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ONLINE SURVEY In collaboration with Unglue.it we have set up a survey (only ten questions!) to learn more about how open access ebooks are discovered and used. We really value your participation, please take part! CLICK HERE VERDI IN VICTORIAN LONDON Verdi in Victorian London Massimo Zicari https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2016 Massimo Zicari This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Massimo Zicari, Verdi in Victorian London. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0090 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https:// www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781783742134#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active on 28/6/2016 unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781783742134#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. For information about the rights of the Wikimedia Commons images, please refer to the Wikimedia website (the relevant links are listed in the list of illustrations). Published thanks to the generous support of: Cantone Ticino (Aiuto federale per la salvaguardia e promozione della lingua e cultura italiana); Fondazione Fabio Schaub (Canobbio - Ticino). ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-213-4 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-214-1 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-215-8 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-216-5 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-217-2 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0090 Cover image: Ricard Urgell, Opera (1922), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Ricard_Urgell_-_Opera_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) and Forest Stewardship Council(r)(FSC(r) certified. Printed in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK) Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Music Journalism in Early Victorian London 15 2. Ernani (1845) 31 3. Nabucco and I Lombardi (1846) 45 4. I due Foscari and I masnadieri (1847) 57 5. Attila (1848) 77 6. Uneventful Years: 1849–1852 95 7. Rigoletto (1853) 113 8. Il trovatore (1855) 127 9. A Moral Case: The Outburst of La traviata (1856) 139 10. Luisa Miller (1858) 171 11. I vespri siciliani (1859) 181 12. The Years 1860 and 1861: Un ballo in maschera 191 13. Inno delle nazioni (1862) 209 14. Don Carlos and La forza del destino (1867) 217 15. The Late 1860s and Wagner’s L’Olandese dannato (1870) 233 16. Verdi’s Requiem and Wagner’s Lohengrin (1875) 247 17. Aida (1876) 257 18. Music Journalism in London: The Late 1870s and 1880s 267 19. Otello at the Royal Lyceum (1889) 285 20. Falstaff at Covent Garden (1894) 297 Conclusions 309 Appendix I: Verdi’s Premieres in London 321 Appendix II: Verdi and Wagner in London 325 Appendix III: The Periodicals 327 Select Bibliography 329 Index 337 List of Illustrations Frontispiece: Giuseppe Verdi, from a picture reproduced in Frederick x Crowest, Verdi: Man and Musician (London: John Milton, 1897). 1 James William Davison from a picture reproduced in Joseph 19 Bennett, Forty Years of Music, 1865–1905 (London: Methuen & Co., 1908). Image from https://archive.org/details/fortyyearsmusic 01benngoog 2 Mr. Ap Mutton, alias James William Davison. From a drawing 21 by Charles Lyall published in Joseph Bennett, Forty Years of Music, 1865–1905 (London: Methuen & Co., 1908). Image from https:// archive.org/details/fortyyearsmusic01benngoog 3 Benjamin Lumley, in a portrait from the frontispiece of his 34 Reminiscences of the Opera (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1864). Image from https://archive.org/details/cu31924022334563 4 Giuseppe Verdi in The Illustrated London News, 30 May 1846. 44 5 Scene from I due Foscari at the Royal Italian Opera. The Illustrated 60 London News, 26 June 1847. 6 Jenny Lind (as Amalia) and Luigi Lablache (as Massimiliano) in 71 scene VI from I masnadieri at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The Illustrated London News, 31 July 1847. 7 Jenny Lind (as Amalia), Italo Gardoni (as Carlo, to the left) and 76 Luigi Lablache (as Massimilano, to the right) in the last scene of I masnadieri at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The Illustrated London News, 31 July 1847. 8 Scene from Attila at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London. The Illustrated 83 London News, 15 April 1848. 9 Scene from La traviata at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Violetta faints after 142 Alfredo flings her “portrait” at her feet. The Illustrated London News, 31 May 1856. viii Verdi in Victorian London 10 In reporting on Marietta Piccolomini’s success, the London Journal 159 portrayed her as a real beauty, a charming singer, an impressive actress, and the daughter of a noble family. The London Journal, 23 August 1856. 11 Marietta Piccolomini. The Illustrated London News, 31 May 1856. 161 12 Adelina Patti, the first Aida in London in 1876, as seen by the 258 American satirical magazine Puck in 1881. Image from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adelina_Patti,_the_ everlasting_prima-donna_LCCN2012647299.jpg 13 Giuseppe Verdi, illustration by Théobald Chartran, Vanity Fair, 15 266 February 1879. Image from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Verdi_1879_Vanity_Fair_illustration_by_ Théobald_Chartran.jpg 14 Joseph Bennett, from the frontispiece of his Forty Years of Music, 268 1865–1905 (London: Methuen & Co., 1908). Image from https:// archive.org/details/fortyyearsmusic01benngoog 15 Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi by Giovanni Boldini (1886). Image 284 from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A Giuseppe_Verdi_by_Giovanni_Boldini.jpg 16 “Otello in Milan” from Blanche Roosevelt, Verdi: Milan and ‘Othello’ 286 (London: Ward and Downey, 1887), p. 192. 17 A painting by Achille Beltrame portraying Verdi at the piano in his 296 study at Sant’Agata on his 86th birthday. La Domenica del Corriere, October 1899. Image from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Verdi_at_the_piano_at_Sant’Agata.png Acknowledgments The publication of this book was made possible thanks to the support of the Fondazione Fabio Schaub. My special thanks go to Mrs. Pia Schaub, whose generosity was pivotal in funding this book. I want to express my gratitude to Hubert Eiholzer, Head of Research and Vice Director of the Scuola Universitaria di Musica (Lugano, Switzerland) for granting me the intellectual freedom necessary to carry out the research which has kept me deeply absorbed for many years. Although a lonely enterprise, this volume was brought to a close with the help of many people. I would like to thank Alessandra Tosi and the editorial team of Open Book Publishers for the unflagging enthusiasm with which they welcomed my proposal and guided me through the challenges that such an undertaking involved. My thanks go to Katherine Ellis, who was director of the Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London in 2009, when I started investigating this topic as Visiting Fellow there. Other musicologists have provided me with invaluable help, even unwittingly, by giving me advice on sources, singers and many other related questions. Special thanks go to Marco Capra, Director of CIRPeM (Centro Internazionale di Ricerca sui Periodici Musicali), Emanuele Senici, Marco Beghelli and Dorottya Fabian. This book originates from a doctoral dissertation completed at the Faculté des Lettres, l’Université de Fribourg (Switzerland) which I defended on 12 March 2015. I am grateful to my supervisor Luca Zoppelli, to the second referee Alessandro Roccatagliati and to the president of the jury, Dimiter Daphinoff, for their incisive comments. This book is dedicated to my children, Camilla and Samuele. Lugano, February 2016 Giuseppe Verdi, from a picture reproduced in Frederick Crowest, Verdi: Man and Musician (London: John Milton, 1897). Introduction Giuseppe Verdi’s first success was Nabucco, given in Milan on 9 March 1842. Although this was Verdi’s third opera,1 the composer referred to it as the first milestone in what would become a life-long, successful career. “With Nabucco,” he declared to Count Opprandino Arrivabene years later, “my career can be said to have begun.”2 However, when Verdi made his first appearance as the young Italian composer with the necessary talent to forge an international reputation, Italian opera was said to be in a state of decadence. Gioacchino Rossini, already a classic, had long quit the composition of operas to devote himself to smaller works and chamber music. Gaetano Donizetti, whose first works bear witness to the Rossinian influence, would die in 1848, but his last operas—Don Pasquale, Maria di Rohan, Dom Sébastien—premiered in 1843. Vincenzo Bellini, who had pushed traditional Italian opera towards a more dramatic style, passed away in 1835. Contemporary critics often remarked on Bellini’s innovative use of canto declamato, and some were preoccupied with the alarming turn taken by modern vocal composition. Under the influence of Bellini’s works, proper vocalisation was all too often sacrificed on the altar of dramatic poignancy, they believed, a choice that revealed the younger generation’s limited talent. Saverio Mercadante, who outlived 1 As we know, Verdi’s first opera was Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio (libretto by Temistocle Solera); it was firstly performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 17 November 1839 with moderate success.
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    WARNING OF COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS1 The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the maKing of photocopies or other reproductions of the copyright materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, library and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than in private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user maKes a reQuest for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. The Yale University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order, if, in its judgement fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. 137 C.F.R. §201.14 2018 OPERA 101 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING AND LOVING OPERA FRED PLOTKIN it, iHYPERION N E W YORK • 189 • RIGOLETTO onciseness. Some people think that one of the highest compli- its c ments that can be paid to an opera is that "there is not an extra note in it." This means that every word and every note have meaning in 4. the opera and that the work would be less than perfect without them. An opera does not have to be short to merit this accolade. The RIGOLETTO same has been said of Wagner's five-and-a-half-hour Götterdäm- merung, and, with only the slightest hesitation, I would agree. But LEARNING YOUR FIRST OPERA the fact that Verdi can pack an equal musical and dramatic punch in half that time is in itself quite an achievement.
  • Simon Boccanegra

    Simon Boccanegra

    Giuseppe Verdi Simon Boccanegra CONDUCTOR Opera in a prologue and three acts James Levine Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Arrigo PRODUCTION Boito after the play by Antonio García Gutiérrez Giancarlo del Monaco Saturday, February 6, 2010, 1:00–4:20 pm SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER Michael Scott Last time this season LIGHTING DESIGNER Wayne Chouinard STAGE DIRECTOR The production of Simon Boccanegra is made Peter McClintock possible by a generous gift from the estate of Anna Case Mackay. Additional funding was received from the Metropolitan Opera Club, the Annie Laurie Aitken Charitable Trust, The Eleanor Naylor Dana Charitable Trust, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone. The revival of this production was made possible by a gift from Barbara Augusta Teichert. GENERAL MANAGER Peter Gelb MUSIC DIRECTOR James Levine 2009–10 Season The 134th Metropolitan Opera performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon This performance is being broadcast Boccanegra live over The Toll Brothers– Metropolitan Opera Conductor International James Levine Radio Network, sponsored by in o r d e r o f v o c a l a p p e a r a n c e Toll Brothers, America’s luxury Paolo Albiani Gabriele Adorno ® homebuilder , Stephen Gaertner Marcello Giordani with generous long-term Pietro Amelia’s lady-in-waiting support from Richard Bernstein Joyce El-Khoury* The Annenberg Foundation, the Simon Boccanegra A captain Vincent A. Stabile Plácido Domingo Adam Laurence Endowment for Herskowitz Broadcast Media, Jacopo Fiesco, also and contributions known as Andrea from listeners James Morris worldwide. Maria, daughter of Simon Boccanegra, This performance also known as Amelia is also being Grimaldi broadcast live Adrianne Pieczonka on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79.