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Political Allegory or Multimedia Extravaganza? A Historical Reconstruction of the Opera Company of Boston's Intolleranza
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Extract
In the fall of 1993, I had the pleasure of interviewing the world-renowned Czech scenographer Josef Svoboda. We spent some time talking about his career and his longevity as a designer, but it was his response to a question about a specific production that prompted further investigation. When asked about his first full-scale U.S. design for The Opera Company of Boston's 1965 production of Luigi Nono's Intolleranza, the already animated Svoboda exploded. His eyes sparkled as he recalled “the biggest, most complicated and best production I have ever done. It has not been surpassed since.” This was an intriguing comment from a man with over 700 designs to his credit in a career that has spanned six decades, and who has worked in virtually every major opera house and theatre in both Europe and America.
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References
1. Nono, Luigi, “The Historical Reality of Music Today,” The Score 27 (July 1960): 45Google Scholar.
2. Personal Interview with Josef Svoboda. Prague, Czech Republic. 15 September 1993 (subsequently noted as “Svoboda Interview”).
3. Burian, Jarka, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1971), 103–106Google Scholar.
4. For additional sources not included in this article, see Eaton, Quaintance, “Far Out Boston,” Opera News, 1 May 1965, 34Google Scholar; Glickman, Meter, Review of Intolleranza, Musical Courier, June 1961, 16Google Scholar; Harold Rogers, “Nono's U.S. Premiere,” The Christian Science Monitor, 25 February 1965; and Michael Steinberg, “Nono's Intolleranza Debuts Despite Delays,” The Boston Globe, 22 February 1965, 1+19.
5. Due to the time constraints of mounting such a complicated piece, the original plan to present the work on Friday and Sunday night was altered to a matinee and an evening performance on Sunday, 21 February 1965.
6. After a hiatus of fourteen years, the opera was staged by the Hamburg State Opera in 1985. The most recent production was staged by the Stuttgart State Opera in 1992. It should be noted, however, that very little of Nono's work is performed with any regularity.
7. Saltzman, Eric, Twentieth-Century Music: An Introduction (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974), 180Google Scholar.
8. The New York Times, 29 January 1965, 23Google Scholar. The article states that, when asked if Nono was denied a visa because he was a Communist, the spokesperson for the State Department refused to comment. It is interesting to note that, despite his Czechoslovakian citizenship, Svoboda had no problem securing an entrance visa. This point is conditioned by the fact that Svoboda was a coming from a Communist country while Nono was a Communist coming from a non-Communist country.
9. The New York Times, 4 February 1965, 24.
10. Phone interview with Sarah Caldwell on 16 February 1996 (subsequently noted as “Caldwell Interview”).
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. As a composer, Nono was not only confrontational artistically and politically but publicly as well. When feuding openly in the press with fellow Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti, Nono refused to allow Intolleranza to be performed on the same bill as Menotti's The Counsul. Menotti's composition allegedly was referred to as an anti-Communist opera, thereby prompting Nono to pull his work from the Florence Maggio Musical of 1972. For more information, see Galatopouls, Stelios, “Intolerant Nono.” Music and Musicians (February 1972): 10–11Google Scholar.
14. To whom Intolleranza is dedicated.
15. Caldwell Interview.
16. Helm, Everett, “Bedlam in Venice,” The New York Times, 7 May 1961, XIIGoogle Scholar.
17. “Nono? Yes and No,” Newsweek, 8 March 1965, 84.
18. After battling the U.S. state department, the financial and technical demands of the work, and Luigi Nono himself, it remains a tribute to her talent as a producer that the Boston premiere took place at all.
19. “Nono? Yes and No,” 84.
20. Burian, Jarka, “A Selection of Josef Svoboda's Production Work, 1965–1970.” Theatre Design and Technology (February 1970): 6Google Scholar.
21. For a more complete overview of E. F. Burian's work, see Burian's, Jarka “Czechoslovakian Stage Design and Scenography, 1914–1938: A Survey - Part II,” Theatre Design and Technology (Fall 1975): 23–32Google Scholar; and Ceray's, Frantisek “Lighting that Creates the Scene and Lighting as an Actor,” Innovations in Stage Design, ed. Hodge, Francis (Austin: Published by American Society for Theatre Research and Theatre Library Association, 1972): 126–145Google Scholar.
22. Burian, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, 30. Italics mine.
23. Burian, “Czechoslovakian Stage Design and Scenography, 1914–1938: A Survey - Part 11,” 31.
24. Burian, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, 125.
25. Burian, Jarka, “Josef Svoboda: Theatre Artist in the Age of Science,” Educational Theatre Journal 22 (May 1970): 125–126CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26. Svoboda, Josef, “Laterna Magika,” The Drama Review 11 (Fall 1966): 142Google Scholar.
27. Burian, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, 83.
28. Ibid., 86.
29. This statement reflects Svoboda's work with the Laterna Magika technique at the time of his design for the Boston production. He subsequently used this technique to great effect for a production of The Last Ones in 1966 and several works created specifically for the Prague theatre named Laterna Magika, of which Svoboda is one of the founders and current artistic director: Night Rehearsal (1981), Vivisection (1987), and Odysseus (1987). For more information on these last three productions, see Burian, Jarka, “Josef Svoboda and Laterna Magika's Latest Productions,” Theatre Design and Technology 24 (Winter 1988): 17–27Google Scholar.
30. Svoboda Interview.
31. “Rioters Disrupt Opera Premiere,” The New York Times, 14 April 1961, 22.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Schönberg, Harold C., “Opera: Luigi Nono's Intolleranza I960,” The New York Times, 22 February 1965, 15Google Scholar.
35. Steinberg, Michael, “Red Composer Nono Bites Hub Hospitality,” The Boston Globe, 26 May 1965, 13Google Scholar.
36. Sills, Beverly, Bubbles: A Self Portrait (New York: Warner Books, 1976), 100Google Scholar.
37. “Swatches & Splashes,” Time, 5 March 1965, 66.
38. Caldwell Interview.
39. Ibid. While Caldwell points out that the authorship of this letter is disputable, her claim seems to be wholly based on a private correspondence from Nono; I was unable to find any published documentation to support this claim. Despite the possible renunciation of the letter, the repercussions stemming from Nono's alleged attack were played out in The Boston Globe, complete with replies by Sills, music critic Michael Steinberg, and editorial writer Otto Zausmer. Curiously, Caldwell chose not to reply.
40. Burian, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, 103.
41. Svoboda, Josef, The Secret of Theatrical Space, ed. and trans. Burian, Jarka (New York: Applause Theatre Books, 1993), 79Google Scholar. Although Svoboda writes of the accessibility of this equipment, the Rinacita letter attacked the Boston production for only using four of nine available projectors. The letter further stated that Svoboda “worked like mad saving a little of the situation, intervening in the direction of the work.” For more information on the response to these accusations, see Michael Steinberg's comments surrounding the reprint of the Rinacita letter; Beverly Sills, “A Red-Head Sets the Record Straight,” The Boston Globe, 29 May 1965, 4; and Steinberg, Michael, “Nono's Letter: Dishonest, Vain, Silly, But What is the Real Issue?,” The Boston Globe, 30 May 1965, 16Google Scholar.
42. Burian, Jarka, “Josef Svoboda's American University Tour 1972,” Theatre Design and Technology (May 1973): 11Google Scholar.
43. Ibid.
44. Although Nono's arrival was delayed, Svoboda recalled in 1993 that he had two weeks to experiment with the equipment in the theatre (Svoboda Interview). This statement refutes the Rinacita letter's claim that “Lights and projectors could be tried out only in the last three days, with quarrels taking place continuously over either their use or their positions.” For more information, see The Boston Globe, 26 May 1965, 13.
45. Svoboda Interview.
46. Ibid. Taking advantage of all images at his disposal, Svoboda projected the image of the production's lone picket into the dramatic space.
47. Caldwell Interview.
48. Svoboda, The Secret of Theatrical Space, 79. This sequence of images was, as Caldwell remembered, carefully rehearsed and planned by a committee consisting of herself, Svoboda, and members of the WGBH staff (Caldwell Interview).
49. “Swatches & Splashes,” 66.
50. Svoboda Interview. While Svoboda recalls an imagistic paradise, Caldwell points out that even the selection and processing of these images was not immune to the miscommunication that haunted the production. Svoboda dealt with a Russian photographer at MIT who was responsible for transferring the chosen images into slide form. According to Caldwell, “They thought they communicated with one another, but they didn't. So, slide after slide came over not the way Svoboda wanted it” (Caldwell Interview).
51. Caldwell Interview.
52. Sills, 101. While Sills recalls this confrontation between Nono and the cast with regard to the selection of images, it was Caldwell and Svoboda who were most responsible for the choice of projected material.
53. In fact, when Nono staged the piece at Nürnberg in 1970 and then again at Nancy in 1971, he changed the text and the visual material to reflect specific national issues.
54. Caldwell Interview.
55. Svoboda Interview.
56. Caldwell Interview.
57. Hamblin, Dora Jane, “She Puts the Oomph in the Opera,” Life, 5 March 1965, 78Google Scholar. While this use of the barbed wire remained in the final production, Caldwell recalls that Svoboda had designed a light-box in which two pieces of barbed wire were hung, one vertically, the other horizontally—essentially creating a cross. Despite the fact that the cross image was unintentional, Caldwell recalled that “Nono just went berserk when he saw this. He said we were trying to make it a cheap Christian something or other.” At that point the light-box was struck from the production (Caldwell Interview).
58. Svoboda, The Secret of Theatrical Space, 79.
59. Nono, Luigi, “Appunti per un teatro musicla attuale,” La Rassegna Musicale 31 (1961): 419Google Scholar. Translation by Gilbert, Janet Monteith, “Dialectic Music: An Analysis of Luigi Nono's Intolleranza,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign, 1979, 16Google Scholar.
60. Svoboda Interview.
61. “Nono? Yes and No,” 84.
62. Steinberg, “Red Composer Nono Bites Hub Hospitality,” 13.
63. Perhaps a miscommunication that, like the Brecht text, can be attributed to an unfamiliar translation.
64. “Swatches & Splashes,” 66.
65. Kelly, Kevin, “Intolleranza Set Makes Audience Into Camera…That Absorbs All The Horror,” The Boston Globe, 22 February 1965, 21Google Scholar.
66. Burian, The Scenography of Josef Svoboda, 105–6.
67. Miranda, William D., “Review of Intolleranza,” Opera (September 1965): 639Google Scholar.
68. Schonberg, 15.