Isis: Tragédie en musique. Livret de Philippe Quinault. Édition de Lionel Sawkins by Jean-Baptiste Lully (review) Rebekah Ahrendt Notes, Volume 75, Number 2, December 2018, pp. 329-334 (Review) Published by Music Library Association DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/not.2018.0119 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/711111 Access provided by Utrecht Universiteit (14 Feb 2019 06:34 GMT) MUSIC REVIEWS Edited by Keith Cochran छ LULLY’S ISIS Jean-Baptiste Lully. Isis: Tragédie en musique. Livret de Philippe Qui - nault. Édition de Lionel Sawkins; édition du livret: Sylvain Cornic et Lionel Sawkins. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2014. (Œuvres com- plètes. Série III: Opéras, vol. 6.) (Musica Gallica.) [Gen. pref. in Fre., Eng., Ger. (Jerôme de La Gorce, Herbert Schneider), p. v–vii; introd. in Fre., Eng., p. ix–xlii; introd. to the livret in Fre., Eng., p. 3–6; livret, p. 7– 33; table of contents, p. 35–38; liste des rôles/list of characters, p. 39–40; score, p. 41–311; annexe 1a–b [singers, dancers, instrumentalists on- stage], p. 313–17; facsims., p. 319–32; crit. apparatus in Eng., p. 335–51; table of contents, p. 353; note on revision/engraving, p. 354; list of vol- umes in edition, p. 355–56. Cloth. ISBN 978-3-487-15193-9. i298.] Every would-be editor of the operas here under review marks the third of of Jean-Baptiste Lully is faced with one Lully’s operas to appear in the series cold fact: there are no autograph man- published by Olms, after Armide (ed. uscripts. Instead, the principal sources Lois Rosow, 2003) and Thésée (ed. are generally the printed editions is- Pascal Denécheau, 2010). Like its fore- sued by the house of Ballard, which bears in the Olms series, Isis has been held a music printing monopoly in the published as both a full score and a kingdom of France, and which from an keyboard-vocal reduction (ed. Noam A. early date established a cooperation Krieger, including simple continuo re- with the composer. The first tragédie en alizations; not reviewed here). Isis has musique to be printed by Ballard was been the subject of a modern edition Lully and librettist Philippe Qui nault’s before, as part of the Chefs-d’œuvres fifth exercise in the genre, Isis (pre- classiques de l’opéra français series, miered in January of 1677). The opera edited by Théodore de Lajarte in the was issued sometime after March 1677 late nineteenth century. Lajarte’s edi- not as a score, but in a set of ten part- tion might seem lamentable from the books in oblong quarto format. Why purist’s perspective, as it is a wildly un- Lully turned to printing his tragédies en faithful piano-vocal reduction, but it is musique only at this point remains an golden as an example of nineteenth- open question, as does the fact that Isis, century reception of earlier musics. unlike any other, was issued as a set of The complete works edition started by parts. A full score of the opera would Henry Prunières in 1930 and contin- not be published by Ballard until 1719. ued by Broude Brothers in the 1960s Oblong quarto partbooks carry a and 1970s never got around to Isis, thus particular use value: they are intended this marks the first attempt at a modern for performance, and not for score study. critical edition. (For a history of the Such is not the case for a critical edi- various Lully editions, see Ronald tion (more on this below). The volume Broude’s review of Lois Rosow’s Olms 329 330 Notes, December 2018 edition of Armide, Notes 62, no. 3 continued in repertory until March [March 2006]: 797–802, at 797.) 1678. Parisian revivals occurred only in One of the most important features 1704, 1717–18, and 1732—far below of a critical edition for this reviewer, at the number of revivals other operas least, is the introduction to the volume. enjoyed—and it received only limited Sawkins covers an enormous amount of attention in the French provinces ground in his introduction; unfortu- and abroad. Yet Isis does occupy an im- nately, the line of his argument is not portant place in the history of French always clear. Readers unfamiliar with opera outside of France. Drawing on Isis might not understand all of the the research of Rudolf Rasch, Sawkins important points Sawkins attempts to mentions seven performances at the make, for he tends to write around Amsterdam Schouwburg between some of the major issues of the opera 25 November 1677 and 3 February and its reception, rather than clearly 1678. Sawkins notes (p. xxxi) that stating the problems. Such is the case these were the first performances of the for one of the central elements of the opera outside of France; in fact, they traditional Isis narrative: that this opera are (so far as we know) the first perfor- was understood as tacit criticism of mances of any Lully opera beyond the Louis XIV’s amours and the character French kingdom. Alas, all that is known of Io was identified with Mme de of the Amsterdam appearances derives Ludres, while Mme de Montespan was from advertisements in the Amsterdamse seen in jealous Juno. Supposedly, the Courant, and account books related to fall out led to Quinault’s disgrace and the theater. censure at the court, thus depriving Besides these performances in the Lully of his favorite librettist. This story Dutch Republic, Sawkins mentions a has been rehearsed so frequently in the livret printed at Regensburg in 1683, literature that it is perhaps unsurpris- “which may have been associated with ing that Sawkins only gestures at it side- performances there” (p. xxxi), an idea ways. At the outset of his introduction, derived from Carl B. Schmidt (“The Sawkins cites at length a review from Le Geographical Spread of Lully’s Operas nouveau mercure galant (1677) as evi- during the Late Seventeenth and Early dence to say that “it is clear that Isis suf- Eighteenth Centuries: New Evidence fered a mixed reception and was criti- from the Livrets,” Jean-Baptiste Lully and cized at court,” and that the reception the Music of the French Baroque: Essays in was “disappointing” (p. xxvii). He then Honor of James R. Anthony, ed. John proceeds to lay out the evidence that Hajdu Heyer (Cambridge: Cambridge Isis was certainly read and approved University Press, 1989), 183–211, at by all relevant censors (including the 208). Pace Schmidt, and by extension king himself), and that surely no one Sawkins, the material evidence for a thought it might cause a scandal—thus performance in Regensburg simply implying that it is perhaps time to lay to does not hold. The idea was already rest the myth of the dueling mistresses. ruled out in 1981 by Herbert Hypothetical scandal aside, Isis never Schneider, who noted that the livret is did seem to enjoy the enduring popu- in fact merely an academic exercise in larity of other Lully-Quinault collabora- German translation, retaining sense, tions. Its initial run at the French court but not form (Herbert Schneider, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye lasted from “Opern Lullys in deutschsprachigen 5 January until sometime in February Bearbeitungen,” Hamburger Jahrbuch für 1678. Isis then moved to the Paris Musikwissenschaft 5 [1981]: 69–80, at Opéra in August of 1677, where it 70). Having examined the Regensburg Music Reviews 331 livret myself (F-Pn Y 2 7291), I would Denécheau in an article in 2006, have to concur with Schneider, and no uncited by Sawkins (Pascal Denécheau, other evidence for performances in “Un signe du caractère soupçonneux Regensburg has ever emerged. de Lully: Le monogramme «L D»,” The edition itself conforms to the Revue de musicologie 92, no. 2 [2006]: standards set for this series. The score 381–97). Denécheau notes that, with is generously laid out and easy to read, the exception of Bellérophon, all of the with headers noting act and scene al- scores printed between 1677 and 1686 lowing the user to easily navigate the bear this same paraphe. Generally, it opera. The extensive critical apparatus may be found on the recto of the last is informative, particularly the table of page of the printing, but it sometimes manuscript corrections and additions appears on the verso of the final page. to extant copies of the partbooks (pp. More rarely, according to Denécheau, 338–40). Sawkins has (predictably) the paraphe appears at the beginning or used these partbooks as his principal end of a cahier; Isis is the only one to source. Given that the gold standard of include the paraphe at the beginning edition-making for works prior to Bach of the third act (Denécheau, p. 384). remains the composer’s “first” inten- Thus, despite the fact that we have no tions (rather than the Fassung letzter Lully autographs, we at least have Hand for later pieces), it seems natural Lully’s “autograph” to confirm the that Sawkins would choose the only mu- authenticity of the edition. sical source to have a clear association As in other volumes, an edition of with Lully. The association is confirmed the livret (prepared by Sylvain Cornic by a feature common to all Lully edi- and Sawkins) has been included. The tions produced during the composer’s helpful “Introduction to the Livret” lifetime: every surviving partbook bears (provided in both French and English, a paraphe—an identifying mark in ink. pp. 3–6) outlines the history of the Sawkins notes that most of the many in- printed editions, and presents a list of house corrections present in surviving sixteen consulted exemplars—all of copies of the partbooks appear to have which vary to some degree, according been made “by one or other of only two to the editors.