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Mozart's Fiordiligi: Adriana Ferrarese del Bene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2008

Patricia Lewy Gidwitz
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Extract

Mozart's ability to craft music closely suited to his singers took a remarkable turn with the soprano Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. This singer's career, from sporadic prominence in serious opera to notoriety as a prima donna in Viennese opera buffa in the late 1780s, was capped by her association with Mozart and Da Ponte in Così fan tutte (1790). Certain reports notwithstanding, Ferrarese seems to have been far from a great artist; her successes were modest and she never before or after attained the artistic triumph she achieved in the Mozart–Da Ponte opera. Reviews and contemporary comments suggest that her comic and dramatic skills were uneven, her vocal equipment impressive but incomplete and her performances less than inspiring. Mozart's achievement was to transform a particular set of vocal skills and limitations into something of exceptional artistic value; Fiordiligi was fashioned out of the temperament, vocal style and dramatic abilities – and limitations – of his soprano.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , November 1996 , pp. 199 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Although critics in Italy and in London praised her virtuosity, Ferrarese's popular success did not ensure her a place with the more celebrated divas of her time. Her work in opera seria could evoke high praise; see Gazzetta toscana of 22 May 1784, 82.Google Scholar

2 Parke was writing of Ferrarese's debut as Cleonice in Cherubini's Demetrio. W. Thomas Parke, 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. Interspersed with Numerous Anecdotes, Musical, Histrionic, , 2 vols. (London, 1830), II, 49.Google ScholarA contemporary counter-claim states that ‘In the part of Cleonice Signora Ferrarese Bene [sic] made her first appearance, and from her execution, the dilettanti may fairly promise themselves every enjoyment that a musical ear can wish for. She was greatly applauded in her airs.’ From her debut on 10 January 1785, London Chronicle, 57 (Jan—June 1785), 38;Google Scholar in Petty, Frederick C., Italian Opera in London, 1760–1800 (Ann Arbor, 1972), 223. Approbation and counter-claim again form the critical response to Ferrarese's Euridice. An unidentified clipping from the collection at the New York Public Library of 16 May 1785 reports that ‘it is to [Tenducci that[ Ferrarese owes brilliance of execution, which distinguishes her performance of Eurydice. In this, both as to the acting and singing part, she is truly above all encomium. She was on the second representation of this opera, as she had been on the first, unanimously and most deservedly encored in the aria of the second act ‘Se a un casto petto’; Petty, 228n4. Yet she was taken to task for not being ‘equal to the part of Euridice’;Google Scholar

review cited in Raeburn, Christopher, ‘Ferraresi [sic] del Bene, Adriana’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, VI, 486.Google Scholar

3 Burney's remarks, along with W. T. Parke's (see n. 2), are the most authoritative indicators that Ferrarese was deficient as a prima seria. Burney, Charles, A General History of Music, ed. Mercer, Frank, II (New York, 1935/1957), 899–900. A report of the London production appeared in the Gazzetta toscana, 20 May 1786, 77: ‘We have received notice from London that the opera “Il Giulio Sabino”, given in that theatre, continues to achieve great success. Sig. Luigi Cherubini, our fellow citizen, is the author. The principal roles have been excellently executed by Sig. Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, who studied at the Conservatory in Venice, and by the tenor Sig. Matteo Babini, and have met with universal approbation.’ Burney's comments, at the very least, cast a shadow over this critic's enthusiasms.Google Scholar

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5 In Salieri's La scuola dei gelosi (which had been virtually recomposed for its London production), Ferrarese sang the substitute aria ‘Partirò dal caro sposo’ (Cimarosa). Apparendy the reviewer in the Morning Herald was provoked by the turn Ferrarese's career had taken as a result of the dazzling Mara. ‘[Ferrarese's] rondo in the second act’, he claimed, ‘gave a strong and convincing proof that she is able to dispute with the best performer in the serious line, and perhaps divide the Melpomenean wreath’. Petty (n.2), 235.Google Scholar

6 We have Lorenzo Da Ponte's much later corroborating remarks. Towards the end of her career, Ferrarese would once again glimpse the possibility of London. Da Ponte, asked to recruit Italian singers on behalf of the King's Theatre in 1798, recounts how he chanced to encounter her, but eventually rendered his judgement in the negative. Ponte, Da, Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's Librettist, trans. Abbott, Elizabeth (1929, rpt New York, 1959), 284.Google Scholar

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8 Bauer, Wilhelm and Deutsch, Otto Erich, eds., Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Kassel, 1962), II, 287. Letter of 19 February 1778, No. 426, lines 53–61. Mozart's disdain for singers who relied primarily on bravura is captured precisely in further comments about Gabrieli: ‘Whoever heard Gabrielli [sic] says, and will always say, that she was nothing more than a spinner of passaggi and roulades; and yet because she executed these in so individual a manner, she earned admiration — which, however, did not last beyond the fourth time she sang’.Google Scholar

9 For a detailed description of the technique of cantar di sbalzo, see Gidwitz, Patricia Lewy, ‘“Ich bin die erste Sängerin”: Vocal Profiles of Two Mozart Sopranos’, Early Music, 19/4 (1991), 575n10.Google ScholarFor a definition of volate, see Mancini, , Riflessioni, 194–6.Google Scholar

10 Nota e parola style is also characterised by its declaimed quality. See Gidwitz, Patricia Lewy, Vocal Profiles of Four Mozart Sopranos, Ph.D. diss. (University of California, Berkeley, 1991), 576n17.Google Scholar

11 This applies generally, except in moments of obvious parody. I am indebted to Mary Hunter for many points in this discussion. See Hunter, Mary, ‘Some Representations of opera seria in opera buffa’, this journal, 3 (1991), 89–108;Google Scholar and Hunter, , ‘The Fusion and Juxtaposition of Genres in opera buffa, 1770–1800: Anelli and Piccinni's Griselda, Music and Letters, 67 (1986), 363–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Bauer, and Deutsch, , II, 304. Letter of 28 February 1778, No. 431, lines 25–7.Google Scholar

13 The metaphor was at least a century old. For example, Sacrati in describing his composition for Michele Grasseschi in the role of Bellerofonte: ‘I made the part to his measure’ (‘Holli fato la parte a suo dosso’); see Rosand, Ellen, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre (Berkeley, 1991), 221n1.Google Scholar

14 The Vienna production score of Salieri's La cifra contains a key change apparently made for Ferrarese's benefit: a downward transposition is indicated for the second-act F major rondò, ‘Sola e mesta’, where a faint notation at the top of the folio of the recitative suggests that it was rendered in E flat (A.-Wn: Cod. 16.514 2). A similar downward transposition is indicated on the manuscript for the aria ‘L'impeto calma’ in Weigl's Il pazzo per forza (Kth 341).Google Scholar

15 See Petty, 232. Also in Michtner, Otto, Das alte Burgtheater als Opernbühne. Von der Einführung des deutschen Singspies (1778) bis zum Tod Kaiser Leopolds II. (1792), Theatergeschichte Österreichs, 3: Vienna, part 1 (Vienna, 1970), 273.Google Scholar A modern echo is heard in John Rice: ‘[Ferrarese] united exceptional virtuosity … with an ability and willingness to put these at the service of comic as well as dramatic effect’. In Rice, John A., ‘Emperor and Impresario: Leopold II and the Transformation of Viennese Musical Theater, 1790–1792’, Ph.D. diss. University of California, Berkeley, 1987), 85.Google Scholar

16 Petty, 232, reprint of the Morning Herald, 30 January 1786, on the occasion of Ferrarese's participation in Cherubini's reworking of Paisiello's Il marchese Tulipano. Rice has also referred to Ferrarese as an ‘opera seria star turned prima buffa’, a view not supported by the evidence of her career. The subsequent remark that ‘the Viennese court replaced Ferrarese with two singers, each replacing one side of Ferrarese's musical personality — the comic soprano Irene Tomeoni Dutillieu and the opera seria singer Cecilia Giuliani’ is, therefore, inaccurate (Rice, 257–8).Google Scholar

17 Casanova wrote from Venice to Count Vicenzo Smecchia: ‘The Son of the Roman Consul in Venice fled with two young girls from the Ospitale dei Mendicanti; they are Adriana La Ferrarese and Bianca Xacchetti’; Casanova, G., Briefwechsel (Berlin, 1922), letter of 11 January 1783, 155.Google Scholar

18 See Rice for the schedule of Ferrarese's appearances in Italy 1786–8, Appendix 4, 408.Google Scholar

19 Il filarmonico is mentioned in Da Ponte's ‘Copia di Memoria da me presentata alla Direzione il mese di Xbre dell'anno 1790’, reprinted in Michtner, Das Burgtheater, 441–3.

20 See Rice, 81 and 255ff.; also Heartz, Daniel, Mozart's Operas, ed., with contributing essays, by Bauman, Thomas (Berkeley, 1990),Google Scholar and Heartz, , ‘Constructing Le Nozze di Figaro’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 112 (1987), 77–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 The Viennese taste for farce was hardly satisfied by the opera as it was originally composed for Prague (1787), and Mozart willingly revised his score, composing a comic duet and the series of recitatives that comprise most of Act II scene 10 (1788). See Heartz, Daniel, ‘Goldoni, Don Giovanni, and the Dramma Giocoso’, in Mozart's Operas, 195–205.Google Scholar

22 The attribution on the published keyboard score by Artaria specifies Joseph Weigl as the composer of ‘Misera me! qual labirinto è questo’ … ‘Ah se un core all' infedele’, the substitute aria for Donna Florida in Guglielmi's La pastorella nobile. Artaria, Vienna [1790], Raccolta d'Arie No. 74.Google Scholar

23 A copy of the aria was printed by Artaria in 1790 in a transcription for voice and clavicembalo and appears with the designation ‘cantato dalla Sigra. Feraresi nell'Opera La Molinara, del Sig. Paisiello‘. From Catalogue of Printed Music, Presso Artaria Comp.: Vienna, [1795?]. The composer is not given. Also RISM C2454–5.Google Scholar

24 Three sources were used: the libretto Il/pazzo per forza./Dramma/giocoso per musica/in due atti./da rappresentarsi/nel teatro di corte/l'anno 1788, 641.432–A.M. 14/11/8, a manuscript full score Kth 341 M., and a contemporary performance score 19.382/AN. 65.A.275, all housed in the Musiksammlung in Vienna.Google Scholar

25 It is important to acknowledge that Weigl was capable of asserting his musical and dramatic talents over Ferrarese's demands. See, for example, the insert aria ‘Ah se un core all'infedele’ for Ferrarese as Donna Florida in the revival of Guglielmi's La pastorella nobile; Lewy Gidwitz, ‘Vocal Profiles’ (see n.10), chapter 4, 218ff.Google Scholar

26 ‘pezzi di gran serio, ma ad locum per la persona che li canta e la situazione in cui si trova, e sopra tutto perché composti per una celebre virtuosa (a) che ha saputo eseguir le perfettissimente ed ebbe grandissimo applauso’ [at bottom of ms. (a) Madame Ferraresi (sic)]. Autograph: A-Wn: 16. 514 (inserted on the folio preceding Act II). The première took place on 11 December 1789.Google Scholar

27 ‘Deh tergete, sì tergete’ is notated in C major, yet a faint hand indicates ‘in B’ at the top of the folio of the recitative. (There is a similar downward transposition indicated for the second-act F major rondo, where an extremely faint notation at the top of the folio of the recitative suggests that it was rendered in E flat.) In the case of ‘Deh tergete’, another interpretation is possible. Immediately following the recitative is an autograph page of a short score of the beginning of an aria in B flat major, ‘Venite, allora’. Like ‘Deh tergete’, it is written in 6/8 and might represent Salieri's further thoughts for this solo moment.Google Scholar

28 It has been suggested that Ferrarese was hired to replace Storace when, in 1787, Storace left for England. Even if the dates supported this claim — Ferrarese did not arrive until almost a full year after Storace's departure — Ferrarese was a very different talent. Rice, 85, and Michtner, Das Burgtheater, 273.Google Scholar

29 See Gidwitz, Lewy, ‘Vocal Profiles’, chapter 3.Google Scholar

30 Bauer, and Deutsch, , IV, 97. Letter of 19 August 1789, No. 1111, lines 6–8.Google Scholar

31 From the Rapport von Wien, cited in Michtner, Das Burgtheater, 272–3n 15.Google Scholar

32 In Michtner, Das Burgtheater, 272. A devastating judgement was delivered by Joseph II in a memo to Count Rosenberg of 26 July [1788]: ‘Autant que je me souviens de la Ferraresi, elle a une voix assés faible de Contrealt, sait très bien la musique mais est d'une laide figure’. In Thurn, Rudolf Payer von, Joseph II. als Theaterdirektor: Ungedruckte Briefe und Aktenstücke aus den Kinderjahren des Burgtheaters (Vienna/Leipzig, 1920), 80–1n18.Google Scholar

33 Memoirs, 185.Google Scholar

34 For the series of musical decisions related to this moment in Act IV, see Finscher, Ludwig, NMA II/5/16/1, Vonvort, VII–XXI;Google ScholarHeartz, , Mozart's Operas, 123 ff.;Google ScholarTyson, Alan, Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 114ff.;Google Scholar and Gidwitz, Lewy, Vocal Profiles, 239–52.Google Scholar

35 Bauer and Deutsch, IV, 83. Letter of 16 April 1789, No. 1094, lines 46–8. According to Deutsch, 339, Mozart accompanied Prince Lichnowsky to Cimarosa's, Il trame deluse. The date of this performance had to have been 15 April 1789. See Landmann, Ortrun, Die Dresdener italienische Oper zwischen Hasse und Weber. Ein Daten- und Quellenverzeichnis für die Jahre 1765–1817, 119;in Studien und Materialien zur Musikgeschichte Dresdens (Dresden: Sächsische Landesbibl., 1976), V. The records from the Burgtheater indicate that Ferrarese did not sing in any opera during this time. While there is no cast list for the Dresden production of Il trame deluse, it is not inconceivable that Ferrarese might have travelled there and sung in the opera with Allegranti.Google Scholar

36 Although Le nozze di Figaro bored him at the première (‘L'opéra m'ennuya‘), Zinzendorf commented at the revival that Ferrarese's rondò pleased the public (‘le rondeau de la Ferraresi plait toujours’); see Michtner, Das Burgtheater, 402n24. A cadenza for ‘Al desio di chi t'adora’ survives in Mozart's hand. It conforms to the vocal profile gleaned from the aria. See NMA II/5/16/2, 613 and Köchel, L. von, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeicbnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amade Mozarts (Leipzig, 6/1964 ed. Giegling, F., Weinmann, A. and Sievers, G., rpt 8/1983), 652.Google Scholar

37 Da Ponte offers a trenchant portrait of Ferrarese: ‘The lady had an impulsive, violent disposition, rather calculated to irritate the malevolent than to win and retain friendships’. Memoirs, 185. By his own admission, Da Ponte came to ‘detest’ Ferrarese, calling her that ‘virtuosa so deadly to me, with all her defects of personality and character’. Memoirs, 186, 192. In later years the librettist was able to exact his revenge. See n.6.Google Scholar

38 Da Ponte's parody of opera seria, L'ape musicale, was produced a season earlier (27 February 1789). Da Ponte had created the entertainment in large measure for Ferrarese. The music was constructed out of ‘favourite selections’ of the current season. Libretto: Cod. 641.421–A.M. 116 TB/7347a.Google ScholarThe first piece for Donna Zuccherina is ‘Dolce mi parve un di’ from Martin’s Cosa rara. This is one of the most famous stage songs of the eighteenth century and was created by Nancy Storace. Donna Zuccherina laments that such a song lacks any opportunity for virtuosity: ‘Povere virtuose, in che mani cadiamo! … Cosa val l'esser belle? Cosa val l'esser brave?’, 23. Later, the other characters argue against Zuccherina's wish to sing serious arias in an opera buffa. The sly reference in Così fan tutte that Fiordiligi is from Ferrara comes out of the same impulse.Google Scholar

39 Ponte, Da, Memoirs, 186.Google Scholar

40 See Hatten, Robert, ‘The Place of Intertextuality in Music Studies’, American Journal of Semiotics, 3/4 (1985), 69–82.Hatten uses the term ‘thematic intertextuality’ which ‘is understood in the broadest sense as those elements and processes … which are sufficiendy characterized as to be “marked” for the listener's attention’, 70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also Hunter, Mary, ‘Cost fan tutte et les conventions musicaux de son temps’, L'avant-scène opéra, 131–2 (05–06, 1990), 158–64.Google Scholar

41 As Mary Hunter has pointed out, presenting two contrasting temperaments between sisters is a convention of opera buffa, for example in Haydn's Il mondo della luna (1777), Paisiello's Gli astrologi immaginari (1779) and Salieri's La cifra (1789);Google Scholarsee Hunter, , “The Fusion and Juxtaposition of Genres’, 363–80.Google Scholar

42 For example, audiences would expect Fiordiligi to leave the stage after her first-act aria: exiting after a dramatic outpouring was a convention of all large-scale arias in serious opera. And so she does; but in keeping with the buffa genre of this opera, she is called back by the other players.Google Scholar

43 Act II scene 10. For remarkable insights into the uses of parody, see Gallarati, Paolo, ‘Music and Masks in Lorenzo Da Ponte's Mozartian Librettos’, this journal, 1 (1989), 225–47.Google Scholar

44 Act II scene 10.Google Scholar

45 In light of her role in Cosi, it seems particularly fitting that Ferrarese's debut role in Vienna was Diana in L'arbore di Diana, a collaboration of Da Ponte and Martin y Soler (13 October 1788). Here, Diana, a chaste goddess, finally surrenders to physical passion after many heroic struggles. Mary Hunter has written that Diana (in the original 1787 version) ‘undergoes a conversion from the rigid, old-fashioned, traditionally aristocratic postures and proud self-assertion and rage to a presumably more appealing submission to love … to a position level with mortals that permits, even encourages, sympathetic identification’; see Hunter, ‘Some Representations of opera seria in opera buffa’, 102.Google Scholar

46 For the definitive clarification of this notation see Will Crutchfield, , Journal of the Conductors's Guild, 10/3 and 4, (1989), 111–20.Google Scholar See also Crutchfield, , ‘Portamento’, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, III, 1070–1.Google Scholar