Meyerbeer's L'Africaine : history, heroism and the mythological hermeneutic / by Robert Ignatius Letellier.
| Author/creator | Letellier, Robert Ignatius |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022. |
| Description | xviii, 257 pages, 124 pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits (some color), music ; 21 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | L'Africaine, Vasco de Gama. Origins -- The text -- The sources -- The dramaturgy -- The music -- History and myth -- The performance history -- The librettists. Eugene Scribe ; Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer ; Heinrich Duesberg -- Joseph François Fétis. The preface to La Deuxième Partie ; The contents of La Deuxième Partie -- The iconography. Prince Alexis Soltikoff ; The Liebig cards -- Hector Berlioz and Meyerbeer -- Contemporary critical opinion. Félix Clément, Dictionnaire des opéras, 1869 ; F. de Lagenevais: L'Africaine de Meyerbeer à l'Opéra, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1865 ; Eduard Hanslick -- Other influences. Vasco da Gama: a famous Portuguese explorer ; Luiz de Camões and The Lusaids ; Canto 5 of The Lusaids ; Canto 6 of The Lusaids -- The mythology of the poison tree. The mythology ; The world's most poisonous tree: the Manchineel tree. |
| Abstract | Vasco de Gama was the last collaboration between Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eug̈ne Scribe, the famous playwright and librettist. The work had intermittently preoccupied them both since 1838, and it had become legendary as L'Africaine years before its completion. The first version of the opera became known as the Vecchia Africana of the long years of Meyerbeer's anxious labours on this most troublesome of his operas. An adoring public gave Meyerbeer a tumultuous posthumous accolade on the premïre of L'Africaine on 28 April 1865, a year after his death. This opera which involved Meyerbeer and Scribe's creative energies for so long includes in one last and splendid achievement many of the elements that had hitherto featured in varying degrees in all their other joint creations. Both composer and librettist were men of immense imagination and genius. Between them, they created four works of great power and beauty that radically affected the history of opera. This study examines the origins and creation of the opera, its dramaturgy and musical style, the history of its astonishing reception around the world until the 1930s, its revival in more recent times. One of the special features of the book is the collection of iconography associated with the work, and its interpretation by many of the greatest singers of the Golden Age of opera. This imagery and many musical examples help to bring out the themes explored in this work more fully. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-228), discography (pages 229-242), and index. |
| ISBN | 1527581020 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 9781527581029 (hardcover) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.M61 L39 2022 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |