Weisstein, Introduction to the Libretto As Literature

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The Libretto as Literature Author(s): Ulrich Weisstein Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Winter, 1961), pp. 16-22 Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40115290 Accessed: 12-01-2017 16:07 UTC

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This content downloaded from 67.80.80.37 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:07:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Libretto as Literature

By ULRICH WEISSTEIN

^considering the wealth of operatic ma- their influence has hardly been such as to rt terial hidden in the world's libraries, effect an appreciable change in critical opin- ^^ a disproportionately small amount ion. On the whole, then, we are still faced of scholarship has, so far, gone into its crit- with the situation described by Dent: "The ical evaluation. It seems especially desir- libretto, as a thing in itself, has never re- able that the "ancillary" genre of the libretto ceived the systematic analytical study which should receive fairer treatment both with is its due."4 This is all the more perplexing regard to its dramatic and its poetic quali- since, in a number of notable instances, the ties, for the serious critical attempts to deal collaboration between composer and libret- with this stepchild of literature are few and tist has been exhaustively documented in far between. All the greater is the challenge their published correspondence (Verdi- posed for the literary critic of the libretto. Boito and Strauss-Hofmannsthal5). By some sort of tacit agreement, the dra- When asked to furnish the names of the matic aspect of opera is generally consid- most prominent librettists in operatic his- ered to be the domain of musicologists, the tory, even the most enthusiastic opera fan more catholic of whom (Edgar Istel, Ed- will find his knowledge restricted to Meta- ward J. Dent, and a few others) have hon- stasio, Da Ponte, Scribe, Boito, Hofmanns- estly striven to restore the dignity of the thal and perhaps W. H. Auden. Rare is the music drama. Most of their colleagues, operaphile who could cite Quinault, Cal- however, incline to overemphasize the role sabigi, Zeno, Helmine von Chezy, Ghislan- of the composer, a sin exemplified by Ker- zoni and Ramuz. Operatic audiences do man's statement, "For the composer, I not think of these individuals as authors in should like to believe that the essential their own right, although Auden's poetry, problem is to clarify the central dramatic Scribe's plays and Hofmannsthal's demand- idea, to refine the vision. This cannot ing be oeuvre enjoy a certain popularity left to the librettist; the dramatist is among the the intelligentsia of their native composer."1 (Italics mine). This opinion countries. Their librettos are offered for is shared by many composers who, without sale in the lobby of the Metropolitan, in directly denouncing the libretto, claim Chicago,sole San Francisco, Dallas, and wher- authority for judging its "operatic" quali- ever there is an operatic stagione; but who ties. Richard Strauss expresses the convic- bothers to read them from beginning to tion that "except for the person who wants end? Most of the operas in the standard to set it to music, nobody is able to judge repertory a have been heard so often that al- serious and poetically accomplished libretto most everybody knows their plots. before having heard it performed together Even such plays as Pelleas and Salome, with its music."2 And Giancarlo Menotti which have been composed integrally, seem asserts that "to read and judge a libretto to have lost their status as literature, the without its musical setting is unfair both to musical versions having, in a manner of the librettist and the composer."3 speaking, superseded their literary antece- There have indeed been literary critics dents. Such is the triumph of music in with an interest in the non-musical aspects opera - a triumph which luckily has not as of opera (I think of Bulthaupt's Dramatur- yet extended to Biichner's Wozzec\, Kaf- gie der Oper and the Tristan chapter in ka's Trial (with music by Gottfried von Francis Fergusson's Idea of a Theater) ; but Einem) and other works melodramatized

This content downloaded from 67.80.80.37 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:07:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms LIBRETTO AS LITERATURE 17 by composers of the Expressionistic It is this curious practice, and as well as many post-Expressionistic generation. others indulged inViewing by the makers of late these facts, how can one Baroqueexpect operas, the which average Benedetto Marcello scorns in // teatro alia moda? But even in listener to challenge the truth of Kerman's statement ? Even in the mid-twentieth our own age operatic ariascen- are often de- tached from their context for the sake of tury it requires courage to come to the res- cue of that much maligned recordings, and self-effacing recitals, and concerts. individual, the librettist. It is well to remind the denunciators of the libretto that the spoken drama itself is Kerman's point of view is certainly justi- fied with regard to operas based on ina number which of highly the artificial conventions, few of which, to be sure, are as music has overcome the obstacles presented by the underlying text. far removed Beethoven's from "lived" reality as are their Fidelio and Mozart's Magic operatic Flute counterparts. offer Every ex- drama is a amples of the transcendence Gesatnt\unstwer\ of textual whose printed text re- sembles a musical score in that it merely shortcomings, Verdi's // Trovatore of the defeat of structural absurdities. suggests the Thetheatrical first possibilities which two works reveal a loftiness are inherent not in it.only Soliloquy, of aside, and chorus - which are a thorn in the flesh of purpose (for such was certainly present in the plays of Bouilly and the Schikaneder) Naturalistic playwrights but - still remain within the realm of language, the difference also of expression (masking the triteness of between them and ordinary discourse being the poetry) . In the quatrain assigned to the three Knaben in Act I of quantitatively The Magic determined Flute, (at least by common consent, since it is wholly a matter of the banality of the verses is transcended by Mozart's sovereign treatment definition of where the to placemetri- the exact point at cal pattern.6 Similar instances which the qualitativeabound leap in begins). The use of different meters to indicate different the songs of Schubert and Schumann. levels of consciousness is a more strictly Another abuse of the librettist's privilege musical device, however. It is illustrated by consists in the practice, common in Han- T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion, where delian times, of inserting irrelevant arias the progression from seven-stress to two- borrowed from other works, adding bra- stress lines corresponds to the operatic se- vura pieces (such as Constanze's "Martern quence : dialogue-recitative-area/ensemble. aller Arten" in The Abduction from the Seraglio) at the request ofBut whatprima are the donnasspecific conventions, at first strictly observed but later modified in and castrati, and distributing arias in def- the direction of greater realism, employed erence to the artist's reputation and salary. in the preclassical-classical-Romantic type The following passage from a letter by Giu- seppe Riva partly explains of opera? the The dramaticconvention most likely to shock the naive observer derives from the failure of Handel's operas: principle of simultaneity which, negatively For this year and for appliedthe infollowing the spoken drama, forbids the there must be two equal parts in the operas for Cuzzoni and Faustina. Senesino use of several individualized speakers at the is the chief male character, and his part same time - the chorus consisting of persons must be heroic; the other three male parts expressing themselves collectively. In op- must proceed by degrees with three arias era, contrasting moods may be rendered si- each, one in each act. The duet should multaneously with an entirely pleasurable be at the end of the second act, and be- effect upon the listener. Stendhal effectively tween the two ladies. If the subject has in it three ladies, it can serve because there counters the objections of the "poor frigid is a third singer here.7 souls (who) say (that) it is silly for five or

This content downloaded from 67.80.80.37 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:07:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 BOOKS ABROAD six persons to sing at producing the them.same It also time" has the advantage by pointing out that "experience of knowing how to indicatecompletely rapid shifts of ruins their argument."9 opinion andThis quick changesrationalistic in attitude. But approach is exemplified its very wealth by points toCalvin its basic deficiency. S. Brown's interpretation Condemning of "the music famous "because quar-it cannot tet from Rigoletto, with narrate,"11 two however, persons is just as insidefoolish as a shack thinking they chastising are language alone, for its twofailure toout- convey side spying on them, the and rhythm all of the four emotions. singingMusic, accord- full blast in sickly ing(sic) to Schopenhauer, contrived does not express har- the mony."10 For a very practical, phenomenon itself but but onlynonethe- the inner na- less superficial, reason ture this of all observationphenomena (not joy, sorrow, holds hor- true with regard to the ror and literary pain themselves side but their of rhythmic opera; for one cannot substratum).12read several Language, lineshowever, namesof poetry at once. Hence the emotions.the awkwardness The merger of music and in the arrangement of thewords, text the temporal in the and theprinted spatial, the versions of most librettos. general and the particular, should theoret- Opera also employs a icallydifferent result in a more concept satisfactory imageof of time, the horizontally the progressing mental universe than dramaticis furnished by time (which is conceived either in isolation.in analogy But, alas, so withgreat are actual time) being replaced the difficulties by to abe overcome"timeless" in the process moment of reflection ofand unification introspection. that the desired effect isBe- rarely ginning with Mozart, achieved. however, the great melodramaturgists have Returning intuitively to the musical momentum modi- and fied this procedure byits exigencies, combining we should take action note of the and reflection in their fact that ensembles, whereas in the spoken some- drama mood thing Gluck had not isyet usually daredthe means toto an enddo. (the Thisend be- re-emergence of dramatic ing action), time operatic isaction especially is commonly re- noticeable in Verdi's maturest garded as a point operas, of departure, where a hard lyrical epiphanies (in thecore around Joycean which emotions sense) may crystal- go hand in hand with actions in which the lize. The pyramidal scheme presented by scenic word {la parola scented) rules. Gustav Freytag in his Techni\ des Dramas Like the reiterated shifting of levels of has no place in pre-Expressionistic mela- consciousness, the musical momentum re- dramaturgy. Instead of stressing the pro- quired for increasing and decreasing emo- gression from scene to scene and from act tional tensions seriously affects the structure to act (with the necessary retardations), the of the lyrical drama. It corresponds to the makers of opera concentrate on the act it- phenomenon of crystallization which self as their basic unit. Hence the need for Stendhal analyzes in De V amour. intermissions at the conclusion of each While affecting the listener much more act. Within this larger unit a fluctuation directly than the spoken word (hence the of moods between lyric and dramatic is empathic mode of reception presupposed in often discernible. Similar to the symphonic pre-Expressionistic operas), music is some- development, where a theme may be shifted what slower than language in reflecting the from major to minor and otherwise played evolution of a feeling, whose breadth is upon, the operatic action moves in a wave- audibly manifested. Composed of arbitrary like rhythm that is peculiar to the lyrical signs and primarily intended as a vehicle drama. This symphonic structure is out- for thoughts and ideas, language denotes lined by Hofmannsthal in the following specific objects rather than picturing or re- resume of his method of composition:

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The most difficult and at number, the same mood seemstime to lead an existence most challenging task apartconsists from character. in bal- But in spite of this ancing the spiritual motives, transformation and in ofdeter- individuals into mouth- mining the inner relation between the characters and among the pieces parts of generalized of the emotions (types), whole; in short: in designing every surge the of passionexact appears to be fresh scheme of inner motives which must be and personal. As far as their feelings are in the poet's - just as in the symphonist's concerned, operatic figures are individuals - mind. . . . This spiritual web is the because the listener identifies himself with very essence [of opera].13 the emotions they radiate. They revert into Since music lacks the speed and verbal types in the very moment in which their dexterity of language, fewer words are action falls short of the expectations needed in opera than would be required in aroused by these emotions (Don Ottavio in a play of comparable length. Librettos are Don Giovanni). usually shorter than the texts of ordinary dramas, and often to the point of embar- Taken by itself or in the melodramatur- rassing the listener or reader.14 Repetitions gical context, music is hard pressed when are frequently called for, if the librettist urged to represent falsehood, irony, or am- has failed to leave sufficient spaces for the biguity. It was this deficiency which pro- music. This drastic reduction in the quan- vided Hof mannsthal with a cogent explana- tion for the dramatic failure of Cost fan tity of text, in conjunction with the highly sensual nature of music, necessitates a sim- tutted Nor is music capable of being hu- plification of both action and characters, the morous, at least not in the usual meaning of the word. Since humor results from the emotions expressed in the closed musical numbers occupying a large segment of the awareness of incongruity (it is a form of time normally reserved for the dramatic mental detachment), it cannot be rendered events. The poet in E. T. A. Hoffmann's by music except indirectly. It is, after all, an intellectual rather than an emotional dialogue "Poet and Composer" justly com- plains: category. Perhaps the most ingenious way It is the incredible brevity you demand of expressing that incongruity in opera con- of us. All our attempts to conceive or por- sists in the introduction of unmusical char- tray this or that passion, in weighty lan- acters such as Beckmesser in Die Meister- guage are in vain; for everything has to be singer. settled in a few lines which, in addition, have to lend themselves to the ruthless The aesthetic principles so far discussed treatment which you inflict upon them.15 largely apply to the so-called Nummernoper Opera seems often absurd because its which, in Wagner's time, began to give way characters are poorly motivated.16 Charac- to the durch\omponierte Oper (the opera ter is defined succinctly and forthrightly composed integrally from beginning to and must be accepted at face value. Passion end), whose structure shows a much great- being the operatic coin of the realm, every- er conformity with the spoken drama. At thing is seen in relation to it, even to the its worst, the music of the durch\ompo- point where it becomes impossible sensu- nierte Oper will endeavor to illustrate even ally to distinguish between good and evil the minutest variations in speech and ac- characters. Kierkegaard asserts that music tion. By thus trying to operate on too nar- is ethically indifferent and W. H. Auden row a basis it will often defeat its own mu- maintains that, in opera, "feelings of joy, sical purpose. This threat to musical in- tenderness and nobility are not confined to tegrity induced Wagner to use the pseudo- 'noble' characters but are experienced by literary device of the leitmotif, which must everybody, by the most conventional, most not be confused with Berlioz's idee fixe, a stupid, most depraved."17 In the closed truly musical, because melodic and rhyth-

This content downloaded from 67.80.80.37 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:07:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 20 BOOKS ABROAD mical, device. In the stices,leitmotif, juttings and atdeclivities least of inthe its Wagnerian usage, the rocks."23 important But whereas Hofmannsthal's musical the- category of repetition ory is of turnedopera centers in into the claim a that lit- poetry erary cliche. comes ever so close to being itself music, Used more discreetly, Goethe the "Romantically" music believes of in thethe sub- durch\omponierte Oper ordination will of seekthe poetry. to For refine him, as for upon that which the spoken Mozart, "the wordword is to be expresses the obedient ser- unsatisfactorily; but vantin of contrast the music."24 with the Nummernoper it will do so contemporane- Another concept of melodramaturgy ously with language rather than biding its evolved with a view toward granting drama time until an occasion for crystallization arises. Adding a new equaldimension status within the to Gesamt\unstwer\ speech, it brings to the surface (a termwhat sometimes the inappropriately characters used in cannot or will not utter. It is a mirror of this connection) prevails among the Ex- the unconscious.19 In Tristan, life is pre- pressionists. In their epic operas, the con- sented as a stratified temporal process, the stituent parts are meant to live a life of their drama showing the surface, and the music own, each being asked to comment upon the depth, of existence. the other. In Stravinsky's Histoire du sol- If Tristan, intended for composition, is dat, the orchestra is placed on the stage in also a piece of literature, the same can be full view of the audience - another example said with even greater veracity of the libret- of Expressionistic alienation.25 Neither tos fabricated by the Symbolists. Taking Brecht's Dreigroschenoper nor Histoire is their clue from Verlaine's plea for "de la intended for empathic reception on the part musique avant toute chose,"20 these writers of the audience. And although Brecht's were less concerned with the words them- drama can be enjoyed as literature, Weill's selves than with the mood evoked by them, music adds a new dimension, though hard- i.e., with the latent music of their poetry.21 ly the one which Brecht envisaged. Indeed, If the music is thus regarded as being pre- now that the novelty of the work has faded, figured in the libretto, the question arises many of Weill's tunes are found to be ingra- as to whether a musician is at all needed to tiating. Such is the fate of many experimen- spell it out, since "to spell out," in the lan- tal works that have since become classics. guage of the Symbolists, means to destroy A similar fallacy persisting in the short the vagueness (I'indecis) essential to poetry. but varied history of opera underlies What would happen if some composer Gluck's melodramaturgy (his theory but were to apply his art to Chekhov's Cherry fortunately not his practice). An ardent Orchard or Sea Gull, whose beauty is tex- champion of the music drama, Gluck tural rather than structural ? Shakespeare's "sought to restrain music to its true func- Othello, too, comes so close to being a lyri- tion, namely that of serving poetry by cal drama that Stanislavsky conceived of it means of the expression, without interrupt- altogether in musical terms.22 ing the action or spoiling its effect by use- Hofmannsthal's evaluation of his libret- less and superfluous arguments."26 As Ber- tos recalls the favorite Romantic image for lioz observed, the catch lies in the word "ex- the relationship between poetry and music: pression"; for any serious attempt by a great the river-bed into which the composer composer to fortify the language of a drama pours the enlivening water of his melodies. inevitably works in favor of the music.27 Goethe, who idolized Mozart and Cheru- It takes considerable effort and self-denial bini, enjoined Mozart's librettist "to follow on the part of the composer to create the the poetry just as a brook follows the inter- kind of musical arabesque which Verdi

This content downloaded from 67.80.80.37 on Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:07:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms LIBRETTO AS LITERATURE 21 uses in his Falstaff and Strauss qualify thein emotionhis con- which underlies it. No- versational operas.28 body should be so imprudent as to read the An interesting sidelight entire on libretto."33 the classi- And Auden says as much cistic approach to opera when is stating:shed by the The verses which the librettist writes eighteenth century notion of counter-sense, are not addressed to the public but are which Rousseau defines as a "vice indulged really a private letter to the composer. in by the composer when They he have renderstheir moment of aglory, the thought other than that which moment he in which ought they suggest to to him a render."29 Such misuse may certain refer melody; to when single that is over, they words and phrases as well as areto as entireexpendable asscenes infantry is to a Chi- nese general; they must efface themselves or situations (depending on whether the and cease to care what happens to them.34 composer is stimulated by language, Abandoning himself charac- to his musical fancy, ter, or action). A Romantic Berlioz perversion epitomizes the Romantic of attitude this concept occurs in Stendhal's when defending book his choice on of Hungary as Rossini when he praises the the setting composer for the initial for scene of Faust's having overcome certain difficulties Damnation : inherent in the libretto of one of Why his did operas.30the composer cause his pro- Here the counter-sense is understood to tagonist to go to Hungary? Because he have originated in the literary substratum wished to introduce a piece of instru- of opera, this being a parodistic view of the mental music whose theme is Hungarian. libretto as literature. . . . He would have sent him anywhere if he had found the slightest musical (Ital- Two further observations may help to ics mine) reason for doing so.35 clarify the Romantic point of view with re- This much for the historical side of a gard to the libretto. One would normally critique of the libretto as literature. To expect the libretto to form the basis of an those who object to this approach because it opera, i.e., prima le parole e pot la musical1 violates the spirit in which many librettos But theatrically-minded composers have oc- were conceived (i.e., their subordination to casionally reverted to the unorthodox prac- music) I can only answer that by the same tice of demanding words for a piece of mu- token we would deprive ourselves of the sic already completed. Mozart, discussing pleasure of studying the sketches for a The Abduction from the Seraglio, informs painting, the bozzetto of a sculpture, the his father: "I have explained to Stephanie plans for a building, or a film script. It may [the librettist] the words I require for this well be that in the case of the libretto the aria - indeed I had finished composing most percentage of literary failures is exception- of it before Stephanie knew anything what- ally high and that much time would be re- ever about it."32 quired to separate the grain from the chaff. Stendhal manifests his contempt for the But why be discouraged by such a pros- librettos of the operas he heard at La Scala pect? Chances are that the student of the when informing his readers: "I take the libretto as literature will get a fair return for his investment in time and effort. situation envisaged by the librettist and ask for a single word, not more than one, to Indiana University

FOOTNOTES 3 "Opera Isn't Dead," Etude, Vol. LXVIII, No. 2, February, 1950. 1 Joseph Kerman. Opera as Drama (New York. Knopf. 1956), p. 267. 4 "Un Ballo in Maschere," Music and Letters, April, 1952. 2 Letter to Hugo von Hofmannsthal of May 3, 1928. See their Brief wechsel (Zurich. Atlantis. 1952), 5 Thep. 620. Verdi-Boito correspondence was published by The translations are my own unless otherwise Alessandro indi- Luzio in Carte ggi Verdiani (Rome. Reale cated. Accademia d'ltalia. 1935), Vol. II, p. 95 ff,

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6 "Dies kund zu tun, steht uns21 Hofmannsthal nicht beggedan; Strauss/ Sei to creditstand- him not haft, duldsam und verschwiegen. "with the words/ Bedenke themselves as theydies; appear kurz, in the li- sei ein Mann, / Dann, Jiingling, bretto but with wirstthat which dulies unspoken mannlich between siegen." them." (Letter of January 20, 1913). 7 Letter to Muratori of September 7, 1725. See Alex- 22 See especially p. 154 of Stanislavsky Produces ander Streatfield's article "Handel, Rolli and Italian Othello, Helen Novak, tr. (London. Geoffrey Bles. Opera," Musical Quarterly, July, 1917. 1948). 8 Published in an English version by Reinhard G. 23 From his letter to Philipp Christoph Kayser of Pauly in Musical Quarterly, XXXIV (1948), p. 371 ff. June 20, 1785. 9 Vie de Rossini (Paris. Le Divan. n.d.), Vol. I, p. 24 From a letter written by Mozart to his father. 249. 25 See Stravinsky: An Autobiography (New York. Simon & Schuster. 1936), p. 110 ff. 10 Music and Literature (Athens. University of Geor- 26 Preface to Alceste in a dedicatory letter to Grand gia Press. 1948), p. 89. Duke Leopold of Tuscany (1769). 11 Boileau in the preface to his fragmentary "Pro- 27 See his essay "U Alceste d'Euripide, celles de logue d'opera." Quinault, et de Calsabigi, les partitions de Gluck, de 12 See Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, II, 3, Schweizer, de Guglielmi et de Handel sur ce sujet," P- 39- A Travers Chants (Paris. 1862), p. 130 ff. 13 Letter to Strauss of May 28, 1911. 28 See Strauss's letter to Stefan Zweig of December 14 "It is frightening to see how short is the libretto 19, 1932, in their Briefwechsel, Willi Schuh, ed. of Tristan, and how long the opera." Hofmannsthal to (Frankfurt. S. Fischer. 1957). Strauss in a letter of June 3, 1913. 29 Article "Contre-sens" in his Dictionnaire de mu- 15 The dialogue forms part of the sequence of stories sique. According to Rousseau, it was d'Alembert who entitled Die Serapionsbruder. claimed that "music being merely a translation of words 16 To make matters worse, it is often hard to under- into song, it is obvious that one can fall into counter- stand the singers. Strauss's assertion that "in an opera, sense." one third of the text is always wasted" is partly ex- 30 Vie de Rossini, I, p. 297. plained by the poor enunciation of the soloists and 31 This is an inversion of the title of a one-act opera partly by the rich orchestral palette preferred by many by Salieri (with a libretto by the Abbe de Casti) to modern composers. which Strauss refers in the motto of his opera Ca~ 17 "Some Reflections on Music and Opera," Partisan pried o. Review, January/February, 1952, p. 10 ff. 32 Letter of September 26, 1781. See The Letters of 18 See his letter to Strauss of August 13, 1916. Mozart and His Family, Emily Anderson, tr. (London. 19 Busoni considers this to be the main function oi Macmillan. 1938). music in opera. See his Entwurf einer neuen Aestheti\ 33 Vie de Rossini, I, p. 102. der Tonkunst of 1906. 34 "Some Reflections on Music and Opera." 20 In his poem "Art poetique." 35 From his preface to the opera -oratorio.

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