The First "Mefistofele" Author(s): Jay Nicolaisen Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Mar., 1978), pp. 221-232 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746412 Accessed: 10-05-2016 09:57 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19th-Century Music This content downloaded from 193.204.40.97 on Tue, 10 May 2016 09:57:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The First Mefistofele JAY NICOLAISEN A chronicler of opera in Italy in the nine- friends in the margins of his libretto, and he teenth century learns to deal cautiously was one of the few spectators still actually try- with disastrous premieres. Rossini, Bellini, ing to hear.' The theater had invested weeks Donizetti, and Verdi all witnessed the initial of rehearsal in the lengthy work and was un- failure of works later judged to be among their willing to drop it after just one performance; best. These composers were prolific and could but in effect the opera's fate was sealed when count at least as many successes as failures. the decision was made to divide it in two, pre- It was Boito's particular misfortune to see senting the Prologue and Acts I-III on the sec- the one opera he completed during his ond evening and the Prologue and Acts IV and long lifetime fail utterly at its premiere. V on the third. A ballet, Brahma by Dall'Ar- Mefistofele, first presented at La Scala in 1868, gine, would accompany each performance. For suffered what may have been that theater's all intents and purposes the management had most memorable fiasco. From his place at the abandoned Boito. After the third evening the podium the young poet-composer-conductor work in its original form was heard no more; witnessed the attitude of the audience turn but the journalistic polemics it inspired con- gradually from intense interest to disappoint- tinued for weeks. ment and, finally, to antipathy. By the fourth act, the performers unnerved and the audience openly hostile, the music was no longer audi- ble beyond the proscenium. "Non ho capito 'Marco Sala, quoted by Piero Nardi, Vita di Arrigo Boito una nota," wrote one of the composer's (Milan, 1944), p. 271. 221 This content downloaded from 193.204.40.97 on Tue, 10 May 2016 09:57:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH There is little doubt that Boito's own tac- opera which underwent substantial modifica- CENTURY tical errors contributed to the disaster. In pub- tion in the years following its premiere, repre- MUSIC lishing his libretto well in advance of the sents the composer's final thoughts. For an premiere, in choosing to conduct the opera idea of what the opera may have been like at himself, in allowing his friends and sym- its initial performance, one must turn to pathizers full rein to organize themselves into material in the Cary Collection at the Pier- what amounted to a claque, he made himself a pont Morgan Library in New York.4 Some of ready target for the traditionalists, who most this material consists of melodic ideas quickly represented the Milanese public of the late jotted down or rough drafts for entire pieces; 1860s.2 Furthermore, he had so widely adver- but there are also many pages of full orchestral tised his own futurist sympathies that it is un- score which undoubtedly formed part of the likely he could have scored an uncontested original autograph before its dismemberment. success, no matter what the merits of his The score put forward today by Ricordi as the music or the quality of the performance. autograph of La Gioconda is a composite, Nevertheless, the failure of Mefistofele must created by conflating those portions of the have come as a major blow, and more than original score which underwent no change one biographer has seen in it the explanation with newer material representing the revised for Boito's inability to bring his other opera, portions of the opera. Nerone, to completion. According to Piero The autograph score of Mefistofele appears Nardi, whose Vita di Arrigo Boito is an to have been created in just this way. A exhaustive study of Boito as man, poet, and number of paper types are present, but two critic, if not as musician, the composer de- predominate. The first to appear (Paper Type stroyed all traces of the original Mefistofele II) is yellowish, with clearly drawn systems; except for two pieces which were published the second (Paper Type I) is whitish, with sys- separately. Thus, says Nardi, we have only the tems that are often difficult to make out. For libretto from which to judge the opera in its the following reasons it is clear that those por- original state.3 Following Nardi's lead, recent tions of the score written on Paper Type I are literature on the subject has confined itself to remnants of the original 1868 autograph: comments on the second, successful version, 1) Many portions of the original libretto produced in Bologna in 1875. were incorporated into the final version of the The autograph scores of most important opera with little or no revision. The music for late nineteenth-century Italian operas, Mefi- those portions is almost invariably written on stofele included, reside in the Archivio storico Paper Type I. Where there were major textual of G. Ricordi and Co. in Milan. In most cases changes, the music is never written on Type I. with which I am familiar, there is but one 2) The Faust of 1868 was a baritone, not a score per opera. No matter how many revi- tenor. In those portions of the score which ap- sions the work may have been subjected to, pear on Paper Type I, Faust's part has been the autograph score at Ricordi corresponds to written in bass clef, then crossed out and re- the published version. For example, the auto- written, wherever it could be fitted, in tenor graph of Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1876), an clef. In those portions of the score which do not appear on Paper Type I, Faust's part is written directly in tenor clef. 3) All sources agree that several pieces 2Nardi gives the fullest account of the premiere, the pre- were added to the opera after 1868-the duet parations for it, and its aftermath (pp. 249-94). 3"Della musica del Mefistofele del '68 non restano che l'Intermezzo sinfonico in una riduzione per pianoforte e il duetto di Elena e Faust per piano e canto; sopravvive in- vece il testo poetico nella sua interezza. Di questo solo 4The Gioconda material bears manuscript no. 162 in the possiamo dunque dare giudizio complessivo diretto." Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection of the Pierpont Mor- Nardi, p. 295. gan Library. 222 This content downloaded from 193.204.40.97 on Tue, 10 May 2016 09:57:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms JAY "Lontano lontano lontano," Margarita's lyric drama of Boito's time required. As poetry NICOLAISEN "Spunta l'aurora pallida," and the Infernal it reads well today. The following lines, for The First Mefistofele Fugue which concludes Act II.s No portion of example, in which Faust looks back sadly over these three pieces is written on Paper Type I. his long and eventful life, are among the most Contrary to what has been believed for poignant ever placed at the disposal of an more than a century, then, it would appear operatic composer: that large sections of the original Mefistofele do exist. If we cannot know much about the Ghermii pel crine il desiderio alato, music Boito discarded, we can at least know Ho bramato, ho gioito e poi bramato Novellamente, ed ho cosi compita which portions of the original work he consid- La carriera fatal della mia vita. ered worth retaining with little or no altera- Fui sovrumano, possente, trionfale, tion. Combined with additional evidence-the Tutto conobbi: il Real, l'Ideale, original libretto, descriptions of the initial per- L'Amore della vergine e l'Amore Della Dea. Si. Ma il Real fu dolore formance, and an analysis of the score written E l'Ideal fu sogno. by Giulio Ricordi shortly after the opera's fail- ure6-that knowledge makes it possible to I grasped at the locks of winged desire, discuss the first Mefistofele in some detail. I lusted, enjoyed, and then lusted Again, and thus I completed II The fatal course of my life. I was superhuman, powerful, triumphant, The libretto of 1868 was an ambitious and I experienced all things: the Real, the Ideal, surprisingly successful attempt to reduce Parts The Love of a virgin and the Love I and II of Faust to the few short scenes that a Of a Goddess. Yes. But the Real was sorrow And the Ideal a dream. As a synthesis of Faust, the merits of Boito's 5That these three pieces did not form part of the original libretto are not unquestionable, but it stands score has been common knowledge for a century now.