T H E Tenth Muse A Historical Study of the Opera Libretto

BY PATRICK J. SMITH

NEW YORK Alfred • A • Knopf

9 7 o INTRODUCTION

HE RELATION of word and music and the changes in their rela- Ttive importance—in short, the entire subject of the interaction of the two major components of opera—has over the centuries become an exceedingly tangled Gordian knot of theory, opinion, and plain cant. Those who have tackled the subject—most not- ably Saint-Evremond, Dryden, Arteaga, Marcello, Algarotti, Diderot, and Wagner—have produced discussions of greater value as reflections of their ages and of the conditions of opera at the times in which they wrote than as objective evaluations of the relation of word and music. Books can and have been devoted to the problem in macrocosm and microcosm: to be misled into dis- cussion of each would seriously damage the central purpose of this book, which is to unfold the chronology of the libretto in terms of the works themselves. Indeed, with few exceptions—for instance, in France, where in artistic matters theory has always had an important influence on practice—the debate can be phrased in terms of the works rather than of the theories. For, as with most branches of art, the success of a specific work will do more to influence the course of the practice than the reasonings of ten gray- beards assembled. It is not surprising to find that the comparative weight given to the word and to the music in opera is directly related to the development of the sonority and diversity of music over the years since' 1 600. Because "opera" grew out of the seed of the word, the early commentators on the fledgling art form naturally insisted on the primacy of the word over its musical accompaniment. In Italy, the quick transference of the operatic center of interest from the literature-oriented Florentine Camerata to the huge Barberini theater in Rome and thence to the public theaters of Venice served to accentuate the decline of the word in relation not only to music, xvii Introduction Introduction

but also to spectacle. Only in France, with its preponderant fault, it will have contributed importantly to a judicious evalua- theatrical tradition, did the word retain its power, even in the tion of opera.' face of endless spectacle—so that today "attention to the cadence The librettist therefore cannot be considered merely a word- of the French speech" remains an important criterion in judging smith stringing out lines of mellifluous verse: he is at once a drama- much French opera. tist, a creator of word, verse, situation, scene, and character, and —this is of vital importance—an artist who, by dint of his pro- Clearly, the development of opera away from poetic declama- tion necessitated a different evaluation of the qualities of the fessional training as a poet and/or dramatist, can often visualize more accurately than the composer. This librettist, for he no longer was primarily a poet to be judged by the work as a totality the musicality of his lines and the aptness of his rhythms, rhymes, totality includes not only the "story" but also the means by which that story will be most effectively presented on stage both and similes. The librettist had become more: he had become a organizationally and scenically. The abuses to which the scenic ,/ dramatist as well. As well and primarily. To consider the librettist elements of opera have been lent throughout its history have merely a poet is to derligrate his function in the creation of an tempted commentators into denigrating or dismissing those ele- opera, for in the vast majorityof cases t e librettist supplied the ments in part or in full as extraneous trappings added by self-in- original, motive force for the composition of the opera and created flated stage technicians working against the spirit of the opera. the dramatic node around which the final work was constructed. The cardinal fact is that these elements are tools in the librettist's Our point of view, almost always through the composer's eyes, workbag just as much as rhyme and simile, and that all the re- has distorted the truth of this statement, because the composer has sources of the opera house—mechanical, fantastic, or improvisatory arrogated the position of dramatist to himself—especially since the —form an integral part of the librettist's plan for his libretto and nineteenth century—by the increased impact of his music, in should be considered apart from it only when they clearly have terms both of force and of characterization. If a librettist can pen been added later. Although Goldoni wanted to control the ex- three words as innocuous as "per lui, pieta" and have the composer cesses to which comedy in his day had developed, his Harlequin transform them into a moment of unbearable poignance which was envisaged as a role for an artist trained in the stage tricks of illumines an entire character (Elvira's in Don Giovanni: the end of the commedia dell'arte. Although Wagner never ceased to ful- the "Mi tradi" aria), where does that leave the librettist? The fatal minate at the cheap theatiics of the French school of Grand temptation is to assume that the omnipotent composer is there- Opera, he never ceased to adapt them for his own use, and those fore omniscient, the librettist but a utilitarian appendage employed who feel that the fogs and lightning flashes and pantomime of to crank the composer's dramatic ideas into some sort of serviceable the end of Act II of Die Walkiire are extraneous posturings will verse. We accept this as the lesson of the Verdi-Ghislanzoni Aida: we tend to infer beyond. As we shall see, even Verdi had distinct (I) Citations of the Pathetic Fallacy would fill a volume; I will con- limitations as a dramatic librettist. fine it myself to one from a musicologist who should know better: This belief in the omniscience of the composer, which may • • • indeed, [Shakespeare's] habit of relieving the mood of a tragedy byinterspersing a few comic scenes was shared by many Italiancom- also be termed the Pathetic Fallacy of Opera, is perhaps the most Posers of serious operas from Monteverdi and Landi to Scarlatti,. and became almost universal in the early romantic period" (italics mine); consistent mistake of those who write about opera. It consists in Shakespeare in Music, ascribing to the music qualities that can be found only in the Winton Dean: "Shakespeare and Opera," in ed. Phyllis Harmon, p. 93. libretto or qualities that cannot be empirically traced to the An ancillary consideration, outside the scope of this book but of importance in the study of opera, is the extent to which the music, composer. It is rife for two reasons: because it is easier to write because of its melodic sweep, assumes a quasi-dramatic function in "Verdi" than to check which one of his librettists the comment holding the listener's attention while not being particularly "dramatic" applies to, and because we have known very little about librettists in and of itself. The operas of Gounod, for instance, abound in such moments. and a good deal about composers. If this book can correct this one xix xviii

Introduction Introduction never come to terms with Wagner—or, for that matter, with been to some extent deluded. Certainly in the preponderance of opera. Indeed, as the importance of the verse and the rhyme began cases music has taken over the very function of the poetry, and to be subsumed by the growing primacy of the music, the libret- has thus drained the verse of the "musical" qualities that render tist was forced—to a great degree unconsciously—to rely on his it poetic. Verdi's emphasis on the parole sceniche (note: "scenic other tools to convey the story to the audience. The awareness words," not verse) showed his instinctive awareness of this fact, of all of the resources at the command of the librettist, and how though he clung to the outmoded verse forms. Michael Tippett, he utilized these resources, will underlie the pages that follow. referring to Elizabethan lute music, writes: "The music of a Even among commentators on the libretto as distinct from song destroys the verbal music of the poem utterly."3 If this can opera, the scope of the librettist's choices has rarely been acknowl- occur when a single instrument provides accompaniment, how edged. The single most notable criterion for judging librettos much more thorough the process will be with greater sonority. has always been the quality of the verse. This was understandable Louis Gallet's wry definition of the poeme lyrique as "a work in as long as the poetry was in fact paramount, but it became more verse which one gives to a musician so that he can make it into and more anachronistic as the balance shifted toward music. Yet, prose" may have come as a disagreeable shock to him as a librettist until late in the nineteenth century, judgments being made on at the end of the nineteenth century, but this only demonstrates the libretto were still not qualitatively different from those made the blinkered attitude most librettists, as well as writers on opera, in 165o. Few would seriously question the first half of the follow- continued to have about the libretto.4 The libretto had become ing quote from Ulrich Weisstein, but many might question the prose far earlier, and although we can admire beautiful poetry second half: "Metastasio . . . must be regarded as the most in- when it occurs, in Metastasio or in Hofmannsthal, we shall see fluential of all librettists, with the possible exception of Eugene that both these librettists brought a great deal more than verse to

Scribe"2; but any student of the libretto would readily agree their works—which is why they loom so large in any history of the libretto. • with Weisstein. Scribe was consistently damned—most often by Theophile Gautier—for his atrocious verse and cardboard char- Once the proper scope of the librettist's contribution to opera acters, and Gautier was right. Yet Gautier's criticisms were au has been recognized and acknowledged, the hoary argument of shrinks to its significance fond irrelevant, for the power of the music had vitiated Scribe's "Prima la musica e dopo [poi] le parole" as sympo verse and the power to create character musically meant that a sium badinage: charming, relevant, but secondary. Con- well-cut cardboard could be used as a starting point. Thus, Les comitantly, the librettist himself gains in stature and can be judged asa e composer: two complete artists in their re- Huguenots, L'Elisir d'amore, and Un Ballo in maschera: all origi- utealaloofneth. nally by Scribe. What guarantees. Scribe his position and influence spective fields intent upon the creation of a synergic unity neither is not his obvious faults but the multitude of innovations he couldc ° ee: Finally, the most important point must not be forgotten. The codified in the development of the opera libretto and which Gautier and others chose to ignore. opera libretto itself, shorn of the magic of the stage, is in essence a The relative unimportance of verse in the making of a negative or, at best, weakly positive, form. Strong music can libretto probably goes back farther than we are willing to allow. (3) Michael Tippett: A History of Song, p. 462, as quoted in Imogen The moment that a musical line is added to a line of verse, it Hoist: Tune, p. '86. necessarily imposes its own "poetry" upon the words, so that (4) "The right defence of the Mozart librettos would start, I think, even such composers as those of the Florentine Camerata or the with the observation that great poetry set to music is not an ideal ,r,sechiapke for opera, in fact that there is no great dramatic poetry yet twentieth-century Leog JanaeCk, who sought to keep the musical written that operatic music would not ruin"; Eric Bentley: The Dram a tisp c e areEvent, line "the humble servant" of the inflections of the speech, have aand D oe vaenr "Great ond2,tpr.o yt ,toph already alr ead has its intricate rhythmss e po3we5sr.ehati, verse tones, is far harderpa . music than plain pedestrian (z) Ulrich Weisstein, ed.: The Essence of Opera, p. 99. 95.

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Introduction dominate a libretto, can elevate it in our estimate of its qualities, can even survive as music without the words. Very few, if any, librettos have survived without the music (except those which were carried over practically intact from the stage); those which have survived have been staged as plays partly because 'of the novelty of the idea. Even fewer—if any—first-class librettos tied to inferior music have caused the opera to survive. The constricted, esoteric nature of the art form—demanding The Tenth Muse not only ability to write for voice and the sung stage but also ability to collaborate with a composer—has caused the libretto to be shunned by many of the great dramatists and poets: those A HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE who have written librettos have, with very few exceptions, pro- duced work far inferior to their non-libretto oeuvre. The fact that OPERA LIBRETTO the vast majority of librettos are reworkings of materials in other forms only partially accounts for their weaknesses, for great playwrights—Shakespeare neither the first nor the last—have drawn on other sources for their materials. What matters is that these libretto reworkings, by and large, have little novelty and less interest.. The sources would better have been left untouched. ,i Yet those librettists who will be discussed in this book have done more than rework and refashion: they have done more even than renew a story or a situation or an idea. They will be remem- bered as librettists because they managed to inject personality into the work they performed: not such an autobiographical ex- egesis as the Romantic Age held to be the chief aim of writing, but a point of view that is theirs and theirs alone. This point of view may extend to only a single character or to an outlook on life, but it will serve to give the libretto itself a personality that will set it off from its monochromatic companions. The libretto has literally been the plaything of kings and popes; at its best it has been far more. It has had stature, dignity, and honor in its own right and as a vital component of opera; and its practitioners, the great librettists, have shown not only a glimpse of themselves and their minds but also, in the apt words of Eric Bentley, a com- mand of the dramaturgy of opera.