CONTINUITY DRAFT A compositional sketch that provides a continuous draft (usually the principal vocal lines, with their words and music, and hints of the accompaniment) for a single composition within an opera or for an entire opera. Verdi regularly used such drafts; earlier composers less so.
CONVENIENZE The set of practices that determined the basic layout of an Italian opera early in the nineteenth century: the mix of musical numbers and recitative, the quantity of arias or duets and their ordering, the vocal ranges of the principal and secondary characters, and so on. These practices were satirized in operas such as Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali.
COPISTERIA Copyists of Italian operas preparing complete manuscripts and manuscript parts (for individual instruments and singers) worked in copisterie, sometimes independent businesses, sometimes associated directly with a theater. The Ricordi firm in Milan, founded by Giovanni Ricordi in 1808, was originally a copisteria.
CRESCENDO A gradual increase in volume, indicated either by a musical sign or by the abbreviation cresc. The “Rossini crescendo” is a particular kind of crescendo, with a regular, repetitive phrase structure, the gradual addition of new instruments, an expansion of the register both upward and downward, and so on. Rossini regularly adopted his trademark crescendo within overtures.
CROOK Natural horns were of a fixed length and hence could play only certain notes within a particular key. By inserting metal tubes of varying lengths (crooks) into the mechanism, it was possible to change the notes produced by the horns and adapt them for various keys. By instructing the players to change crooks, the composer ensured that the horns could play throughout a composition. As the nineteenth century unfolded, the addition of a series of valves allowed horns to play a much broader range of notes, rendering superfluous the system of crooks.
DA CAPO ARIA An eighteenth-century aria form, in which the composer wrote a principal section (A) and a brief middle section to new poetry (B), then signaled a repeat of the entire principal section (A) da capo (from the top). In the eighteenth century, singers knew that in the reprise of a da capo aria they were expected to vary the notes of the melodic line.
DECASILLABO A line of Italian verse with ten syllables as a verso piano, with accents usually on the third, sixth, and ninth syllables. It was frequently used by Verdi in his Risorgimento choruses (such as “Va pensiero sull’ale dorate”) during the 1840s.
DÉCASYLLABE A line of French verse with eleven syllables. French verse is parsed without counting the final syllable if it is mute.
DIMINUENDO A gradual decrease in volume, indicated either by a musical sign or by the abbreviation dim.
DISPOSIZIONE SCENICA A printed book providing information about how an opera was staged at its premiere, including sets and properties, the movements on stage of the principal characters and the chorus, and so on. It was intended to guide other performances of the work. Introduced into Italy by Verdi after his experience in Paris with Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855), disposizioni sceniche became more and more complex as the century progressed. By 1893 Ricordi stopped publishing them.
DIVERTISSEMENT French operas were constructed so that once or twice during the course of an evening the action would stop and an entertainment would be presented, including several contrasting dance movements, together with choruses. In some cases the divertissement is cleverly integrated into the plot (in the third act of Guillaume Tell, for example, Austrian soldiers compel Swiss maidens to dance with them); in others the dances are wholly decorative. When Verdi revised his Macbeth (1847) for Paris (1865), he was compelled to introduce a divertissement (the descent of Hecate in the third act).
DOMINANT A technical term in music theory meaning the fifth degree of the major or minor scale; the major chord constructed on that degree (or sometimes the seventh chord, when an additional note is added); or a tonality built on that degree, now serving as a new, temporary tonic.
DUETTINO A short duet, usually in a single section and entirely lyrical. Often duettinos have a special accompaniment. In Zelmira (1822), for example, Rossini wrote a duettino accompanied only by English horn and harp.
DUETTO A multipartite musical number featuring two singers. Already with Rossini, duets were usually constructed in four sections: an initial confrontation (known to contemporaries as the primo tempo), a lyrical second section (cantabile), a transitional passage (tempo di mezzo), and a final quicker section (cabaletta). Verdi tended to abbreviate the opening section. His contemporary Abramo Basevi in 1859 referred to this abbreviated first section of a duet as a tempo d’attacco, probably a neologism.
ENDECASILLABO Line of Italian verse consisting of eleven syllables as a verso piano, with an accent on the tenth syllable. Librettists used endecasillabi largely in versi sciolti; the meter was not commonly employed for versi lirici.
EN TRAVESTI It was typical in Italian opera during the first decades of the nineteenth century for a female singer—usually a mezzo-soprano or a contralto—to sustain the role of a young, masculine hero, hence en travesti, or cross-dresssed. Parts such as Rossini’s Tancredi or Arsace (in Semiramide) would have been sung by castratos during the eighteenth century. While widespread in Italy, the use of a hero en travesti was rejected in France.
FARSA, PL. FARSE For several small or regional opera houses (the Teatro San Moisè in Venice, the Teatro Nuovo in Naples), composers were frequently asked to write shorter, one-act operas, known as farse. Rossini wrote five farse for the San Moisè between 1810 and 1813; Donizetti prepared numerous farse for the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro del Fondo of Naples during the 1820s and 1830s. Unless recast as two-act operas, these farse rarely circulated in nineteenth-century Italy.
FIGURED BASS In a secco recitative, the bass line was marked with a series of numbers or symbols indicating the chords that were to be played. The keyboard player and the cellist were expected to improvise an accompaniment using those chords.
GATHERINGS Verdi regularly constructed his autograph manuscripts as a series of nested bifolios, one inside the other, known also as “fascicles” or gatherings. Because Verdi frequently revisited his previously written operas, disturbances in the structure of the gatherings help us to understand where the composer made changes.
GRAN SCENA A gran scena is an elaborate aria with many different, and contrasting, lyrical sections (as many as four or five), together with connecting passages. There is almost never more than one such piece in an opera. It generally falls within the second act and is given to the most important member of the cast. (Tancredi, Ermione, and Anna in Maometto II are all graced with pieces that can be described as gran scenas.)
GREEN ROOM A backstage room in a theater, where performers can relax when they are neither on stage nor in their dressing rooms, where they can warm up, or where they can encounter guests.
HORNS, NATURAL AND MODERN Natural horns are constructed of a single tube; in order to change the available pitches it is necessary to introduce crooks to change the length of the tube. Modern horns use valves to effect the same kinds of modifications in a much simpler way. Nonetheless the sound of a natural horn is quite different from the sound of a modern horn, so that gains on the one hand are compromised on the other.
IMPRESARIO A key figure in the social system of Italian theaters during the first half of the nineteenth century, the impresario was expected to run the theater (managing its financial affairs, often with a subsidy from the government or the box holders), and choose the repertory and singers. The finest impresarios, Domenico Barbaja in Naples, Vienna, and Milan, and Alessandro Lanari in Florence, maintained their theaters both financially and artistically. In many cases, however, unsuccessful impresarios jumped ship, leaving the government or box holders with unpaid bills.
KEY In tonal music, compositions are said to be “in a key,” whether a major key (like C major) or a minor key (like A minor). The principal note of that scale or chord is known as the tonic. Composers use motion from one key to another as a way to underpin musi
cally dramatic happenings. While in most circumstances the individual musical number is the unit within which composers control the sequence of keys, there are many examples in which composers employ keys to give musical shape to a sequence of numbers or even to an entire opera.
LARGO (OF A FINALE) Most major ensembles, and particularly full-scale finales of the first act (for a two-act opera) or one of the internal acts (for operas in more than two acts), include a slow, lyric ensemble, often called generically a largo. Famous examples include “Freddo, ed immobile” from Il barbiere di Siviglia and the so-called Sextet from Lucia di Lamermoor (“Chi mi frena in tal momento”). Although Verdi often concluded finales without a final quicker movement (or stretta), he continued the practice of including a largo movement even in an opera as late as Otello (in the third of four acts).
LIBRETTO The dramatic text of an opera, normally in verse. The word is also used to specify the printed text distributed for nineteenth-century performances and generally reflecting the words of the opera as they were sung in a particular group of performances.
LOGGIONE Above the palchi in a theater was a section reserved for those of the most limited means, who would take seats in the upper reaches of the theater, where they could barely see what happened on stage. Most Italian opera companies continue to use theaters built in the nineteenth century (or rebuilt in the same mode), so that loggioni continue to exist.
LOGGIONISTI The regular denizens of a loggione are known as loggionisti. They believe themselves to be the most knowledgeable part of the theatrical audience, and they have no compunction about making their opinions known vociferously during the course of a performance.
MAESTRO AL CEMBALO In operas with secco recitative, the keyboard player who accompanies the recitative and realizes the figured bass. The composer himself was required to fulfill this function for three evenings when an opera had its premiere.
MANUSCRIPT COPY Operas normally circulated not in printed editions of the orchestral score, but in manuscript copies prepared in local copisterie. Many serious problems associated with operatic scores made available by modern publishers reflect the derivation of these scores from indifferent manuscript copies of the period, rather than from the composer’s own autograph manuscripts.
MESSA IN SCENA The Italian translation of mise-en-scène, referring to the staging of an opera, including its physical production.
MISE-EN-SCE`NE The French term refers to the broad range of issues involved in the staging of an opera: the sets, costumes, lighting, as well as the movements of the characters (the blocking) and of the chorus. The French began to publish this information already in the 1820s, in the livrets de mise-en-scène, with the aim of providing information about staging to provincial theaters and for future revivals.
MODULATE When a composer actually moves from one key to another during a section of music, he is said to modulate from the first key to the second. The term is not used when one piece or section of a piece concludes in one key and the next one begins in a new key.
NOVENARIO A line of Italian verse with nine syllables as a verso piano, with an accent on the eighth syllable. It was not considered a grateful poetic meter and was rarely used by librettists during the period covered by this book.
NUMBER OPERA Most Italian operas in the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century were composed as a series of musical units, referred to as “numbers,” often separated by recitative. The poetry of the musical numbers would be in versi lirici; the poetry of the recitative in versi sciolti. In their more adventurous moments, composers sought to create a more continuous dramaturgy, resulting in some of their most unusual forms (the terzettone in Rossini’s Maometto II of 1820 or the two scenes in act 1 of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera of 1858).
OBLONG FORMAT Paper that is wider than it is tall is said to be in oblong format. (Paper taller than it is wide is said to be in vertical format.) Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti generally used paper in oblong format. Although more measures could fit on each page, fewer staves were available.
OCTOSYLLABE A line of French verse with nine syllables. French verse is parsed without counting the final syllable if it is mute. This verse form, common in French opera, was the equivalent of the Italian novenario.
OLTREMONTANE A term used by Italians to refer to a person from the other side of the mountains (the Alps or Dolomites), hence a foreigner. Artists from abroad, such as Wagner, whose music introduced new tendencies into Italian opera, were frequently referred to as oltremontani.
OPERA BUFFA Comic opera. The term is carried over from eighteenth-century practice. Rossini and Donizetti still composed a considerable number of comic operas, but this kind of opera was losing its hold on the public. After Un giorno di regno (1840), Verdi did not compose another entirely comic opera until Falstaff (1893), although many of his operas have individual comic scenes.
OPERA SEMISERIA A sentimental opera, which seems to be moving toward a tragic ending but which, often at the last moment, ends happily. Many signals, including the frequent presence of one or more buffo characters (such as the poet Isidoro in Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran), suggest that these works are not to be read as tragic.
OPERA SERIA The eighteenth-century term opera seria, which normally refers to a certain kind of dramatic action associated with the librettos of Pietro Metastasio, is not altogether appropriate for the Romantic melodrama that dominated Italian theaters after the 1820s. Still, it was widely used at the time, and this book does not refrain from adopting it.
ORCHESTRAL SCORE A printed edition of an opera that contains not just the vocal lines, but all the orchestral parts in full. Conductors today direct operas from orchestral scores, and musicians study them in that format when such scores are available. Critical editions are always printed as orchestral scores, from which can be derived reductions for piano and voices (vocal scores).
ORNAMENTATION Composers throughout the first three decades of the nineteenth century—and, in some cases, beyond—expected singers to add ornamentation, variations, appoggiaturas, cadenzas, to the music the composers had written down. In that sense, the performance of an Italian opera became a collaboration between a composer and his performers. Providing tasteful and appropriate ornamentation, however, requires a thorough understanding of contemporary practice.
OTTONARIO A line of Italian verse with eight syllables as a verso piano, with an accent on the seventh syllable.
PALCHI In a standard nineteenth-century Italian theater, several rows of boxes, or palchi, in a horseshoe shape, surrounded the platea. The palchi were often owned by the nobility or by wealthy families. In many theaters box holders were financially responsible for theatrical activities. Some used their palchi not only to follow operatic performances, but also as a site for social interaction. In many cities, curtains could be drawn to ensure privacy.
PARLANTE Sections of the vocal line, particularly in comic opera, were often performed by declaiming on a single pitch, giving the effect of speaking in rhythm, hence the term parlante from parlare (to speak).
PARTICELLA In order to begin rehearsing a new opera, composers allowed vocal parts or particelle to be copied from their skeleton scores, even before they orchestrated an opera. These manuscripts, which were given to singers as soon as possible, included the complete vocal lines for that singer, indications of what other singers might be performing, and the instrumental bass line.
PERTICHINO Within an aria for one character or a duet between two characters, the dramatic situation sometimes required the presence of one or more additional singers, known as pertichini. They were not necessarily secondary characters. In La sonnambula, Elvino’s cavatina, or entrance aria, features a lengthy part for the prima donna, Amina, as a pertichino.
PLATEA In an Italian theater of the Ottocento, the platea is the area in front of the stage, on the same level as the orchestral players. Merchant classes, military personnel, and students would take their places in the platea, sometimes in individual seats, someti
mes on benches, sometimes on foot: practices changed over time and from city to city.
PRATICABILI Functional three-dimensional pieces of scenery (such as a staircase), on which actors could walk. They are to be distinguished from stabili (such as the representation of a massive piece of furniture), which were not intended to be walked upon by the actors.
PRIMO OTTOCENTO The period from about 1800 to 1840 in Italy, that is, before the advent of Verdi. When bel canto is used to describe a historical period, it tends to be equivalent to primo Ottocento.
PRIMO TEMPO The first section of a standard four-part duetto. In Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti the primo tempo consisted almost always of an elaborate confrontation between the two characters. Verdi often used a similar design, but there are also examples where he abbreviated this section to lead more directly to the second movement, the lyrical cantabile.
PSEUDO-CANON In constructing the cantabile movement of an ensemble, Rossini often employed a canonic structure. In a trio, for example, one character would sing a melody, which would pass to a second character and then to a third, while counterpoints would be developed for the other characters. Thus: Cadences involving all three singers would bring the cantabile to a close.
PUNTATURE Small adjustments made to a melodic line. They accommodate places where a specific voice is unable momentarily to cope with the requirements of the music, because the music is especially high, low, or florid, because it demands great breath control, and so on. Singers should avoid parts that they cannot perform without a large number of puntature.
QUINARIO A line of Italian verse with five syllables as a verso piano, with an accent on the fourth syllable.
QUINARIO DOPPIO A line of Italian verse consisting of two consecutive quinari. In each half of the verse there are accents on the fourth syllable. Since each half is parsed independently, a verse in quinari doppi can have as many as twelve syllables (two quinari sdruccioli) or as few as eight (two quinari tronchi).
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