In 2009 the Hrvatsko Muzikološko Društvo launched the series Muzikologija bez granica/Musicologie sans frontières with “Teatro di poesia” in the opera house: The collaboration of Antonio Smareglia and Silvio Benco by Juliana Ličinić van Walstijn. The book focuses on the three operas that resulted from collaborations between the Croatian composer Antonio Smareglia (1854–1929) and the Italian writer Silvio Benco (1874–1949).
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Filed under Dramatic arts, New series, Opera, Romantic era
Caricature is a type of iconography that involves distorting the features of recognizable people to exaggerate some aspect of their demeanor.
Opinions differ regarding the term’s applicability to other than real-life subjects; for example, Walt Disney considered his animated animals to be caricatures because in creating them he blended animal features with human ones, an inversion of the practice of caricaturing people by merging their features with those of animals.
In the caricature reproduced above by Albert Douat (1847–92, signed with the pseudonym J. Blass), Liszt consoles Wagner over the Parisian reception of Tannhäuser in 1861 and Lohengrin in 1891; both productions were disrupted by elements hostile to the composer. Liszt’s imposing stature and paternal attitude—particularly apt since by the time the drawing was produced he was Wagner’s father-in-law—contrasts with the dejected, little-boy look of the creator of Gesamtkunstwerk.
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Filed under Humor, Iconography, Reception, Romantic era
The German publisher Allitera Verlag launched the series Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Musik in 2009 with Deutsche Frauen, deutscher Sang: Musik in der deutschen Kulturnation, edited by Rebecca Grotjahn. The collection focuses on European musical topics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with essays that culturally contextualize the works of major composers along with those of lesser-known figures such as Albert Lortzing and Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf.
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Filed under New series, Romantic era
Facsimile editions may present reproductions of illuminated manuscripts; they also may document creative processes, like the famously scrawled and blotted manuscripts of Beethoven.
In rare cases facsimile editions provide evidence of collaborative processes; an example is the recent edition by Leo S. Olschki Editore of the working copy of the libretto for Puccini’s Tosca, part of which is pictured above.
With notes in the hands of Puccini, the publisher Giulio Ricordi, and the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa—and the inclusion of pasted-in pages fathfully reproduced as separate, attatched sheets—the edition documents the collaborative process that resulted in one of the landmarks of verismo opera.
Below, Renée Fleming sings Tosca’s signature aria Vissi d’arte.
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Filed under Dramatic arts, Opera, Publication types, Romantic era, Source studies
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