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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 August 2008
A mythical giant, a Malagasy slave, a song, an accomplished baritone, an outraged critic; these seemingly incompatible figures are bound together in the Paris premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeer's L'Africaine in 1865. They are the fundamental elements of my story of the opera's third act, a narrative web binding together early modern nautical history, epic poetry, grand-opera dramaturgy, and the nineteenth-century politics of operatic performance and listening in an exploration of how the opera's rather fictionalised account of Vasco da Gama's first sea voyage to India five centuries ago bears witness to the strength of the historicist project in grand opera.
1 Vasco da Gama, a married, middle-aged, high-born aristocrat, was the only commander of the expedition. The possibility that there were women on board the ships is still up for debate. Pedro and Inès are thoroughly fictional characters. Da Gama did employ an African pilot from the coast of Mozambique, who in fact attempted to lead the ship off course. However, the Portuguese caught on to his plans and the pilot jumped overboard and swam to safety in Mombasa. Curiously enough, Meyerbeer and Scribe were aware of these facts since, in preparation for the opera, they had read through Ferdinand Denis's history of the Portuguese expansion, and had considered carefully both Luis de Camões' epic account of the voyage in Os Lusiadas (1572) and João de Barros' detailed chronicle of the Portuguese expansion to Asia in his Àsia (1549).Google Scholar See Roberts, John H., ‘The Genesis of Meyerbeer's ‘L'Africaine”, Ph. D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley (1977), 190–91.Google Scholar
2 As Carolyn Abbate has shown, the reflexive feature of the ballad articulates two influential images of history in the nineteenth century: the Hegelian romance of progress that views the present as an unfolding of the past, and the cyclic repetition that always reverts to its origins. See Abbate, Carolyn, Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 76.Google Scholar
3 This libretto, also titled L'Africaine, concerned the unhappy love and adventures at sea and in Africa of the Spaniard Fernand, who pursues his beloved to Mexico only to find himself at the mercy of his own African slaves on the coast of the Niger. A few features of its plot were incorporated into the later version of the opera. These include the rivalry between Pédro and Da Gama, the latter's romantic attachment to Inès, Sélika's blind dedication to the hero, risking her own death to save him, and Nélusko's racial rage towards the Portuguese and his inordinate devotion to Selika.Google Scholar
4 It was François Fetis, the opera's last editor, who retitled it L'Africaine in 1865. About this subject see Roberts, ‘The Genesis’, (see n. 1) 39–87.Google Scholar
5 Ramalho, Américo da Costa, ‘Sobre o Nome de Adamastor, Estudos Camonianos (Coimbra: Centra de Estudos Classicos e Humanisticos, 1975), 33–41.Google Scholar
6 de Barros, Joam, Asia, ed. Baiao, Antonio (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 1932);Google Scholarde Góis, Damião, Cronica do Felicissimo Rei D. Manuel, ed. Gagean, David Lopes (Coimbra: n.p., 1949).Google Scholar
7 Alexander von Humboldt, Meyerbeer's friend in Berlin, was among the first scholars to promote the poem as a source for the study of early modern history and natural sciences. See von Humboldt, Alexander, Cosmos, vol. II, 64, cited in Theophilo Braga, Camões, vol. II (Porto: Chardron, 1907), 55.Google Scholar
8 At the end of his narrative Gama explicitly discloses his models: ‘Did you think, O King, the world contained Men who could tackle such a journey? Do you imagine that Aeneas and subtle Ulysses ever ventured so far? Did either of them dare to embark on Actual oceans? For all the poetry Written about diem, did they see a fraction Of what I know through strategy and action? Homer so drank of the Aonian spring, That Rhodes, Smyrna, Ios and Athens, Colophon, Arcos, and Salamis claim The honour of being his birthplace; Virgil brought fame to all Italy; Hearing his exalted voice, In pastoral mode, his native Mincius sighed, While his epic made the Tiber swell with pride; Let them sing on, piling praises On their more-than-human heroes, Inventing Circe and Polyphemus, Sirens who make men sleep with song; Let them sail under canvas and oar To the Cicones, leaving their Shipmates in that lotus-befuddled realm, Losing even their pilot at the helm; Let them fantasise, of winds leaping From wine-skins, and of amorous Calypsos; Harpies who foul their own banquets; Pilgrimages to the underworld; However they polish and decorate With metaphor such empty fables, My own tale in its naked purity Outdoes all boasting and hyperbole.’ (V, 86–89) David Quint points out that in adopting Odysseus and Aeneas as models of self-narration Da Gama both invokes for himself the same historical authority associated with his epic predecessors and sets out to demonstrate his superiority to classical epic by showing poetic invention as historical narration.Google ScholarQuint, David, ‘Voices of Resistance: The Epic curse and Camões' Adamastor', in Stephen Greenblatt, New World Encounters (Berkeley: California University Press, 1993), 256.Google Scholar English translation of verses V, 86–89 from Camões, , The Lusiads, trans. White, Landeg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
9 Quint's thesis contradicts modern Portuguese readings of the episode which, while acknowledging its central position in the poem, attempt to dismiss it as an instance of personification of natural phenomena. de Macedo, Jorge Borges, Os Lusiadas e a Histdria (Lisbon: Verbo, 1979), 63–64.Google ScholarThis reading of Adamastor originates in early twentieth-century interpretations. In 1911, Theophilo Braga read the episode of Adamastor as an intrusion of the poet's personal impressions of the storm he survived in his passage of the Cape, and therefore a retreat from the historical narration that takes place until then. For Braga, the classical image of Adamastor stands as a substitution for landscape description. Theophilo Braga, Camões, vol. I, 649.Google Scholar
10 Quint (seen. 8), 261.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 258.
12 Da Gama portraits the Hottentots as ‘more savage than the brutish Polyphemus' (V, 28. 4) [Selvagem mais do que o bruto Polifermo], and as ‘bestial, brutish and evil people (V, 34.4) [gente bestial bruta e malvada].Google Scholar
13 The episode preceding Adamastor's narrative refers to a shore visit by the sailor Veloso, and his encounter in the area of the Cape with a community of Hottentots. The event, in which Veloso nearly lost his life and Da Garma received a leg wound, is also documented by Barros and Da Gama. David Quint has noted that Camões' description of the Hottentots resembles his later depiction of the giant in Canto V of Os Lusiadas. Ibid., 258–59.
14 bhabha, homi, the location of culture (London: Routledge, 1994), 67.Google Scholar
15 Vasse, Denis, cited in Barthes, Roland, ‘Listening’, in The Responsibility of Forms, trans. Howard, Richard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1985), 255–56.Google Scholar
16 ‘die Lousiade des Camöes [Afrikanerin] in die franzosischen öbersetzung gelesen' Giacomo Meyerbeer, Tagesbuch, Meyerbeer-Archiv, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin.Google Scholar
17 ‘In any case, I am counting on your promise that you will study the possibility of rewriting the work based on an entirely new foundation, featuring a historical and noble backdrop, and characters more elevated and interesting than were Fernand, Inès and Salvador, in none of whom I could muster the least interest.’ Meyerbeer, letter to Scribe of 27 August 1851, Papiers de Eugène Scribe, n. a. fr. 22480, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fol. 328, cited in the original language in Roberts, ‘The Genesis’ (see n. 1), 104.Google Scholar
18 ‘décor - un site au bord de la mer, dans une des regions qui avoisinent le cap de bonne espérance. Nature magnifique et sauvage. Fôret vierge, soleil ardent, masse de fleurs et de fruits - terre opulente et inhabitée - au rideau commence l'ouverture qui peint d'abord, le grandiose et le calme de ces brulantes majesteux desertes et cette mer immense qui s'étend à l'horizon comme un lac bleu et tranquille que rien ne trouble en ce moment. Un bruit sourd annonce dans le lointain l'approche de l'ouragan - les flots de la mer commencent à se [br]iser légèrement peu a peu, les mugissements augmentent, le soleil se cache, les nuages s'épaisissent. II semble qu'on respire à peine et qu'un chaleur étouffante [s'étend] sur la nature enrière. Un ciel sombre [illuminé] par les éclairs annonce la trombe qui va éclater. C'est le typhon le plus redoutable, l'ouragan, qui assaillit d'ordinaire les vaisseaux aux envîrons du cap des tempêtes et dans la mer des indes - c'est une collone qui tourbillone, entraîne et engloutit les navires - en ce moment l'orage éclate dans toute sa fureur, la pluie tombe par torrente, les vents sifflent, la pluit couvre au loin les flots et à la lueur de la foudre on aperçoit à l'horizon, et à quelque distance, l'un de l'autre des vaisseaux, que la tempête vient de séparer - ils portent le pavilion portugais - l'un est entrainé par l'ouragan, ou les courants, et disparait de la vue - l'autre, enveloppé par la trombe, est brisé et des debris de toute sorte qui surnagent pendant quelque temps sont bientôt englouties.Google ScholarLongtemps encor la mer muget et le rivage lui repond, mais peu à peu, les vents s'appaisent, la mer se calme. Le soleil commence à reparaitre quoique le bruit souterain se fasse encore entendre (fin d'ouverture)'. In Scribe, ‘Plan des deux premiers actes de Vasco da Gama’, Papiers de Eugeène Scribe, n. a. fr. 22508, Bibiothèque Nationale de France, fol. 139r–139v.Google Scholar
19 notre navire est engloutie - et l'autre brisé dans doute par cette horrible ouragan - oui c'est le géant des tempêtes, comme ils le disent, c'est Adamastor qui defend lui meme ce cap redoutable qui les navires portugais esperent en vain franchir’.Google ScholarIbid., fol. 142v.
20 Ibid.
21 ‘Je vous dirais moi, que isolément pris, j'ai trouvé le plan du nouveau premier acte très beau, pittoresque, et bien musical. Malgré cela j'ai peur qu'il ne fase un grand tour à l'ouvrage en géneral et en particulier au troisième et quatrième acte. On trouvait déja l'ancienne affricaine [sic] trop roman, trop multipliant de changements des sites. Maintenant c'est bien pire. Nous commenç;ons le lère acte aux confins de l'Affrique [sic] et de l'Asie, le 2ème en Portugal, le 3ème dans la mer, les autres dans les Indes. Nous avions un beau contraste et imprévu entre les deux premiers actes et les deux derniers en opposant au sombre aspect des palais de Iisbonne la riante nature tropicale. Maintenant nous erromptons dejà cette belle nature tropicale au premier acte et le quatriéme acte alors aura perdu comme décor cet intense contraste et cette nouveaute de premier aspect qu'il avait dans l'ancien poëme. Nous avions et nous aurons probablement encore sur le 3ème acte l'effet de la mer et de la tempête, maintenant nous aurons la mer et la tempête déjà au premier acte et cela ne sera plus qu'une répétition quand on le verra au troisiéme’. Meyerbeer letter to Scribe, Berlin, 24 October 1851, Papiers de Eugéne Scribe, Bibiothéque Nationale de France, n. a. fr. 22480, fol. 330.Google Scholar
22 A comparison of the different textual sources of the opera shows that while eliminating scenes 2 and 3 of the early libretto (in which Yoriko obtains from Salvador [later, Don Pédro] the post of ship's executioner and Salvador attempts to confront Ines about the reasons for her suffering), Scribe kept much of the third act from the early version: (1) scene one, a depiction of life at sea, is copied with few alterations from the early L'Africaine; (2) scene 2 incorporates some aspects of the early scenes 4 and 5; (3) the dramatic conflict between Pédro and Vasco expressed in the duo of scene 4 draws almost literally from scene 7 of the early version; (4) and Sélika's attempt to save Vasco in scene 5 recovers, with some alterations, the quintet of scene 8. A more substantial departure from the early version occurs in the setting of Sélika's and Nélusko's reactions to punishment in scene 6, where the early trio for the two characters and Salvador is replaced by a duo for the two slaves. The chorus of Indians who board the ship and rescue Sélika and Yoriko/Nélusko also draws heavily on the early version of the plot.Google Scholar
23 This is the case of the ensemble in scene 4, which changes from a narrative of Fernand's liberation from captivity in Spain in the récit ‘Pour désarmer ma vengeance’ and the duo ‘Je viens pour punir ton outrage’, to Vasco's declaration that he has come to save his countrymen and Ines from danger in ‘Quel destin ou plutot quel aveugle délire’ and the duo ‘ Du péril oú le sort vous entraine’.Google Scholar
24 Eugéne Scribe, ‘Manuscript de M. Scribe des Cinq Actes de Vasco da Gama ou le Cap des Tempêtes (5ème acte incomplete)’, Papiers de Eugène Scribe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, n. a. fr. 22508.Google Scholar
25 ‘It has been several days since the crew rounded the Cape of Storms. They sail on a new, calm sea. The sailors discount as fables the dangers reported to them; they mock Adamastor, the giant of storms, and drink to his health while singing the chorus: Du vin, du vin.’ ‘Plan des Cinq actes de Vasco da Gama retranscrit par le copiste de Meyerbeer avec indications des numeros et lettres de renvoi aux Notes de Meyerbeer et reflections particuliers et générales sur le dit plan’, Papiers de Eugène Scribe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, n. a. fr. 22508, fol. 167. A n earlier version of this idea can be found in Scribe's 1851 sketch, in the form of a series of jottings: ‘dont j'aimerais/adamastor, o roi de l'onde/geant pour [rire]/je le prendrais pour souverain/ou le regne/si la mer/ne roulait que des flots de vin’. Scribe, ‘Plan des deux premiers actes de Vasco da Gama’, fol. 142r.Google Scholar
26 In ‘Plan des Cinq actes’, fol. 183, cited in the original language in Roberts, ‘The Genesis’ (see n. 1), 109.Google Scholar
27 ‘As in the previous manuscript, Inès throws herself at Pédro's feet, who is unmoved; then Zélika, holding Inès’ hair with one hand, takes a dagger to her, crying: If you strike Vasco, I will slay your wife! (…) D. Pédro swears upon the gospel to spare the life of Vasco, but he does have him chained and thrown in the brig. To Zélika, he had promised nothing; the slave who dared to threaten her mistress will be punished and flagellated = Cry o f indignation from Yoriko = She, my sovereign! Who would dare raise a hand to her! = You, says D. Pédro! = Better to die’. Ibid., fol. 169.
28 Ibid., fol. 176, cited in Roberts, ‘ The Genesis’ (see n. 1), 110.
29 Eugène Scribe, ‘Manuscript des Cinq Actes de L'Africaine’ Papiers de Eugene Scribe, Bibliothéque Nationale de France, n. a. fr. 22508.Google Scholar
30 This is the story of a seventeenth-century Dutch captain who, desperate to sail past the Cape, swore he would do it even if it meant sailing for all eternity. As punishment for his blasphemy he became the captain of a phantom ship condemned to haunt the waters of the Cape until his redemption.Google Scholar
31 According to Roberts the first version of the libretto was completed by 1837. However, Scribe introduced alterations in Acts III–V as late as November of 1843. The libretto version preserved in n. a. fr. 22507 and n. a. fr. 22508 dates not from 1837, as Roberts indicates, but from the 1840s, as it preserves the final version of the early L'Africaine. See Roberts ‘The Genesis’ (see n. 1), 88. By 1840 Scribe also knew Wagner's scenario for the Flying Dutchman.Google Scholar See Wagner, Richard, Lettres Francises de Richard Wagner, ed. Tiersot, Julien (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1935) 30–35.Google Scholar
32 The opera was premièred in Paris in 1842. This French version of the Flying Dutchman was reworked from Richard Wagner's scenario for the Opéra, sold by the composer to Léon Pillet in 1840. As Barry Millington has shown recently, Paul Foucher's recomposition of Wagner's dramatic plan borrowed both from Walter Scott's The Pirate and Marryat's The Phantom Ship. Consequently the narrative moments in Foucher's work resemble at times Scribe's own Couplets du Corsaire Noire. See Wagner, Richard, My Life, vol. I (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1911), 243–46;Google ScholarSevieres, Georges, ‘Les Deux Vaisseau-Fantome’, Episodes d'Histoire Musicale (Paris: Librairie Fischbacher, 1914), 257–70;Google ScholarMillington, Barry, ‘ “The Flying Dutchman”, “Le Vaisseau fantome” and other Nautical Yarns’, Musical Times, (1987), 131–34;Google ScholarHaraszi, Emille, ‘Pierre-Louis Dietsch und seine Opfer’, Die Musikforschung, 8 (1955), 45.Google Scholar
33 Heine's work was popular in Paris. See Sevières, “Les Deux Vaisseau-Fantôme”, 261.Google Scholar
34 See Wagner, Richard, ‘Judaism in Music’, ‘Mementos of Spontini’, in Richard Wagner's Prose Works, vol. III, trans. Ellis, W. A. (New York: Broude Brothers, 1966)Google Scholar and Becker, Heinz, Der Fall Heine-Meyerbeer (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1958).Google Scholar See also Thomson, Joan L., ‘Giacomo Meyerbeer: The Jew and His Relationship with Richard Wagner’, Musica Judaica, 1 (1975–76), 55–86.Google Scholar
35 See Wagner, Richard, A Communication to my Friends (1851),Google Scholar cited in Borchmeyer, Dieter, Richard Wagner. Theory and Theatre, trans. Spencer, Stewart (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 205.Google Scholar
36 Wagner quotes Spontini as saying: ‘Oh, believe me, there was hope for Germany while I was the emperor of music in Berlin; but all hope is lost since the king of Prussia delivered his music to the disorder brought about by the two wandering Jews [Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer] whom he called to his service’. ‘Mementos of Spontini’ (see n. 34), 140–41.Google Scholar
37 Ibid., fol. 183, cited in the original language in Roberts, ‘The Genesis’ (see n. 1), 111.
38 The recourse to the adjective is presented by Roland Barthes as the simplest strategy of defence against Otherness. His commentary concerns listening to music: ‘the predicate is always the rampart by which the subject's image-repertoire protects itself against the loss that threatens it: the man who furnishes himself or is furnished with an adjective is sometimes wounded, sometimes pleased, but always constituted; music has an image repertoire whose function is to reassure, to constitute the subject who hears it … and this image-repertoire immediately comes to language by the adjective’. The Responsibility of Forms (see n. 15), 268.Google Scholar
39 Scribe's first sketches of the song are in Papiers de Eugène Scribe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, n. a. fr. 22568.Google Scholar
40 In the autograph manuscript the piece was first tided Couplets de Yoriko. Later Meyerbeer retided it Ballade de Nelusko.Google Scholar
41 Act III, scene 5 in the early version reads: ‘Si j’en crois et les flots et les cieux / nous suivons un chemin qui mène à la vengeance / ces parages pour nous, ne sont pas inconnus; / et nos hardis vaisseaux y sont souvent venus! / (chantant) tra, la, la, la / Matelots: Tu chantes! / Yoriko: Porquoi pas! c'est permis, je le pense! / (chantant) tra, la, la, la / (à part et regardant toujours du côté de la mer) / ah! si ma vue est bonne … au lointain … / ce point noir … fait tressaillir mon coeur et de joie et d'espoir! / tra, la, la, la.’ [Led by die sea and die sky, we follow the route to vengeance. These parts are not unknown to us; our brave ships have come here often! (singing) tra, la, la, l a / Sailors: You sing! Yoriko: Why not? It is allowed, I believe! (singing) tra, la, la, la (aside, looking at the sea) Ah! My sight does not fail me … far away … that black dot … makes my heart quiver with joy and hope! tra, la, la, la.] The couplets follow. In ‘Manuscript des cinq actes de l'Africaine’.Google Scholar
42 Meyerbeer did not re-use the music composed for the previous version of the opera. He wrote to Scribe in 1852: ‘ F o r this [third] act I will retain from my music only the various songs and couplets’, ‘Plan des Cinq Actes’, fol. 176. By ‘chanson et couplets’ the composer probably meant the Couplets du Corsaire Noire, the choruses in the first scene, and the Indian chorus at the end of the act. With the exception of the recitative text, the two versions of the chorus are quite similar and it is possible that Meyerbeer kept the music from the early version, since he did not indicate any alterations in his diary. This hypothesis is put forth in Roberts, “The Genesis‘ (see n. 1), 196.Google Scholar
43 Roberts, “The Genesis’, 203–04.Google Scholar
44 Second, Albéric, ‘Chronique’, Le Grand Journal, 7 05 1865, 1.Google Scholar
45 D’Ortigue, Joseph, ‘L'Africaine’, Journal des débats, 25 05 1865, 2.Google Scholar
46 Albéric Second, ‘Chronique’, 1. Jouvin, writing for Le Figaro shared Second's opinion. He stated: “This legend seemed to me to be anti-vocal; it is a piece composed of small phrases seemingly welded at sight, despite being unsuitable for assemblage: maybe the piece shows much art, but it is not inspired”. Jouvin, ‘Les hasards de la plume”, Figaro, 27 April 1865, 1.Google Scholar
47 ‘Adamastor, roi des vagues profondes. It is, again, a remembrance of Pif, paf, pouf of the Huguenots, abeit a less inspired one’.Google ScholarKreutzer, Leon, ‘Revue musicale’, L'Union, 3 05 1865, 2. ‘ It is a hacked, bizarre and picturesque song, like the pif, paf, pouf in Les Huguenots’.Google ScholarTrim, Timothee, ‘Repetition Generale de L'Africaine’, Le Petit Journal, 25 04 1865, 1.Google Scholar
48 ‘To entertain the sailors and distract them from an impending storm, Nélusko sings to them the legend of the king of storms. It is a piece conceived in the same form and almost the same sentiment of the pif, paf, pouf in Les Huguenots; I did not quite understand it. Is it my fault? Is it that of the composer? Zanoni, “Chronique Musicale”, I'Époque, 30 April 1865, 3.Google Scholar
49 de Bury, Henry Blaze, ‘L'Africaine de Meyerbeer’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 05–06th 1865, 435.Google Scholar
50 Giacomelli, , ‘L'Africaine’, La Presse Théatrale et Musicale, 8 07 1865, 1.Google Scholar
51 Abbate, Unsung Voices (see n. 2), Chapter III.Google Scholar
52 Two examples come immediately to mind: Senta's ballad in Der Fliegende Holländer and Emmy's romanza in Marschner's Der Vampyr.Google Scholar
53 This dramatic conceit is prevalent in the repertory of operatic romanzas and ballads sung by male characters. See Auber's, Fra Diavolo, and Le Cheval de Bronze, and Cherubini's Les Deux Journées. See also discussion of the genre in Abbate, Unsung Voices (see n. 2), 69–89.Google Scholar
54 The three most famous examples of the use of B-natural as a sign of evil are found in Bertram's Valse Infernale in the third act of Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (1831), the opening utterance of Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod's Faust (1869) and Wozzeck's murder of Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck (1925).Google Scholar
55 For a discussion of reflexivity in operatic song see Abbate Unsung Voices (see n. 2), 73–85.Google Scholar
56 Roberts mentions the substitution based on Meyerbeer's diary annotation of 17 December 1863. The autograph score includes the old version of the stretta (crossed-out) and its substitute version. Sieghart Döhring rightly points out that the second version of the stretta results in an improvement over the first as it more effectively connects the ballade with the drama.Google Scholar See Döhring, Sieghart, ‘Die autographen der vier Hauptopern Meyerbeers: Eine erster Quellebericht’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 38 (1982), 62.Google Scholar
57 Meyerbeer's copy of the 1858 sketches for the ballad show that the B-natural sonority was the product of creative maturation. In the sketches Nélusko's introductory ‘tralalalalala’ is sung to the middle C. Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mer/GMmes, Stockhohlm, Stiftelsen Musikkulturens Främjande.Google Scholar
58 Significantly, this final revision of the ballad's instrumentation was discarded in Fétis's revisions of 1865 and therefore was not performed in the Paris première in 1865 nor included in the scores published by Brandus in 1865. See Roberts, “The Genesis’ (see n. 1) 82. Leon Kreutzer's discussion of the ballad as performed at the Opera in 1865 mentions an instrumentation of flutes and bass drum, but not cymbals. See Leon Kreutzer, ‘Revue Musicale’ (see n. 47), 2.Google Scholar
59 “The applause with which the phrase “Holà! Matelots, le vent change” was received is to Faure's credit, whose controlled rendering of the phrase did much to enhance its value. He sang the phrase's difficult modulations with great assurance and kept perfect pitch in the absence of all accompaniment.’ Pascal, Prosper, ‘L'Africaine’, Le Courrier du Dimanche, 7 05 1865, 5.Google Scholar
60 de Maria, F., ‘L'Africaine. 2eme article’, L'Orpbeon, 18 05 1865, 1.Google Scholar
61 Giacomelli found the prominence given to the singing voice in the ballad particularly distasteful. ‘If Meyerbeer was not one of those who redeem their weaknesses by traits of genius, I would be hard pressed to forgive him this piece, for which we have no need. Appetizers such as this still need a reason for being. Yet, this one has no justification, and it seems to be there simply to please the singer.’ Giacomelli, ‘L'Africaine’ (see n. 50), 1.Google Scholar
62 ‘For people of taste, there is a worse fault than that of paralysing the action by needlessly including a meagre musical entertainment in the scene. This [piece] diminishes the character of Nelusko, which, until then, had been well brought out [by the drama]; it also deprives the savage Nélusko of his mysterious character by portraying him as an odd old fellow amusing his comrades with a sailing song.’ Ibid
63 The review of Blaze de Bury in the Revue des Deux Mondes exemplifies this point. Whereas he found the unaccompanied recitative to provide an excellent opportunity for Faure's vocal revelation, he was unimpressed by the ballad. ‘He speaks, gives an order: “Turn north,” in some bars of unaccompanied recitative written by a sovereign hand. Mr. Faure attacks, prolongs, and accents this difficult phrase superbly, delivering its difficult intonation. His voice develops easily, [sounding] flexible, smooth, suffocated. Otherwise, Mr. Faure extends his performative mastery to the rest of the role, which he composes, plays, and sings in the manner of a French artist. … The ballad of the giant of the seas, Adamastor, performed col legno by the violins, seems to me less original than bizarre’. Blaze de Bury, ‘L'Africaine’ (see n. 49), 434–35. F. de Maria, while relatively enthusiastic about Faure's performance of the recitative, also criticised the ballad: ‘When he realises the impending death of the Europeans, Faure sings an infernal ballad with a lugubrious happiness. His performance is talented, but I find in it neither the colour of the character nor of the situation.’ F. de Maria, ‘Theatre Imperial de L'Opéra. L'Africaine (2e article)’ L'Orpbéon, 18 05 1865, 3.Google Scholar
64 A large tree described in the Encyclopédie as native to the seashore of the American continent and Caribbean islands. The article describes its fruits as resembling apples and their smell as being ‘so suave and appetising that one is very tempted to eat it. It is one of the most violent poisons in nature. … It is even dangerous to fall asleep under the shadow of the machineel; its atmosphere is so venomous, that it causes headaches, inflammations of the eyes and itching on the lips.’ Diderot, Denis et al. , Engclopédie, vol. 10 (Neufchastel: Samuel Faulche & Cic, 1765), 9.Google Scholar
65 Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone and improver of several brass instruments, sued the soprano over her attempt to change the spelling of her last name from Sass to Sax, which he saw as an attempt to capitalise on his fame. See The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (London: Macmillan, 1980) s.v. ‘Adolphe Sax’.Google Scholar
66 In ‘Un Mot de L'Africaine’, La Vie Parisienne, 6 05 1865, 243.Google Scholar
67 See the illustration in Yriarte, Charles, ‘L'Africaine. Le Décor du Quatrième acte. Les Costumes’, Le Monde Illustreacute;, 6 05 1865, 277.Google Scholar
68 In ‘Un Mot’ (see n. 66), 243. Another article in the Journal Amusant promptly hints at gender reversal between Nélusko and Selika, exchanging their names and redrawing a masculinised image of the soprano and a feminised one of the baritone. fils, A. Grévin, ‘L'Africaine’, Le Journal Amusant, 20 05 1865, 1–7.Google Scholar
69 It is possible that this version of the role was popular with other performers of the time, though I have found no evidence of it so far.Google Scholar
70 ‘We arrive at the third act: here we hear the famous recitative All'erta marinar, which Merly nearly omitted, saying only one o r two lines. The recitative is unaccompanied, broadly phrased with sustained notes; it is very difficult to execute. Mr Cotogni phrases it so clearly, sings it so justly, that he surprised us and the rest of the audience. The public responded to the magnificendy sustained A at the end of the recitative with warm, unanimous applause. Why did Merly, a singer endowed with a strong voice, omit this famous recitative? … Merly also suppressed the laughter following morra I'empio in the song; Cotogni performs it admirably, with perfect tuning. The song ends with a forceful A.’ In ‘A Africana’, Journal do Comircio, 13 01 1872, 2.Google Scholar
71 A Africana', Chronica dos Teatrvs, 15 01 1870, 2–3.Google Scholar
72 ‘Nélusko is Cotogni. If, listening to this distinguished baritone, anybody hoped for the vocal force, the harshness, and the vocalising excesses of Merly, they were disappointed. I grant you that Merly performs Nelusko's part admirably, giving it a savage and rough tone. Yet, if we analyse the lyrics and the sentiments expressed by this silly savage, it is clear that, except for the song in the third act and the allegro in the fourth, Cotogni's rendering is more rational. Furthermore, Cotogni has the great advantage over Merly of being a more proper singer, and a more perfect actor, and, above all, of using his singing talent in a natural manner.Google Scholar Hearingand seeing Cotogni one easily forgets the performance of other baritones. If he is missing the harshness of Merly in the song and in the allegro mentioned above, he should be praised for the sweetness of his adagios, for his perfect phrasing, and for the elegance and naturalness of his acting.Google Scholar The marvellous recitative preceding the song of act three alone would be enough to determine the superiority of Cotogni'. Ibid.
73 Meyerbeer's notes above the scoring of Nélusko's laughter reads: ‘Fortriant d'un rire strident and ‘renforcent toujours’, Meyerbeer, L'Africaine, autograph score, Bibliotheka Jagielownska, Krakow. To this extent, Nelusko's laughter parallels that of Mephistopheles in the serenade of Act IV of Gounod's Faust (1859). In Faust, laughter is a sign of Otherness and chaos that belongs to the expressive realm of the Devil. Mephistopheles suggests this to God in the Prologue of Faust I: ‘Mein Pathos brächte dich gewiβ zum Lachen, Hättst du dir nicht das Lachen abgewöhnt’. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust. Eine Tragödie, Werke, Goethes, vol. III (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1986), 17.Google Scholar
75 See footnote 46.Google Scholar
76 ‘The interest of the piece is in the orchestra, the picturesque timbres of the accompaniment. Unfortunately, these timbres mean little to the ear preoccupied with following the melody.’Google ScholarPascal, Prosper, ‘L'Africaine: 2ème article’, Courrier du Dimanche, 1 05 1865, 5; ‘The original association of the flute with the bass drum does not work here. The ternary rhythm is rather unsophisticated and the col legno effect is an invention unworthy of Meyerbeer's genius.’ Leon Kreutzer, ‘Revue musicale’ (see n. 66), 2.Google Scholar
77 See footnote 48.Google Scholar
