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Verdi's Attila: a study in chiaroscuro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2010

ANSELM GERHARD
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Abstract

This study untangles the complex literary, historical, political and theatrical web of Verdi, Solera, Zacharias Werner, Madame De Staël and Giuseppe Mazzini, and relates it to Verdi's use of light and dark imagery in Werner's play.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 279 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 [Anonymous], La Cour de Valentinien en 494, in Revue de Paris, 21 (1830), 193–214; see also Wismer, Emil, Der Einfluss des deutschen Romantikers Zacharias Werner in Frankreich. Die Beziehungen des Dichters zu Madame de Staël (1928; rpt. Bern, 1968), 38–39Google Scholar .

2 A[dolphe] Peschier, , Histoire de la littérature allemande, depuis les temps les plus reculés, jusqu'à nos jours, précédée d'un parallèle entre la France et l'Allemagne, et suivie d'une table analytique des matières (Paris and Geneva, 1836), II, 361–363Google Scholar .

3 The letter, first published in 1955, can be consulted in the Biblioteca comunale in Trent. Quoted in Tonelli, Marta Marri, Andrea Maffei e il giovane Verdi (Riva del Garda, 1999), 102Google Scholar .

4 Undated letter, previously dated to 1844, that was clearly written between 3 and 5 April 1845. Quoted in Conati, Marcello, La bottega della musica. Verdi e la Fenice (Milan, 1983), 145Google Scholar . For dating, see p. 152.

5 Conati, 143.

6 Lukoschik, Rita Unfer, ‘L’Attila di Zacharias Werner ed il libretto per Verdi', in Verdi und die deutsche Literatur / Verdi e la letteratura tedesca. Tagung im Centro tedesco di studi veneziani Venedig 20.–21. November 1997. Bericht, ed. Folena, Daniella Goldin and Osthoff, Wolfgang (Laaber, 2002), 71–89Google Scholar , here 80–1.

7 Lukoschik, 80.

8 See Engelhardt, Markus, Verdi und andere. ‘Un giorno di regno’, ‘Ernani, ‘Attila’, ‘Il corsaro’ in Mehrfachvertonungen (Parma, 1992), 174–258Google Scholar .

9 Jean-François Candoni, ‘De la tragédie romantique allemande à l’opéra italien: “Attila” de Verdi, entre discours patriotique et internationalisation de l'opéra', in A travers l'Opéra. Parcours anthropologiques et transferts dramaturgiques sur la scène théâtrale européenne du XVIIIe au XXe siècle. Études en l'honneur de Gilles de Van, ed. Siro Ferrone and Andrea Fabiano (Paris, 2007), 241–61, here 259–60.

10 See, among others, Stuckert, Franz, Das Drama Zacharias Werners. Entwicklung und literargeschichtliche Stellung (Frankfurt am Main, 1926)Google Scholar ; Koziełek, Gerard, Das dramatische Werk Zacharias Werners (Wrocław, 1967)Google Scholar ; Ulrich Beuth, ‘Romantisches Schauspiel. Untersuchungen zum dramatischen Werk Zacharias Werners’, Diss. phil. (Munich, 1979).

11 Werner, Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias, Attila, König der Hunnen. Eine romantische Tragödie in fünf Akten (Berlin, 1808), [3]Google Scholar .

12 Werner, 10 and 12.

13 Werner, 36 (I).

14 Werner, 47 (I).

15 Werner, 129–130 (III, 2).

16 Werner, 253 (V, 3).

17 Werner, [9] (I): ‘Die … Stadt Aquileja in Flammen’; 159 (IV, 1): ‘Morgendämmerung … Mehrere Wachtfeuer … Ganz im Hintergrunde das Druidenchor … angezündete Fakkeln emporhaltend’; 208 (V, 1): ‘Waldgegend in mondheller Nacht. In der Ferne das Hunnenlager festlich erleuchtet’; 219 (V, 2): ‘Klösterliche Zelle zu Rom. Seitwärts ein Tisch, worauf … eine brennende Lampe’; 227 (V, 3): ‘Das Innere von Attila's prächtig mit Kerzen geschmücktem Zelte. In der Mitte des Hintergrundes … ein kleine[r] Altare, auf welchem eine Opferflamme brennt … Chor der Druiden und Jungfrauen, welche Fackeln tragen.’

18 Werner, 195–6 (IV, 3).

19 Letter from Verdi to Vincenzo Luccardi from 11 February 1846, in I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi, ed. Gaetano Cesari and Alessandro Luzio (Milan, 1913), 441; see Wolfgang Osthoff, ‘Caratteri, poesia, passione – zur Musik von Verdis “Attila”’, in Verdi und die deutsche Literatur, ed. Folena and Osthoff, 91–116, here 98–100.

20 Malisch, Kurt, ‘Attila’, in Verdi Handbuch, ed. Gerhard, Anselm and Schweikert, Uwe (Stuttgart and Weimar, 2001), 342–347CrossRefGoogle Scholar , here 346; see also Ross, Peter, ‘Verdi: Attila (1846)’, in Pipers Enzyklopädie des Musiktheaters, ed. Dahlhaus, Carl and Döhring, Sieghart (Munich and Zurich, 1997), VI, 408–411Google Scholar .

21 See the article by Helen Greenwald in the present issue of this journal.

22 See the letter of the president of the Teatro La Fenice to Alessandro Lanari dated 18 August 1845 in Conati, La bottega della musica, 156.

23 See Osthoff, ‘Caratteri, poesia, passione’, 96.

24 Osthoff, 116.

25 See Parker, Roger, ‘Arpa d’or dei fatidici vati': The Verdian Patriotic Chorus in the 1840s (Parma, 1997), 96Google Scholar .

26 See John Rosselli, ‘Risposta a Giuliano Procacci’, in Verdi 2001. Atti del convegno internazionale / Proceedings of the International Conference Parma – New York – New Haven, 24 gennaio–1° febbraio 2001 / 24 January–1 February 2001, ed. Fabrizio Della Seta, Roberta Montemorra Marvin and Marco Marica (Florence, 2003), 223–6, here 225.

27 See the two contributions, both wordy as well as ignorant of relevant research, by Porter, James W., ‘Verdi's “Attila”, an Ethnomusicological Analysis’, in Attila: The Man and His Image, ed. Bäuml, Franz H. and Birnbaum, Marianna D[aisy] (Budapest, 1993), 45–54Google Scholar , here 47; and Rainer Schönhaar, ‘Universalgedanke und nationale Identität / Zwei Stadien politischer Romantik auf der (Musik)Bühne am Beispiel “Attila” von Zacharias Werners Drama bis zu Verdis Oper’, in Politische Mythen und nationale Identitäten im (Musik-)Theater. Vorträge und Gespräche des Salzburger Symposions 2001, ed. Peter Csobádi, Gernot Gruber, Jürgen Kühnel, Ulrich Müller, Oswald Panagl and Franz Viktor Spechler (Anif and Salzburg, 2003), 511–44, here 537; also Candoni, ‘De la Tragédie romantique allemande à l’opéra italien', 255 and 257.

28 See Verdi's letter to Temistocle Solera dated 25 December 1845, in I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi, ed. Cesari and Luzio, 440.

29 See Solera's letter to Verdi dated 12 January 1846, in Carteggi verdiani, ed. Alessandro Luzio (Rome, 1947), 245.

30 See the article by Douglas Ipson in this volume.

31 Malisch, ‘Attila’, 344.

32 For the motive of the belligerent virgin in Verdi, see also Smart, Mary Ann, ‘Proud, Indomitable, Irascible: Allegories of nation in “Attila” and “Les Vêpres siciliennes”’, in Verdi's Middle Period (1849–1859): Source Studies, Analyses, and Performance Practice, ed. Chusid, Martin (Chicago, 1997), 227–256Google Scholar , here 232–9.

33 [Giuseppe Mazzini], Cenni su Werner, in [Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias] Werner, Il ventiquattro febbraio, tragedia. Traduzione di A[gostino] R[uffini] (Saggio sulla letteratura europea degli ultimi cinquant'anni. Letteratura alemanna) (Brussels, 1838) (reproduction accessible on http://books.google.com), 123–65, here 144; also in Mazzini, Giuseppe, Scritti editi ed inediti (Imola, 1910), VII, 203–236Google Scholar , here 224.

34 An updated, republished version in the collection L'Alemagna letteraria (Milan: Per gli editori dello spettatore industriale, 1844), 215–33, brings, however, only Werner's drama alone without Mazzini's discussion; see Manghi, Alda, Mazzini e Werner, in Convivium. Rivista di lettere, filosofia e storia, Raccolta nuova 6 (1952), 873–895Google Scholar , here 881.

35 See Gerhard, Anselm, Die Verstädterung der Oper. Paris und das Musiktheater des 19. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart and Weimar, 1992), 210–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; trans. as The Urbanization of Opera: Music Theater in Paris in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 1998), 238–46.

36 Un Italiano [Giuseppe Mazzini], ‘Della fatalità considerata com’elemento drammatico', in [Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias] Werner, Il ventiquattro febbraio, tragedia, trans. A[gostino] R[uffini] (Brussels, 1838) (reproduction accessible on http://books.google.com), 1–42, here 5; also in Mazzini, Scritti, VIII, 167–200, here 172.

37 Mazzini, 36–7, or 196.

38 Mazzini, 38–9, or 198. The quote reads in its original German: ‘In deiner Brust sind Deines Schicksals Sterne’ (II, 6, verse 962); in Andrea Maffei's translation first published in 1845 (!) as: ‘Il vero / Astro del tuo destino è nel tuo petto’.

39 See Gerhard, Anselm, ‘Das im “Gedenken” uns “dünkende” Bild eines Ungegenwärtigen. Erinnern und Entäußern in der Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts’, in Resonanzen. Vom Erinnern in der Musik, ed. Dorschel, Andreas (Vienna, 2007), 134–148Google Scholar , here 140–4.

40 Dahlhaus, Carl, Richard Wagners Musikdramen (Velber, 1971), 21Google Scholar or (Zurich and Schwäbisch Hall, 1985), 22.

41 Ross, ‘Verdi: Attila (1846)’, 409.

42 Verdi's letter to Léon Escudier dated 2 (?) September 1845, in I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi, ed. Cesari and Luzio, 439; for dating, see Conati, La bottega della musica, 176–7, n. 30.

43 See Pierluigi Petrobelli, ‘D’autres regards sur le théâtre musical', in A travers l'opéra, ed. Ferrone and Fabiano, 263–76, here 266.