| 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 by Gustave Flaubert (1862), 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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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.
1939, Vocal Score, in M.P. Mussorgsky: Complete Collected Works, Muzgiz, Moscow
| 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 | ||
Setting
Scene: Hamilcar's Garden in Carthage
Scene 1:
Scene 2: The Temple of Tanit in Carthage
Scene 1: The Temple of Moloch
Scene 2:
Scene 1: The Dungeon of the Acropolis
Scene 2:
Mussorgsky reused much of the music from Salammbô in later works:
| 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 |
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]