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Son et lumière: Verdi, Attila, and the sunrise over the lagoon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2010

Helen M. Greenwald
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Abstract

This essay discusses the famous sunrise in the prologue of Attila in the context of early nineteenth-century theatrical lighting and musical conventions, and relates it to Félicien David's Le Désert, Haydn's The Creation and Rossini's Guillaume Tell, as well as Verdi's Alzira and Jérusalem.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 267 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 See Conati, Marcello, La bottega della musica: Verdi e La fenice (Milan, 1983), 143Google Scholar . All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated.

2 All score references are to Giuseppe Verdi, Attila, ed. Helen M. Greenwald, Edizione Critica delle Opere di Giuseppe Verdi [WGV], Series I/9 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Milan: Ricordi, forthcoming). Hereafter, Attila.

3 Conati, 159. Verdi's original letter is lost, but Lanari quoted it in his own letter of 29 September 1845 to the Presidente agli Spettaccoli of La Fenice, Giuseppe Berti. Translation in Gossett, Philip, Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera (Chicago, 2006), 464CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

4 Muir, Edward, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, 1981), 68–71Google Scholar , here 68.

5 In his letter of 12 April 1845, Verdi refers to a ‘fourth character called “Gualtiero”’. See Conati, 143, and Werner, , Attila, König der Hunnen (Berlin, 1808)Google Scholar , Act V, scene 1, 212–15. See also Rita Unfer Lukoschik, ‘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, ed. Daniela Goldin Folena and Wolfgang Osthoff (Laaber, 2002), 71–90, esp. 82–6.

6 Original in Solera, Temistocle, Attila: Dramma Lirico in un Prologo e tre Atti (Venice, c. 1846), 9Google Scholar (Hereafter VE46), and Attila.

7 See, for example, Guillaume Tell and the fourth movement of the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, No. 6. Verdi's storm may be found in VE46, 9–10, and Attila, No. 5, bars 1–80; the sunrise unfolds 81–127.

8 VE46, 10, and Attila, 164.

9 VE46, 10–11, and Attila, 245.

10 Gazzetta musicale di Milano, 5/12 (22 March 1846), 94–5, and Tommaso Locatelli, ‘Bolletino degli spettacoli di quaresima – Gran Teatro la Fenice – Attila, dramma lirico di Temisocle Solera; messo in musica dal M. Verdi’, Gazzetta di Venezia (18 March 1846), reprinted in L'Appendice della Gazzetta di Venezia, prose scelte di Tommaso Locatelli, 16 vols. (Venice, 1837–80), IX, 225–6.

11 Noted also by Gossett, Divas and Scholars, 464–5, and Pierluigi Petrobelli, ‘“Infine io non me ne intendo, ma mi pare che ..”: passato e presente dell visione scenica verdiana’, in ‘Sorgete! Ombre serene!’: L'Aspetto visivo dello spettacolo verdiano (Parma, 1996), 17–26, here 18.

12 See Capra, Marco, ‘L’Illuminazione sulla scena verdiana ovvero l'arco voltaico non acceca la luna?’ in La realizzazione scenica dello spettacolo verdiano: Atti del congresso internazionale di studi, Parma, Teatro Regio-Conservatorio di musica ‘A. Boito,’ 28–30 settembre 1994, ed. Petrobelli, Pierluigi and Seta, Fabrizio Della (Parma, 1996), 230–264Google Scholar , here 241. La Fenice burned down in 1836, however, and gas lighting for the purposes of stage illumination (as opposed to house lighting) was not reinstituted until 1844. See Baker, Evan, ‘Verdi's Operas and Giuseppe Bertoja's Designs at the Gran Teatro la Fenice, Venice’, in Opera in Context: Essays on Historical Staging from the Late Renaissance to the Time of Puccini, ed. Radice, Mark A. (Portland, 1998), 209–240Google Scholar , esp. 219.

13 Ferrero, Mercedes Viale, ‘Stage and Set’, in Opera on Stage, The History of Italian Opera, Part II/Systems, vol. 5, ed. Bianconi, Lorenzo and Pestelli, Giorgio, trans. Singleton, Kate (Chicago and London, 2002), 1–124Google Scholar , here 97.

14 See L'Italia musicale: Giornale artistico-letterario, 1/15 (13 October 1847), 113–15. The reproduction of Bertoja's sketch and the stage plan appear on 117.

15 L'Italia musicale, 113.

16 L'Italia musicale, 113. Modern transcription in Capra, ‘L’Illuminazione', 241–2.

17 The first complete performance in Milan took place on 31 May 1845 at the Società del Giardino all' Accademia, and was reviewed by Alberto Mazzucato in the Gazzetta musicale di Milano, 4/23 (8 June 1845), 97–8.

18 See Gazzetta musicale di Milano, 5/12 (22 March 1846), 94–5, here 95. ‘Alcuni volevano scoprievi una imitazione del levare del sole nel Deserto di David … altri ricordano Haydn … Certo è che il pezzo è assolutamente bello per artifizio.’

19 Basevi, Abramo, Studio sulle opere di Giuseppe Verdi (Florence, 1859), 92–93Google Scholar .

20 Verdi gave the sketch to Ricordi in 1879. See Verdi: A Documentary Study, comp., ed. and trans. William Weaver (London, [1977?]), 11–14.

21 All score references are to Haydn, Joseph, The Creation in Full Score (New York, 1990)Google Scholar . The Introduction appears on 1–7.

22 Haydn, 67–9.

23 See also Wolfgang Osthoff, ‘Caratteri, poseia, passione – Zur Musik von Verdis Attila’, in Verdi und die deutsche Literatur / Verdi e la letteratura tedesca, 91–116.

24 Basevi, Studio, 93.

25 Bernardoni, Virgilio, ‘Bonifazio Asioli e l’istruzione musicale nella Milano napoleonica’, Nuova Rivista Italiana, 28/4 (1994), 575–593Google Scholar , here 587.

26 Asioli, Bonifazio, Il maestro di composizione, ossia Seguito al trattato d'armonia (Milan, 1832 [1836])Google Scholar .

27 Marvin, Roberta Montemorra, ‘Verdi Learns to Compose: The Writings of Bonifazio Asioli’, Studi musicali, 36/2 (2007), 469–490Google Scholar , here 483.

28 ‘l’immersa luce che innonda l' ampiezza dei Cieli.' Asioli, Il maestro di composizione, Article VI, music example 16, p. 77, ‘Il sorgere del sole [the sunrise]’.

29 See, for example, Gatti, Carlo, Verdi (Milan, 1951), 213Google Scholar and 825; Abbiati, Franco, Giuseppe Verdi, 4 vols. (Milan, 1959), I, 612Google Scholar ; Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, 3 vols. (New York, 1973), I, 252Google Scholar ; Osthoff, ‘Caratteri, poesia, passione’, 93; Kimbell, David R. B., Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism (Cambridge, 1981), 361Google Scholar ; Petrobelli, ‘“Infine io non me ne intendo”’, 18; and Ralph P. Locke, Gossett, Divas and Scholars, 464.

30 Music, Musicians, and the Saint-Simonians (Chicago, 1986), 361n52.

31 David, Feliciano, Il Deserto, vocal score, words by Colin, M. A., trans. Solera, Temistocle (Milan, [1845])Google Scholar .

32 Solera to Escudier, 21 June 1845 in La France Musicale, 8/26 (29 June 1845), 205.

33 ‘Ce sont des étoiles qui s’ensuivent l'une après l'autre à l'apparition du crépuscule, les roses de l'aurore se répendent visiblement sur la fraîche toile de l'horizon, et les nuages lointains se dorent sous les reflets du soleil, qui laisse échapper de sa vaste sphère des torrens de lumière’.

34 ‘T.’, review in Gazzetta musicale di Milano, 6/1 (3 January 1847), 1–2, here 2: ‘Per ciò che spetta quest’ultimo pezzo abbiamo udito tacciare il Verdi di troppo patente imitazione di David: questa è una delle critiche senza fondamento che si gittano all'aria col fumo del cigaro nei caffè: l'imitazione consisterebbe nel cominciare dal piano per salire al forte: ed il Verdi, per non imitare David, non poteva già far levare il Sole incominciando dal forte per discendere al piano.’

35 See below.

36 ‘Une Visite à Verdi – Un Ténor en Plein Vent’, in La France musicale, 8/21 (25 May 1845), 164, and trans. in Marcello Conati, Encounters with Verdi, trans. Richard Stokes (Ithaca and New York, 1984), 7–8. See also Muzio's letter of 26 May 1845 in Luigi Agostino Garibaldi, ed., Giuseppe Verdi nelle Lettere di Emanuele Muzio ad Antonio Barezzi (Milan, 1931), 202–3.

37 Garibaldi, 204.

38 Garibaldi, 209.

39 All references to the full score are to Le Désert / Ode symphonie / en Trois Parties / Poésie / de / Mr A. Colin / Musique / de / Félicien David (Paris: Heugel, 188–). The quotation is from the ‘3e Partie (Le lever de Soleil)’, 91–4, here 91.

40 See Rossini, Gioachino, Guillaume Tell, Opera en Quatre Actes, 4 vols., ed. Elizabeth, M.Bartlet, C., Edizione Critica delle Opere di Gioachino Rossini, I/39, (Pesaro, 1992), IV, 1465–1483Google Scholar .

41 See Muzio's letter to Barezzi of 6 August 1845 in Garibaldi, Giuseppe Verdi, 214, and also Gossett, Divas and Scholars, 383–6, and Gerhard, Anselm, The Urbanization of Opera: Music Theater in Paris in the Nineteenth Century, trans. Whittall, Mary (Chicago, 1998), 63–121Google Scholar .

42 Newark, Cormac, ‘Guillaume Tell’, in The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, ed. Senici, Emanuele (Cambridge, 2004), 175–185CrossRefGoogle Scholar , here 175.

43 Le Désert, 2e Partie, ‘La liberté au désert’, 74–9.

44 The title on the upper-right side of the picture, ‘Canto del Muezzim’, refers to the solo vocal piece immediately following the sunrise movement. David, , Il DesertoGoogle Scholar .

45 Mozart's Die Zauberflöte is the obvious example.

46 Garibaldi, Giuseppe Verdi, 210.

47 Stefano Castelvecchi, ‘Introduction’ to Giuseppe Verdi, Alzira, Tragedia lirica in tre atti, ed. Stefano Castelvecchi and Jonathan Cheskin, Edizione Critica delle Opere di Giuseppe Verdi [WGV], Series I/9 Opere Teatrali, vol. 8 (Chicago, London and Milan, 1994), xv and n. 44.

48 See Verdi's letter to Giovanni Ricordi 12 July 1845, in Conati, ‘L’Alzira di Verdi attraverso le lettere e le cronache', in Tre saggi su ‘Macbeth’, ‘Alzira’, ‘Manon e Werther’, ed. Claudio del Monte (Parma, 1980), 78, and quoted by Castelvecchi in ‘Introduction’ to Alzira, xv, and n. 46.

49 Gradenwitz, Peter, ‘Félicien David (1810–1876) and French Romantic Orientalism’, Musical Quarterly, 62 (1976), 471–506CrossRefGoogle Scholar , here 502–3.

50 Alzira, 45–6.

51 The stage directions read: ‘Vast plain, irrigated by the Rima [river]: the east is filled with majestic clouds, reddened by the rays of the rising sun.’ See Alzira, 43.

52 Verdi, Jérusalem: Grand opera en quatre actes, vocal score ([Paris]: Bureau Central de Musique [1849]), 12–13.

53 Budden (Operas of Verdi, I, 345–46), however, also attributes the Jérusalem interlude to David's influence on Verdi.

54 See ‘Verdi's “Otello” and “Simon Boccanegra” (revised version)’ in Letters and Documents, 2 vols., ed. and trans. Hans Busch (Oxford, 1988), II, 439.

55 Bergman, Gösta M., Lighting in the Theatre (Stockholm and Totowa, NJ, 1977), 225–232Google Scholar .

56 Bergman, 227.

57 Mungen, Anno, ‘BilderMusik’: Panoramen, Tableaux vivants und Lichtbilder als multimediale Darstellungsformen in Theater- und Musikaufführungen vom 19. bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert, 2 vols. (Remscheid, 2006), I, 212Google Scholar n305.

58 See Mungen, ‘BilderMusik’, I, 215.

59 Mungen reproduces thirty-two bars of Titl's autograph manuscript in ‘BilderMusik’, I, 432–6.

60 Samuels, Maurice, The Spectacular Past: Popular History and the Novel in Nineteenth-Century France (Ithaca and London, 2004), 36Google Scholar .

61 Molmenti, Pompeo G., Venice: Its Individual Growth from the Earliest Beginnings to the Fall of the Republic, 6 vols., trans. Brown, Horatio F. (Chicago, 1906), III, 91Google Scholar , and cited by Muir, Civic Ritual, 61. See also, Lukoschik, ‘L’Attila di Zacharias Werner', 86.