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‘Adapted to the modern stage’: La clemenza di Tito in London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2008

Emanuele Senici
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Expressions such as ‘author’, ‘work’, ‘text’ and ‘repertory’ are used constantly in writings about Italian opera; they stand for concepts that seem uncontroversial and unproblematic. However, these terms acquired the value we currently grant them only through a long process, one inextricably linked to the century-long formation of an Italian ‘operatic repertory’ between about 1750 and 1850. At the beginning of this period, a select number of literary texts received new musical clothing each time they were revived; by its end, the text of a successful opera could not be set to music again, because music and text were indissolubly linked in the audience's perception. There were exceptions, of course, and the process of change was gradual and differed according to genre: in the late eighteenth century some drammi giocosi had European careers that lasted as long as thirty years, much longer than the most successful drammi per musica. What is more, although we can speak of a ‘repertory’. with reference to the whole of Europe or to Italy, if we narrow the focusto a single city we may have to move into the nineteenth century to amass a body of works sufficiently large to merit the term. However, the fact that this process lasted for a century, far fromdiminishing its importance, is in one sense proof of its relevance. for an understanding of Italian opera that fully embraces its cultural, social and political context, ‘facts’ will indeed last as long as a century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 See Dahlhaus, Carl, ‘Drammaturgia dell'opera italiana’, in Storia dell'opera italiana, VI, Teorie e tecnicbe, immagini e fantasmi, ed. Bianconi, Lorenzo and Pestelli, Giorgio (Turin, 1988), 77–162, here 106.Google Scholar

2 For a brief but illuminating discussion of this issue in relation to eighteenth-century opera seria, see Strohm, Reinhard, ‘Towards an Understanding of Opera Seria’, in Strohm, Essays on Handel and Italian Opera (Cambridge, 1985), 93–105.Google Scholar

3 See Zoppelli, Luca, ‘Intorno a Rossini: Sondaggi sulla percezione della centralità del compositore’, in Gioacbino Rossini 1792–1992: II testo e la scena. Convegno Internationale di studi, Pesaro, 25–28 giugno 1992, ed. Fabbri, Paolo (Pesaro, 1994), 13–24.Google Scholar

4 Carl Maria von Weber opened his ‘Attempt to Express in Tabular Form the Organization of a German Opera Company in Dresden, with Short Explanatory Notes’ (1817) with the following remarks: ‘Italian opera has its fixed dramatic figures and vocal types, in opera seria and in opera buffa, and the same is true for French opera. A German opera company, in addition to its characteristic types, needs also a combination of those above, since works from both Italy and France are presented on the German stage.’Google Scholarvon Weber, Carl Maria, Sämtlicbe Scbriften, ed. Kaiser, Georg (Berlin-Leipzig, 1908), 39.Google ScholarIf the ‘Italian opera’ in question was by a ‘German composer’ nothing was left to identify the opera as Italian, not even the recitativo semplice, which was customarily turned into spoken dialogue.Google Scholar

5 Kunze, Stefan, Mozarts Opern (Stuttgart, 1984), 342.Google Scholar

6 Parke, William T., Musical Memoirs: Comprising an Account of the General State of Music in England, from the First Commemoration of Handel, in 1784, to the Year 1830 (London, 1830), II, 144.Google Scholar

7 Although she sang for another ten years in concert, the 1806 season was her last on the stage; see Zanetti, Emilia, ‘Billington, Elizabeth’, in Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, ed. d'Amico, Silvio (Rome, 1954–1968), II, 518;Google ScholarBaldwin, Olive and Wilson, Thelma, ‘Billington, Elizabeth’, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Sadie, Stanley (London, 1992), I, 473;Google Scholar for the King's Theatre repertory see Smith, William C., The Italian Opera and Contemporary Ballet in London, 1789–1820 (London, 1955).Google Scholar

8 See Macmillan, Dougald, Catalogue of the Larpent Plays in the Huntington library (San Marino, Ca., 1939), n. 1479.Google Scholar

9 See Deutsch, Otto Erich, ed., Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens (Kassel, 1961), 414.Google Scholar

10 The first mention of this I have been able to trace is found in a series of articles published in 1830 by the London musical periodical The Harmonicon with the title Chronicles of the Italian Opera in England (here p. 71);Google Scholar the first scholarly publication to accept it is Pohl, Carl Ferdinand, Mozart und Haydn in London, I: Mozart in London (Vienna, 1867), 145.Google Scholar

11 R.M. 22 h 12/13.Google Scholar

12 It is possible that these marks are by Buonaiuti, the adapter of the text. More generally, they prove a connection between the king's score and the King's Theatre production that cannot be drawn from any of the other Mozart manuscript scores present in the King's Library, though they are clearly of the same provenance as La clemenzia.Google Scholar

13 For a detailed study of the King's Theatre repertory in the late eighteenth century see Petty, Frederick C., Italian Opera in London, 1760–1800 (Ann Arbor, 1980).Google Scholar

14 See, for example, Weber, William, The Rise of Musical Classics in Eighteenth-Century England: A Study in Canon, Ritual and Ideology (Oxford, 1992).Google Scholar

15 For the early productions of La clemenza outside Britain, see Emanuele Senici, ‘I primi trent’. anni della Clemenza di Tito mozartiana (1791–1821)’, tesi di laurea (University of Pavia, 1993), with further bibliography.Google Scholar

16 The most recent contributions on Metastasian revisions in the late eighteenth century are Sergio Durante, ‘Mozart and the Idea of “Vera Opera”: A Study of La clemenza di Tito’, Ph.D.diss. (Harvard University, 1993), chapters 11–13;Google ScholarDurante, ‘Matters of Taste and Dramatic Pace in Metastasian Revisions for Florence (ca. 1785–1795)’, Proceedings of the Ricasoli Collection Inaugural Conference (University of Louisville, March 1989), forthcoming;Google ScholarGerhard, Anselm, ‘Republikanische Zustände. Der tragico fine in den Dramen Metastasios’, in Zwiscben Opera buffa und Melodramma. Italieniscbe Oper im 18. und 19. Jahrbundert, ed. Maehder, Jürgen and Stenzl, Jürg (Frankfurt am Main, 1994), 27–65.Google Scholar

17 Here and elsewhere I give the translation, printed in the London libretti, of the later (i.e. right-hand) version of the text.Google Scholar

18 Since no character is named for the third stanza, strictly speaking it should besung by Sesto alone, but the avoidance of gender-specificity and the model of the opera's other two duets strongly suggest a closing a due.Google Scholar

19 For example, the repetition of the chorus ‘Serbate, o Dei custodi’ in the middle of Act I scene 4.Google Scholar

20 In the first half of the century this duet was undoubtedly the most famous pieceof the opera in Britain: published with its original text at least twelve times, transcribed for all sorts of instruments, its music matched with a wide range of texts, from Byron's ‘Fare thee well! and if for ever’ to an unmistakably Victorian ‘Glorious Lord of boundless might’. Some Shelley scholars have suggested that his so-called Indian Serenade (‘I arise from dreams of thee’, also known as The Indian Girl's Song or Lines to an Indian Air) was originally conceived for this Mozartian melody.Google Scholar See Fenner, Theodore, Leigh Hunt and Opera Criticism. The ‘Examiner’ Years, 1808–1821 (Lawrence, Ka., 1972), 221, with further bibliography.Google Scholar

21 An important role in this dissemination of Mozart's music in England was certainly played by Storace, Nancy (with her brother Stephen), Michael Kelly, Thomas Attwood and Vincent Novello;Google Scholar see Hatch, Christopher, ‘The “Cockney” Writers and Mozart's Operas’, The Opera Quarterly, 3, 3 (1985), 45–58;CrossRefGoogle Scholarand Eisen, Cliff, ‘Dissemination of Mozart's Music, England’, in The Mozart Compendium: A Guide to Mozart's Life and Music, ed. Landon, H. C. Robbins (London, 1990), 190, 201–2.Google Scholar

22 While the text of the third quatrain is modified, the stage direction is not, soin the following short recitative Annio says he sees Sesto approaching even though, according to the stage direction, Sesto has been present since the beginning of the scene.Google Scholar

23 ‘LA CLEMENZA DI TITO,/OR,/THE CLEMENCY OF TITUS:/A SERIOUS OPERA,/IN/Two Acts:/Curtailed from/METASTASIO./AS REPRESENTED AT/THE KING'S THEATRE/IN THE/HAY-MARKET./The music entirely by/MOZART,/ Withoutany addition whatever./LONDON:/PRINTED BY J.BRETTELL, MARSHALL-STREET,/GOLDEN-SQUARE;/AND SOLD AT THE OPERA-HOUSE,/And no where else./1812./(Price Two Shillings, and no more.)’.Google Scholar

24 The first part of Paer's piece is sung to the Metastasian text of Mozart's last aria for Tito; for a discussion of these pieces and their sources, see Senici, ‘Primi trent'anni’, chapters 4 and 6; Weigl's is transcribed in Durante, ‘Mozart and the Idea of “Vera Opera” ‘, app. 3.Google Scholar

25 The difference between prime and seconde parti is clear and unquestioned: Crivelli's Tito was an absolute novelty for London, as the review of the Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror (04 1818) makes clear: ‘The character of Titus was supported by Signor Crivelli, and it certainly could not have been placed inbetter hands. We never before have seen this part represented with so good effect; for what reason we know not, it has frequently been entrusted to an inferior performer; its importance in the drama is certainly not inferior to that of Sesto, he gave to it all the dignity and energy which both the poet and the composer intended.’Google Scholar

26 Richard, , Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, Musical Reminiscences of anOld Amateur, for Fifty Years, from 1773 to 1823 (London, 1824), 127.Google Scholar

27 LA CLEMENZA DI TITO;/THE CLEMENCY OF THUS/A SERIOUS OPERA, IN TWO ACTS./CURTAILED FROM METASTASIO,/AS REPRESENTED AT/THE KING'S THEATRE/IN THE HAY-MARKET/MAY 1, 1821./THE MUSSIC [sic]/ BY MOZART.//LONDON:/PRINTED FOR JOHN EBERS/BOOKSELLER TO HIS MAJESTY/OLD BOND-STREET./And Soldalso at the King's Theatre./Price 2s. 6d.Google Scholar

28 The Life of Haydn, in a series of letters written at Vienna. Followed by the Life of Mozart, with observations on Metastasio, and on the present state of music in France and Italy. Translated from the French […] with notes, by the author of the Sacred Melodies [i.e., Gardiner, William], published in London by John Murray; the sentence quoted is the very last of the book.Google Scholar

29 The Anecdotes sur W. C Mozart by C. Fr. Cramer (a translation of Friedrich Rochlitz's Anekdoten aus Mozarts Leben, published in several instalments in the first year [1798–1799] of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung) and the Notice biographique sur Jean-Chtysostome-Wolfgang-Theophile Mozart by J.-F. Winckler (closely modelled on the pages dedicated to Mozart in Friedrich von Schlichtegroll's Nekrolog auf das Jabr 1791 [Gotha, 1793]) were published in Paris in 1801, and both were the unacknowledged source of Stendhal's Life; Charles Burney's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio had appeared in three volumes in 1796.Google Scholar

30 The mistake is found for the first time in André's, Johann Anton edition of Mozart's autograph catalogue, published in 1805 and 1829:Google Scholar‘ridotta à vera opera dal Sig.re Marroli’. W. A. Mozart's thematischer Catalog, so wie er solchen vom 9. Februar 1784 bis zum 15. November 1791 eigenbändig geschrieben hat, nebst einem erläuternden Vorbericht von A. André,2nd edn (Offenbach, 1829), 62.Google Scholar

31 See Hatch, , ‘ “Cockney” Writers’, 45–7.Google Scholar

32 Hunt, Leigh, Musical Evenings, or Selections, Vocal and Instrumental, ed. Cheney, David. R. (Columbia, Mo., 1964).Google Scholar

33 Wagner, Richard, Prose Works, trans. Ellis, William Ashton (London, 1892–1899), II, 37.Google Scholar

34 Vincent, and Novello, Mary, A Mozart Pilgrimage: Being the Travel Diaries of Vincent and Mary Novello in the Year 1829, ed. Marignano, Nerina Medici di and Hughes, Rosemary (London, 1955), 336; quoted in Hatch, ‘ “Cockney” Writers’, 46.Google Scholar

35 The text is transcribed from ‘LA CLEMENZA DI TITO/OPERA SER1A IN DUE ATTI/LA/CLEMENCE DE TITUS/OPERA SERIEUX EN DEUX ACTES,/Representé, pour la première fois, sur le/Théatre Royal Italien, salle Favart, le 18. Mai/1816./Prix, 1 fr. 50 c./PARIS,/AU THEATRE ROYAL ITALIEN./De l'lmprimerie de HOCQUET, rue de Faubourg Montmartre, n. 4./1816’. A complete manuscript score of La clemenza, probably of French provenance and now in Milan, contains this ‘aria e coro con corno obbligato del M[aest]ro Fer[dinand]o Paer’ (I-Mc, Part.Tr.ms. 261, ff. 76r–104v).Google Scholar

36 Of Tito's three arias, ‘Del più sublime soglio’ is in dacapo form, ‘Ah, se fosse intorno al trono’ is a sonata without development and ‘Se all'impero’ a full sonata. What casts these three arias together is the triple return at the end of text, melodic material and key heard at the beginning; by contrast, the rondò type is textually and musically open-ended.Google Scholar For a discussion of forms in Mozart's arias see Webster, James, ‘The Analysis of Mozart's Arias’, in Mozart Studies, ed. Eisen, Cliff (Oxford, 1991), 101–99, here 114–22.Google Scholar

37 See Seidel, Wilhelm, ‘Seneca-Corneille-Mozart. Ideen- und Gattungsgeschichtliches zu La clemenza di Tito’, in Musik in Antike und Neuzeit, ed. Albrecht, Michael von and Schubert, Werner (Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 109–28.Google Scholar

38 Ebers, John, Seven Years of the King's Theatre (London, 1828), 58–9.Google Scholar

39 Edgcumbe, , Musical Reminiscences, 120; La clemenz's first and second man are not two sopranos (Sesto and Annio), but, rather, soprano and tenor (Sesto and Tito). In any case, at the King's Theatre, apart from Camporese in 1817 and 1821 and Griglietti as Annio in 1812, Sesto and Annio were never sopranos, but tenors or basses. Edgcumbe might have usedBartolo's words from Rossini's Barbiere, ‘la musica ai miei tempi era altra cosa. Quando per esempio cantava Caffariello quell'aria portentosa’, which in the production currently in the repertory of the English National Opera are translated as ‘when Iwas young, Opera was Opera and Men were Sopranos!’ The public at the Coliseum—just a short walk away from the spot were the King's Theatre stood — usually laughs uproariously.Google Scholar

40 Hogarth, George, Memoirs of the Musical Drama (London, 1838), 376.Google Scholar

41 Così, although also by Da Ponte, presented other problems, principally its ‘immorality’, for which Da Ponte himself was often blamed.Google Scholar

42 Financial Times, 24 04 1974;Google Scholar quoted in Rice, John A., W. A. Mozart: ‘La clemenza di Tito’, Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge, 1991), 142.Google Scholar

43 ‘An [eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Italian opera] score could be adapted to the changing conditions governing various theatres without violating its meaning.’Google ScholarDahlhaus, Carl, Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. Robinson, J. Bradford (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), 10.Google Scholar