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DE 3457 0 13491 34572 7 GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813—1901) Recorded at Kaunas Philharmonic on August 1-7, 2013 (Kaunas, Lithuania). We would like to thank Algimantas Treikauskas — General Director of the Kaunas City SIMON BOCCANEGRA Symphony Orchestra — for his invaluable help in producing this recording. Opera in three acts and a prologue Special thanks to the “Kino & Teatr” Foundation and to their Director of the Board Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play by Stanislav Ershov. Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez; later revised by Arrigo Boito Executive Producer: Carol Rosenberger Producer: Vilius Keras Balance and Recording Engineer: Vilius Keras Recording Engineer and Editing: Aleksandra Suchova Booklet Editor: Lindsay Koob Art Design/Layout: Lonnie Kunkel Cover and booklet photos of Hvorostovsky and Frittoli in costume: Marty Sohl Barbara Frittoli Bio photo: Alexander Vassiliev © 2015 Delos Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 343, Sonoma, CA 95476-9998 (707) 996-3844 • Fax (707) 320-0600 • (800) 364-0645 [email protected] • www.delosmusic.com Made in USA 2 99 3 CD 1: PROLOGO/PROLOGUE 4 5 CD 2: 6 Otello Falstaff — Dmitri Hvorostovsky 7 ollowing in the Verdi canon imme- Boito in conjunction with his conservato- diately a!er Les vêpres siciliennes, ry classmate and friend Franco Faccio, en- Simon Boccanegra, which had its gaged the 20-year-old to write the poem of premiere at La Venice in Venice on March L’ In n o d e l l e n a z i o n i (Hymn of the Nations), 12, 1857, is rightly considered a product which Verdi composed for performance at of the composer’s so-called Middle Peri- the International Exhibition in London in od. Yet because of the extensive revisions 1862. Unfortunately, congenial relations made to the opera in 1880-81, it also ush- between Verdi and Boito were short-lived. ered in Verdi’s Late Period—one that also Boito and Faccio were members of the includes Otello (1887), Falsta! (1892) Scapigliatura (Disheveled Artists), a group and the revised Don Carlo (1884). For of young $rebrands with vague ideals but the text of all these projects, except Don a determination to renew Italy’s artistic Carlo (which was revised in the original traditions by shaking up the existing order French) Verdi relied on Arrigo Boito, and replacing it with themselves. whose librettos constitute his principal artistic achievement, although he was Boito and Faccio thought that Italian op- also a composer, poet and critic. era could rise to new artistic heights if only it could jettison the ballast of tradi- It is o!en said that work on Simon Boc- tion and convention. A dose of the “mu- canegra served as a trial run for Verdi’s col- sic of the future” espoused by a certain laboration with Boito on a complete opera German composer wouldn’t hurt either. written from scratch, Otello. #is is surely Boito thought that I profughi "ammin- a valid way of looking at it, even though ghi (#e Flemish Refugees), the $rst of no hard evidence exists that either of them two operas by Faccio, decisively put their viewed it as such. But it was not their $rst ideals into practice, though in fact it had collaboration. #at came nearly two de- limited success. At a banquet following cades before, when Verdi, possibly aware the opera’s La Scala premiere in 1863, and of the cantata Le Sorelle d’Italia written by apparently a!er some serious drinking, 8 Boito delivered his ode All’arte italiana, ing Mé!stofele to the stage. #e latter was which in an obvious reference to Faccio the "rst opera ever given at La Scala to declared, “perhaps the man has already have a libretto by its composer, but the been born who will set art, modest and premiere there in 1868 was a "asco; when pure, erect on the altar that has been be- a revised version met with success in Bo- fouled like the wall of a brothel.” logna, Verdi took note. As the man universally recognized to be #e eventual rapprochement was due the preeminent representative of Italian principally to the publishers Tito Ricor- art, Verdi was not amused. In one of sev- di and especially his son Giulio. “If my eral sarcastic references to the perceived memory does not fail me, I know that slight, Verdi wrote to Giulio Ricordi, “if Boito did you some wrong,” Giulio wrote I, too, among others, have soiled the al- Verdi in 1879, “but I am sure he did not tar, as Boito says, let him clean it up, and know what, with his nervous, odd charac- I will be the "rst to come and light a can- ter, he was doing or that he never found a dle.” Boito’s relations with Verdi were not way to make amends.” Tito backed Boito helped when he asserted in an 1864 article to assist on the revisions to La forza del that, prior to his own Mé!stofele, operas Destino (the task went to Antonio Ghis- by composers from Monteverdi to Verdi lanzoni, the librettist of Aida). Giulio, (mentioning many names in between) aware of Boito’s work on a second opera, lacked form but rather had only formula. Nerone, tried to interest Verdi in an op- era on that subject with Boito’s libretto, Boito spent the remainder of the 1860s but that e$ort too failed. Had Verdi and and the 1870s—with time out, again with Boito begun working together sooner, the Faccio, to "ght for Garibaldi in the Aus- history of Aida (1871) (if, indeed, there tro-Prussian War—producing librettos, was one at all) might have been quite dif- including those for Faccio’s “Amleto” and ferent. Moreover, the decade of the 1870s, for Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda,” and bring- when Verdi thought of himself as retired, 9 could easily have seen the composition of Since Verdi was in Genoa and Boito in a new opera. Milan when, between December 1880 and February 1881, the revisions were made, When Giulio Ricordi broached to Verdi the much of their work is documented in cor- idea of a possible Otello in June1879, Boito respondence. Verdi thought Act 1 (which was already integrally involved, having pre- follows the Prologue a"er a time-span of pared a scheme for the libretto. A !rst-dra" 25 years) needed the most work, partic- libretto was soon prepared as well, but Ver- ularly the !nal scene, for which he pro- di’s assent was long in coming. Speculation posed a shi" in locale from a large square persisted for years as to whether Verdi really in Genoa to the Council Chamber of the was at work on Otello, which eventually had doge’s palace. In a letter to Ricordi, Verdi its premiere in 1887. In the meantime, Ver- mentioned two letters of Petrarch, “one to di resolved to “straighten the legs,” as he put [the historical doge] Boccanegra, the oth- it, “of an old dog that was beaten up badly er to the doge of Venice, telling them they in Venice and is called Simon Boccanegra” were about to engage in fratricidal strife, for performance at La Scala. Again Ricordi that both were sons of the same mother, suggested Boito, and this time Verdi agreed. Italy, etc. How wonderful, the feeling for Verdi had concluded that his opera about an Italian fatherland in those days! . Boc- a corsair-turned-doge was “too sad, to de- canegra, struck by this thought, would like pressing” and it had been roundly criticized to follow the poet’s advice.” $is was the for its complicated plot. It is the only opera kernel for the Council Chamber Scene, but in Abramo Basevi’s 1859 survey of Verdi’s Boito had ideas too, including the con%a- operas for which the inclusion of a detailed tion of Acts 1 and 2 and the introduction plot summary was thought necessary. Like of a new act in which forces loyal to Boc- Il Trovatore, it is based on a play by Antonio canegra are gathered in Genoa’s San Siro Garcia Gutiérrez. church and threatened by attacking rebels; a hand wound sustained by Boccanegra is attended to by the doge’s courtier Paolo 10 with a bandage laced with poison. Verdi, Although the new Council Cham- however, thought this would involve too ber Scene is crowning glory of the re- much work, but the attack of the rebels vised version, the changes elsewhere are found its way into the Council Chamber through-going, surely much more exten- Scene. sive than Verdi initially foresaw. Many required no work from Boito, since they Verdi and Boito discussed myriad details, involved altering musical phrases or har- such as whether they should clue in the monies to make them more expressive or audience about the derivation from Pe- vivid or just more interesting. Likewise, trarch of Boccanegra’s derived motivation Boito touched up verses of the original (they did) or whether women should ap- librettist, Francesco Maria Piave. In oth- pear in the Senate (“It’s well known that er cases, he wrote verses anew, as in the women play important parts in popular short Act 2 scene in which Paolo re"ects uprisings,” said Boito). In one important on his self-curse and administers the case, Verdi explained that he decided to poison and in changes to Act 3 caused have Boccanegra’s speech “Plebe, Patrizi! by plot rami#cations of the new Council Popolo,” which is so important in estab- Chamber Scene. lishing the doge’s humanity and magna- nimity, develop into a pezzo concertato Oddly enough, the revisions did not or big ensemble; accordingly, Boito sent make the opera any less gloomy, nor is additional verses.