The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera PDF
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Page iii The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera Edited By Roger Parker Oxford New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Page iv Disclaimer: This book contains characters with diacritics. When the characters can be represented using the ISO 88591 character set (http://www.w3.org/TR/images/latin1.gif), netLibrary will represent them as they appear in the original text, and most computers will be able to show the full characters correctly. In order to keep the text searchable and readable on most computers, characters with diacritics that are not part of the ISO 88591 list will be represented without their diacritical marks. Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bongkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 1994 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents, Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above This book is sols subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Oxford Illustrated history of opera / edited by Roger Parker (Oxford illustrated histories) Includes bibliographical references and index 1 Opera 2 Opera—Pictorial works I. Parker, Roger, 1951 II Series ML1700.095 1994 782.103—dc20 9324898 ISBN 0198162820 (cloth acidfree paper) 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Datacapture by Puretech Corporation, Pondicherry, India Typeset by Oxuniprint, Oxford University Press Printed in Great Britain on acidfree paper by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome, Somerset Front endpaper Theatre in the Royal Palace of Naples during a performance of Guiseppe de Majo's serenata Il sogno d'Olimpta in 1747, engraving by G Vast after V Re (Tobin Collection, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas) Back endpaper Puccini's Turandot at the Verona arena, 1991 (Arena di Verona, photo Gianfranco Fainello) Page v Contents List of Colour Plates vii Foreword xi Roger Parker 1. The Seventeenth Century 1 Tim Carter 2. The Eighteenth Century: Serious Opera 47 Thomas Bauman 3. The Eighteenth Century: Comic Opera 84 Thomas Bauman 4. The Nineteenth Century: France 122 David Charlton 5. The Nineteenth Century: Italy 169 William Ashbrook 6. The Nineteenth Century: Germany 206 Barry Millington 7. Russian, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian Opera to 1900 237 John Tyrrell 8. The Twentieth Century 1945 279 Paul Griffiths 9. The Twentieth Century: 1945 to the Present Day 317 Paul Griffith Page vi 10. The Staging of Opera 350 Roger Savage 11. Opera Singers 421 William Ashbrook 12. Opera as a Social Occasion 450 John Rosselli Further Reading 483 Chronology 493 Mary Ann Smart Notes on the Contributors 503 Acknowledgements of Sources 505 Index 506 Page vii List of Colour Plates Carousel at the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 28 February 1656, by Filippo facing page Gagliardi and Filippo Lauri 32 Museo di Roma; photo: Scala, Florence Louis XIV as Apollo in La Ballet de la nuit, 1653, gouache Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Design by Stefano della Bella for the costume of Hypermnestra in Cavalli's opera 33 Hipermestra, Florence, 12 June 1658 Trustees of the British Museum (Department of Prints and Drawings), London Theatre in the Palazzo di San Giovanni, Turin, with the inaugural performance of Pagliardi's Lisimaco, 1681, watercolour Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin Group portrait, c.1750, of Farinelli, Castellini and Metastasio, by Jacopo 64 Amigoni National Gallery of Victoria (Felton Bequest) Melbourne, Australia Set design by Giorgio Fuentes for a production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Frankfurt, 1799 Theatcrmuseum, University of Cologne Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in a production at the Stockholm Royal Opera in 65 1773, painted by Pehr Hilleström the elder Kungliga Teatern, Stockholm Portrait (1738) of the castrato Carlo Scalzi in the role of Sirbace in Porpora's Rosbale, painting by Charles Joseph Flipart Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut (The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund) Backstage preparations at the Weimar Court Theatre for Mozart's opera 112 112 Die Zauberflöte, watercolour by Georg Melchior Krauss Schloss Tiefurt, Weimar; photo: Stiftung Weimarer Klassik Scene at the Foire St Germain, miniature, 1763, by Nicholas van Blarenberghe Wallace Collection, London Page viii The first London production of Mozart's Don Giovanni with Giuseppe 113 Ambrogietti in the title role, and Giuseppe Naldi as Leporello: painting, 1819, by John Partridge Private Collection The Apotheosis of French Heroes, 1802, by AnneLouis Girodet 144 Musée du Louvre, Paris; photo: Réunion des Musées Nationaux Halévy's La Juive, lithograph after Charles Séchan's design for the original 145 production at the Paris Opéra, 1835 Bibliothèque et Musée de l'Opéra; photo: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Mephistopheles appears before Faust, 18278, by Eugène Delacroix Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London Design by Alessandro Sanquirico for the finale of Bellini's Norma, at La Scala, 192 Milan, 1831 Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan; photo: G. Costa, Milan Interior of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, c.1830 Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan; photo: G. Costa, Milan Finale of Giovanni Pacini's L'ultimo giorno di Pompei, designed by Sanquirico for the 1827 La Scala production Trustees of the British Museum (Department of Prints and Drawings), London Commemorative fan with a portrait of Rossini and music and characters from his 193 operas Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan Design by Carlo Songa for Puccini's Madama Butterfly, La Scala, Milan, 1904, with (inset) a costume design by Palanti for CioCioSan Ricordi Historical Archive, Milan The Wolf's Glen scene from Weber's Der Freischütz, lithograph after Wilhelm 224 Holdermann's design for the 1822 Weimar production Kunstsammlungen, Weimar A Man and a Woman Contemplating the Moon, 1824, by Caspar David Friedrich Nationalgalerie / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Preussischer Kulturbesitzi photo: J. Anders Set by Gotthold and Max Brückner after Josef Hoffmann's design for Wagner's 225 Siegfried (Bayreuth, 1876), with Carl Emil Doepler's design for Siegfried's costume Nationalarchiv der RichardWagnerStiftung, Bayreuth The Farewell of Hunyadi László, by Gyula Benczúr 256 Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest Page ix Set design by Ivan Bilibin for Act 2 in the original production of Rimsky 257 Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, Moscow, 1909 AllUnion Pushkin Museum, St Petersburg; photo: Aurora Art Publishers The Hungarian verbunkos, watercolour (c.1820) by Jószef Bikkessy (bottom right) Néprajzi Múzeum Ethnologiai Adattara, Budapest Designs by Alfred Roller for the original production of Richard Strauss's opera 288 Der Rosenkavalier Dresden, 1911 Marina Henderson Gallery, London Designs by Alexandre Benois for Stravinsky's The Nightingale in the production 289 by Diaghilev's company at the Paris Opéra, 1914 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; © SPADEM/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 1994 Carl Toms's design for the costume of Oberon in Britten's opera A Midsummer 320 Night's Dream, Aldeburgh, 1960 Carl Toms / The Herbert Press Ltd, London Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise at the Opéra Bastille, Paris, 1992 Sipa Press, Paris; photo: Kleinefenn The Pied Piper scene in the first production of Stockhausen's Montag aus Licht, 321 La Scala, Milan, 1988 Archivio Fotografico Teatro alla Scala, Milan; photo: Lelli and Masotti Inauguration of the Teatro Regio, Turin, 1740, with a performance of Feo's 352 Arsace, painting by Domenico Olivero Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Turin Interior of an Italian theatre (possibly the Teatro Argentina) seen from backstage 353 during a rehearsal, anonymous watercolour Bihlioteca e Raccolta Teatrale del Burcardo, Rome; photo: O. Savio Wagner's Der fliegende Hollãnder, Heinrich Dö11's design for the 1864 revival 432 at the Munich court theatre Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, Munich Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer; Ewald Dülberg's design for the 1929 Kroll Oper production in Berlin Theatermuseum, University of Cologne Giovanni David in Pacini's Gli Arabi nelle Gallie, painting, 1830, by Francesco 433 Hayez (top left) Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan; photo: G. Costa Scene from the original production of Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Vienna, 1843 (bottom left) Opera Rata Archives, London Page x Jenny Lind as Marie in a London production of Donizetti's La Fille du réiment 433 (top right) Anthony N. Gasson, London Jean de Reszke as Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (bottom right) Anthony N. Gasson, London Auditorium of the Markgräfliches Opernhaus, Bayreuth (17458) painted by 464 Gustav Bauernfeind, 1879 Deutsches Theatermuseum, Munich; photo: K. Broszat 'A Benefit', handcoloured aquatint, 1826 Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London The Bregenz Festival production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, 19856, 465 465 directed by Jérôme Savary Bizet's Carmen at the Earl's Court arena in 1989 Photo: Clive Barda, Performing Arts Library, London Prefatory Note The editor and publishers wish to thank the contributors and everyone connected with the publication of this volume, in particular: Elisabeth Agate, Illustrations Editor, for her tireless search for outoftheway pictures and her outstanding contribution to the volume as a whole; Sue Tipping for the design; and Paul Cleal for the typography. Page xi Foreword Roger Parker Words about and around opera have never been lacking, if only for the simple reason that, of all events involving music, opera seems to produce the most abundant quantities of text. It is typically a collaborative enterprise, the product of composers, poets, scene designers, and interpreters of all kinds, and this fact—particularly in the last two centuries—has often given rise to a great deal of written communication between its various creators, a welldocumented, sometimes even public genesis. Opera starts, of course, from a literary text, a libretto, itself usually drawn from earlier texts, and frequently centring on archetypal characters who go back even further, and who sometimes boast enormous literatures of their own. The operatic event is usually a grand public occasion, generating rich veins of public response: a reception history second to none. And finally, the peculiarly hybrid nature of opera, its strange amalgam of various systems of artistic communication, has continued to pose contentious aesthetic questions, causing a kind of ageold polemical war that may shift its fields of conflict but will never be finally resolved. In the context of this mass of words, it may at first seem strange that there have been relatively few histories of opera. In the later eighteenth century, the first great general histories of music (the most famous of which is Charles Burney's A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present) of course included much about opera; inevitably so, as vocal music was still regarded as the mainstream, the essential line of musical development, and opera as its grandest manifestation. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the focus of historiography had shifted: in a great flowering of narrative biography, individual composers were now seen as shaping musical history, rather than merely illustrating its progress, and—with the notable exception of Wagner, whose biography and literary writings have spawned one of the largest bibliographies of modern times—these composers were mostly seen as preeminently the creators of 'pure' instrumental music. Although one or two fine operatic histories have appeared in our own century, the best known in English being Donald Jay Grout's Short History of Opera (first pub
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