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''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is a grand opera, the last work of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French libretto was written by Eugène Scribe. The opera is about fictitious events in the life of the real historical person Vasco da Gama. (Meyerbeer's working title for the opera was ''Vasco da Gama''.) ==Performance history== The opera was premiered by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 28 April 1865 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.〔Cruz, Gabriela, "Laughing at History: The Third Act of Meyerbeer's ''L'Africaine''" (March 1999). ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', 11 (1): pp. 31–76〕〔Cruz, Gabriela, "Meyerbeer's Music of the Future", ''Opera Quarterly'' 25: 169–202 (Summer–Autumn 2009)〕 Meyerbeer was working on the score from 1854 to 1855, and 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.〔Camille Saint-Saëns, (Trans. Edwin Gile Rich),"Meyerbeer", ''Musical Memories'', Chapter XX. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1919〕 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.〔(Press release of Teatro La Fenice )〕 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. In 2013, Meyerbeer's original version in a new critical edition by was performed by Chemnitz Opera under the original title ''Vasco de Gama''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.theater-chemnitz.de/sparten/oper/oper_retrospektive/retro_oper_1213/vasco_de_gama.html )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.kulturradio.de/rezensionen/cd/2014/giacomo-meyerbeer-vasco-da-gama.html )〕 The production was a success with audiences and critics and won the poll of German critics award presented by ''Opernwelt'' magazine annually as "Rediscovery of the year" in 2013.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.kultiversum.de/Opernwelt/Opernhaus-des-Jahres.html )〕 The best known part of the opera is the act 4 tenor aria "Pays merveilleux ... O, paradis", which has been recorded many times. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「L'Africaine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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