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Alimelek
Giacomo Meyerbeer:
'Alimelek, oder Die beiden Kalifen'
Lustspiel mit Gesang in zwei
Aufzügen nach einem Märchen der Tausend
und einen Nacht von Johann Gottfried Wohlbrück
Hofschauspieler in München
Die Musik von Jakob Meyerbeer
Tonkünstler aus Berlin
Introduced and Edited by
Robert Ignatius Letellier
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Giacomo Meyerbeer: 'Alimelek, oder Die beiden Kalifen', Introduced and Edited by Robert Ignatius Letellier
This book first published 2008 by
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2008 by Robert Letellier
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright
owner.
ISBN (10): 1-84718-458-8, ISBN (13): 9781847184580
The young Giacomo Meyerbeer, c. 1817.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Manuscript ...........................................................................................................viii
Introduction...................................................................................................................ix
Act 1
Ouverture ...........................................................................................1
1. Introduzione.................................................................................61
2. Ariette (Irene) ............................................................................102
3. Rondo (Alimelek) ......................................................................132
4. Trinklied (Alimelek, Kalph, Giaffar) ........................................162
5. Melodrama und Finale...............................................................204
Act 2
6. Entr’act, Chor und Tanz ............................................................340
7. Duetto (Alimelek and Irene)......................................................382
8. Marsch .......................................................................................431
9. Chor der Imams .........................................................................445
10. Duetto (Irene and Alimelek)....................................................463
Verwandlungsmusik ..................................................................497
11. Terzett (Alimelek, Kaliph, Giaffar).........................................515
12. Finale .......................................................................................550
Melodrama...............................................................................550
Canon.......................................................................................555
Schlusschor und Ballett ...........................................................568
THE MANUSCRIPT
The manuscript is from the collection of the Royal Library in Berlin (M. Alimelek.
Mus ms. 14410. Ex. Biblioth. Regia Berolinensi). It is in the hand of a copyist, very
clear and precise, and consists of 501 unnumbered pages. It is most likely the version
used in the Prague and Dresden productions of the opera. Unlike the original Stuttgart
MS (see Wirt und Gast, Cambridge Scholars’ Publishing, 2008) which reflects the
cuts made at the first performance, this version is complete, restoring the Melodrama
in the Act 1 Finale (No. 5), the March (No. 8), the Transformation Music at the end of
No. 10, a fuller duet version of the aria (No. 10), and the Melodrama and Canon at the
beginning of the Act 2 Finale (No. 12).
INTRODUCTION
The first reference to Meyerbeer’s second opera, Wirt und Gast, oder Aus Scherz
Ernst occurs on 10 June 1812, when the young Meyerbeer, living in Munich, records
in his diary, “Called on Wohlbrück for a conference about the finale of the new opera.”
With attempts to secure performance of Jephthas Gelübde in Munich still in
process, his creative attention was already involved in this new project, a comic opera,
very different from the high seriousness of the Biblical scenario he had just set. On 14
June he “received act 1 of the new opera” from the librettist, and by 30 June he had
completed No. 3 (Rondo: “Selig, wenn im Mittelstande”) of the new score. July was
to prove a fruitful time for composition. By 8 July he had sketched the first chorus of
act 2 (No. 6, “Ihr Schmeichellüfte) , by 10 July the duet (No. 7, “Welche böse Zauber
waltet”), by 21 July the aria (No. 10, “Nein, eben will ich sterben”). Work on the
finale is recorded on 22-23 July (No. 12, “Segen des Himmels ströme hernieder”).
The libretto was finally completed on 25 July, and the trio (No. 11, “Ha! Der Kalif,
ich zage”) planned, and completed on 30 July. Thereafter no mention is made again
until 17 August when the composer notes: “In the afternoon Wohlbruck came to me.
He read the dialogue and I played the music of our new opera, Wirt und Gast, in order
to see how long it would take to perform. It lasted one and a half hours.”
From the end of August the composer’s dairy breaks off, and was kept only in
summary. In any case, attention was increasingly focused on the forthcoming
premiere of Jephtha. No sooner had the latter been performed for the second and last
time on 29 December 1812, than Meyerbeer left Munich to attend his second première
within a month.
Wirt und Gast, oder aus Scherz Ernst, Meyerbeer's second opera, was produced at
the Stuttgart Court Theatre on 6 January 1813, conducted by Konradin Kreutzer, the
kapellmeister. It is described as Lustspiel mit Gesang in 2 Aufzügen von
Hofschauspieler Wohlbrück aus München, Musik von Meyerbeer, Tonkünstler aus
Berlin. The roles were created by Gossler (the Caliph), Fräulein Meier (Irene), Johann
Baptist Krebs (Alimelek) Johann Nepomuck Schelbe (Giaffar), and Löhle (Ibrahim).
The opera was given as part of a benefit concert for the famous actor Carl Wilhelm
Emanuel Schwarz (1768-1838) who had worked at the Stuttgart Court Theatre since
1809 and was also a star of the Burgtheater in Vienna.
The composer’s account of the première conveys disappointment:
On 3 January I left Munich for Stuttgart where my opera Wirt und Gast was produced for the
first time on Wednesday 6 January for the benefit of my friend the actor Schwarz. I arrived one
day before the performance, was able to supervise two rehearsals, but could do nothing to help
really since in every respect it had been badly and hurriedly prepared. The production was
judged as poor by all critical accounts, and the opera was received very tepidly.
A small notice in the Hamburgischer Unterhaltungsblatt 20 (10 March 1813)
nonetheless observes that the opera hat verdienten Beifall erhalten. Die Musik hat
eine treffliche, ächt originelle Stellen, und der Text ist mit vielem Fleiße und grosser
Theaterkenntniß bearbeitet (...earned worthy success. The music contains some
striking, genuinely original passages, and the text is written with great skill and
theatrical knowhow). (See Heinz Becker, Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und
x
Introduction
Tagebücher [Berlin: De Gruyter 1959], 1:630; and Robert Letellier, The Diaries of
Giacomo Meyerbeer [Madison; Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press;
London: Associated University Presses, 1999], vol. 1: The Early Years and Italy
(1791-1826), 309; 367.)
The subject-matter of Meyerbeer’s second opera Wirt und Gast, oder Aus Scherz
Ernst (later called Alimelek, oder Wirth und Gast, and also known as Die beiden
Kaliphen), written in Munich in 1812, was taken from a tale in The Arabian Nights.
The story of the man who would be sovereign, if only for one day, so frequently
treated in the literature of all nations (and by Shakespeare, too, in the prologue to The
Taming of the Shrew), in its Eastern version is closely akin to the Oriental or
“Turkish” operas which, as an outgrowth of the Italian opera buffa, were so popular in
Germany during the second third of the eighteenth century. Meyerbeer’s teacher the
Abbé Vogler himself had paid tribute to this fashion with his Kaufmann von Smyrna
(1771), and very likely gave the initial impulse to Meyerbeer (by virtue of its exotic
tone-colours), as well as to his other famous pupil, Carl Maria von Weber, in Abu
Hassan (1811). Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri (1813) and eventually Weber’s Oberon
(1826) are further illustrious examples. In Abu Hassan, Berlioz asserts that Weber
was aided in some measure by Meyerbeer. The epitome of this entire movement had
been provided by Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), which
unquestionably had an influence on these operas. But Meyerbeer, not drawn to
comedy as much as to tragedy, went beyond a mere imitation of Mozart's comical
passages, and intertwined tragic episodes which, where the libretto barely indicates
them, were symphonically elaborated.
The two-act Alimelik is an opera in numbers with spoken dialogue. In Act I the
Caliph enters the hospitable home of the wealthy Alimelik, whose desire, to be Caliph
for but one day, the unknown guest promises to fulfill by the aid of magic. Alimelik,
quite without misgivings, introduces his inamorata, in whom the Caliph, to his great
astonishment, recognizes his own niece, who had vanished after an accident several
months previously. Alimelik, rendered insensible by a sleeping-potion, is carried off
by command of the Caliph, and awakes, clad as Caliph, in Haroun al Rashid's abode.
After a brief and dreamlike sovereignty, he is again put to sleep and awakens in
prison, where he awaits capital punishment. But the Caliph is only putting the lovers
to the test, and later gives magnanimous consent to their union.
The libretto is by the Munich stage-manager Johann Gottfried Wohlbrück (17701822), later the father-in-law of Marschner. Wohlbrück's versification is smooth and
rhythmical. Unfortunately, the dialogue of the opera is lost, and must be construed
from the scenes which are set to music. The orchestra includes, besides the strings,
doubled wood-wind, and threefold percussion, only two horns, two trumpets, and one
trombone—a proof that Meyerbeer was not fond of piling up his forces without
reference to artistic requirements.
Meyerbeer’s contemporaries were puzzled by the far-fetched singularity of the
Alimelik music, and the work had no success at its première in Stuttgart (6 January
1813) when it was considerably cut, and in Vienna (20 October 1814), where it was
called Die beiden Kaliphen. The billboard read:
Im Theater nächst dem Kärnthnerthor
zum ersten Mahl
DIE BEYDEN KALIPHEN
Eine komische Oper in zwey Aufzügen von Wohlbrück.
Die Musik ist von Hrn. Meyerbeer.
Giacomo Meyerbeer
xi
A selection of reviews is reprinted by Becker, Briefwechsel und Tagebücher 1:63740. The Harmonicon, commenting on the production, explained: "At this period no
music but Italian had a chance of being listened to in the Austrian capital; it is not to
be wondered at, therefore, that Meyerbeer's opera, written upon an opposite principle
and very nearly in the same style with his Daughter of Jephtha, failed completely".
However, it was Carl Maria von Weber who recognized the true significance of the
opera. He produced it after many careful rehearsals at Prague on 22 October 1815. On
that occasion, Weber praised the "active, alert imagination, the well-nigh voluptuous
melody, the correct declamation, the entire musical attitude." He was also taken by the
instrumentation: “It is surprisingly combined, interwoven with great delicacy, and
consequently demands almost the care of a quartet performance.” Weber’s enduring
admiration meant that he again produced the work in Dresden years later (22 February
1820), when he pointed out how this early opera “bears witness to the composer's
singular emotional capacity.”
The Prague production was described by Max Maria von Weber in his father’s
biography:
‘After all the storms, there was a sudden burst of sunshine. Weber's happiness was restored.
Back then to work went Weber with another spirit stirring afresh within him. His first care was
to correct the defects which had crept, during his absence, into the conduct of the opera, and to
resume his position in a manner worthy of himself and the public. He resolved to give a work,
good in itself, and requiring care and delicacy of treatment. But in this resolve he was
considerably guided by the bias of friendship. He fixed upon young Mayerbeer's opera of
"Alimalek," given in Vienna under the title of "The Two Caliphs," and known under other
names in various parts or Germany. Upon this work the young composer hatl lavished all his
talent, and his science. But Weber had already learned, to his sorrow, from his friends the Beers
in Berlin, that the success of this opera had there been small indeed. The critics had attacked it
cruelly, declaring all its originality affected, its chief characteristic the commonest
commonplace, its effects utterly without melody. But Weber opined that, by careful preparation
and representation of the work, he might bring it forward in so worthy a manner, as to render a,
service, not only to his friend and himself, but to the public. In order to give the public
beforehand a thorough comprehension of the style and manner of the young master, he wrote
and published, in a local paper, a detailed critical notice or the work; the first or the long series
he was afterwards wont to give to the world on similar occasions. The intention was an excellent
one; and one moreover which Weber always defended. Whether such a proceeding, however,
was correct in judgment is another question; and certainly it has opened the way, by its example,
for a host or other unworthy scribblers. Nothing was omitted by Weber, at all events, that could
secure a faultless representation or his friend's work. All his talent, industry, aud zeal were
lavished upon it. The principal parts were placed in the best hands; and so content was Weber,
generally so difficult to please, with his own share of the work, that in his diary he wrote, "What
a blessing, were all works placed in hands as faithful and tended with as true a love !"
The representation took place, after the unusual number of eighteen rehearsals, on the 22d
October. In spite or all, the opera failed to please. The fine musical technicalities of the work
were not understood by the public. The effect was cold. All Weber's trouble was vain: he had
been deceived in his anticipations. He had "learned a lesson," he wrote, but was "awfully angry"
over it. Further representations of Mayerbeer's opera, on which the capellmeister insisted, in
spite or the manager's opposition, were far more favourably received by the public of Prague;
and then and then only, the trusty friend wrote to congratulate young Mayerbeer on the representation of his opera.
The happy change which had now come over Weber's mind, although he was still restless
and dissatisfied with his position in Prague, is fully expressed in a letter to Rochlitz, dated the
7th November 1815.
“My mind is more at peace;” he wrote; "I can work again now; and I employ on. my
compositions all the few hours I can. snatch from my duties. But the worst of it is, that, day after
day, I never can be quiet for any length, and only swallow, as fast as I call, the broken scraps of
time I may pick up. Scarcely do I warm to my work, when I must be up and away; and nothing
xii
Introduction
can be more prejudicial to true effect in a great work like my cantata. My determination to leave
Prague is unchanged; although as yet a secret. The only pleasure—the only reward I obtain from
my present position lie in my power to show that unrecognised excellence needs only to be well
set forth to be properly honoured.” This latter remark is in evident allusion to his production of
Mayerbeer's opera.’ (Max Maria von Weber, Carl Maria von Weber: The Life of an Artist.
Trans. J. Palgrave Simpson. 2 vols. [London: Chapman & Hall, 1865], 1: 375-77.)
The overture exhibits in construction, development of climaxes and contrasts, the
artistry of Meyerbeer, particularly in the delightful treatment of the wood-wind and
the unique use of pizzicato. Here, in this mythical domain, is heard a strain of real
comedy, of high-spirited youth, rarely found again in Meyerbeer's later works.
Noteworthy is the chromatic leading of the middle parts, derived from Cherubini.
The first act is one of intrigue and deception realized in terms of the German and
Italian conventions of the day, but the second act, with its glamour of fabulous
romanticism, shows the young Meyerbeer in his element. Alimelik, in the Caliph's
robes, is lying in the stupor induced by the sleeping-draught in Haroun al Rashid's
palace, and enveloped by mysterious muted musical evocation, The several choruses
introduce peculiarly striking effects of instrumentation— piccolo, cymbals, bass drum
and triangle accentuate the Oriental character—as does the following evocation of the
whirling dervishes in which Meyerbeer, with abrupt anticipations in the wood-wind,
agitated trills in the strings, and crashes with big drum and cymbals, drastically
depicts their frenzied cries and movements. In the transformation music, where the
effect of the magic potion begins to wear off, Alimelik—with increasingly violent
efforts—seeks to regain consciousness, shows astonishing maturity for a composer of
twenty-one. Not only the psychic state of the leading characters, but also the conflict
of the entire plot, is presented in concentrated style by the aid of leading-motives.
“The specifically romantico-psychological modification of the leading-motive is met
with here for the first time, i.e., two years before Wagner's birth” (Edgar Istel,
"Meyerbeer's Way to Mastership: Employment of the Modern Leading-Motive before
Wagner's birth.” The Musical Quarterly 12 [January 1926]: 109).
This point is of historical importance—the foundation of a modern musicodramatic style was already laid at a time when the three historically most important
works of German Romantic opera, either (like E. T. A. Hoffmann's Undine, 1816)
existed only in detached sketches, or (like Spohr's Faust, 1816, and Weber's
Freischütz, 1821), were not even conceived. Wagner's employment of the leadingmotive is based on the same fundamental principles as the transformation music in
Alimelik. This early opera bears witness to the evolution of a procedure which
Meyerbeer had applied in practice before Wagner was born.
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