ricenzione di Meyerbeer in Italia: Le traduzioni dei grands opéras”; and
Andrew Everett, “Meyerbeer in London.” Indexed.- Frese, Christhard. Dramaturgie des grossen Opern Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Berlin: Lienau, 1970. 308p. No ISBN. ML410 .M61 F65.
Extended program notes, with some technical observations, on Robert le diable,
Les huguenots, Le prophète,and L’africaine. Backnotes, bibliography of some
100 items but no index. - Becker, Heinz. “Zwischen Oper und Drama: Zu Meyerbeers Konzeption der
dramatischen Szene.” In Wagner Symposium(#1973), 86–94.
Meyerbeer moved from the formal number opera to the freer romantic style,
displaying increasing creativity in orchestration. He had been impressed by
Rienzi. Although he did not abandon the singer-dominated style, he adapted it
to dramatic purposes. - Conati, Marcello. “Quasi un mistero: Il silenzio italiano sui grand-opéradi
Meyerbeer.” NRMI33–2 (April–June 1999): 157–170.
Roberto il diavolo(1831) was not staged in Italy until 1840 and Gli ugonotti
(1836) not until 1841. The delay was due to the lack of preparedness in most
Italian theaters for Meyerbeer’s scenic requirements, vocal types, and orches-
tration. Only Florence, where the premieres took place, was equipped to deal
with French grand opera: it was indeed a center of new ideas. This article is to
continue in a later issue of NRMI.
See also Cooper (#66).
Individual Works
Excerpts from five early operas are in IO–1810,v.23.
L’africaine
ERO,v.24.
- Roberts, John Howell. “The Genesis of Meyerbeer’s L’africaine.” Ph.D. diss.,
U. of California, Berkeley, 1977. 233p. - Cruz, Gabriela. “Laughing at History: The Third Act of Meyerbeer’s
L’africaine.” COJ11-1 (March 1999): 31–76.
The opera is a “rather fictionalized account of Vasco da Gama’s first sea voy-
age to India.” Disregard for historical fact is offset by what Cruz calls “con-
cern with and use of historical narrative.” Genesis of the opera is explored and
found to have been focused on the literary figure of Radamastor. All sources
are described. The conclusion is that the “textual and musical components of
the ballad challenged established modes of comprehension in opera.” There is
also a summary of the reception of the work.
See also #1190.
Giacomo Meyerbeer 229