The Emperor Napoleon, like Hernán Cortés, saw himself as the conqueror of great empires. Gaspare Spontini was intended to bring the fame of Cortés to the operatic stage. Hence the genesis of the opera “Fernand Cortez”. But when the Emperor was defeated, a complicated series of reworkings of the opera began. Theater Dortmund is now staging the third version of 1824 on 7 April 2022.

The idea of composing the opera “Fernand Cortez” was thanks to a commission from Emperor Napoleon I following the successful premiere of Gaspare Spontini’s “La Vestale” (1807). The intention was to pave the way for Napoleon’s Spanish campaign through a propaganda piece. The libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy was based on various historical and dramatic sources and took as its subject the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, by the Spanish commander Hernán Cortés. The autograph, which is preserved in Paris, reveals that Spontini first set the libretto in its original version. But shortly before rehearsals began, the interior minister demanded a reworking of the text, which was carried out in collaboration with Joseph-Alphonse d’Esménard, eliminating in particular the character of Montezuma as originally envisaged.

This first version of the opera received its premiere on 28 November 1809. The even-handed perspective of this version, which contains both the glorification of the conquest and the viewpoint of the conquered in equal measure, meant that the desired propaganda effect failed. Nonetheless the strikingly scored production, enriched by spectacular stage effects, caused quite a stir and led to further productions in other European theatres. The publication of the score, carefully overseen by Spontini and dedicated to the Empress, was undertaken by Imbault probably barely two years after the first performance. The fact that the first version of Fernand Cortez was an unusual work amongst operas of the time was left to be confirmed in 2019 by its first modern revival in Florence.

After Napoleon’s overthrow, Spontini undertook a thorough reworking of the score, which was extremely successfully premiered on 28 May 1817. Alongside transpositions and additions, such as changing the order of the first and second acts, the main feature of this second version was the (re)introduction of the character of the Aztec emperor Montezuma, whose omission in the first version had been criticised. In this second version, which was published by Erard at the end of 1817 or beginning of 1818, the work remained in the repertoire of the Opéra until 1844 and became very successful, revived many times internationally. The first Berlin performance in 1818 took place at the same time as contractual negotiations were in progress between Spontini and the Prussian court, leading to his appointment as general music director later that year.

For the third version (which is being performed in 2022 in Dortmund) Spontini (now in Berlin) undertook another reworking; in particular, this concerned the inclusion of a “denouement”, that is a sequence of scenes to resolve the conflict, in the third act. In 1824 this received its first performance in the German translation by Johann Christoph May. This version was apparently only staged in Darmstadt, but the vocal score, which was published in 1825 with a carefully underlaid German and French text, reveals the fact that Spontini regarded this version the only valid one for French theatres. Despite this, it is only now receiving a first production in Dortmund. A fourth version, announced as such in 1832 in Berlin and also performed in Dresden a year later, included in particular the introduction of an apotheosis of Christianity at the end.

“Fernand Cortez” is thus the opera which occupied Spontini for an exceptionally long time: with interruptions, he worked on the score for a total of 24 years. In particular, the third and fourth versions document his struggles to find a satisfactory solution for the ending. It also seems typical of the composer’s artistic late phase, which was characterized by waning artistic inspiration but at the same time, an increased perfectionism taken to extremes.

With this performance material, both the second version of 1817 and the third version of 1824 can be performed.

Klaus Pietschmann
(The complete article is reprinted in the programme booklet for Oper Dortmund for the performances of the 3rd version in April 2022. We are grateful to Oper Dortmund for permission to publish this excerpt.)

(translation: Elizabeth Robinson)