I have spent some weeks addicted to these two books. Two issues
arose. The first was: could lightning strike twice with both Puccini
and Catalani being born in the same town? Given the proliferation
of opera composers in Italy, this was more than a possibility
depending on how obscure the other composer might be … but in
the same generation? They were more or less contemporaries. Puccini
was born only four years later than Catalani. The odds against
become somewhat lengthy with all of these conditions. Then add
the intimate connection with Toscanini and the odds go wayward.
It was the great conductor who championed Puccini and conducted
the premiere of his unfinished final opera,
Turandot. Further,
in a well documented account, reproduced as a postscript to Book
2, comes Toscanini’s eulogy. There he states that not only did
he name his daughter after Catalani’s opera
La Wally, but
also goes on to assert that Catalani “
was the most simpatico
of the composers - refined – he wasn’t as crude as the others,
Puccini, Mascagni, Giordano, or even Franchetti.”
It was the latter comment that took me to my extensive music library
- too extensive in terms of shelf-space my wife contends. There
are twelve books on Verdi. He spoke fondly of Catalani following
his premature death in 1893. There’s a clutch on Puccini, even
more on Mozart and many others. Bizet and Beethoven are strongly
represented. My speciality of
bel canto also features,
but there’s nothing on the verismo composers. Whilst I know
La
Wally I knew little of the contemporary scene in Italy at
the time those composers lived. I had some details on Mascagni
and Leoncavallo, for example. These are of the type that sometimes
used to be found in the detailed essays accompanying flagship
CD releases and now seem only to appear in those by
Opera Rara.
This is not to forget Budden’s chapter, titled a
Problem of
Identity (
Italian Opera 1870-1890) in
The Operas
of Verdi. Vol. 3 (Cassell 1981. pp. 263-292) and from which
a quotation is used in Book 1. Beyond Verdi and his life in Milan,
my library keeps me well versed in the operatic and social milieu
of the first decades of the primo ottocento via Philip Gossett’s
Divas and Scholars (Chicago, 2006) and those Opera Rara
issues. But there’s much less about the later decades and the
turn of the nineteenth century. An important subsidiary virtue
for me, of these two books lies not only in their introduction
to Catalani but also in the manner and detail in which they fill
much of that gap. This is mainly achieved by editor David Chandler
via the detailed, extensive and scholarly introductory chapters
to both books. Things are also significantly aided by the explanatory
footnotes appended, by him, throughout the various chapters of
the two volumes.
Reading these books one comes to know the composer quite intimately.
The reader feels for his frustration at his physical limitations
consequent on suffering from tuberculosis with its frequent debilitating
set-backs. As well as his other operas such as
La Falce
(1875), with its libretto by Boito, using his standard pseudonym
of Tobio Gorrio, there are
Dejanice (1883),
Edmea
(1886) and
Lorely (1889/90 revision of
Elda 1880)
to go alongside
La Wally (1891). He was a member of the
Scapigliateura, or tousle-haired - the group of young bloods
whose criticism of the state of Italian opera so got up Verdi’s
nose and which he took as a personal attack. Boito’s connection
with that group was initially a problem when Ricordi broached
the latter’s name at the time the great Italian master was considering
a re-write of
Simon Boccanegra (1880-81). Catalani and
others such as Boito also met at Countess Maffei’s salon in Milan.
She was a significant confidante of Verdi who wrote her many letters.
She played some part in bringing Ricordi, Boito and Verdi together
in the manoeuvring that brought
Otello to fruition.
More than many of his contemporaries, Catalani was diverse in
his compositions. There are for example widely admired string
quartets and piano music. After tortuous consideration because
of his poor health, Catalani was appointed Director of the Milan
Conservatory, by Royal Decree, on 11 April 1888. He succeeded
Ponchielli in that prestigious post. Illica, Giacosa, Toscanini,
G Ricordi, Boito, Leoncavallo and Teresa Stolz - great soprano
and friend of Verdi - attended his funeral. In a letter Verdi
castigated the lack of a eulogy from Milan or its Conservatory.
Ricordi filled that gap.
These two books are of considerable value to those interested
in or curious about Catalani’s music and milieu. They contain
details of that which is on record. Chandler’s chapter in Book
2 titled
Catalani on CD gives credit to the Bongiovanni
label in this respect. It also offers the hope of a general DVD
release of
La Wally derived from a performance in Buenos
Aires in June 2010.
The ready availability in English of these first-hand accounts
of Catalani and his life, alongside Chandler’s evident immersion
in the life and works fills many important gaps in the composer’s
literature and period. At their very modest cost I have no hesitation
in commending them to opera-lovers in particular. They will also
appeal to students of the musical context in Italy during Catalani’s
all-too-brief lifetime.
There we have it: two complementary, well-presented and researched
books, modestly priced. They offer details and insights into a
composer who, if he had lived a normal span, would undoubtedly
have set Italian opera on an exciting path.
Robert J Farr
Two complementary, well-presented and researched books, modestly
priced.
