Nerval et l’opéra-comique: le dossier des Monténégrins (review)

Les Monténégrins, an opéra comique in three acts with a libretto by Gérard de Nerval and Édouard Alboise (author of popular melodramas) and music by the Belgian composer Armand Limnander de Nieuwenhove, was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 31 March 1849. A further forty-six performances were given there up to 1858, since when the work has fallen into obscurity, as has the reputation of Nerval’s two collaborators. Because Les Monténégrins was a collaborative piece, the text was not included in the three-volume Pléiade edition of Nerval’s Œuvres complètes, although Nerval quoted several of the songs or arias from the work in La Bohême galante and Petits Châteaux de Bohême (vol. III). Les Monténégrins was originally written for the Opéra-National, which closed in early 1849 because of financial, political, and managerial problems. Nerval, Alboise, and Limnander faced serious difficulties in adapting the work for the Opéra-Comique. As Brix and Yon write in their Introduction: ‘la lecture des Monténégrins, le 17 mai 1848, se passe mal, — les chanteurs de l’Opéra-Comique émettant des réserves sur la part trop grande faite dans le livret à l’action et à la psychologie des personnages, bref à la “littérature”’ (pp. 20–21). Facing opposition from the singers and from Perrin, the manager of the Salle Favart, the work had to be rewritten to conform to the requirements of an opéra comique, which led to major changes being made, especially in the third act. Names of characters were altered and romantic subplots added. Though completely forgotten now, Limnander’s music was admired by both Berlioz and Gautier. Reviewers praised the quality of the singers, the patriotism of the subject, and Limnander’s innovative speciality — a chorus a bocca chiusa. Les Monténégrins is a verse melodrama set in Dalmatia during the Napoleonic Wars, when the French army liberated Montenegro following a Russian invasion. Brix and Yon retrace the history of Romantic interest in the Balkan region, motivated largely by an enthusiasm for exoticism and local colour. Charles Nodier, who had visited Illyria and the Dalmatian coast, played an important part in this movement, setting several of his short stories in the region. Nerval and his collaborators were influenced by Nodier, as is shown by elements of the plot, such as the apparition of the deceased Béatrix (renamed Hélène in the revised version) as a vampire who lures men to their doom. Following the substantial forty-page Introduction, in which Brix and Yon explain the history of the work and analyse its significance in the context of opera and theatre in 1840s Paris, the main part of this well-produced book consists of a critically annotated version of the manuscript copy Nerval made in 1848 (pp. 41–126) and the text of the printed version of 1849, published a few weeks after the premiere (pp. 127–206). Three appendices present relevant documents, including several of the many contemporary press reviews. Finally, there is a section of illustrations (pp. 261–76), including photographs of the manuscript, letters, singers, and the orchestral score.