Verdi Forum

Number 11 Article 3

3-1-1983 Abstracts James Hepokoski Oberlin College

David Lawton SUNY Stony Brook

Martin Chusid New York University

Andrew Hornick New York University

John Nádas University of California, Santa Barbara

See next page for additional authors

Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf Part of the Musicology Commons, Music Performance Commons, and the Music Theory Commons

Recommended Citation Hepokoski, James; Lawton, David; Chusid, Martin; Hornick, Andrew; Nádas, John; Tomlinson, Gary; Garrison, Leonard; Powers, Harold S.; Harwood, Gregory W.; Beams, Richard B.; Cole, William P.; Cordell, Albert O.; Davis, Marianne; Frye, Loryn E.; King, Ben; Mason, James; McCauley, William E.; and Town, Stephen (1983) "Abstracts," Verdi Forum: No. 11, Article 3. Available at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss11/3

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Verdi Forum by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstracts

Abstract Abstracts of papers about and his works, presented at joint meetings of the AIVS and Greater NY Chapter of the American Musicological Society, 1979-81 (Hepokoski, Lawton, Chusid, Hornick, Nádas, Tomlinson, Garrison, Powers), at the 1982 national meeting of the American Musicological Society (Harwood), and at an NEH-sponsored summer seminar at NYU in 1980 (Beams, Cole, Cordell, Davis, Fry, King, Mason, McCauley, Town).

Keywords Giuseppe Verdi, opera

Authors James Hepokoski, David Lawton, Martin Chusid, Andrew Hornick, John Nádas, Gary Tomlinson, Leonard Garrison, Harold S. Powers, Gregory W. Harwood, Richard B. Beams, William P. Cole, Albert O. Cordell, Marianne Davis, Loryn E. Frye, Ben King, James Mason, William E. McCauley, and Stephen Town

This article is available in Verdi Forum: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss11/3 Abstracts

AIVS-AMS (1979-1982)

The Paris Version of Verdi's (1979) James A. Hepokoski, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Verdi's insistence on revising portions and involve both text and music; two of Falstaff for special productions are modifications of individual notes. after its premiere in Milan (February The five revisions appeared in the first 1893) led him to sanction no less than French edition (March-April 1894) three versions of the opera: the Milan­ but were not reflected in any Italian ese, the Roman (April 1893), and the edition until 1897, when, translated, Parisian (April 1894). For Paris, Verdi they were all incorporated into a new not only authorized the Boito-Solanges Ricordi piano-vocal score. Modern translations into French but also re­ scores almost universally fail to in­ vised five passages of Falstaff a few clude two of the five revisions. months before the production.* The Paris changes raise three funda­ Three of the changes are substantial mental questions: (1) Since Verdi

*They are set out in Mr. Hepokoski's of Verdi, 3, in JAMS 35 (Fall 1982), review of : The Operas 581. (Ed.)

21 never entered them into the autograph relationship with the composer, it is score, did he in fact compose them? difficult to maintain that the 1897 Unpublished correspondence and a score violates Verdi's intentions. (3) hitherto unidentified early manuscript How should these revisions affect version- now in private hands-of one modern performances? If historical of the changes leave no doubt that accuracy is a concern of the produc­ they are genuine. (2) Did he approve tion, the five Parisian revisions should of their transference to the 189 7 be performed or omitted as a group. Italian score? Written evidence, un­ The modern, hybrid Falstaff is histori­ fortunately, is lacking, but given the cally unjustifiable. history of the revisions and Ricordi's

The Harmonic Language of (1979) David Lawton, S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook, NY

The chromatic harmony of Aida led example, linear analysis of the opening some early critics to accusP. Verdi of period reveals that there are three having capitulated to Wagnerian influ­ separate lines embedded within the ence. A closer look at the chromaticism vocal melody, all unfolding at differ­ in Verdi's score reveals that it has little ent rates of speed. The generation of in common with the altered and sym­ unusual chord progressions from a metrical chords with multiple root ref­ counterpoint between a top voice and erences that Wagner used to move easily a line that to some extent contra­ and quickly between remote key areas. dicts the harmonic implications of the The structural voices- the vocal part melodic line is characteristic of the and the bass line- in much of Aida are harmonic language of Aida. The fundamentally diatonic at higher chromaticism that these progressions structural levels. Altered tones appear often cause frequently functions as a predominantly in the inner voices, and local summary of important large­ they often have a unifying or associa­ scale tonal relations. tive function. In "," for

The Don and the Duke: Parallels Between Don Giovanni (1979) and Martin Chusid, New York University

Don Giovanni, the opera by Mozart Copenhagen, August 1972, reprinted most frequently performed in Italy Verdi Bollettino 9, 1982) and con­ during Verdi's lifetime and which he tinued with "Gilda's Fall" Qoint meet­ studied with his composition teacher, ing of the American Institute for Verdi Lavigna, offered a model for the Italian Studies and the Greater New York composer's exploration in the drama­ Chapter of the A. M. S., New York tic use of tonality. This paper con­ University, December 1976). The third tinues the author's analysis of key paper in this series offers new views symbolism in Verdi's earliest undis­ on tonal organization in Don Giovanni puted masterpiece which began with and suggests ways in which Verdi both "Rigoletto and Monterone: A Study followed and deviated from his model in Musical Dramaturgy" (Proceedings while composing Rigoletto. of the XI Congress of the I. M. S.,

22 into , A Study of the Revision (1979) Andrew Hornick, New York University

A number of Verdi's operas exist in siderable impact as a result of these more than one version. Well-known alterations. This was clearly evident works such as and to Verdi, who undertook a more com­ have been extensively researched to as­ plete reorganization of both the music certain the rationale and the extent of and the . Aro/do (1857) is the musical and textual changes. However, result of these efforts. little attention has been paid in the The paper outlines the musical and literature to the substantial difference textual distinctions between Stiffelio between two lesser-known works,,Stif­ and Aro/do, giving special attention to felio and Aro/do. the relationship between the two types Sti[[elio was first produced in 1850, of revision. In summary, good coordi­ but religious pressure soon forced alter­ nation exists between the revised ations of the_plot, in which the wife of music and libretto, but many of the a minister commits adultery. The dramatic highlights of Stiffelio lose moral lesson of the story loses con- focus in Araldo.

New Light on the Pre-1869 Revisions of ( 1980) John Nadas, University of California, Santa Barbara

The revision of La f orza de/ destino ters in the AIVS archive bear directly appears to have engaged Verdi's atten­ on Forza. And although many of these tion for five years: from first thoughts were reported briefly in the Institute's late in the summer of 1863- after the Newsletter No. 7 of 1979, much more Madrid production which he directed­ is the fruit of research and filming in until the winter of 1868, just a few Italy from June of 1979 to September months prior to the Milan premiere of 1980: {1) Correspondence in the Sant' the definitive second version. For the Agata collection from the Ricardi firm, student of Verdi, this period signals Leon Escudier, Angelo Mariani, Fran­ an important stage of a richly docu­ cesco Maria Piave (with libretto mate- mented career, including as it does the rials as well), and Giuseppina Strep­ revision of Macbeth and the composi­ poni Verdi's Copialettere (5 volumes, tion of Don Carlos - both for the Paris beginning with letters from 1860); (2) stage and therefore constituting long­ New letters from friends, singers, pub­ distance efforts that generated much lishers, and impresarios in the Sant' correspondence. Just how extensive Agata collection. The most important this documentation is has never been are those from Mauro Corticelli, En­ fully appreciated until the work of the rico and Achille Tamberlick, Bagier, past two decades unearthed an as­ Gaetano Fraschini, Angelo Mariani, tounding amount of surviving cor­ Emile Perrin and Leon Escudier; (3) respondence. Materials from libraries and archives On the surface it would appear that around the world, including the His­ the period between the two Forzas torical Society of Pennsylvania, the (1863-68) has been dealt with fully Berlin Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, the in the scholarly literature. But with Museo Teatrale in Milan, and libraries the assembling of materials from many in Rome, Forli, and Ravenna. The widely scattered sources, fresh insights most significant additions of docu­ are possible. New documents and let- ments from outside Sant'Agata come

23 plays. Hugo's realism involved a join­ Astolfo. Most interestingly, he gives ing of comic and grotesque elements musical expression to the conflicting with the beautiful .and sublime to sides of Lucrezia's ambivalent person­ which tragedy had previously limited ality in the two recurring themes of itself. It involved a profound fidelity the opera. to the inner spirit of the period and Verdi extended and deepened the people on stage. It was a function of application of Hugo's ideals to Italian characters who showed all the rich opera in his two works on Hugo's complexity of real men and women, plays, and Rigoletto . In Ernani, characters who united within them­ though he was unable to project dis­ selves the grotesque and the beautiful. tinctively the half-comic character And, finally, Hugo's romantic drama of Hugo's Don Carlos, he found the was an explicitly political art form, perfect dramatic framework for the serving the didactic and populist ends "populist" musical idiom he had be­ of contemporary French liberalism. gun to develop in earlier works like Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia of 1833, . In other words, he manifested on a libretto by Felice Romani after in Ernani his sympathy for Hugo's po­ Hugo's Lucrece Borgia, is a precocious litical ideals; it was left for him to real­ musical realization of Hugo's ideals. ize Hugo's more strictly artistic goals Donizetti achieves a novel continuity in Rigoletto . And by 1850 he had of musical texture, and hence a new developed the musical means to do so dramatic realism, by blurring the -to express, that is, the hedonism of boundaries between num hers and Hugo's Renaissance court, Hugo's mix­ movements and abandoning almost ture of tragic actions and grotesque completely the double aria as a musi­ humor, and, above all, the opposed cal building block. He mirrors Hugo's sides of his complex and richly human Renaissance hedonism in the tinselly protagonist. Not surprisingly, musical banda music that plays so large a role similarities reveal that Verdi returned in his score, and he captures the comic for guidance in composing Rigoletto dimension of the tragedy in his charac­ to the opera which had first embodied terization of the thugs Rustighello and Hugo's ideals seventeen years earlier: Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia.

Verdi's Setting of the Te Deum (1981) Leonard Garrison, S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook, NY The text of the Te Deum combines dini. In this letter he objected to the two contrasting elements. In its first traditional use of the hymn for cele­ fourteen verses, the hymn sings the brations. From its musical settings praises of the Lord. The second half there had always emanated an atmo­ is a plea to Christ for mercy on Judg­ sphere of jubilation. For the second ment Day. This combination of ele­ part of the text, the plea to Christ, the ments poses the major problem of contrast between the ideas of salvation setting the Te Deum ; the composer and human sin was often expressed must somehow balance and relate these musically, but humanity's hope of sal­ two ideas. vation triumphed over its fear of dam­ Verdi provided a comprehensive in­ nation. Verdi thought the text con­ terpretation of the hymn in a letter of tained a different message: its conclud­ February 18 , 1896 to Giovanni Tebal- ing verses are "dark, moving, and sad

25 from the Bibliotheque de !'Opera and the composer during 1864-65 from the Archives Nationales in Paris. Ricordi and colleagues, as well as the An analysis of these materials points prospect of mounting a worthy Paris up several earlier misconceptions re­ production of the opera, culminating garding Verdi's revision of Forza . It is in a rich exchange of letters between untrue, for example, that following Verdi, the Paris Opera and Leon Es­ the 1863 Madrid production Verdi's cudier. The results were a revised end­ thoughts did not return to the opera ing by Achille de Lauzieres and the until the winter of 1868. In fact, ex­ beginnings of a French translation cept for the period of the Don Carlos and revision in anticipation of a Paris rehearsals and production in Paris (Fall production in 1866. Verdi, however, 1866 to Spring 1867}, the composer again felt his artistic standards to be struggled continually with ideas for re­ compromised with these solutions; vision. Indeed, there was no entity, as neither Piave nor de Lauzieres was such, that could be labeled "the revi­ able to provide the opera with a sion of Forza" but rather a search for dramatically convincing continuity or a a solution to problems which yielded satisfactory close. Act I of this version several different results. The protracted favored the enhancement of scenic P.ffort, I believe, points to Verdi's ulti­ effects and included the addition of a mate satisfaction with the 1862 St. colorful tableau at the beginning, de­ Petersburg version; it was- and still is rived from the first scene of the ori­ -a powerful work. The impetus to re­ ginal Spanish play; (3) In 1868, Giulio vise clearly came from without; the Ricordi re-introduced Antonio Ghis­ public dislike for the violent ending lanzoni to Verdi, and with great tact and Casa Ricordi 's pressures to turn and diplomacy managed to effect both Forza into a box-office success. More­ a friendship and a collaboration be­ over, Tito Ricordi sought to oppose a tween librettist and composer. Work successful new Verdi creation to what on the revised text was completed in he termed the "invasion of foreign the period from mid-N ovember to operas." There were three principal New Year's Eve of 1868, and Verdi's stages of revision: ( 1) Verdi requested emphasis now focused almost exclu­ a new ending from Piave in the fall of sively on the ending of the opera. Re­ 1863; Pi ave 's autograph changes for turning to his earlier ideas, he was no Act IV are now with the librettist's longer tempted by the magnificence other materials at Sant' Agata. The of the French stage into considering composer, however, was disappointed further additions. New documents, in­ with a solution that included too cluding Ghislanzoni's autograph of many moments that stopped the proposed revisions, show that in the action, and he insisted that the only end Verdi's solution, embodying a satisfactory revision was one which "Manzoni-like spirit of Christian re­ would justify the title of the opera; signation," was the only acceptable (2) There was continued pressure on one left to the composer.

Donizetti, Verdi, and Hugo's Romantic Drama. (1980) Gary Tomlinson, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA In his spoken dramas of the 1820s and that the modern dramatist must reject '30s, and in the prefaces with which he conventional rules limiting artistic in­ introduced them, Victor Hugo set spiration- rules like the pseudo-Aristo­ forth the artistic goals of a new, "ro­ telian unities of time and place- and mantic" genre: le drame. He asserted seek instead a true-to-life realism in his 24 plays. Hugo's realism involved a join­ Astolfo. Most interestingly, he gives ing of comic and grotesque elements musical expression to the conflicting with the beautiful .and sublime to sides of Lucrezia's ambivalent person­ which tragedy had previously limited ality in the two recurring themes of itself. It involved a profound fidelity the opera. to the inner spirit of the period and Verdi extended and deepened the people on stage. It was a function of application of Hugo's ideals to Italian characters who showed all the rich opera in his two works on Hugo's complexity of real men and women, plays, Ernani and Rigoletto . In Ernani, characters who united within them­ though he was unable to project dis­ selves the grotesque and the beautiful. tinctively the half-comic character And, finally, Hugo's romantic drama of Hugo's Don Carlos, he found the was an explicitly political art form, perfect dramatic framework for the serving the didactic and populist ends "populist" musical idiom he had be­ of contemporary French liberalism. gun to develop in earlier works like Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia of 1833, Nabucco. In other words, he manifested on a libretto by Felice Romani after in Ernani his sympathy for Hugo's po­ Hugo's Lucrece Borgia, is a precocious litical ideals; it was left for him to real­ musical realization of Hugo's ideals. ize Hugo's more strictly artistic goals Donizetti achieves a novel continuity in Rigoletto . And by 1850 he had of musical texture, and hence a new developed the musical means to do so dramatic realism, by blurring the -to express, that is, the hedonism of boundaries between num hers and Hugo's Renaissance court, Hugo's mix­ movements and abandoning almost ture of tragic actions and grotesque completely the double aria as a musi­ humor, and, above all, the opposed cal building block. He mirrors Hugo's sides of his complex and richly human Renaissance hedonism in the tinselly protagonist. Not surprisingly, musical banda music that plays so large a role similarities reveal that Verdi returned in his score, and he captures the comic for guidance in composing Rigoletto dimension of the tragedy in his charac­ to the opera which had first embodied terization of the thugs Rustighello and Hugo's ideals seventeen years earlier: Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia.

Verdi's Setting of the Te Deum (1981) Leonard Garrison, S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook, NY The text of the Te Deum combines dini. In this letter he objected to the two contrasting elements. In its first traditional use of the hymn for cele­ fourteen verses, the hymn sings the brations. From its musical settings praises of the Lord. The second half there had always emanated an atmo­ is a plea to Christ for mercy on Judg­ sphere of jubilation. For the second ment Day. This combination of ele­ part of the text, the plea to Christ, the ments poses the major problem of contrast between the ideas of salvation setting the Te Deum ; the composer and human sin was often expressed must somehow balance and relate these musically, but humanity's hope of sal­ two ideas. vation triumphed over its fear of dam­ Verdi provided a comprehensive in­ nation. Verdi thought the text con­ terpretation of the hymn in a letter of tained a different message: its conclud­ February 18 , 1896 to Giovanni Tebal- ing verses are "dark, moving, and sad

25 porary writings that there was a general apart from the first violin were used in lack of outstanding violists, and that Italian orchestras before the 1860s. old and disabilitated violinists were One of the major sources of docu­ sometimes retired to the viola section ments that illustrate the presentation -to finish out their careers. By contrast, is archival records from major opera almost all orchestras of the period houses. A particularly rich archive is boasted relatively large double bass that of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, sections, which were typically larger which contains individual files for each than either of the middle string sec­ orchestra member with letters, con­ tions. Other problems being confronted tracts, records of payment, and other at this time include the size and make­ documents, and minutes of the meet­ up of the brass section (notably the re­ ings of the theater presidency. Other lative merits of the ophicleide and the illustrations are drawn from published cimbasso as the bass instrument), the theater chronicles, contemporary play­ demise and gradual abandonment of bills and posters, pictures and drawings, the continua, the seating arrangement and sets of orchestral parts from 19th­ of the players, increased concern over century productions. A final source of the technical proficiency and musical examples is writings of the period, artistry of the orchestra members, and such as travelogues written by foreign the change from having the first violin­ visitors, descriptions found in contem­ ist as director of the ensemble to the poary periodicals and newspapers, and practice of using a separate conductor. letters- published and unpublished­ There is no evidence that conductors written to and from various conductors and composers.

NEH SUMMER SEMINAR (1980)

The Influence of Scribe's Versification on Verdi's Composition of .Les vepres siciliennes Richard B. Beams, Pine Manor College, Chesnut Hill, MA

The libretto for Les vepres siciliennes, characteristic to develop the pervasive written by Eugene Scribe originally for anapesticrhythmic motive.Ji J ,which Donizetti's uncompleted Le Due d ' as Frits Noske has indicate