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Some barbarous modulations are certainly apocryphal.... We are unable to imagine what L'Africanne would have been if Scribe had lived and the authors had put it into shape. The work we have is illogical and incomplete. The words are simply monstrous and Scribe certainly would not have kept them. This is the case in the passage in the great duet: O ma Sélika, vous régnez sur mon âme!
He realized that he was dying and as he knew how necessary his presence was for a performance of L'Africanne he forbade its appearance. But his prohibition was only verbal as he could no longer write. The public was impatiently awaiting L'Africanne, so they went ahead with it.
There was a good deal of talk about L'Africanne, which had been looked for for a long time and which seemed to be almost legendary and mysterious; it still is for that matter. The subject of the opera was unknown. All that was known was that the author was trying to find an interpreter and could get none to his liking. Then Marie Cruvelli, a German singer with an Italian training, appeared.
When Perrin and his nephew du Locle opened the package of manuscripts Meyerbeer had left, they were stupefied at finding no L'Africanne. "Never mind," said Perrin, "the public wants an Africanne and it shall have one." He summoned Fétis, Meyerbeer's enthusiastic admirer, and the three, Fétis, Perrin and du Locle, managed to evolve the opera we know from the scraps the author had left in disorder.
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