The Complete Opera Book Part 60

CHARACTERS

SELIKA, a slave _Soprano_ INEZ, daughter of Don Diego _Soprano_ ANNA, her attendant _Contralto_ VASCO DA GAMA, an officer in the Portuguese Navy _Tenor_ NELUSKO, a slave _Baritone_ DON PEDRO, President of the Royal Council _Ba.s.s_ DON DIEGO } Members of the Council { _Ba.s.s_ DON ALVAR } { _Tenor_ GRAND INQUISITOR _Ba.s.s_

Priests, inquisitors, councillors, sailors, Indians, attendants, ladies, soldiers.

_Time_--Early sixteenth century.

_Place_--Lisbon; on a ship at sea; and India.

In 1838 Scribe submitted to Meyerbeer two librettos: that of "Le Prophete" and that of "L'Africaine." For the purposes of immediate composition he gave "Le Prophete" the preference, but worked simultaneously on the scores of both. As a result, in 1849, soon after the production of "Le Prophete," a score of "L'Africaine" was finished.

The libretto, however, never had been entirely satisfactory to the composer. Scribe was asked to retouch it. In 1852 he delivered an amended version to Meyerbeer who, so far as his score had gone, adapted it to the revised book, and finished the entire work in 1860.

"Thus," says the _Dictionnaire des Operas_, "the process of creating 'L'Africaine' lasted some twenty years and its birth appears to have cost the life of its composer, for he died, in the midst of preparations for its production, on Monday, May 2, 1864, the day after a copy of his score was finished in his own house in the Rue Montaigne and under his eyes."

Act I. Lisbon. The Royal Council Chamber of Portugal. Nothing has been heard of the ship of Bartholomew Diaz, the explorer. Among his officers was _Vasco da Gama_, the affianced of _Inez_, daughter of the powerful n.o.bleman, _Don Diego_. _Vasco_ is supposed to have been lost with the ship and her father now wishes _Inez_ to pledge her hand to _Don Pedro_, head of the Royal Council of Portugal.

During a session of the Council, it is announced that the King wishes to send an expedition to search for Diaz, but one of the councillors, _Don Alvar_, informs the meeting that an officer and two captives, the only survivors from the wreck of Diaz's vessel have arrived. The officer is brought in. He is _Vasco da Gama_, whom all have believed to be dead. Nothing daunted by the perils he has been through, he has formed a new plan to discover the new land that, he believes, lies beyond Africa. In proof of his conviction that such a land exists, he brings in the captives, _Selika_ and _Nelusko_, natives, apparently, of a country still unknown to Europe. _Vasco_ then retires to give the Council opportunity to discuss his enterprise.

In his absence _Don Pedro_, who desires to win _Inez_ for himself, and to head a voyage of discovery, surrept.i.tiously gains possession of an important chart from among _Vasco's_ papers. He then persuades the _Grand Inquisitor_ and the Council that the young navigator's plans are futile. Through his persuasion they are rejected. _Vasco_, who has again come before the meeting, when informed that his proposal has been set aside, insults the Council by charging it with ignorance and bias. _Don Pedro_, utilizing the opportunity to get him out of the way, has him seized and thrown into prison.

Act II. _Vasco_ has fallen asleep in his cell. Beside him watches _Selika_. In her native land she is a queen. Now she is a captive and a slave, her rank, of course, unknown to her captor, since she and _Nelusko_ carefully have kept it from the knowledge of all. _Selika_ is deeply in love with _Vasco_ and is broken-hearted over his pa.s.sion for _Inez_, of which she has become aware. But the love of this supposedly savage slave is greater than her jealousy. She protects the slumbering _Vasco_ from the thrust of _Nelusko's_ dagger. For her companion in captivity is deeply in love with her and desperately jealous of the Portuguese navigator for whom she has conceived so ardent a desire. Not only does she save _Vasco's_ life, but on a map hanging on the prison wall she points out to him a route known only to herself and _Nelusko_, by which he can reach the land of which he has been in search.

_Inez_, _Don Pedro_, and their suite enter the prison. _Vasco_ is free. _Inez_ has purchased his freedom through her own sacrifice in marrying _Don Pedro_. _Vasco_, through the information received from _Selika_, now hopes to undertake another voyage of discovery and thus seek to make up in glory what he has lost in love. But he learns that _Don Pedro_ has been appointed commander of an expedition and has chosen _Nelusko_ as pilot. _Vasco_ sees his hopes shattered.

Act III. The scene is on _Don Pedro's_ ship at sea. _Don Alvar_, a member of the Royal Council, who is with the expedition, has become suspicious of _Nelusko_. Two ships of the squadron have already been lost. _Don Alvar_ fears for the safety of the flagship. At that moment a Portuguese vessel is seen approaching. It is in command of _Vasco da Gama_, who has fitted it out at his own expense. Although _Don Pedro_ is his enemy, he comes aboard the admiral's ship to warn him that the vessel is on a wrong course and likely to meet with disaster. _Don Pedro_, however, accuses him of desiring only to see _Inez_, who is on the vessel, and charges that his attempted warning is nothing more than a ruse, with that purpose in view. At his command, _Vasco_ is seized and bound. A few moments later, however, a violent storm breaks over the ship. It is driven upon a reef. Savages, for whom _Nelusko_ has signalled, clamber up the sides of the vessel and ma.s.sacre all save a few whom they take captive.

Act IV. On the left, the entrance to a Hindu temple; on the right a palace. Tropical landscape. Among those saved from the ma.s.sacre is _Vasco_. He finds himself in the land which he has sought to discover--a tropical paradise. He is threatened with death by the natives, but _Selika_, in order to save him, protests to her subjects that he is her husband. The marriage is now celebrated according to East Indian rites. _Vasco_, deeply touched by _Selika's_ fidelity, is almost determined to abide by his nuptial vow and remain here as _Selika's_ spouse, when suddenly he hears the voice of _Inez_. His pa.s.sion for her revives.

Act V. The gardens of _Selika's_ palace. Again _Selika_ makes a sacrifice of love. How easily she could compa.s.s the death of _Vasco_ and _Inez_! But she forgives. She persuades _Nelusko_ to provide the lovers with a ship and bids him meet her, after the ship has sailed, on a high promontory overlooking the sea.

To this the scene changes. On the promontory stands a large manchineel tree. The perfume of its blossoms is deadly to anyone who breathes it in from under the deep shadow of its branches. From here _Selika_ watches the ship set sail. It bears from her the man she loves.

Breathing in the poison-laden odour from the tree from under which she has watched the ship depart, she dies. _Nelusko_ seeks her, finds her dead, and himself seeks death beside her under the fatal branches of the manchineel.

Meyerbeer considered "L'Africaine" his masterpiece, and believed that through it he was bequeathing to posterity an immortal monument to his fame. But although he had worked over the music for many years, and produced a wonderfully well-contrived score, his labour upon it was more careful and self-exacting than inspired; and this despite moments of intense interest in the opera. Not "L'Africaine," but "Les Huguenots," is considered his greatest work.

"L'Africaine" calls for one of the most elaborate stage-settings in opera. This is the ship scene, which gives a lengthwise section of a vessel, so that its between-decks and cabin interiors are seen--like the compartments of a huge but neatly part.i.tioned box laid on its oblong side; in fact an amazing piece of marine architecture.

Scribe's libretto has been criticized, and not unjustly, on account of the vacillating character which he gives _Vasco da Gama_. In the first act this operatic hero is in love with _Inez_. In the prison scene, in the second act, when _Selika_ points out on the map the true course to India, he is so impressed with her as a teacher of geography, that he clasps the supposed slave-girl to his breast and addresses her in impa.s.sioned song. _Selika_, being enamoured of her pupil, naturally is elated over his progress. Unfortunately _Inez_ enters the prison at this critical moment to announce to _Vasco_ that she has secured his freedom. To prove to _Inez_ that he still loves her _Vasco_ glibly makes her a present of _Selika_ and _Nelusko_. _Selika_, so to speak, no longer is on the map, so far as _Vasco_ is concerned, until, in the fourth act, she saves his life by pretending he is her husband.

Rapturously he pledges his love to her. Then _Inez's_ voice is heard singing a ballad to the Tagus River--and _Selika_ again finds herself deserted. There is nothing for her to do but to die under the manchineel tree.

"Is the shadow of this tree so fatal?" asks a French authority.

"Monsieur Scribe says yes, the naturalists say no." With this question and answer "L'Africaine" may be left to its future fate upon the stage, save that it seems proper to remark that, although the opera is called "The African," _Selika_ appears to have been an East Indian.

Early in the first act of the opera occurs _Inez's_ ballad, "Adieu, mon beau rivage" (Farewell, beloved sh.o.r.es). It is gracefully accompanied by flute and oboe. This is the ballad to the river Tagus, which _Vasco_ hears her sing in the fourth act. The finale of the first act--the scene in which _Vasco_ defies the Royal Council--is a powerful ensemble. The slumber song for _Selika_ in the second act, as she watches over _Vasco_, "Sur mes genoux, fils du soleil" (On my knees, offspring of the sun) is charming, and entirely original, with many exotic and fascinating touches. _Nelusko's_ air of homage, "Fille des rois, a toi l'hommage" (Daughter of Kings, my homage thine), expresses a sombre loyalty characteristic of the savage whose pa.s.sion for his queen amounts to fanaticism. The finale of the act is an unaccompanied septette for _Inez_, _Selika_, _Anna_, _Vasco_, _d'Alvar_, _Nelusko_, and _Don Pedro_.

In the act which plays aboardship, are the graceful chorus of women, "Le rapide et leger navire" (The swiftly gliding ship), the prayer of the sailors, "o grand Saint Dominique," and Nelusko's song, "Adamastor, roi des vagues profondes" (Adamastor, monarch of the trackless deep), a savage invocation of sea and storm, chanted to the rising of a hurricane, by the most dramatic figure among the characters in the opera. For like _Marcel_ in "Les Huguenots" and _Fides_ in "Le Prophete," _Nelusko_ is a genuine dramatic creation.

The Indian march and the ballet, which accompanies the ceremony of the crowning of _Selika_, open the fourth act. The music is exotic, piquant, and in every way effective. The scene is a masterpiece of its kind. There follow the lovely measures of the princ.i.p.al tenor solo of the opera, _Vasco's_ "Paradis sorti du sein de l'onde" (Paradise, lulled by the lisping sea). Then comes the love duet between _Vasco_ and _Selika_, "o transport, o douce extase" (Oh transport, oh sweet ecstacy). One authority says of it that "rarely have the tender pa.s.sion, the ecstacy of love been expressed with such force." Now it would be set down simply as a tiptop love duet of the old-fashioned operatic kind.

The scene of _Selika's_ death under the manchineel tree is preceded by a famous prelude for strings in unison supported by clarinets and ba.s.soons, a brief instrumental recital of grief that makes a powerful appeal. The opera ends dramatically with a soliloquy for _Selika_--"D'ici je vois la mer immense" (From here I gaze upon the boundless deep).

L'eTOILE DU NORD AND DINORAH

Two other operas by Meyerbeer remain for mention. One of them has completely disappeared from the repertoire of the lyric stage. The other suffers an occasional revival for the benefit of some prima donna extraordinarily gifted in lightness and flexibility of vocal phrasing. These operas are "L'etoile du Nord" (The Star of the North), and "Dinorah, ou Le Pardon de Ploermel" (Dinorah, or The Pardon of Ploermel).

Each of these contains a famous air. "L'etoile du Nord" has the high soprano solo with _obbligato_ for two flutes, which was one of Jenny Lind's greatest show-pieces, but has not sufficed to keep the opera alive. In "Dinorah" there is the "Shadow Song," in which _Dinorah_ dances and sings to her own shadow in the moonlight--a number which, at long intervals of time, galvanizes the rest of the score into some semblance of life.

The score of "L'etoile du Nord," produced at the Opera Comique, Paris, February 16, 1854, was a.s.sembled from an earlier work, "Das Feldlager in Schlesien" (The Camp in Silesia), produced for the opening of the Berlin Opera House, February 17, 1847; but the plots differ. The story of "L'etoile du Nord" relates to the love of _Peter the Great_ for _Catherine_, a cantiniere. Their union finally takes place, but not until _Catherine_ has disguised herself as a soldier and served in the Russian camp. After surrept.i.tiously watching _Peter_ and a companion drink and roister in the former's tent with a couple of girls, she loses her reason. When it is happily restored by Peter playing familiar airs to her on his flute, she voices her joy in the show-piece, "La, la, la, air cheri" (La, la, la, beloved song), to which reference already has been made. In the first act _Catherine_ has a "Ronde bohemienne" (Gypsy rondo), the theme of which Meyerbeer took from his opera "Emma de Rohsburg."

"L'etoile du Nord" is in three acts. There is much military music in the second act--a cavalry chorus, "Beau cavalier au coeur d'acier"

(Brave cavalier with heart of steel); a grenadier song with chorus, "Grenadiers, fiers Moscovites" (grenadiers, proud Muscovites), in which the chorus articulates the beat of the drums ("tr-r-r-um"); the "Dessauer" march, a cavalry fanfare "Ah! voyez nos Tartares du Don"

(Ah, behold our Cossacks of the Don); and a grenadiers' march: stirring numbers, all of them.

The libretto is by Scribe. The first act scene is laid in Wyborg, on the Gulf of Finland; the second in a Russian camp; the third in Peter's palace in Petrograd. Time, about 1700.

Barbier and Carre wrote the words of "Dinorah," founding their libretto on a Breton tale. Under the t.i.tle, "Le Pardon de Ploermel"

(the scene of the opera being laid near the Breton village of Ploermel) the work was produced at the Opera Comique, Paris, April 4, 1859. It has three princ.i.p.al characters--a peasant girl, _Dinorah_, _soprano_; _Hoel_, a goat-herd, _baritone_; _Corentino_, a bagpiper, _tenor_. The famous baritone, Faure, was the _Hoel_ of the Paris production. Cordier (_Dinorah_), Amodio (_Hoel_), Brignoli (_Corentino_) were heard in the first American production, Academy of Music, New York, November 24, 1864. As _Dinorah_ there also have been heard here Ilma di Murska (Booth's Theatre, 1867), Marimon (with Campanini as _Corentino_), December 12, 1879; Adelina Patti (1882); Tetrazzini (Manhattan Opera House, 1907); and Galli-Curci (Lexington Theatre, January 28, 1918), with the Chicago Opera Company.

_Dinorah_ is betrothed to _Hoel_. Her cottage has been destroyed in a storm. _Hoel_, in order to rebuild it, goes into a region haunted by evil spirits, in search of hidden treasure. _Dinorah_, believing herself deserted, loses her reason and, with her goat, whose tinkling bell is heard, wanders through the mountains in search of _Hoel_.

The opera is in three acts. It is preceded by an overture during which there is sung by the villagers behind the curtain the hymn to Our Lady of the Pardon. The scene of the first act is a rough mountain pa.s.sage near _Corentino's_ hut. _Dinorah_ finds her goat asleep and sings to it a graceful lullaby, "Dors, pet.i.te, dors tranquille" (Little one, sleep; calmly rest). _Corentino_, in his cottage, sings of the fear that comes over him in this lonely region. To dispel it, he plays on his cornemuse. _Dinorah_ enters the hut, and makes him dance with her, while she sings.

When someone is heard approaching, she jumps out of the window. It is _Hoel_. Both he and _Corentino_ think she is a sprite. _Hoel_ sings of the gold he expects to find, and offers _Corentino_ a share in the treasure if he will aid him lift it. According to the legend, however, the first one to touch the treasure must die, and _Hoel's_ seeming generosity is a ruse to make _Corentino_ the victim of the discovery.

The tinkle of the goat's bell is heard. _Hoel_ advises that they follow the sound as it may lead to the treasure. The act closes with a trio, "Ce tintement que l'on entend" (The tinkling tones that greet the ear). _Dinorah_ stands among the high rocks, while _Hoel_ and _Corentino_, the latter reluctantly, make ready to follow the tinkle of the bell.

A wood of birches by moonlight is the opening scene of the second act.

It is here _Dinorah_ sings of "Le vieux sorcier de la montagne" (The ancient wizard of the mountain), following it with the "Shadow Song,"

"Ombre legere qui suis mes pas" (Fleet shadow that pursues my steps)--"Ombra leggiera" in the more familiar Italian version.

[Music]

This is a pa.s.sage so graceful and, when sung and acted by an Adelina Patti, was so appealing, that I am frank to confess it suggested to me the chapter ent.i.tled "Shadows of the Stage," in my novel of opera behind the scenes, _All-of-a-Sudden Carmen_.

The scene changes to a wild landscape. A ravine bridged by an uprooted tree. A pond, with a sluiceway which, when opened, gives on the ravine. The moon has set. A storm is rising.

_Hoel_ and _Corentino_ enter; later _Dinorah_. Through the night, that is growing wilder, she sings the legend of the treasure, "Sombre destinee, ame cond.a.m.nee" (O'ershadowing fate, soul lost for aye).

Her words recall the tragic story of the treasure to _Corentino_, who now sees through _Hoel's_ ruse, and seeks to persuade the girl to go after the treasure. She sings gaily, in strange contrast to the gathering storm. Lightning flashes show her her goat crossing the ravine by the fallen tree. She runs after her pet. As she is crossing the tree, a thunderbolt crashes. The sluice bursts, the tree is carried away by the flood, which seizes _Dinorah_ in its swirl. _Hoel_ plunges into the wild waters to save her.

Not enough of the actual story remains to make a third act. But as there has to be one, the opening of the act is filled in with a song for a _Hunter_ (_ba.s.s_), another for a _Reaper_ (_tenor_), and a duet for _Goat-herds_ (_soprano and contralto_). _Hoel_ enters bearing _Dinorah_, who is in a swoon. _Hoel_ here has his princ.i.p.al air, "Ah!

mon remords te venge" (Ah, my remorse avenges you). _Dinorah_ comes to. Her reason is restored when she finds herself in her lover's arms. The villagers chant the "Hymn of the Pardon." A procession forms for the wedding, which is to make happy _Dinorah_ and _Hoel_, every one, in fact, including the goat.