Saint-Saëns: L'Ancêtre

"No!" cries Nunciata, the stubborn Corsican grandmother, when asked to end the vendetta between her family, the Fabiani, and their enemies, the Pietra Nera clan. Set against a backdrop of tragic deaths, insatiable thirst for revenge, and passionate love at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, this "lyric drama," composed by Saint-Saëns in 1906, premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and was dedicated to Prince Albert I, who had commissioned it. Here, Saint-Saëns displays the full range of his style, weaving together Debussian chords, Massenet-like melodic lines, and aggressive rhythms worthy of Prokofiev. Above all, however, he demonstrates a sense of theater characteristic of French opera, and one can only imagine how successful this score would be if it were staged again. It is no wonder that after its triumphant premiere in Monte Carlo, "L'Ancêtre" was performed in several cities in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as in Algiers (February 1911) and Cairo (February 1912), before experiencing two more performances in March 1915 at the theater where it had been created.