An operatic experience not to be missed
Meyerbeer's 150th anniversary was marked almost to the day by the appearance of this very important set. It is the first ever proper studio recording of Meyerbeer's last opera, done in conjunction with the staging of the work at the Opera House in Chemnitz in February 2012. It is also the first time that the score has been performed as the composer left it. So this is a production for very considerable historical and artistic reasons.
Meyerbeer had started writing the opera in 1838: the original libretto by Scribe had been set in Spain and West Africa, with Hernando de Soto as hero. But Meyerbeer was never completely happy with this version, and in 1852 Scribe provided a new scenario, this time set in Portugal and India, and featuring Vasco da Gama. Meyerbeer began composing the new text and was working on the opera until the end of his life. Scribe died in 1861, and for textual changes Meyerbeer turned to the dramatist Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer in March, April and May 1861; she provided German revisions which were then translated into French at different times during 1862 and 1863 by Joseph Duesberg (these were mainly in acts 2 and 4). The alterations included new passages in the Sélika's death scene written by the composer himself during November and December 1863.
The themes of the opera, the historical issues, exploration and aggressive colonialism, the depiction of whole societies and their mutually destructive interaction, could hardly be more epic. Issues of power, commerce, race, gender, slavery and humanity are tacit in the poet's imaginative and prophetic words and scenario.
It is wonderful at long last to hear the opera as Meyerbeer actually left it, and as it was largely published in the Brandus full score. The ‘edition' presented here shows some elements of selection, really in the finale where an extra movement is added to Sélika's famous soliloquy under the Mancenillier Tree. Otherwise it means playing (often for the first time ever) those pieces omitted by the musicologist François-Joseph Fétis who was commissioned to make the performing edition used by the Paris Opéra in 1865 and which then spread all over the world as the standard text. No performance of the opera played in recent years has ever presented even this shortened edition in its entirety (although the famous Covent Garden revival of 1978 and 1981 presented the performing score with diligence and care). Other productions (Naples, Barcelona, San Francisco, Venice) have presented versions of the score so badly, often so savagely cut, that they cannot really be regarded as proper performances of the opera. The tragedy is that these travesties, invariably on private recordings, have been regarded as authentic expressions of Meyerbeer's art, and he has been judged negatively accordingly. The very issues that his critics have liked to focus on (brevity of melodic line, inability to develop musical ideas) are exactly the results of the ruthless and irresponsible butchering of the score. Now for the first time we can hear the whole of the final version of the opera as Meyerbeer left it, and without cuts. The great Council Scene in Act 1 unfolds in all its extended drama, variety and richness, its melodic plenitude and development a masterpiece of musical craftsmanship.
The biggest benefit is the restoration of the original conception of Act 3. Here whole movements or pieces are restored, and whole scenes (the confrontational and reflective septet, the interaction between Sélika and Nélusko as they face imminent death) reestablishes the proper narrative, and provides us with music never heard before, and so striking in its dramatic power and beauty of conception. This also true of act 4 where the great scene for Vasco ("O Paradis") is now understood in a wider dramatic construct of the fate of the shipwrecked Portuguese prisoners, and the musical textures understood now as part of a greater architectural construction: the sublime and frightening Chorus of Sacrificers and their special motif frames the whole episode with strong structural-thematic recurrence. The first part of act 5 gives Inès a whole new dimension of characterization, while the famous scene under the Upas Tree has new sections and more examples of Meyerbeer's famous originality in orchestration. The whole experience is thrilling, new, fresh, and a revelation of the composer's full dramatic and musical capacities.
The set is beautifully produced, with photos from the Chemitz production. The booklet provides the whole original libretto of the opera, in French (with German and English translations), and various introductory articles. All the cast sing their roles with verve and commitment. The four protagonists bring much skill and beautiful singing to this important undertaking. The French baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot is particularly outstanding in his personification the wild and dynamic/demonic Nelusko. The conductor Frank Beermann, so adventurous in exploring the neglected repertory in both opera and symphonic works, has an intuitive sensitivity for the music and its style, especially in the scenes played for the first time. His tempi are measured and exciting, and only in the finale of the exotic Marche Indienne does he seem to take the pace too quickly. The orchestral playing is consistently good in bringing out the drama, rich textures and spectrum of iridescent colours in Meyerbeer's eloquent instrumental writing. This is an operatic experience not to be missed.