On today’s date in 1865, the hottest ticket in Paris was for the premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s long-awaited grand opera L’Africaine, or The African Maid, at the Paris Opera. And when I say “long-awaited,” I mean long-awaited! Meyerbeer had begun work on “L’Africaine” some 25 years earlier. It had become a standing joke in the French press to rib Meyerbeer about the “imminent” completion of his opera.

There were many reasons for the delay. Meyerbeer was a slow-worker, a perfectionist; he was sidelined by ill-health; he was waiting for better singers, more sympathetic management at the Opera, etc. etc.

Opera fans back then must have given up hope Meyerbeer would ever finish L’Africaine, but – surprise! – he did and the work was slotted for production at the Paris Opera. At that point, ironically, Meyerbeer died, and his widow entrusted another composer to supervise the rehearsals for its 1865 premiere.

Meyerbeer’s operas were the 19th century equivalent of the sweeping costume epic movies of Cecil B. DeMille. In L’Africaine, the hero is the explorer Vasco da Gama, and one of the opera’s more spectacular stage effects involved a Portuguese ship running aground on an exotic reef and being taken over by a swarm of natives.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864) O paradis, from L'Africaine Ben Heppner, tenor; London Symphony; Myung-Whun Chung, conductor. DG 471 372