the original Act III scene 3 into a quartet in which Otello can watch his wife Desdemona’s innocent actions and have his suspicions take root. So he is already close to boiling point when he is left alone with his lieutenant Iago, who had planted the seed in his mind in the first place. Music as You could say that their scene takes a three-movement symphonic structure like the second half of the Traviata duet. But Verdi is now less tied to rounded forms. There are two arias and a duet, but they fit seamlessly into the texture, and color the music on either side of them: Drama Otello’s anger, Iago’s insinuations, and the intense oath duet. — Verdi: Otello, end of Act II Plácido Domingo (Otello), James Morris (Iago). DVD, Met 1996, James Levine (c), Elijah Moshinsky (d)

D. It Takes a Village No matter where people come down on Otello versus Othello, there is universal agreement that in constructing Falstaff (1893), Boito im- proved immensely upon Shakespeare’s rather episodic play The Merry Wives of Windsor. And nowhere more obviously than in Act I scene 2, where he combines three separate plot elements into an 18-minute scene: the women’s plan to punish Falstaff, the quite different plan of the men, and the attempt of the lovers Nannetta and Fenton to steal a few moments alone. Verdi responds with a movement that is as intricate as a fine clock, throwing away conventional forms in favor of a symmetrical setting in which each part can glisten like a jewel. — Verdi: Falstaff, Act I scene 2 Film by Götz Friedrich, 1979. Karan Armstrong (Alice), Jutta-Renate Ihloff (Nannetta) Max-René Cosotti (Fenton), Richard Stilwell (Ford), Georg Solti (c).

For materials used in each class, see the instructor’s website: http://www.brunyate.com/OperaAsDrama/ Class 6. Verdi’s Architecture

Roger Brunyate may be contacted at [email protected] Tuesday, October 20, 2020 led through the room on his way to execution, Rigoletto swears that he will avenge his many crimes. Verdi’s Architecture The form of the scene is the traditional bel canto scena: a cavatina for Gilda, a slow duet, and the fast cabaletta of the vengeance duet. GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) wrote 26 operas in a creative span — Verdi: Rigoletto, Act II ending of 54 years, but slowing down as he went. During his “years in Christine Schäfer (Gilda), Paolo Gavanelli (Rigoletto). DVD, the galleys,” he remained close to the bel canto tradition (and Covent Garden 2002, Edward Downes (c), David McVicar (d) speed of output) of Donizetti. He is generally acknowledged to have hit his stride with the trio of Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), and La traviata (1854). After Aïda (1871), he thought he B. Protective Father was retired. But he was persuaded to return to work with the La traviata (1854) is unique in being only contemporary subject in librettist Arrigo Boito for the two operas of his Shakespearian Verdi’s entire career. His librettist, Piave again, adapted the play La swansong: Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). Verdi’s instinct for dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, which had appeared only the previous year. The heroine, whom Verdi calls Violetta, is a drama was sharpened by his feeling for form, whether the old courtesan who tries to give up salon life to settle down with her lover scena structure of cavatina/cabaletta or a symphonic fast-slow- Alfredo. Although the censors once again demanded that the action fast three-movement form. We shall look at two-person scenes be pushed back to safer historical times, the essential psychology of from Rigoletto, Traviata, and Otello to see how his use of these the story followed the mores and thinking of Dumas’ own time. forms became more flexible over the years, and end with a mas- Because of this, when Alfredo’s father Germont calls upon Violetta terpiece of musical architecture, the garden scene from Falstaff. to make her give up his son, the old bel canto forms no longer work. True, the scene opens with a scena structure of slow cavatina and fast cabaletta. But Violetta has not fully understood. And to convey the rest of the negotiation, Verdi has to turn to a more developed A. Dishonored Daughter symphonic structure of three movements: a dramatic opening, a Rigoletto (1851) is an adaptation by Francesco Maria Piave of the slow lyrical middle section, and a fast ending—each further divided 1832 play by Victor Hugo Le Roi s’amuse. For censorship reasons, into solos for each character, who later join in duet. Piave replaced Hugo’s historical King François I with a fictional Duke — Verdi: La Traviata, scene from Act II of Mantua. As jester to the Duke, the hunchback Rigoletto is much Ermonela Jaho (Violetta), Plácido Domingo (Germont). DVD, hated, and the courtiers conspire to steal the young woman they Covent Garden 2018, Antonello Manacorda (c), Richard Eyre (d) believe to be his mistress, and bring her as a present for their libidi- nous master. What they don’t know is that the girl is in fact Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, and that the Duke has already wooed her C. Jealous Husband in disguise as a poor student. Arrigo Boito, a composer himself, was particularly attuned to things The final scene of Act II begins as Gilda emerges from theDuke’s that opera can do but the spoken theater can’t, and his compression bedroom, distraught. Tearfully, she tells her father the story of her and reshaping of the Shakespeare plays if often said to improve upon deception, and he consoles her. But as one of the Duke’s enemies is the originals. So in Otello (1887), he combines many of the episodes of