ARLECCHINO

Ferrucio Busoni’s Arlecchino, oder Die Fenster, Op. 50

Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni (1866-1924) was born to musical parents in Empoli, Italy. He studied piano and violin as a youth, writing his first composition and debuting as a pianist in 1873. After studying music in Vienna, Graz, and Leipzig, Busoni taught at the Helsinki Musikinstitut, Boston, New York, and the Akademie der Künste, counting Kurt Weill among his pupils. In 1894, he settled in Berlin, but fled to Zurich in 1915 for the duration of World War I. Busoni was perhaps best known as a virtuoso pianist, but his performance skill often overshadowed recognition of his compositional abilities.

In 1913, Busoni began the libretto for Arlecchino, oder Die Fenster(“Arlecchino, or The Windows”). Several factors influenced his choice of topic. Busoni hoped to recreate an Italian national operatic style and turned to early operatic influences for ideas. The early twentieth century saw a renewed interest in commedia dell’arte and marionettes, as exemplified in works by Picasso and musical works such as Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. In 1912, Busoni attended a masked performance of an old commedia dell’arte play, L’inutile precauzione, in which Harlequin was one of the characters. The primary catalyst behind Arlecchino, however, was most likely a June 1913 performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire in Busoni’s home.

Busoni revised the libretto several times. After the war began, he altered the text to reflect his stance against the war, replacing, for example, the word “Turks” with “barbarians.” In December 1914, Busoni started writing music for Arlecchino and completed the one-act “theatralisches Capriccio,” first described as a “Marionetten Tragodie,” in August 1916. The opera was first performed on May 11, 1917, at the Stadttheater, Zurich. Arlecchino received favorable reviews, yet many found it to be a dark, disturbingly cynical work. Busoni addressed this view by explaining that the opera “was conceived in a spirit of compassion on men, who are ever making things more difficult for one another than they need be through egotism, prejudice, and the superstition of form contrasted with feeling. This is why Arlecchino provides no opportunity for laughter without an admixture of pain. This was my deliberate purpose.” In 1918, Busoni wrote a libretto he planned to be a second part to Arlecchino but never set it to music.

Busoni derived all characters in Arlecchino from Italian theater: Arlecchino and Colombina were associated with commedia dell’arte, whereas the doctor, priest, lovelorn knight, and cuckolded husband were stock characters of the Italian stage. When Arlecchino is on stage, his part is spoken rather than sung, setting him apart from the other characters. Even with so many Italian influences, Busoni set the text in German, the language he chose for all his operas.

Set in nineteenth-century Bergamo, the opera consists of a brief prologue and four parts, which portray Arlecchino as rogue, warrior, husband, and victor. In the prologue, Arlecchino sets the underlying message of the opera by stating “it is not for children, nor for gods, this play: for understanding people it is designed.” In the first part, “Arlecchino as Rogue,” the tailor Ser Matteo del Sarto reads Dante and thinks about Mozart while Arlecchino romances Matteo’s wife, Annunziata. Arlecchino eventually comes out of the house, convinces Matteo that the town is surrounded by barbarians and then locks Matteo into his house. The Abbate and Dottore walk by but rush into a tavern when Matteo informs them of Arlecchino’s news. In “Arlecchino as Warrior,” Arlecchino returns and informs Matteo that Matteo has been called to military service. The tailor asks if he may take his Dante with him and Arlecchino grants permission, stating “nobody shall say that culture perishes in the war.”

The third part, “Arlecchino as Husband,” begins with a confrontation between Arlecchino and his wife, Colombina, who accuses him of infidelity. After Arlecchino leaves, Leandro, a parody of the operatic tenor, enters and attempts to woo Colombina. Arlecchino returns and challenges Leandro to a duel, which ends when Leandro falls to the ground. In the final part, “Arlecchino as Victor,” the Abbate, Dottore, and Columbina discover Leandro as they leave the tavern. After loading Leandro into a donkey-drawn cart, the characters sing a quartet praising the “asinus providentialis,” then head off to the hospital. Arlecchino returns, only to run off with Annunziata. Matteo enters, reads a note from his wife stating she is at Vespers and then sits down to read Dante. At the end, Arlecchino appears once more for a final speech and then dances away.
 
The music encompasses a range of styles and by quoting or parodying the music of composers such as Mozart and Donizetti, Busoni creates a web of musical associations further enhancing audience comprehension of the plot. One such example takes place in the first movement: as Matteo reads and Arlecchino makes love to Matteo’s wife, the accompanying music quotes the “champagne” aria from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, thereby musically shedding some light on Arlecchino’s character and the action on stage. Busoni also includes recurring themes tied to specific characters and other plot elements. Two noticeable musical ideas are associated with the character Arlecchino: a harmonic return to A major and a recurring twelve-note theme. Through a network of musical associations, recurring elements, and familiar styles, Busoni created a work that was both fresh and yet quite accessible to audiences of his time.

TOO MANY SOPRANOS

Soprano Miki L. Thompson was participating in an opera workshop in Iowa in the early 1990s, awaiting her turn to work with the typically meager selection of tenors and basses. Looking at the abundance of female singers just sitting around, she declared, “I’m going to write an opera and call it ‘Too Many Sopranos’!”

Although it may have been uttered in jest, Thompson did not let the idea rest and, after taking a creative writing class, wrote a libretto for a one-act comic opera about four sopranos who arrive in Heaven and have to audition to enter. For help with the music she approached Beaumont Glass, then director of the University of Iowa Opera Theater. Glass, a noted opera coach, translator, stage director, and biographer of Lotte Lehmann, suggested that Thompson contact composer and pianist Edwin Penhorwood at Indiana University.

Penhorwood was in every way the ideal person for such a project. From childhood, he had been exposed to vocal music in church, school, concerts, and television programs such as the Firestone Hour. At the age of thirteen Penhorwood became his church’s organist and began accompanying the choir. His fascination with singing and singers took a more personal turn when he met and married soprano Costanza Cuccaro. The couple later moved to Europe and, during his wife’s international opera career, Penhorwood established himself as a vocal coach, listening constantly to opera singers in rehearsal and performance.
Although Penhorwood had composed numerous choral, vocal, and instrumental works, this was his first opportunity to write an opera. Working with Thompson, Penhorwood proposed expanding the opera to two acts, providing additional male roles in the scenes in Hell and ending with a large ensemble finale.

The first performance of Too Many Sopranos, with piano accompaniment, took place in the spring of 1997 on the occasion of the retirement of Dean Charles Webb of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In 1999 the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Opera Theatre commissioned Penhorwood to revise and orchestrate the opera, which received its world premier on June 16, 2000. Since then the work has had over 30 productions, including performances by the Baltimore Opera, Light Opera Oklahoma (Tulsa), Midwest Lyric Opera (St. Louis), and at conventions of the National Opera Association (New York City) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (Philadelphia).

With five substantial female roles, including mezzo-, coloratura, and lyric sopranos, plus rewarding parts for tenor, baritone, and bass, Too Many Sopranos is a showcase for the operatically trained voice. Penhorwood’s command of styles and vocal techniques is evident in the eclectic nature of the score, which includes elements of grand opera, operetta, and musical comedy. Solos and spoken dialogue alternate with larger ensembles, which take the place of the opera chorus.

Added to the classical opera orchestrais an array of percussion instruments, as well as celesta, piano, and harp. While the resulting sound is lush and colorful, Penhorwood orchestrates with remarkable transparency, never allowing the instruments to overwhelm the vocalists.

Noting the range of musical styles in the opera, from Rossini and Wagner to Broadway, Penhorwood speaks of his approach to composition. “I would describe myself as a mainstream composer in that I allow music from the past and present to sift through my own musical personality. My musical intentions are the following: making my music connect and communicate to listeners; being careful not to get too far ahead or behind the listener; wanting my music to have tension and release, communicate emotions, and express beauty and drama. The creative process of bringing together the singer’s voice, the composition, and the poetry is exciting and mysterious.”

Penhorwood has encouraged flexibility in producing Too Many Sopranos, allowing troupes to make minor adjustments in order to fit the available singers and other resources, quickly making it a favorite with smaller companies, schools, and of course opera workshops.

-- Christine Kyprianides

Comments of the composer

My musical style has been influenced by my being a pianist/organist, my interest in the voice (my wife is soprano Costanza Cuccaro), and by my ability to improvise. I improvised at the keyboard from an early age and continued to do so as a church organist. Other musical influences were the composers Mozart, Bellini, Chopin, Debussy, Richard Strauss, Barber, Britten, and Bernstein, to name a few. I have never felt an attraction for the avant garde but do employ avant garde effects as spice in my compositions.

Usually, I choose the poetry before I compose the song. There have been a few instances where the melody came first (A Lute will Lie is one) and had to wait a number of years to match up with a poem that fit. Three of these songs are set to the poetry of Callum MacColl, a poet, artist, and friend whom I have known since undergraduate days. At times, practicality takes precedence. Wild Nights was composed because my wife requested an “ender” for recitals.

I compose at the piano. After studying the poem, ideas and form come to mind, and I begin to improvise. Once a motive or musical idea comes forward that seems suitable and pleases me, things proceed, usually with a melodic and harmonic sketch. The accompaniment is usually thought out at the beginning of the composition process and written down last.

I would describe myself as a mainstream composer that allows music from the past and present to sift through my own musical personality. My musical intentions are the following: making my music connect and communicate to listeners; being careful not to get too far ahead or too far behind the listener; wanting my music to have tension and release, communicate emotions, and express beauty and drama. The creative process of bringing together the singer’s voice, the composition, and the poetry is exciting and mysterious.