The Birth of an Opera

THE BIRTH OF AN OPERA FIFTEEN MASTERPIECES from POPPEA TO WOZZECK Michael Rose IV • %'V • Norton & Company New York London Il Barbiere di Siviglia H E FIRST PERFORMANCE of Rossini's Barber was one of the great fiascos of operatic history. Yet only eight months earlier its composer had taken the first big step in what was to be the most daz- zling operatic career of the early nineteenth century. When Gioacchino Rossini arrived in Naples on 27 June 1815, he was twenty-three years old, he had fourteen operas to his credit, and he had never been this far from home in his life. Born in Pesaro and brought up in Bologna, his early successes had been largely confined to Venice and Milan, and the political divisions of the peninsula, recently reinstated after the Napoleonic interregnum, imposed at least two national borders between the Hapsburg regions of Lombardy and Venetia and the Bour- bon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. But the Italian passion for opera had no respect for political frontiers and already Rossini was being spoken of across Italy as the latest operatic phenomenon. Since Naples had been for a century and a half one of the most important, perhaps the most influen- tial, of Italian centres of operatic activity, the appointment of this stripling from the north as director of its royal theatres raised eager anticipation (and not a few eyebrows) as well as opening a new chapter in Rossini's life. But Italian opera in the early nineteenth century was a cutthroat business. The Neapolitan contract did not tie him exclusively to Naples, and now that he had freed himself from the Venice-Milan axis of earlier years, Rossini was keen to exploit the new possibilities of his position. For some time he had had his eye on Rome, where Tancredi and L'italiana in Algeri had already been enthusiastically received; in December the previ- ous year he had signed a contract for a new opera with the impresario of the Teatro Valle, and he had been encouraged by his reception there during a brief stopover on the way down to Naples. He wrote to his mother back in Bologna: 125 126 TI-IE BIRTH OF AN OPERA 11 Barbiere di Siviglia 12.7 Rossini If you could see the welcome that I am getting in this place you As to the theatres themselves, the Irish novelist Lady Morgan, visit- would be delighted.... Everybody wants to meet me and I have been ing Rome in 182o, was frankly shocked. to see them all, bestowing my favours like a benevolent monarch... [Rossini, 2004: 82] Lady Morgan The Roman theatres, in consequence of the modified toleration under which they exist, are dark, dirty, and paltry in their So when his first Neapolitan opera, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, decorations; but what is infinitely worse, they are so offensive to the had been successfully launched at the San Carlo at the beginning of senses, so disgusting in the details of their arrangement, that to par- October, and a revised version of L'italiana in Algeri put safely on its way ticularize would be impossible. [Morgan, II: 443] at the Teatro dei Fiorentini later in the month, Rossini lost no time in heading back towards the Papal States. The Teatro Valle was singled out by Lady Morgan as 'a very small, Rome was not the operatic capital that Naples could claim to be, mean and dirty theatre'. Rossini's first task, when he presented himself and certainly did not have the same musical standards. The overall con- there at the beginning of November, was to supervise a revised version trol of the royal theatres by the Bourbon monarchy had no equivalent in of 11 turco in Italia. This was to be followed by the agreed new opera, a city where the Papal authorities tolerated rather than controlled places Torvaldo e Dorliska. Torvaldo, to a libretto by Cesare Sterbini, a Vatican of secular entertainment. Apart from occasional moral intervention they official with cultivated tastes in literature and philosophy, had a mixed were content to leave the management of the theatres to their (usu- reception. But on the day of its first performance Rossini signed a con- ally aristocratic) owners; it was an arrangement that conferred desirable tract for another opera, this time with Duke Francesco Sforza Cesarini, social prestige, though at the same time straining the financial resources the owner of the Teatro Argentina. This was a step up, because the of even the wealthiest families, and the rarity of government subsidies, Argentina was the largest and most important of Rome's opera houses— combined with the exorbitant fees demanded by the most sought-after not that this saved it from Lady Morgan's censure: singers, meant that funds were not always forthcoming for employees of lesser importance. These unfortunately included orchestral players—a Lady Morgan Suffice it to say, that the corridors of the Argentina field in which the available talent in Italy was anyhow limited. Even exemplify the nastiness of Roman habits and manners more forcibly Stendhal, that most passionate apologist for the Italian operatic scene, than volumes could describe. It is in this immondezzaio that one is was forced to admit that, in the provinces at least, some instrumen- taught to feel how closely purity in externals is connected with virtue talists made mistakes: 'their fingers simply do not have the necessary in morals. [Id: 443-4] dexterity to strike a particular note correctly'. Being Stendhal, he was prepared to put up with a little inaccuracy for 'the fire! the delicacy! Nevertheless it was in this 'garbage heap' that Rossini's most famous the soul! the musical feeling!' that went with it. But the violinist and opera was scheduled to receive its first performance at the beginning of composer Louis Spohr, being German, found that the situation in Rome February 1816. The date on the contract was 26 December 1815. entirely lacked the charm that so enchanted his French contemporary. [Stendhal, II: 39] Sforza Cesarini Signor Duca Sforza Cesarini, Impresario of the [Teatro Argentina], confirms the appointment for the coming Carnival sea- Spohr The orchestra, which was made up of the best musicians in son in 1816 of Signor Maestro Giovacchino Rossini, who promises and Rome, was nevertheless the worst of all that had accompanied me in undertakes to stage the second dramma buffo to be given during the Italy till now. The ignorance, lack of taste, and impudent arrogance said Carnival season at the aforementioned theatre, in conformity with of these people is beyond all description. Of the nuances of piano the libretto, whether old or new, which shall be provided by the Sig. and forte they know absolutely nothing. [Spohr, I: 330] Impresario at the beginning of January, and which the said Sig. Mae- 128 THE BIRTH OF AN OPERA Il Barbiere di Siviglia 129 stro Rossini must set to music suited to the character and abilities of straight away for the Teatro Argentina; it will be buffa, because my the Signori Cantanti [singers], undertaking at the same time to make good friend Zamboni will be singing in it and I shall be sure of a good any adjustments that may be necessary as and when they arise, either result. [Rossini, 2004: 113] for the better outcome of the music or to suit the needs and conve- nience of the Signori Cantanti, and this at the sole request of the Sig. Luigi Zamboni, a well-established and much-admired bass baritone Impresario—because it must be thus and not otherwise etc. some twenty-five years older than Rossini, was of Bolognese origin and Sig. Maestro Rossini equally promises and undertakes to be in on friendly terms with Rossini's family. He was already in Rome when Rome in order to carry out the aforesaid task not later than the end Rossini arrived and had at once welcomed the younger man into his own of the month of December in the present year, and to deliver the first lodgings 'with a thousand kindnesses', so that the provision in the last act, fully completed, to the copyist on the 16th day of the month of clause of Rossini's contract with the Duke presumably confirmed (and January 1816; I say the 16th January in order to allow adequate time no doubt subsidised) an existing arrangement—though it is also possible for rehearsals and ensemble practice, and to be ready to go on stage that Cesarini may have seen in the solid figure of Zamboni a potentially on a date to be decided by the Sig. Impresario, though not later than restraining influence on the wayward temperament of the young composer. the 5th February . , which means that the Sig. Maestro must By the terms of his contract Rossini received substantially less for also deliver the second act to the copyist in time to allow for it to writing II Barbiere than the two leading singers did for singing it, though be learnt, rehearsed and put in good order for performance on the it is only fair to add they were paid for the entire season, whereas—apart aforesaid evening, otherwise the Sig. Maestro will be subject to full from the little matter of its composition—Rossini was only required to penalties—because it must be thus and not otherwise etc. direct three performances in person. The terms were in fact fairly nor- Sig. Maestro Rossini is also required to undertake the direction of mal for the period, and by this point in his career Rossini knew what to his opera and to be present personally at all rehearsals and ensemble expect.

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