Among the chief mourners at Chopin's funeral was Meyerbeer, who, though
German by birth and training, passed the most important years of his
life in Paris, as did the gifted Pole. In our picture Hamman has
represented the composer enthroned amid the characters of his chief
operas, doubtless as real to him as creatures of flesh and blood.
[Illustration: Mayerbeer. From painting by E. J. C. Hamman.]
In the foreground, at Meyerbeer's right hand, are seen Nelusko and
Selika, from "L'Africaine," his last opera, which was not produced
until the year after his death. "Vasco da Gama, the famous discoverer,
is the betrothed lover of a maiden named Inez, the daughter of Don
Diego, a Portuguese grandee. When the opera opens he is still at sea,
and has not been heard of for years. Don Pedro, the president of the
council, takes advantage of his absence to press his own suit for the
hand of Inez, and obtains the king's sanction to his marriage on the
ground that Vasco must have been lost at sea. At this moment the
long-lost hero returns, accompanied by two swarthy slaves, Selika and
Nelusko, whom he has brought home from a distant isle in the Indian
Ocean. He recounts the wonders of the place, and entreats the
government to send out a pioneer expedition to win an empire across the
sea. His suggestions are rejected, and he himself, through the
machinations of Don Pedro, is cast into prison. There he is tended by
Selika, who loves her gentle captor passionately, and has need of all
her regal authority--for in the distant island she was a queen--to
prevent the jealous Nelusko from slaying him in his sleep. Inez now
comes to the prison to announce to Vasco that she has purchased his
liberty at the price of giving her hand to Don Pedro. In the next act
Don Pedro, who has stolen a march on Vasco, is on his way to the
African island, taking with him Inez and Selika. The steering of the
vessel is entrusted to Nelusko. Vasco da Gama, who has fitted out a
vessel at his own expense, overtakes Don Pedro in mid-ocean, and
generously warns his rival of the treachery of Nelusko, who is steering
the vessel upon the rocks of his native shore. Don Pedro's only reply
is to order Vasco to be tied to the mast and shot, but before the
sentence can be carried out, the vessel strikes upon the rocks, and the
aborigines swarm over the sides. Selika, once more a queen, saves the
lives of Vasco and Inez from the angry natives. In the next act the
nuptials of Selika and Vasco are on the point of being celebrated, with
great pomp, when the hero, who has throughout the opera wavered between
the two women who love him, finally makes up his mind in favour of
Inez. Selika thereupon magnanimously despatches them home in Vasco's
ship, and poisons herself with the fragrance of the deadly manchineel
tree."
Behind Selika appear Robert and Bertram, from "Robert le Diable," the
first work of the composer's French period, produced in 1831. Its
libretto, by Scribe, tells how "Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of
the Duchess Bertha by a fiend who donned the shape of man to prosecute
his amour, arrives in Sicily to compete for the hand of the Princess
Isabella, which is to be awarded as the prize at a magnificent
tournament. Robert's dare-devil gallantry and extravagance soon earn
him the sobriquet of 'Le Diable,' and he puts the coping-stone to his
folly by gambling away all his possessions at a single sitting, even to
his horse and the armour on his back. Robert has an _âme damnée_ in
the shape of a knight named Bertram, to whose malign influence most of
his crimes and follies are due. Bertram is in reality his
demon-father, whose every effort is directed to making a thorough-paced
villain of his son, so that he may have the pleasure of enjoying his
society for all eternity. In strong contrast to the fiendish
malevolence of Bertram stands the gentle figure of Alice, Robert's
foster-sister, who has followed him from Normandy with a message from
his dead mother. Isabella supplies Robert with a fresh horse and arms;
nevertheless, he is beguiled away from Palermo by some trickery of
Bertram's, and fails to put in an appearance at the tournament. The
only means, therefore, left to him of obtaining the hand of Isabella is
to visit the tomb of his mother, and there to pluck a magic branch of
cypress, which will enable him to defeat his rivals. The cypress grows
in a deserted convent haunted by the spectres of profligate nuns, and
there, amidst infernal orgies, Robert plucks the branch of power. By
its aid, he sends the guards of the princess into a deep sleep, and is
only prevented by her passionate entreaties from carrying her off by
force. Yielding to her prayers, he breaks the branch, and his magic
power at once deserts him. He seeks sanctuary from his enemies in the
cathedral, and there the last and fiercest strife for the possession of
his soul is waged between the powers of good and evil. On the one hand
is Bertram, whose term of power on earth expires at midnight. He has
now discovered himself as Robert's father, and produced an infernal
compact of union, which he entreats his son to sign. On the other is
Alice, pleading and affectionate, bearing the last words of Robert's
dead mother, warning him against the fiend who had seduced her. While
Robert is hesitating between the two, midnight strikes, and Bertram
sinks with thunder into the pit. The scene changes, and a glimpse is
given of the interior of the cathedral, where the marriage of Robert
and Isabella is being celebrated."
Next to the evil Bertram is portrayed, in his coronation robes, John of
Leyden, the chief character in "Le Prophète," which had its first
representation in 1849. "John, an innkeeper of Leyden, loves Bertha, a
village maiden, who dwells near Dordrecht. Unfortunately, her liege
lord, the Count of Oberthal, has designs upon the girl himself, and
refuses his consent to the marriage. Bertha escapes from his clutches
and flies to the protection of her lover, but Oberthal secures the
person of Fidès, John's old mother, and, by threats of putting her to
death, compels him to give up Bertha. Wild with rage against the vice
and lawlessness of the nobles, John joins the ranks of the Anabaptists,
a revolutionary sect pledged to the destruction of the powers that be.
Their leaders recognise him as a prophet promised by Heaven, and he is
installed as their chief. The Anabaptists lay siege to Munster, which
falls into their hands, and in the cathedral John is solemnly
proclaimed the Son of God. During the ceremony he is recognised by
Fidès, who, believing him to have been slain by the false prophet, has
followed the army to Munster in hopes of revenge. She rushes forward
to claim her son, but John pretends not to know her. To admit an
earthly relationship would be to prejudice his position with the
populace, and he compels her to confess that she is mistaken. The
coronation ends with John's triumph, while the hapless Fidès is carried
off to be immured in a dungeon. John visits her in her cell, and
obtains her pardon by promising to renounce his deceitful splendour,
and to fly with her. Later he discovers that a plot against himself
has been hatched by some of the Anabaptist leaders, and he destroys
himself and them by blowing up the palace of Munster."
In front of John of Leyden are the leading personages in "Les
Huguenots." Raoul is kneeling to Valentine, while the wounded Marcel
stands by, sword in hand. Eugene Scribe was the author of the words of
this opera, which dates from 1836, and is thus summarised: "Marguerite
de Valois, the beautiful Queen of Navarre, who is anxious to reconcile
the bitterly hostile parties of Catholics and Huguenots, persuades the
Comte de Saint Bris, a prominent Catholic, to allow his daughter
Valentine to marry Raoul de Nangis, a young Huguenot noble. Valentine
is already betrothed to the gallant and amorous Comte de Nevers, but
she pays him a nocturnal visit in his own palace, and induces him to
release her from her engagement. During her interview with Nevers, she
is perceived by Raoul, and recognised as a lady whom he lately rescued
from insult and has loved passionately ever since. In his eyes there
is only one possible construction to be put upon her presence in
Nevers's palace, and he hastens to dismiss her from his mind.
Immediately upon his decision comes a message from the queen, bidding
him hasten to her palace in Touraine upon important affairs of state.
When he arrives she unfolds her plan, and he, knowing Valentine only by
sight, not by name, gladly consents. When, in the presence of the
assembled nobles, he recognises in his destined bride the presumed
mistress of Nevers, he casts her from him, and vows to prefer death to
such intolerable disgrace. The scene of the next act is in the Pré aux
Clercs, in the outskirts of Paris. Valentine, who is to be married
that night to Nevers, obtains leave to pass some hours in prayer in a
chapel. While she is there she overhears the details of a plot devised
by Saint Bris for the assassination of Raoul, in order to avenge the
affront put upon himself and his daughter. Valentine contrives to warn
Marcel, Raoul's old servant, of this, and he assembles his Huguenot
comrades hard by, who rush in at the first _cliquetis_ of steel and
join the general _mêlée_. The fight is interrupted by the entrance of
the queen. When she finds out who are the principal combatants, she
reproves them sharply, and _en passant_ tells Raoul the real story of
Valentine's visit to Nevers. The act ends with the marriage
festivities, while Raoul is torn by an agony of love and remorse. In
the next act Raoul contrives to gain admittance to Nevers's house, and
there has an interview with Valentine. They are interrupted by the
entrance of Saint Bris and his followers, whereupon Valentine conceals
Raoul behind the arras. From his place of concealment he hears Saint
Bris unfold the plan of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, which is to
be carried out that night. The conspirators swear a solemn oath to
exterminate the Huguenots, and their daggers are consecrated by
attendant priests. Nevers alone refuses to take part in the butchery.
When they all have left, Raoul comes out of his hiding-place, and, in
spite of the prayers and protestations of Valentine, leaps from the
window at the sound of the fatal tocsin, and hastens to join his
friends. In the last act, Raoul first warns Henry of Navarre and the
Huguenot nobles, assembled at the Hôtel de Sens, of the massacre, and
then joins the _mêlée_ in the streets. Valentine has followed him,
and, after vainly endeavouring to make him don the white scarf, which
is worn that night by all Catholics, she throws in her lot with him,
and dies in his arms, after they have been solemnly joined in wedlock
by the wounded and dying Marcel."