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Popular success, the critics and fame: The early careers of Lucia di Lammermoor and Belisario

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2008

William Ashbrook
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Extract

We have long been accustomed to think in terms of opera ‘stars’, and thus it should not overstrain the imagination to extend the astronomical analogy when dealing with operatic history: to speak of comparisons in magnitude, of orbits, or of suns and their satellites. A particularly useful notion in interpreting with reasonable accuracy evidence surviving more than a century and a half is that of parallax: the apparent displacement of an object caused by an actual change in point of view. A shift caused by the passing of years can intro-duce comparable distortions. My case in point involves the early Italian careers of two operas: Lucia di Lammermoor, making its way much more slowly at first than Belisario, which took off auspiciously but soon fell behind in terms of number of productions and performances. I select these two operas because, in spite of individual differences, they share the same composer and librettist, the same impresario commissioned them and only a little more than four months separates their first performances. Lucia's premiére took place at the San Carlo, Naples, on 26 September 1835; Belisario's the following 4 February at La Fenice in Venice. They emerged, therefore, into much the same climate of sensibility.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 65 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 In compiling these and other statistics, I would like to acknowledge the help of Marcello Conati and his staff at CIRPM, located in Parma and directed by him. The Donizetti opera performed most frequently during this period was L'elisir d'amore.

2 La critica musicale e i critici (Turin, 1961), 454.Google Scholar

3 Angelis, Marcello De, Le carte dell'impresario (Florence, 1982), 210.Google Scholar

4 Il censore universale dei teatri (7 01 1837).Google Scholar

5 See Vallebona, G. B., Il teatro Carlo Felice: Cronistoria di un secolo: 1828–1927 (Genoa, 1928)Google Scholar and Frassoni, Edilio, Due secoli di lirica a Genova (Genoa, n. d. [1988]), I, 138.Google Scholar The Genoese premiére of Lucia (14 05 1836)Google Scholar was sung by Adelaide Toldi and the tenor Lorenzo Salvi.

6 Black, John, Donizetti's Operas in Naples: 1822–1848 (London, 1982), A.27–A.28.Google Scholar According to the figures cited by Black, , LuciaGoogle Scholar, from its introduction at Naples, through 1839Google Scholar, was given fifty-six complete performances and twenty partial ones. from Belisario's introduction to Naples in 06 1837 through 1839Google Scholar, it was given forty-six complete performances and five partial ones. Partial performances resulted when two or more ballets were sheduled to accompany the evening's opera.

7 Zavadini, Guido, Donizetti: Vita, Musiche e Epistolario (Bergamo, 1948), 410.Google Scholar During the carnival season of 1836–37 at the Apollo, Venice, Persiani as the singel prima donna appeared in: Lucia (23), Giuseppe Persiani's Ines de Castro (4), La sonnambula (3), Pia de' Tolome (14) amd l Puritani (3).

8 Published in Milan and edited by Luigi Prividali, this journal appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

9 In late September 1835 the Neapolitan papers were banned from mentioning theatrical activity, as we learn from Donizetti's letter to Giovanni Ricordi of 29 September: ‘Now it is forbidden that any paper speak of the theatres’ [‘Ora perfino proibito a tutti i giornali di parlar di Teatri’]. Zavadini (see n. 7), 385.

10 Il censore universale dei teatri (7 01 1837), 7.Google Scholar

11 Superchi's claim to fame rests on his presence as Don Carlo in the première cast of Verdi's Ernani.

12 Il pirata (30 12 1836), 211Google Scholar.

13 The scenery of Lanari's productions was usually much admired for its lavishness and attention to detail.

14 11 pirata (25 10 1836), 135–6.Google Scholar

15 II pirata (25 10 1836), 136.Google Scholar

16 Il pirata (15 11 1836), 152.Google Scholar

17 The Italian season at the Kärntnerthor started after Easter and ran through July. Donizetti would be the musical director of these seasons from 1842 until 1845.

18 Il censore universale dei teatri (12 04 1837), 115.Google Scholar

19 Although the ‘amatore’ is too tactful to mention Bellini's name in this context, it seems most likely that he refers to the ‘Suoni la tromba’ duet from I Puritani, which had had its Milanese prima on 26 12 1835Google Scholar, achieving a posthumous run of twenty-three performances in that ‘edition’.

20 Teatri, arti e letteratura (6 10 1836), 33–5.Google Scholar