienced specialist on a new expedition to Africa. The two natives with their knowledge of the country should also be of use to him. Vasco da Gama suspects that his rehabilitation is only thanks to Inès' great love for him and that she only married Don Pedro to get him free.

Third act

Image: On board a sailing ship

Captain Don Pedro has ordered Nélusko to take the helm because he believes he has the best knowledge. But this one has a plan of revenge. He intends to lead the entire crew to ruin. When Vasco da Gama becomes aware of the danger, he implores Don Pedro to take a different course. Instead of gratefully following Vasco's advice, he laughs at him, has him tied to the mast and orders his crew to shoot him. Inès and Sélika, who are also on board, beg Don Pedro to show mercy, but he remains firm. But before the execution can be carried out, the ship crashes exactly at the point where the previous expedition under Bartholomäus Diaz also came to an end. The natives board the wrecked ship and cause a bloodbath among the survivors. Only Sélika, in whom they recognize their queen, and Inès and Nélusko, who are under their protection, remain alive. Vasco da Gama remains undiscovered and he manages to escape.

Fourth act

Image: On the East African coast

For the second time, Sélika is proclaimed queen of her people. Before the high priest of the Brahmins she renewed her vow not to allow any stranger to enter the holy earth of her land. Whoever does this is condemned to death. In order to save Vasco da Gama from this disaster, she pretends to be her husband, which Nélusko confirms - albeit reluctantly. Because Vasco believes that his lover Inès was killed in the ship disaster, he befriends Sélika's plan and allows the high priest to marry her according to local custom. But as soon as the rite is completed, Vasco hears a cry for help from afar. He recognizes Inès' voice and sets out to look for her lover.

Fifth act

Image: In Queen Sélika's garden

Sélika is talking to Inès. She realizes how intense the relationship between the Admiral's daughter and Vasco da Gama is. She also realizes that he can never be happy with her. Full of generosity, she renounces her love and orders her subjects to provide the couple with a ship to travel home.

Metamorphosis: On the cape

Sélika looks wistfully after the ship that is bringing Vasco da Gama and Inès back to Portugal. She inhales deeply the scent of the manzanillo tree , which is deadly to humans. The loss of Vasco has made her life meaningless. When she is found by Nélusko, it is already too late to be rescued. Nélusko decides to follow her into death.

music

Orchestral line-up

Information according to the critical edition, edited by Jürgen Schläder :

Incidental music

  • behind the scene: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 pump valve horns, 2 harps, cannon
  • on the scene: 2 small cornets, 4 flugelhorns, 4 alto cornets, 4 tenor horns, 2 baryton horns , 4 trumpets, 6 bass tubers , cymbals, triangle, military drum, bell in f

Musical highlights

  • Sélika's slumber aria in the second act In my lap let your head rest
  • Nélusko's tale of Adamastor, the king of the waves , in the third act
  • After all, the most famous piece of music in the opera, Vasco da Gama's great Aria Land, so wonderful! in the fourth act, which many tenors have in their repertoire.
  • Sélika and Vasco da Gama's love duet in the fourth act
  • The finale of the opera in the fifth act with the choir In der Liebe Ew'gem Reich

Emergence

Marie Sasse as the first African woman

The year after the successful premiere of Les Huguenots in 1837, Meyerbeer received the draft text for a romantic and fantastic opera, which was set in an exotic setting, from Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer during a spa stay in Baden-Baden . Meyerbeer gave the manuscript to his librettist Scribe, who on August 16, 1837 had already produced a libretto entitled L'Africaine . However, Meyerbeer was dissatisfied with it and asked for a historical setting, which he considered essential for a grand opéra . Meyerbeer started composing anyway, but worked on the composition of Le prophète in parallel . When Marie-Cornélie Falcon , who was slated for the title role of the African , lost her voice, he gave up the project.

Scribe submitted a revised libretto in 1853, which thematized the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama. The title of the opera was no longer to be L'Africaine , but Vasco da Gama . However, Meyerbeer hesitated and instead dealt with the composition of the Dinorah . It was only after Scribes urged again that Meyerbeer looked through his sketches and fragments, which he had filed under the working title Vecchia Africana , and decided to recompose the opera.

In the winter of 1860/61, when Meyerbeer was staying in Berlin as a “Prussian court composer”, large parts of the fourth act were created. After Scribe's death in February 1861, Meyerbeer saw it as an obligation and an urgent task to complete the opera.

Performance practice

Stage design for the premiere in 1865

Meyerbeer, who, according to a diary entry on November 29, 1863, had completed the composition except for the overture and the ballet, was able to complete both before his death on May 2, 1864, most recently the overture on April 7, 1864. Meyerbeer left a finished score with rich musical material, but despite the beginning of copying work, he was unable to create a version that was ready for performance. Meyerbeer's widow therefore commissioned the composer François-Joseph Fétis to prepare the work for the stage. Fetis shortened mainly in the third and fifth acts, especially in the finals , deleted an aria by Inez and shortened the recitatives. He also deleted so-called “repetitions”, which however destroyed the “symmetry of the score”, just as he left out “thematic references”.

Since the opera audience had been waiting for an African from Meyerbeer's pen for years, the title was changed and the plot of the fourth and fifth acts moved from India ( Malabar ) to Madagascar. In this version, the work was premiered on April 28, 1865, which, despite the lines, lasted from 7.15 p.m. to 0.45 a.m.

Fétis' interventions have only become evident since the historical-critical edition by Jürgen Schläder was published by Ricordi . The Chemnitz Opera was the first stage to perform the revised version under the title Vasco de Gama requested by Meyerbeer in 2013. This was voted "Rediscovery of the year" in the critics' survey by Opernwelt magazine for the 2012/2013 season.

Web links

Commons : L'Africaine  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. https://www.amazon.de/Vasco-Gama-Oper-Chemnitz/dp/B00JH53O0C
  2. a b c Boris Kehrmann: Rediscovery of the year. Defense of poetry. In: Oper 2013, Yearbook Opernwelt , pp. 42–43, on the first performance of Vasco de Gama in Chemnitz, based on the historical-critical edition.
  3. ^ Critical edition of L'Africaine ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. a b c According to Wilhelm Zentner in the preface to G. Meyerbeer. The African. Opera. Reclam, Stuttgart 1961, pp. 3-4
  5. a b Sabine Henze-Döhring and Sieghart Döhring: Giacomo Meyerbeer. The master of the Grand Opéra. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66003-0 , p. 190
  6. ^ Wilhelm Zentner in the foreword to G. Meyerbeer. The African. Opera. Reclam, Stuttgart 1961, p. 6
  7. Boris Kehrmann: Rediscovery of the year. Defense of poetry. In: Oper 2013, Yearbook Opernwelt , pp. 40–43