Ferdinand Herold: Zampa Ou La Fiancée De Marbre – Erik Nielsen

Zampa enjoyed a triumph at the Opéra-Comique on 3 May 1831. This was probably because Mélesville’s libretto displayed some resemblances to Mozart’s Don Giovanni: a godless and lawless protagonist, the pirate Zampa, attempts to force Camille, betrothed to Alphonse, to marry him, but the statue of Alice Manfredi, one of his earlier victims, comes to life and carries him off to Hell. The action skilfully combines tragic and comic elements. In musical terms, Hérold responds to the Romantic sensibilities of his time: he incorporates a few discreet ‘Gothic’ touches, plays on local colour (the plot unfolds in Sicily) and exploits the dramatic resources of orchestration and harmony (Berlioz noted ‘chords of a wild, fantastical appearance’). Zampa amplifies the opéra-comique through borrowings from grand-opéra: vocal styles blending French and Italian elements, spectacular events such as the eruption of Mount Etna (recalling the denouement of La Muette de Portici in 1828), the contrast between collective and intimate scenes. The work is clearly a response to the concurrent gestation of Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable.