EXAMPLE 9.10. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, LA GAZZA LADRA, CAVATINA NINETTA (N. 2), REPEAT OF MAIN THEME, WITH ORNAMENTS WRITTEN BY THE COMPOSER (MM. 42–49).
The second variety of Rossini cantabile that suggests variation is one that opens with a more declamatory section and only subsequently adopts a more tuneful design, where melodic repetition elicits ornamentation. The archetypical example is the cantabile of Tancredi’s cavatina (known as “Di tanti palpiti” from the first words of its cabaletta), in which the mezzo-soprano hero apostrophizes his beloved Amenaide, calls for the downfall of the “empio traditore” (evil traitor) Orbazzano, and invokes glory and love to crown his fidelity. This brief, Maestoso cantabile begins with a declamatory opening (a balanced pair of two-measure phrases), followed by a two-measure lyrical theme (essentially sung twice), and concludes with a modulation to the dominant and a cadenza opportunity in that key. “Di tanti palpiti” follows in the tonic.
For this piece, too, Rossini wrote out a full set of variations later in his life, on 15 August 1858, among his suggestions for Madame Grégoire. In his ornaments for the cantabile, Rossini leaves untouched the opening figuration. While it might seem that the simple opening would welcome elaboration, the composer waits instead for the lyrical theme, intervening at the end of its first statement and more elaborately for its repetition, then provides a lovely cadenza at the end, as in example 9.11. Again, Rossini’s ornaments emerge directly from the original music. The figurations concluding the lyrical phrases at the beginning of mm. 71 and 73 extend the register slightly downward and provide more rhythmic activity, while in m. 73 Rossini makes splendid use of chromatic lower neighbors (the f and the d). The exact repetition of m. 70 in m. 72 is expertly varied, with the triplet arpeggio becoming more rhythmically active, and the final figure, which concludes with a simple triplet (a–d–c), becoming a sextuplet, with an extra feint downward and a graceful leap from the interpolated e–f to the concluding d–c. It is all measured and musically compelling, the gestures capturing and extending the original musical idea, not arbitrarily imposed upon it. These examples, and the theoretical treatises supporting them, almost always require that ornamental variations consist of diminutions (replacing notes of longer values with shorter notes), almost never augmentations (replacing notes of shorter values with longer notes). Some singers and misguided coaches try to use augmentation to simplify repetitions, but reliance on this antihistorical device is a powerful indicator that a singer is uncomfortable performing florid music.
The Rossini cabaletta rapidly developed into a standardized form. Although he occasionally repeated only part of the principal theme, the basic form is a well-designed, tuneful melodic period (the cabaletta theme), a short transition (sometimes ending with a cadenza), and a full repetition of the theme. Often Rossini did not even write out this repetition, simply indicating that the music is to be derived “Come sopra” (as above). Later composers went further: sometimes Donizetti and Bellini did not even bother to lay out empty measures, leaving instead a blank space marked “From A to B,” signaling the beginning and end of the passage to be repeated with those letters. They began writing anew with the cadential phrases.
EXAMPLE 9.11. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, TANCREDI, RECITATIVO E CAVATINA TANCREDI (N. 3), THE CANTABILE IN ITS ORIGINAL VERSION (MM. 65–77) AND AS RO SSINI HIMSELF MODIFIED IT FOR MAD.me GRE´GOIRE.
In Rossini the repetition of the cabaletta theme is always meant to be varied; to perform a Rossini cabaletta without ornamental variations for the repeat vitiates the meaning of the form. The music is constructed to invite variations, and the orchestral accompaniment is prepared so as not to interfere. Although every document pertaining to contemporary performance practice is in agreement, we still hear some modern performances in which cabaletta themes are repeated without change or in which a singer assumes that changing the dynamic level of the music is sufficient. On the other hand, sheer virtuosity is not the touchstone of a successful variation. What makes Rossini’s own variations so delectable is that they grow out of the original musical idea, making their point by the beauty of their detail rather than by sheer glitter.
For Rosina’s cavatina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, “Una voce poco fa,” Rossini wrote out two manuscripts of ornamentation, with similar suggestions, both described earlier in this chapter. One is the 1852 manuscript for Matilde Juva; the other has neither dedicatee nor date. In this cavatina Rossini included only a partial reprise of the cabaletta theme. Example 9.12 opens with the conclusion of the transition and continues with the first eight measures (mm. 91–98) of this partial reprise; it concludes with the very last measures of the theme (mm. 104–107). The example provides both Rossini’s original music and the cadenza and ornamental variations from his manuscript for Matilde Juva.44 The “cadenza opportunity” on the tonic harmony before the reprise is filled out by what is essentially a descending arpeggiation of the tonic triad (from a down to e), with each of the first four notes of that arpeggio bearing an eight-note figure, the first two with one contour, the last two with a different one. The anticipation of the decisive “Ma” at the end of the cadenza, so dear to every sweet-and-sour Rosina, stems directly from Rossini.
The partial reprise of the cabaletta theme consists of a four-measure lyrical phrase, repeated immediately with a more decisive close. While Rossini does not touch the first appearance of the lyrical phrase, he zooms in on the repetition, leaving the melodic reference points largely unchanged, while playfully bouncing the voice from register to register. At mm. 95 and 96, the figure he introduces on the first two beats is essentially an octave, but notice how differently he takes that octave in the two measures: the first pattern is a simple arpeggiation on the dominant harmony; the second begins with a piquant lower neighbor (a) before the tonic arpeggio. The scales of m. 97 in the original (staccato, but under a slur) yield to a treacherous two-octave arpeggio. Although Rossini varies both cadential phrases, he reserves his most spectacular fireworks for mm. 104–107, where he renders the four-fold repetition of a scalar figure in the original as a breathtaking sequence of rising triplets and falling sextuplets. Developing and singing ornamental variations of this kind is just plain fun.
EXAMPLE 9.12. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, CAVATINA ROSINA (N. 4), THE PREPARATION FOR THE REPEAT OF THE CABALETTA AND TWO EXCERPTS FROM THAT REPEAT (MM. 89–98 AND IO5-IO7), AS ROSSINI ORIGINALLY WROTE THEM AND AS HE HIMSELF MODIFIED THEM FOR MATILDE JUVA.
After the repeat of a cabaletta theme (or after the theme and variations of a rondò finale), Rossini normally concluded the vocal part of an aria with a series of repeated cadential phrases of decreasing length and a final one-bar cadence sung three times. Although the procedure is indeed formulaic (as French critics delighted in pointing out), Rossini’s powers of invention help sustain our interest. Furthermore, each repetition of a cadential phrase was intended to be varied. The rondò from La Cenerentola, for example, concludes with a series of cadential phrases of which the first is a nine-measure, repeated phrase. Since Rossini notated all eighteen measures of the vocal line, introducing melodic changes toward the end of the repeat, one might imagine he wanted the music performed as written, but in a manuscript in the library of The University of Chicago there is a set of cadenzas and ornamental variations. While undated (physical evidence suggests the 1820s or 1830s) and without a dedicatee, the changes it introduces at the beginning of the repeat are extraordinary even by Rossini’s own standards (example 9.13).45 The transformation of the descending two-octave scales, first to an arpeggio up followed by one down, then to a series of chromatic figures, is already a difficult vocal trick, but the diminution of the four quarter notes in the original version at m. 199 into eight eighth notes, with leaps up and down, is such a tour de force that I have never succeeded in getting any singer to use it in a performance. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. When Cecilia Bartoli first sang the title role in Bologna in 1992, under the direction of Riccardo Chailly, she introduced most of Rossini’s own ornaments. In
the process, we rehearsed those leaps again and again, but one could hardly blame her for not wanting to risk them in the theater. Ultimately we found a different solution. Nor did she change her mind when she brought her Cenerentola to the Metropolitan Opera. Sometimes I think that only a performer accomplished at scat singing will have the spirit and technique to make Rossini’s notes seem both plausible and inevitable. Lovers of Italian opera glory in the past while dreaming of the future.
As the cadential phrases get shorter, the musical content grows more standardized, as do possibilities for variation, but a single note beautifully placed can do wonders. There is a repeated five-measure cadential phrase in the cabaletta to Ninetta’s cavatina in La gazza ladra that Rossini magically transforms in his variations for Giuseppina Vitali by strategically inserting a single high b in the repeat (example 9.14). By the time he arrives at the final 3×1 conclusion, though, even Rossini falls back on what for him was a standard formula (example 9.15). It is unwise to be overly inventive at this point: the plane is approaching the runway and it wants to land. Neither Rossini nor singers during at least the first four decades of the nineteenth century seem to have thought it a good idea for the soloist to drop out for a few measures (allowing the orchestra to chug along with its inevitable cadences), returning in the nick of time to conclude the aria by jumping up from the dominant to the tonic in a high register. We will return to concluding-high-note hijinks below.
EXAMPLE 9.13. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, LA CENERENTOLA, FINALE SECONDO: CORO, E SCENA CENERENTOLA (N. 16), THE REPETITION OF THE CADENTIAL PHRASE (MM. 195–200) IN ITS ORIGINAL VERSION AND AS ROSSINI HIMSELF MODIFIED IT.
EXAMPLE 9.14. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, LA GAZZA LADRA, CAVATINA NINETTA (N. 2), CADENTIAL REPETITION, WITH A SINGLE NOTE ADDED BY THE COMPOSER IN THE VARIATIONS FOR GIUSEPPINA VITALI (MM. 125–127).
EXAMPLE 9.15. GIOACHINO ROSSINI, LA GAZZA LADRA, CAVATINA NINETTA (N. 2), FINAL CADENCES, WITH ROSSINI’S STANDARD CONCLUDING GESTURE IN THE VARIATIONS FOR GIUSEPPINA VITALI (MM. 132–135).
ORNAMENTATION IN BELLINI, DONIZETTI, AND VERDI
Because ornaments in the composer’s own hand are extensive and fascinating, I have drawn most examples thus far from Rossini’s operas. The principles advanced here, however, do not change radically for Bellini and Donizetti. Although there are fewer examples of their own vocal ornamentation (Donizetti’s varied reprise and cadenzas for the second strophe of “Una furtiva lagrime” have already been cited), there is extensive documentation from contemporary singers known for their interpretations of the works of these composers.
Many cadenza opportunities may be found, for example, in Lucia di Lammermoor. No self-respecting Edgardo could leave undecorated the final “io moro per te” at the end of the cantabile of his final aria. And while the infamous interpolated cadenza a due for flute and madwoman should never be considered obligatory, it indicates the level of intervention that seemed permissible to Donizetti’s contemporaries.46 When Donizetti himself provided a modified reprise for a theme, on the other hand, whether for musical or dramaturgical reasons, modern performers should respect his notation. The dying Edgardo’s gasped reprise of his invocation to his beloved Lucia, “Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali,” admits no ornamental intervention, not even (despite its fermata) in the final prayer to be joined with her in heaven, “ne congiunga il Nume in ciel.” Nor will any Lucia feel compelled to modify what Donizetti wrote with new text (“Del ciel clemente”) as the reprise of “Alfin son tua,” the cantabile of the mad scene, since the composer’s ornamentation is subtle and beautiful. On the other hand, there is plenty of opportunity for fireworks in the cabaletta theme of this same scene, “Spargi d’amaro pianto,” and generations of mad Lucias have let rip at this point, to excellent effect, even if their concluding high e would have made little sense to Donizetti or contemporary singers.
Bellini’s messy autograph manuscripts reveal repeated efforts to get cadenzas right, documenting his concern for the vocal qualities of the particular singers with whom he was working.47 New singers required new cadenzas, as Bellini’s own revisions of his operas demonstrate. Some of the composer’s cabaletta themes were born with extensive orchestral doublings, reducing the liberty with which singers could ornament a melody. On occasion, however, the composer canceled or reduced these doublings, reflecting not only his recognition (perhaps after hearing them in the theater) that the orchestration was too heavy, but also his response to the ornamenting tendencies of his singers.48 After all, Giuditta Pasta and Giambattista Rubini cut their theatrical eyeteeth under the watchful eye of Rossini, and there is no evidence that they forgot or set aside everything he taught them. Many Bellinian melodies are written with simple chordal accompaniments that allow singers considerable latitude.
Rossini’s attitude toward Bellini’s music can be judged from two surviving examples of ornamentation he prepared for his younger colleague’s operas. The first is a cadenza, written for the English soprano Clara Novello, for Amina at the end of the cantabile (which concludes a due) in Elvino’s cavatina “Prendi: l’anel ti dono” in La sonnambula.49 The second is a set of variations, surely prepared during the 1830s, for Romeo’s cavatina in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, in which Rossini ornaments the cantabile and the cabaletta just as he would have ornamented his own music.50 Example 9.16 offers the first eight measures of Bellini’s original cabaletta theme, “La tremenda, ultrice spada,” and Rossini’s ornamental variation for its repetition. As always, Rossini’s variations are elegant and inviting. In the first phrase (A), he keeps the strong rhythmic character of m. 126, but substitutes ascending arpeggios for the dotted rhythms, while adding a figure to ornament the bare quarter note in m. 157. He presses the arpeggios further in m. 158, but when the orchestra doubles the voice in m. 159 he leaves Bellini’s melodic line unchanged. In the second phrase (A'), mm. 160–163, he continues much the same kind of treatment, with fine syncopations in m. 160.
EXAMPLE 9.16. VINCENZO BELLINI, I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI, SCENA E CAVATINA DI ROMEO (N. 3), THE REPETITION OF THE CABALETTA THEME (MM. 156–163), WITH AN ORNAMENTAL VARIATION BY GIOACHINO ROSSINI.
This approach to repetitions in Bellini’s vocal lines was hardly restricted to Rossini, as is clear from the contemporary singers whose notebooks are replete with variations and cadenzas for the younger composer’s operas. Kemble’s elaborate notations for the entire role of Norma may reflect her studies with Giuditta Pasta, who created the role, while Cinti-Damoreau’s notebooks provide complete variations for aria after aria. One almost never hears in the theater, for example, the repetition of Norma’s cabaletta theme “Ah, bello a me ritorno,” in which she dreams that Pollione will love her again. The first four measures of Cinti-Damoreau’s variation show us what we are missing (example 9.17).51 Bellini’s simple accompanimental figure cries out for vocal freedom, and while Cinti-Damoreau’s virtuoso scales, arpeggios, and leaps may not be to everyone’s taste, they share with Rossini’s examples the ability to illuminate the original musical context rather than seeming to be imposed upon it.
More controversial is the question of Verdi’s music. To what extent does the persistence of Rossinian compositional models in Verdi’s operas during the 1840s bring with it earlier performance styles? That many of the same artists sang Donizetti in the 1830s and Verdi in the 1840s suggests there should be continuities, but there has been too little investigation of the use of variations and interpolated cadenzas in Verdi pertaining to singers who actually worked between 1840 and 1860. A suggestive contemporary indication is found in orchestral materials related to the first performances, under the composer’s direction, of I masnadieri at Covent Garden in 1847. Orchestral lines that double the vocal part are crossed out in both the first presentation and the repetition of the cabaletta theme in Amalia’s cabaletta “Carlo vive?” This suggests that Jenny Lind, who created the role, may well have introduced different ornamental figures into her part, so that the orchestra could no longer play what Verdi had originally written.52 B
ut when Verdi’s student and friend Emanuele Muzio commented negatively on Lind’s “mania for ornamentation,” he was not speaking only for himself: he claimed to be voicing the sentiments of Verdi.53
EXAMPLE 9.17. VINCENZO BELLINI, NORMA, CORO E CAVATINA NORMA (N. 3), REPRISE OF THE CABALETTA THEME, WITH AN ORNAMENTAL VARIATION BY LAURE CINTI-DAMOREAU.
Nonetheless, there is considerable later evidence, including early recordings, that nineteenth-century singers regularly made simple changes in Verdi’s melodic lines, altering and emending phrases to suit their vocal needs and improvising cadenzas when Verdi created the occasion for one but did not write it.54 There are places in I masnadieri, for example, where the composer specifically left the task of providing a cadenza to the art of Jenny Lind. In his music of the 1840s, Verdi had put behind him a mode of thinking about vocal lines and the relationship between a singer and an operatic text characteristic of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti; yet he continued, paradoxically, to write music whose structure reflected that earlier style.
As a practical matter, it seems to me that modest variations, an occasional diminution, a turn figure, can appropriately be applied to repeated passages in Verdi when the operas are performed complete, but ornamental variations alla Rossini and Bellini are to be excluded. And Verdi was absolutely clear that he wanted singers to avoid the grunts and vocal clamor that mar so many productions. A strong performance by Dolora Zajick as Azucena in Chicago Lyric Opera’s Trovatore in 1993 was cheapened by her cackling at the end of the opera. Verdi would have been outraged. Nor is she alone in supplying superfluous sound effects. In a wonderful letter from Genoa to Léon Escudier in Paris on the occasion of the performance there of the revised Macbeth, Verdi wrote:
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