Like his
primo ottocento predecessors, Rossini and Donizetti,
Verdi wrote little orchestral music, instead concentrating on opera.
Several of these had substantial overtures that often featured, and
still do occasionally, in orchestral concerts. Orchestral works that
he wrote before his opera career took off he ordered to be destroyed.
In fact a few pieces escaped this drastic cull.
Whilst Verdi’s operatic overtures generally used and developed themes
from within the opera concerned, the ballet music he composed did
not. There are a couple of exceptions, including that from
Aida
and these are really integral to the plot (CHs.10-12). The ballet
music for the operas he composed for Paris therefore give the only
indication that exists of his skills as an orchestral composer pure
and simple. Except for the
Aida excerpts all the other ballet
music here is related to the Paris productions where an act three
ballet was
de rigueur. I list below the contents in the order
they are played in this collection.
Verdi’s first venture to compose for Paris was at rather short notice
and followed on from his only opera for London,
I Masnadieri.
This was premiered on 22 July 1847; it was his eleventh opera. In
Paris, whilst seeing plenty of Giuseppe Strepponi, he agreed on a
work for the Théâtre Académie Impériale de Musique, Paris, (The Opéra).
This was to be premiered in November 1847. With its high musical standards
and generous fees, composition for The Opéra was considered the ultimate
aspiration for all nineteenth century Italian composers.
Given the lack of time, Verdi followed the example of his great predecessors
Rossini and Donizetti in adapting an existing work. The work chosen
was
I Lombardi alla prima crocciata of 1843, his fourth opera.
This adaptation became,
Jérusalem, premiered on 22 November.
The French librettists, Royer and Väez, produced a libretto that was
no mere translation of the Italian
I Lombardi. Although the
shape of the plot and the historical period of the crusades remained
the same, the Italian crusaders of Lombardy became French, from Toulouse.
Verdi wrote a new orchestral introduction to replace the brief prelude
as well as the required ballet music. He also made substantial additions
to the score. The changes are sufficient for
Jérusalem to
be considered a separate entity from
I Lombardi. At over
twenty-one minutes this remains one of Verdi’s longest orchestral
pieces, second only to the ballet music he was later to compose for
his twentieth opera,
I vespri siciliani also for The Opéra.
The ballet music from
Jérusalem is largely unknown, even
on the concert platform. This may be prejudice about ‘rum-ti-tum’
music, a view some musicians have about music from his Verdi’s early
career. That view is not supported by the music as performed here
under Serebrier (CHs.5-8), which is light but not frothy. It would
provide a challenge while satisfying the dancers at The Opéra as well
as the audience.
The challenges of Paris and its musical standards kept Verdi interested
in The Opéra and
Jérusalem was sufficiently successful to
keep the theatre management interested in Verdi.
Jérusalem
was to have been followed by a completely new work by Verdi, but the
political upheavals in France and elsewhere in Europe in 1848, leading
to the abdication of Louis Philippe and the establishment of the Second
Empire, made that impossible. Although a regular visitor to Paris,
where he saw the play on which he based
La Traviata, Verdi
did not return to present another opera in Paris until
Les Vêpres
Siciliennes, his twentieth opera, in 1855.
Verdi had signed the contract for an opera which was to become
Les
Vêpres Siciliennes, during the composition of
Il Trovatore
in 1852. He stipulated that Scribe would be the librettist and also
that he would choose the main singers as well specifying dates for
reception of the libretto and rehearsal schedules. All very good if
it worked that way. Verdi soon discovered that Scribe was not really
up to the job, let alone keeping to schedules, whilst the bureaucracy
of The Opéra drove him to despair. He had to spend many months in
Paris, meeting Scribe and doing battle with the organization to the
extent that he wanted to withdraw from the contract. Perhaps an outcome
of his time waiting for Scribe’s words was the creation of his longest
ballet sequence of all, titled
The Four Seasons (CHs.20-23).
Its music fits in with the more lyrical moments of the opera whilst
providing opportunities for the dancers. It, more than many of the
other selections on this disc, is heard as a concert piece in its
own right. It gets an excellent performance from the conductor and
orchestra.
Whilst in Paris, Verdi also commissioned a French translation of
Il
Trovatore as
Il Trouvère, providing the requisite ballet
(CHs. 13-19). Careful listeners might recognize a nod towards the
Anvil Chorus.
Verdi thought he had finished with Paris and The Opéra when, whilst
on holiday with his wife in Genoa for the winter of 1863-1864, his
Paris representative, Léon Escudier, visited them. He informed the
composer that Paris’s Théâtre Lyrique had enquired if he would write
ballet music for insertion into his 1847 score of
Macbeth
for performance at the theatre. Verdi’s response was more than Escudier
could have hoped for, indicating that the composer wished to undertake
a radical revision of the opera he had written eighteen years before.
Verdi’s proposals for the revised
Macbeth included new arias
as well as adding the
de rigueur ballet (CHs2-4). Whilst
not using phrases or motifs from the opera the patina of the music
is unmistakable as being related to the opera itself.
Although Verdi had talked about giving up composition after
Un
Ballo in Maschera in 1859, if the money and conditions were right
he could be tempted. Whilst in Paris revising
Macbeth, he
was approached by Emile Perrin, director of the Paris Opéra, to write
once more for the theatre. They were desperate for a Grand Opera of
five acts and ballet to coincide with the Great Exhibition scheduled
for 1867. With Meyerbeer dead Verdi was their only hope. With the
helpful interventions of a mutual friend, Verdi put his earlier memories
behind him, committed himself to do so the following year, the work
to be in four or five acts, with ballet. The agreed subject was
Don
Carlos, based on Schiller’s long poem. The ballet, title
La
Pelegrina (CH.9) is a really delightful piece in which there
are clear echoes of music from the body of the opera itself. In the
later various efforts to shorten the length of
Don Carlos,
or its Italian form of
Don Carlo, one of the first excises
was and is, this delightful and evocative music, well performed here.
As I note above, the ballet music from
Aida (CHs.10-12) is
the only example where it is integral to the plot. It is here perhaps
that it is fair to comment that José Serebrier, despite his obvious
love of the music, is no Muti or Abbado, perhaps lacking their more
extensive time and experience in the opera pit. Nonetheless he contributes
a sensitive opening to this collection in the form of some of the
last music the composer created for the stage when he presented his
penultimate opera,
Otello, a year after the premiere of
Falstaff
at La Scala. This is in seven short sections. Verdi asked his publisher
to include descriptions of the seven sections. These are included
in Serebrier’s accompanying leaflet essay.
This Blu-Ray disc is a reproduction of a double Naxos CD set issued
in 2012 (
review review review). Is there a benefit in the Blu-Ray format? Not visually:
there is no conductor to watch or instrumentalists. The clue that
will appeal to many listeners of classical music is to be found above
under Audio Formats with the presence of 5.1 Surround and DTS-HD Master
Audio to go along with the standard stereo.
Robert J Farr
Contents
Otello
Act III Scene 7: Ballabile [5:37]
Macbeth
Act III Scene 1: [10.12]
Jérusalem
Act III Scene 1: Pas de quatre [21.33]
Don Carlos
Act III Scene 2: Ballo della regina, "La Peregrina" [16:39]
Aida
Act I Scene 2: Dance No. 3: Danza sacra delle sacerdotesse [2:30]
Act II Scene 1: Dance No. 4: Danza dei piccoli schiavi mori [1:38]
Act II Scene 2: Dance No. 5: Ballabile [4:46]
Il trovatore
Act III Scene 1: Pas des Bohémiens [5.56]
Act III Scene 2: Galop [17.07]
I vespri siciliani (excerpts)
Act III Scene 2: Le quattro stagioni: L'inverno [29.25]
