Book Reviews 799 Mozart on the Stage. by John

Book Reviews 799 some issues superficially (Nietzsche and been presented in the numerous works neoclassicism, for example), and buries available on Mozart’s life and works. As the many interesting points in the endnotes, author writes, his extensive incorporation of unpublished primary sources and unexplored published I propose what anthropologists might ones, multidisciplinary reading list, meticu- call a “synchronic” study of Mozart as a lous reconstruction of virtually unknown composer of operas: a book organized works, discovery of new information and not chronologically or by individual op- fresh perspectives on more familiar ones, eras, but by topics as relevant to the early and engaging style make this study a top operas as to the late ones. This book recommendation for scholars interested in shows how Mozart—whether he was thir- Strauss and/or ballet. It is not easy to make teen or thirty, in Milan or Vienna, writ- “bad” or forgotten works seem interesting ing a Singspiel or an opera buffa—put an and relevant, but Heisler does just that. opera together in a series of interactions Morten Kristiansen with a libretto (and sometimes—but not Xavier University always—a poet who wrote or revised the libretto), singers, a stage designer, an orchestra, and an audience. (p. xiii) Mozart on the Stage. By John A. Rice. By taking this fresh perspective and exam- (Composers on the Stage.) Cam bridge: ining even familiar material within new Cambridge University Press, 2009. [xv, non-traditional categories, some surprising 278 p. ISBN 9780521816342 (hard- information jumps to the foreground about cover), $72; ISBN 9780521016612 (pa- Mozart himself and the society in which he perback), $28.] Music examples, illus- lived and worked. For instance, many edu- trations, bibliography, index. cated opera lovers would not know that Carnival balls often took place in the the- “The stage held up to the audience a aters, with dancing on stage as well as in kind of mirror” (p. 29): on page 170 of the auditoria, whose floors could often be John A. Rice’s Mozart on the Stage is a repro- raised (p. 23), or that the audience mem- duction of a longitudinal cross-section of bers who came to operas given during the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich that shows Carnival were costumed, masked and even the seating of various classes, the place- cross-dressed just like the opera seria per- ment of an actor onstage, the slope of formers on the stage itself (p. 27). It too parterre, and below it all, the mechanical may have escaped attention that the devices (winches and levers) that could composition of recitatives was sometimes raise or level the floor. Also a cross section relegated to assistants (p. 96), or that an of society, this illustration could be a synec- avid operagoer could spend most of his doche of the world of Mozart’s operas that time in the theater in amorous pursuits or Rice depicts in his book, as well as the trading gossip while the opera was on stage manner in which he does so. (pp. 205–12). A volume in the Cambridge series “Com- We are told as well that Mozart was so im- posers on the Stage,” the mission of which bued with the operatic spirit that he liked is to introduce readers to operas within to “speak” in recitative to friends, even in their social contexts, Mozart on the Stage public (p. 2), and that he performed a shows us the structure of this world from commedia dell’arte sketch during a Carni- many varied perspectives: we witness what val ball in Vienna in 1783 (p. 3). Other sur- the mirror of the stage would have re- prises may include Mozart’s composing in a flected, as well as what happened behind less than supernatural manner by using the the scenery, in the financial office, in the keyboard, writing sketches, etc. (pp. 92– royal box, in the orchestra, in the rehearsal 94), requesting the dinner scene in Don rooms and more. Giovanni to be performed “parlando and al- The organization of the book, like the most improvised” (according to the first image of the theater in cross section, gives Giovanni, Luigi Bassi, p. 156), being sent us a new way to view and connect many of an unsolicited libretto by novelist and the details of this period that have already playwright Isabelle de Charrière (p. 39), 800 Notes, June 2010 and getting the idea for the start of the does, “How did Mozart go about com- “Pa-pa-pa” duet in Die Zauberflöte from li- posing an opera and how did the composer brettist Emanuel Schikaneder (p. 152). and librettist collaborate?” (Steptoe, None of this information derives from Mozart-Da Ponte Operas, 10), and so the aims original research, but the novel presenta- of the two works overlap to some degree. tion by topic reveals it in a new way. The overall image Rice leaves of Mozart Another effect of this organization is the and his contemporaries is that their place problematization of traditional modes of in society was a distressingly low and power- sorting Mozart’s oeuvre. Rice sees opera se- less one. This is not new, but the documen- ria and opera buffa as points along a con- tary evidence weighs in more heavily than tinuum, rather than in binary opposition, mere discussion. In essence, composers and suggests that differentiation by na- were tailors of music, and indeed, Mozart tional style, number of composers, or makes that comparison himself: “I assured length would be more authentic and hence [singer Anton Raaff] that I would arrange relevant (pp. 19–22). the aria for him in such a way that he Writing about the social context of would sing it with pleasure. For I love an Mozart’s operas is not a new idea in itself. aria to fit a singer as perfectly as a well- Three fine books are already available that made suit” (p. 116). Like other opera com- treat this topic, but each has a scope more posers, Mozart had to wait until shortly limited than the Rice work. Close in style to before the performance to meet and get to it is Thomas Forrest Kelly’s First Nights at the know the principal singers, and to write Opera (New Haven: Yale University Press, their arias for them. Some even cooled their 2004), which explores the cultural back- heels in the next room, waiting for their ground of only Don Giovanni, but includes “fitting” while Mozart composed (p. 99). much information on Prague, the Bondini But these were not the only indignities company, Lorenzo Da Ponte, the audience, suffered. Singers had more influence in the singers, and the theater (diagrams— the choice of libretto than the composers yes, including a longitudinal cross section— (p. 52), and a well-known singer such as sets, reception, etc.), while reproducing Giovanni Manzoli repeatedly earned five documents as evidence. Mary Hunter’s times more than Mozart (p. 71). The score phenomenal The Culture of Opera Buffa in also had to be tailored to the theater’s size Mozart’s Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment and capabilities (p. 161), but if the opera (Princeton: Princeton University Press, were to be performed elsewhere, no fee 1999) is limited to a specific location and would be forthcoming and the composer operatic style, yet treats in fascinating detail would have no control over the perfor- the gender and class roles of the time, so- mance (p. 229). Joseph Haydn refused a cioeconomic issues, conventions in the request from Prague to have one of his structure of plots and arias, and more. It is operas performed without his supervision further distinguished from the Rice opus, “since all my operas are too closely bound for as Hunter writes, it “is not about up with our personnel [at Eszterháza] and Mozart, though he is an inevitable and per- moreover would never produce the effect vasive presence . It is a study of a reper- which I calculated according to local condi- tory” (Hunter, The Culture of Opera Buffa, tions” (p. 91). A composer could earn a bit 24). Finally, Andrew Steptoe in his The extra making arrangements of the score for Mozart-Da Ponte Operas (Oxford: Oxford other ensembles or instruments, but if a University Press, 1988), while treating only copyist (who could also sell scores of the three operas, includes discussions of work with no profit to the composer) did Vienna and its history, the social class struc- it first, the financial opportunity was lost ture, Mozart’s contact with Enlightenment (pp. 233–34). A contract with impresario circles, some biography, information on Domenico Guardasoni from July 1791 the singers, costumes, scenery, and fees shows the relative importance of the collab- (helpfully supplying a guide to the cur- orators on an opera project: securing the rency), spicing up the narrative with tidbits singers came first, then arranging for a li- on social customs such as cicisbeos and brettist, then the composer, followed by a post-feast purging. As part of his work, promise of providing new scenery, cos- Steptoe asks the question, as Rice implicitly tumes and house decorations (pp. 41–42). Book Reviews 801 At one point, the frustrated Mozart threat- only a tenuous result. For example, he sug- ened to become his own impresario and gests a plot archetype that applies to all the find his own pre-made libretto so that he operas—two lovers and a second man—in could collect more of the earnings. But as the process labeling Hunter’s plot arche- Rice writes, “This project, completely at types “subcategories” (p.

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