Meyerbeer, as I have been informed by competent authorities, was constantly modifying his compositions. With him, the work of revision and emendation was never finished. It is said that this was more especially the case with his last opera, l’Africaine, which he was continually altering and revising, never being able to satisfy himself. Two versions of the libretto were prepared for him by Scribe, and two distinct settings of the music are published, although only one is performed.[5]
In Nelusko’s first air occurs the following passage, in which a great crescendo is marked, culminating ff on the word rien:
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Although the opera was produced after the composer’s death, Jean-Baptiste Faure, the great baritone chosen to create the rôle of Nelusko, studied it with Meyerbeer, who authorized several verbal and musical changes in it.
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Without the first alteration it is impossible to realize the composer’s wish for a climax on the word “rien”; the second change is due to the fact that the tessitura of the phrase is somewhat high, and Faure, who was a low rather than high baritone, dreaded the high f♯.
Indeed, it was for this latter reason that this most accomplished singer never sang in Verdi’s operas. According to his own statement, he had to deny himself this pleasure, because most of the baritone parts in the Italian composer’s operas are written in a high tessitura.