Fétis's alterations consisted largely of cuts and re-orderings, the aim of which, ostensibly, was to bring the opera within manageable length, and to improve narrative clarity, though the plot, by operatic standards, isn't that difficult. ... But Fétis's changes tone down Meyerbeer's clear-minded examination of the complex relationship between colonial and sexual exploitation. He makes Sélika acquiescent by shortening or removing scenes in which she is assertive. And he prettifies her suicide, which Meyerbeer intended as troubling. We don't know what changes Meyerbeer was planning: one hopes he would have sorted out the longueurs in the first two acts. But there's no doubt that Fétis did him a grave disservice.