L'Africaine

L'Africaine (The African Woman) is a grand opera in five acts, the last work of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French libretto by Eugène Scribe deals with fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama – Meyerbeer's working title for the opera was in fact Vasco da Gama. The opera had its first performance by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 28 April 1865.

The opera was premiered in a performing edition undertaken by François-Joseph Fétis, as the composer had not prepared a final version by the time of his death the previous year. It is Fétis who gave the work its present title; Meyerbeer had referred to it as Vasco de Gama. In fact it is clear from the text, with its references to Hinduism, that the heroine Sélika hails not from Africa, but from a region of, or island nearby, India. Madagascar has been suggested as a compromise reconciliation. Gabriela Cruz has published a detailed analysis of the historical context of the events of the opera and the opera setting itself.

Meyerbeer worked on the score from 1854 to 1855. He had intended the role of Sélika for the soprano Sophie Cruvelli, but Cruvelli's abrupt retirement from the public stage in January 1856 interrupted his plans.

The work had its British premiere at Covent Garden Theatre, London, on 22 July 1865, and in New York on 1 December 1865. It also received its Italian premiere in 1865 in Bologna, conducted by Angelo Mariani and was staged four times at La Fenice between 1868 and 1892. It was also performed in Melbourne, Australia, in July 1866.

The opera was enormously successful in the 19th century, but today it is rarely revived. Plácido Domingo has sung it in at least two productions: a revival at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco that premiered on November 13, 1973; and in 1977 at the Liceu in Barcelona, with Montserrat Caballé. To mark the 150th anniversary of Meyerbeer's death, the work was performed again at La Fenice in November 2013. Most modern performances and recordings are severely cut to give prominence to the parts of da Gama and Sélika, and therefore they cannot give a full idea of the composer's conception, which in any case has been to some extent obscured by the version prepared by Fétis.

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Wikipedia