Salammbô (Mussorgsky)
| Modest Mussorgsky |
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Operas
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Salammbô [alternative title: The Libyan (Russian: Ливиец)] is an unfinished opera in 4 acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The fragmentary Russian language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the novel Salammbô (1862) by Gustave Flaubert, but includes verses taken from poems by Vasily Zhukovsky, Apollon Maykov, Aleksandr Polezhayev, and other Russian poets.[1]
Salammbô was Mussorgsky's first major attempt at an opera.[2] He worked on the project from 1863 to 1866, completing six numbers before losing interest.
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[edit] History
[edit] Composition History
The Russian translation of Flaubert's 1862 novel was published serially in the Saint Petersburg journal Otechestvennïye zapiski in 1863, and was read with enthusiasm by the six members of the commune in which the composer was then living.[3] Mussorgsky was likely influenced in his choice of subject by having recently heard Aleksandr Serov's Judith, which premiered on 16 May 1863, and which shares with Salammbô an exotic setting and similar narrative details.[4]
The unfinished vocal score consists of three scenes and three separate numbers:
| No. | Completed | Scene | Description |
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1864-08 | Act 1 | Song: "Song of the Balearic Islander" |
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1866-04-10 | Act 1 | Chorus: "War Song of the Libyans" |
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1863-12-15 | Act 2, Scene 2 | Scene: The Temple of Tanit in Carthage |
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1864-11-10 | Act 3, Scene 1 | Scene: The Temple of Molokh |
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1864-11-26 | Act 4, Scene 1 | Scene: The Dungeon of the Acropolis |
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1866-02-08 | Act 4, Scene 2 | Chorus: [Chorus of Priestesses] |
Two numbers (No.2 and No.5) were orchestrated by the composer.
The chorus of priestesses and warriors (Act 2, Scene 2, Episode 3: "After the theft of the Zaïmph") is a reworking of the "Scene in the Temple: Chorus of the People", the only surviving number from Oedipus in Athens (1858-1861), Mussorgsky's earliest stage-work.[5][6]
A portion of Mathô's monologue in the dungeon, "I shall die alone", borrows its text from the poem Song of the Captive Iroquois, by Aleksandr Polezhayev. The theme of this passage, set to a new text, was recycled in 1877 in the chorus Joshua [see Subsequent use of musical materials in this article for more details].[7]
Mussorgsky's orchestration in Salammbô is quite ahead of its time. One example of a modern idea is, in the "Hymn to Tanit" (Act 2 Scene 2), the abundance and variety of percussion, in addition to a mixture of pianos, harps and glockenspiels of a sort which only reappeared fifty years later.
[edit] Publication history
1939, Vocal Score, in M.P. Mussorgsky: Complete Collected Works, Muzgiz, Moscow
[edit] Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast (Conductor: - ) |
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| The Balearic Islander | baritone | |
| Salambo (Salammbô), Hamilcar's daughter, chief priestess of Tanit | mezzo-soprano | |
| Mato (Mathô), leader of the Libyan mercenaries | bass | |
| Spendiy (Spendius), a freed slave, a mercenary leader | tenor | |
| High Priest | baritone | |
| Aminakhar (Aminachar) | bass | |
| 1st Pentarch | tenor | |
| 2nd Pentarch | bass | |
| 3rd Pentarch | tenor | |
| 4th Pentarch | bass | |
| Libyan mercenaries, warriors, priestesses of Tanit, priests of Moloch, women, children, old men, people of Carthage | ||
[edit] Synopsis
Setting
- Time: 241 to 238 B.C., before and during the Mercenary Revolt.
- Place: Carthage (in what is now Tunisia).
[edit] Act 1
Scene: Hamilcar's Garden in Carthage
[edit] Act 2
Scene 1:
Scene 2: The Temple of Tanit in Carthage
[edit] Act 3
Scene 1: The Temple of Moloch
Scene 2:
[edit] Act 4
Scene 1: The Dungeon of the Acropolis
Scene 2:
[edit] Subsequent use of musical materials
Mussorgsky reused much of the music from Salammbô in later works:
- The "Song of the Balearic Islander" (Russian: «Песнь балеарца», Pesn' baleartsa) was included by the composer in a collection of his juvenilia composed between 1857 and 1866 called Youthful Years (Russian: Юные годы, Yunïye godï, 1866). The song is No. 17 in the series of manuscripts consisting of 17 songs and one duet.[8][9]
- Several measures of Salammbô's dialogue with the crowd were used in Night on Bald Mountain (1867).
- Several musical themes from this project were recycled and played important roles in the composer's subsequent opera Boris Godunov (1869–1872). The borrowings concern the orchestral accompaniments only, which are fitted to new vocal lines. The correspondence in narrative detail, mood, or atmosphere in each case is often quite close:[10]
| Scene | Salammbô | Scene | Boris Godunov (Revised Version) |
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| Act 2, Scene 2 | Salammbô: "Gentle Tanit" ("Ritual scena") | Act 4, Scene 1 | Boris: "From empyrean unassailable heights" (Prayer) |
| Act 2, Scene 2 | Chorus: "Go down to the dark meadow and forest" (in the "Hymn to Tanit") | Act 3, Scene 2 | Dimitriy: "Tis you alone, Marina" |
| Act 2, Scene 2 | Mathô: "Divine, wondrous singing" | Act 3, Scene 2 | Dimitriy: "You wound my heart, cruel Marina" |
| Act 2, Scene 2 | Salammbô: "Away! Away from me!" (Salammbô's curse) | Act 4, Scene 2 | Vagabonds: "Gaida! Choke them! Suffocate them!" (The lynching of the Jesuits) |
| Act 3, Scene 1 | High Priest: "Our sacred city is besieged" | Act 2 | Boris: "Heavy is the right hand of the awesome judge" (Boris's arioso) |
| Act 3, Scene 1 | People: "Repel the daring foes from our walls" | Act 2 | Boris: "In vain the astrologers foretell" (Boris's arioso) |
| Act 3, Scene 1 | Priests and people: "Glory to Moloch!" (Processional music) | Act 4, Scene 2 | Vagabonds: "Glory to the Tsarevich!" (Processional music) |
| Act 4, Scene 1 | Mathô: "You were under my heel" (describing Narr'Havas's treachery) | Act 4, Scene 1 | Shuysky: "Pale, bathed in a cold sweat" (describing Boris's hallucination) |
| Act 4, Scene 1 | Four priests of Moloch: "Glory to thee, all-powerful one!" | Act 4, Scene 1 | Orchestral introduction |
| Act 4, Scene 1 | The pentarchs sentence Mathô to execution | Act 4, Scene 1 | The boyars pass sentence on the Pretender |
- The "War Song of the Libyans" (Russian: «Боевая песнь Ливийцев», Boyevaya pesn' Liviytsev) from Act 1 became the basis of the chorus Iisus Navin (Russian: «Иисус Навин»), better known as Joshua, for alto, baritone, chorus, and piano, composed in 1877. An orchestral edition prepared by Rimsky-Korsakov was published in 1883. The theme of the middle section of Joshua, a solo for alto and a brief women's chorus, "The women of Canaan weep", said to be of Jewish origin by Vladimir Stasov and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, is based on part of Mathô's monologue in the dungeon, "I shall die alone" (Act 4, Scene 1).[11]
- The "Chorus of Priestesses" (Act 4, Scene 2) was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov (1884), and published and performed as an independent piece after Mussorgsky's death (1881).[12]
[edit] Performing editions
Zoltan Pesko was the first to orchestrate the rest of the numbers. Pesko claims to have found a Mussorgsky orchestration of no. 1 in the library of the Paris Conservatory. But this version has disappeared.[13]
[edit] Recordings
- 1980, Zoltan Pesko (conductor), Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della Radiotelevisione Italiana, Ludmilla Shemchuk (Salammbô), Georgiy Seleznev (Mathô), William Stone (Balearic Islander, Spendius, Aminachar), Giorgio Surjan (Priest), Giorgio Tieppo (Pentarch 1), Eftimios Michalopoulos (Pentarch 2). CD: CBS Masterworks, Cat: CB272.
- 1991, Gergiev, Valery (conductor), Orchestration by Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn (1989–91), Kirov Ballet, Chorus and Orchestra Saint Petersburg, Olga Borodina (Salammbô), Bulat Minzhilkiev (Mathô), Vassily Gerello (Balearic Islander), Valery Lebed (Spendius), Vladimir Ognovienko (Priest), Vladimir Solodovnikov, Nicolai Gassiev Sergei Alexashin and Evgeni Fedotov (Pentarchs). [TRES IN S.A. 1991]
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pg. 97)
- ^ Lloyd-Jones (1974: pg. 2)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pg. 18)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pg. 98)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pp. 95, 102)
- ^ Orlova, Pekelis (1971: pg. 41)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pp. 106, 182-183)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pp. 64-65)
- ^ Taruskin (1993: pg. 55)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pp. 99-106)
- ^ Calvocoressi, Abraham (1974: pp. 106, 182-183)
- ^ Lloyd-Jones (1984: pg. 3)
- ^ Tedeschi
- Sources
- Calvocoressi, M.D., Abraham, G., Mussorgsky, 'Master Musicians' Series, London: J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1974
- Lloyd-Jones, D., notes to CD RD70405 (Mussorgsky: Orchestral and Choral works) RCA Records, 1974
- Musorgskiy, M., M. P. Musorgskiy: Letters, 2nd edition, Gordeyeva, Ye. (editor), Moscow: Muzïka (Music, publisher), 1984 [Мусоргский, М., М. П. Мусоргский: Письма, Гордеева, Е., Москва: Музыка, 1984]
- Musorgskiy, M., Literary Legacy (Literaturnoye naslediye), Orlova, A., Pekelis, M. (editors), Moscow: Muzïka (Music, publisher), 1971 [Мусоргский, М., Литературное наследие, Орлова, А., Пекелис, М., Москва: Музыка, 1971]
- Shirinyan, R. (author), Kondakhchan, K. (editor), M. P. Musorgskiy, Moscow: Muzïka (Music, publisher), 1989 [Ширинян, Р., Кондахчан, К., М. П. Мусоргский, Москва: Музыка, 1989]
- Taruskin, R., Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993
- Tedeschi, Rubens, Salammbo in Modest Musorgskij Aspekte des Opernwerks, (Musik-Konzepte 1981) ISBN 3883770930
