Divas and Scholars

by Philip Gossett

  18. As Rodolfo Celletti demonstrated in his article “Origine e sviluppi della coloratura rossiniana.”

  19. I have seen two separate editions of these ornaments for the section “Mille sospiri e lagrime” (sung by Zenobia and Arsace) from the trio (N. 11), which later includes Aureliano. One edition was published by T. Boosey in London, with the indication, “Expressly published with the modifications of Sig. G. B. Velluti to serve for teaching at his Academy in London”; the other, issued in Vienna by Pietro Mechetti in the series Aurora d’Italia e Germania, has the indication, “with the ornaments of Sig.r G. Battista Velluti.”

  20. In the autograph manuscript from which example 9.2 is taken (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Département de la Musique, Ms. 4062 [2]), the romanza is written in G minor and is reduced by the composer for voice and piano. Donizetti wrote both the original version and the variation. I print this example in the original tonality. Unfortunately there is a tear in the upper left-hand corner, so that the first few notes of the variant in the first measure are missing.

  21. The original version of Fenena’s prayer, which is part of the Finale Ultimo (N. 13), is printed in the critical edition of Nabucco, 453–56; the version “puntata per la Zecchini” is given as appendix 4 (519). The music of the latter, in the composer’s own hand, is present in his original autograph manuscript (conserved in the archive of BMG Ricordi), on ff. 145–146.

  22. The soprano in Balzac’s Massimilla Doni is named la “Tinti” in homage to Cinti-Damoreau. See her Méthode de chant composée pour ses classes du Conservatoire.

  23. These notebooks, which are in the Everett Helm collection of the Lilly Library, have been studied by Austin Caswell. See his “Mme Cinti-Damoreau and the Embellishment of Italian Opera in Paris: 1820–1845.”

  24. Photocopies of the Kemble manuscript have been in circulation for more than twenty years. I do not know where the original currently resides. Kemble performed the title role in Norma for the first time in a special performance of the opera at the Teatro La Fenice of Venice on 2 December 1838: see Girardi and Rossi, Il Teatro La Fenice, 1:140.

  25. The manuscript is described in The Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection, 33 (item 142); see also Turner, Four Centuries of Opera, 122. All the examples attributed to the “Sorelle Marchisio” in Ricci, Variazioni, vol. 1 (“Voci femminili”), are derived from this source.

  26. Their ornamentation for Semiramide is included as alternative readings in the vocal score of the French adaptation, issued by Heugel in 1860. Most of these have been printed in the commentary to the critical edition of the opera.

  27. A Velluti example has been cited above. Bonini was the first Cenerentola in Paris (1822), and the Parisian publisher Pacini dedicated his edition of the opera to her. In it, the final aria (pl. no. 2114) is printed with variations that surely reflect her performance at the Théâtre Italien. They are reproduced in the commentary to the critical edition, 190–91. In 1870 the Parisian publisher Heugel issued a new edition of the “Romance du Saule et Prière de Desdémone” in Rossini’s Otello, “with the ornaments and variants of M.me Malibran” (pl. no. 3667, “as sung by Gabrielle Krauss at the Théâtre Italien”). These can be studied in the commentary, 151–53, to appendix 1 of the critical edition of Otello. In the second edition of his vocal score of La donna del lago, Pacini included a piece from Ermione that Rubini inserted into the opera for performances at the Théâtre Italien in November 1825, printing it “with all the ornaments that M.r Rubini adds to it” (pl. no. 1097). The composition and ornaments are reproduced in appendix 2 of the critical edition of La donna del lago, 907–41, and the commentary, 173–76. The singer had earlier made this insertion for performances in Naples in 1820. We must not assume, of course, that these variation sets include every modification introduced by a singer: the addition of single ornamental notes or turn figures was so much part of the stylistic vocabulary, that it would not normally have been necessary to write them in.

  28. These manuscripts have been collected and analyzed by Colas in his doctoral dissertation, Les Annotations de chanteurs.

  29. See Beghelli, I trattati di canto italiani.

  30. A modern edition, while not complete, is most helpful: Ginevra, Manuel García.

  31. Mainvielle Fodor, Réflexions et conseils sur l’art du chant, 13–14. I am grateful to Marilyn Horne for bringing this lovely little pamphlet to my attention.

  32. Cinti-Damoreau, Méthode de chant, 2. For further information about Cinti-Damoreau and other singers of the period, see Caswell, Embellished Opera Arias.

  33. Less frequently, it is possible to embellish these two identical notes by inserting a small ornament before the second: thus, before the second of two gs one could sing quickly b–a. There has been no full study of appoggiatura techniques for nineteenth-century Italian opera. Most scholarly work has focused on the eighteenth century, and there is considerable controversy about a number of important issues. See, for example, Crutchfield, “The Prosodic Appoggiatura,” as well as two articles by Frederick Neumann, “The Appoggiatura in Mozart’s Recitative,” and “Improper Appoggiaturas in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe,” in which he attacks some of the practices in the Mozart edition, focusing especially on the edition of Così fan tutte, ed. Ferguson and Rehm.

  34. The manuscript, prepared “for the use of Mad.me Grégoire by her friend G. Rossini,” is dated 15 August 1858. It is part of the collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York: see item 177 in The Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection, 42. Nothing is known about Madame Grégoire except that there was a family of Belgian musicians and critics by the name of Grégoir, to which she probably belonged. The variants are transcribed in the critical edition of Tancredi, 602–5; see also the commentary, 197–99.

  35. See García, Traité complet de l’art du chant en deux parties, 65. The modern edition by Stefano Ginevra reproduces the text of the 1872 version of García’s treatise, which is considerably abbreviated and does not have this example.

  36. Despite modern usage, it is historically and structurally wrong to use the word “cavatina” to describe this cantabile: in nineteenth-century usage the term “cavatina” always refers to an entire composition, usually an independent aria sung by a character entering for the first time (such as Figaro’s cavatina or Rosina’s cavatina in Il barbiere di Siviglia). In some of Rossini’s early operas, such as Tancredi, the composer also used the word “cavatina” to refer to pieces in a single section for a major soloist in the second act (of a two-act opera), a usage that carries over from eighteenth-century conventions. The latter are explored by Osthoff in “Mozarts Cavatinen und ihre Tradition.” The terminological issues for nineteenth-century Italian opera are explored by Beghelli in “Tre slittamenti semantici.”

  37. The phrase “heavenly length,” of course, is usually applied to lengthy movements in Schubert’s instrumental music.

  38. Thanks to the work of Pugliese, “Un idillio a fili d’argento,” we now know for certain that the basic cadenza was written for Nellie Melba by Mathilde Marchesi in 1889. See also her article “The origins of Lucia di Lammermoor’s cadenza.” According to Pugliese, there is no evidence of an important cadenza with flute in the mad scene in nineteenth-century musical sources or journalistic accounts before 1889.

  39. This cadenza is part of a longer variant, an ornamented version of the entire passage that Tancredi sings at the beginning of the duet. Based on an autograph manuscript prepared by Rossini for Giuditta Pasta and now preserved at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (item 170 in The Mary Flager Cary Music Collection, p. 40), the complete variant is transcribed in appendix 1 of the critical edition of Tancredi, 606.

  40. The cadenzas of Cinti-Damoreau are all reproduced in Bartlet’s commentary to her critical edition of Guillaume Tell, 147–49. For three cadenzas by Carlotta Marchisio, who sang the part of Mathilde during the 1860s, see 153.

  41. See the critical edition of La gazza ladra, 1080. What we did not know at the time was that a
nother set of variations for this same cavatina would be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London in their sale of 3–4 December 1992 (item 599 in the catalogue, on p. 280). It, too, was certainly penned during Rossini’s final years in Paris, since the manuscript also has variants for one of his Péchés de vieillesse. The manuscript was purchased by a Japanese collector, who very kindly supplied me with a photocopy. For an excerpt from this manuscript, see example 9.10.

  42. This pertains specifically to lyrical sections: contemporary evidence suggests that passages more declamatory in character may present ornamentation earlier.

  43. The version for Giuseppina Vitali is transcribed in the critical edition, 1080; there is a photocopy of the relevant portion of the manuscript auctioned at Sotheby’s in their catalogue cited in n. 41 above, 280.

  44. The original melodic line has been edited directly from Rossini’s autograph manuscript of Il barbiere di Siviglia, the variation from the autograph manuscript at the Milan Conservatory.

  45. For a complete transcription, see appendix 1 to the critical edition, 1067–69.

  46. As we have seen, the cadenza in its original form was almost certainly written in 1889 for Nellie Melba. Interpolated cadenzas of a similar length and difficulty, however, are found in many earlier sources for Italian bel canto operas, including a source for Lucia di Lammermoor, as Pugliese demonstrates in her “Un idillio a fili d’argento.”

  47. See, for example, Bellini’s rewriting of the cadenza at the end of the cabaletta “Ah! non fia sempre odiata!” within Gualtiero’s second-act aria in the facsimile of the autograph manuscript of Il pirata (vol., 2, f. 125r) or his recasting for Giambattista Rubini of a cadenza in La straniera originally written for Domenico Reina: see Bellini, La straniera, ed. Gossett, 2:121. In the first case Bellini makes the cadenza more elaborate; in the second he simplifies it.

  48. For Bellini’s various efforts to reduce the number of doubling orchestral parts in the cabaletta of Pollione’s first-act cavatina in Norma, “Mi protegge, mi difende,” see the facsimile of the autograph manuscript, vol. 1, ff. 40r-41v. An even more extensive reduction of doublings occurs in the cabaletta of the Riccardo aria in I puritani, “Bel sogno beato,” as we saw in chapter 7.

  49. This cadenza is reproduced in Mackenzie-Grieve, Clara Novello 1818–1908, facing 214.

  50. For information about this manuscript, see n. 15 above. The original vocal line is reproduced from Claudio Toscani’s critical edition; Rossini’s variation is transcribed from his autograph manuscript.

  51. The original text is transcribed from the facsimile of the Norma autograph; the variant is derived from the Cinti-Damoreau notebooks at the Lilly Library, Indiana University.

  52. Roberta Marvin discusses this passage in her commentary to the Scena ed Aria Amelia (N. 6) of I masnadieri; see the critical commentary, 76 (note 253–254, 285–286).

  53. Muzio’s letter is quoted in the third paragraph of chapter 3.

  54. See, in particular, Crutchfield, “Vocal Ornamentation in Verdi.”

  55. Letter of 11 March 1865, published in Rosen and Porter, Verdi’s “Macbeth,” 110–13.

  56. Those who would like to see this fabled pitch for themselves should consult Bellini, I puritani, ed. Gossett, vol. 2, f. 157r, last measure and f. 157v, first measure. The part of Arturo is, of course, written in tenor clef.

  57. The letter is cited and translated in the preface to Claudio Gallico’s critical edition of Ernani, xxi (English) and xlv (Italian). For Verdi’s letter to Donizetti, see chapter 7, in the section “Historical circumstances.”

  58. The passage is found in the critical edition of the Aria Violetta in La traviata, ed. Della Seta (N. 3, mm. 155–158), 93.

  59. The passage is found in ibid., (N. 3, mm. 113–114), 89.

  60. The Liebling variations are available in various formats; see, for example, Liebling, Arrangements and Editings for Coloratura Voice with Piano, the source from which I am quoting.

  61. For the original notation of this passage and Rossini’s own added cadenza, see example 9.12.

  62. The music is transcribed from Rossini’s own manuscript of Il barbiere di Siviglia and from the manuscript for Matilde Juva at the Conservatory of Milan, cited in the second paragraph of this chapter.

  63. For a well-balanced and interesting treatment of this interpolation, see Beghelli, “Per fedeltà a una nota.”

  64. The passage for clarinet in question is found in the Aria Isaura (N. 9) in the critical edition of Tancredi, 335–36. Isaura should appropriately sing a varied form of the melody at mm. 50–54, giving the clarinet the opportunity to echo the vocal ornamentation at mm. 54–56.

  CHAPTER TEN

  1. In the autograph manuscript of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, preserved at the Ricordi Archives in Milan, for example, the F-major cavatina for Isabella, “Cruda sorte,” is marked twice “in Sol” (in G) by another hand. In other sources for this cavatina (which exists in two versions), there are actual transpositions or indications of transpositions to G major, A major, and even B major. See the commentary to Corghi’s critical edition, 64–65 and 151–52. Will Crutchfield tells me that librarians of Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in the midnineteenth century actually printed up gummed labels reading “one note higher,” “one note lower,” “one half-note higher,” and “one half-note lower.” Apparently at that time orchestral musicians were prepared to transpose at sight; today’s players are unlikely to be entrusted with such a responsibility.

  2. Transpositions to F major were common already in the decade after the opera’s premiere, but an extract issued by Carli, a Parisian publisher, presents the cavatina in G major. On this edition, a copy of which is to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, Fonds du Conservatoire, D. 11808(5), Carli specifies “Cavatina sung by M.e Fodor in the Barbier de Seville, music by Rossini, with all the ornaments that M.e Fodor adopts, written by herself.” On the other hand, an extract published by a British company, Falkner’s Opera Music Warehouse, also invoking “Mad.me Fodor,” prints the piece in E major, a tonality lower than the original key.

  3. For the history of these Parisian performances, see the introduction to the critical edition of Semiramide, lii–lviii.

  4. A performance of the Tonio cavatine is found on Flórez’s 2003 CD, Una furtiva lagrima (Universal B00008CLJK). During the 2003–4 season he sang the entire opera at the Bologna Teatro Comunale, to wide public and critical acclaim.

  5. One cannot be entirely indifferent, however, to how much more difficult it is to make the string parts sound as bright and forceful in E minor as they do in F minor. In addition, several exposed notes in the strings in the original key fall below the instruments’ range when the piece is transposed down by a whole tone.

  6. See Verdi’s letter to Antonio Bazzini of 10 February 1884, printed in Carteggio Verdi–Ricordi 1882–1885,417. The history is discussed in full by Renato Meucci in “Verdi, Bazzini e l’unificazione del diapason in Italia.” For many of the relevant documents, see Carteggio Verdi–Ricordi 1880–1881, appendix 27 (308–9) and Carteggio Verdi–Ricordi 1882–1885, appendix 26 (409–25).

  7. See Verdi’s letter to Boito of 8 November 1885 (no. 65 in the Carteggio Verdi–Boito, 93); commentary to the letter is on 334–35.

  8. Verdi more rarely transposed a piece upward, but there are several examples, such as Preziosilla’s “Al suon del tamburo” from act 2 of La forza del destino. This music not only was originally sketched in B major in 1861 but was sung in that key in the version of the opera performed in St. Petersburg in 1862. Only when Verdi revised the opera for Milan in 1869 did he transpose the music up a semitone, to B major. Much more typical is the first set of couplets for Oscar in the introduction of Un ballo in maschera, “Volta la terrea,” known today in B major but originally planned for Una vendetta in dominò / Gustavo III as “Pallida, pallida” in B major.

  9. The classic study of the concept of “organicism” in nineteenth-century music is Solie’s “Th
e Living Work.”

  10. See Lorenz, Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner, 4 vols. The first volume is devoted to the Ring, the others to Tristan, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal, respectively.

  11. See Abbate, “Wagner, ‘On Modulation,’ and Tristan,” 37. In citing Abbate at her most intolerant, I nonetheless invoke one of today’s most able thinkers about opera.

  12. My own first exposure to these problems came in a seminar at Columbia University in 1962 led by a distinguished theorist and composer, Peter Westergaard, who also happened to love opera. I remember very well how strange it seemed to all of us when he suggested that one could think in analytically and dramaturgically interesting ways about the tonal structure of Il trovatore. Verdi and tonality? At the time it seemed like an odd pairing indeed. It was not until a decade later that Petrobelli delivered a paper in which he began to develop these ideas further: “Per un’esegesi della struttura drammatica del Trovatore,” translated as “Toward an Explanation of the Dramatic Structure of Il trovatore.”

  13. The best discussion of these issues is by Conati in “Rigoletto” di Giuseppe Verdi, 124–37. For a related argument, in English, see Chusid, “The Tonality of Rigoletto.”

  14. The following paragraphs are derived from Gossett, “History and Works that Have No History,” 110–12.

  15. The literature is quite extensive. For two recent examples, with many other references, see Powers, “One Halfstep at a Time,” and Greenwald, “Puccini, Il tabarro, and the Dilemma of Operatic Transposition.” For another interesting contribution see Parker’s discussion of “tonal ‘plot’ ” in the two versions of La forza del destino in his essay, “Leonora’s Last Act: La forza del destino,” in Leonora’s Last Act, 61–99.