The Other Boheme

7/23/2019 The Other Boheme

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-other-boheme 1/4

Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times.

http://www.jstor.org

The Other 'Bohème'Author(s): John W. KleinSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 111, No. 1527 (May, 1970), pp. 497-499Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/956015Accessed: 22-06-2015 18:39 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 200.16.86.75 on Mon, 22 Jun 2015 18:39:16 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mtpl

http://www.jstor.org/stable/956015

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp






http://www.jstor.org/stable/956015

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mtpl

http://www.jstor.org/



The solo

trumpet

n

Alessandro's

'Invitti

guerrieri'

is the

only example

in the entire

work

of

an

aria

with

single-line bbligato,

nd

it mustbe

admitted

that

the instrumentation

n

La Statira

is not

nearly

so

interesting

s

in

Scarlatti's later

operas,

or in

Handel's. But the audience

which

filled

he

Tor

di

Nona theatre

n 1690 went there

primarily

for

the

singing.Almost three enturieshave broughtmany

changes

n

the

conventions

f

opera,

but

not

in

the

power

of Scarlatti's

best music

to arouse

the

senses

and

excite

the mind.

'La

Statira'

will

have

its

firstperformances

n this

country

t the

Jeannetta

Cochrane

Theatre

on

May

7,

8 and

9

given

by

London Chamber

Opera,

conducted

byLionelFriend, s partoftheCamden Festival.

The other

'Bohame'

John

W.

Klein

It

is true hat

Ricordi has commissioned

contra-

band

Manon

by

a

youthful

Mr

Puccini,

who has

not

in

fact

imitated

your

own

Manon,

but has

plundered

Hirodiade

and Le

Cid

and orchestrated

the whole

thing

as

though

it

were

a matter

of

tackling

nother

G6tterdiimmerung.

Thus,

early

in

1893,

did Leoncavallo strive to

reassurehis

friend,

ules

Massenet.

It

is,

perhaps,

trifle

ard to

account for

he

almost

venomous

tone

of

this

strange

etter,

or

only

a

year

before

Leon-

cavallo had achieved

a

spectacular riumph

withhis

Pagliacci.

So

overwhelming

was that success

that

Alfredo

Catalani,

composer

of

La

Wally,

had

exclaimed

in

disgust

and

despair:

'Ah

decadenza

decadenza '

That

opportunist

magined

that he

could

ape

Bizet

with murder on the

stage;

most

reprehensible

nless,

like the creator of

Carmen,

man

possesses genius

as well as

daring.

Leoncavallo did

not,

incidentally,

confess

to

Massenet

that he himselfhad been

the

very

first

librettist of that wretched contraband Manon

Lescaut. But Massenet

might

have

been

even more

startled

had he been told

that

his

enterprising

Italian

colleague

had

already

discovered

stonishing

possibilities

n

what,musically

t

least,

was

a hitherto

curiously

neglected

work:

Miirger's

Scenes

de la

Boheme,

urely

n

ideal

subject

for

semi-romantic,

semi-realistic

pera.

He

had

hastily

oncocted

his

own

librettoon

what

Somerset

Maugham

rightly

described

as 'this

fascinating,

ll-written,

bsurd

masterpiece'.

He

wittily

ast

himself s

Schaunard,

'musicista

psicologo';

for

was he

not

himself

a

poet

and

a

psychologist

s

well as a

composer?

Incidentally,

he had also studied

Mairger's

feeble

adaptationof hiswork forthe stage,with ts signi-

ficant urtain

ine:

'La

commedia

e

finita'-which

he

himself

used

with

incomparably greater

effect

at the

very

nd of

Pagliacci.

For,

in

his

way,

Leoncavallo could

claim

to

be

a

pioneer.

Like

Boito,

who

detested

him,

he

appeared

to

excel

in

every phere.

'Few

musicians

have

been

more

promising

n

youth',

wroteFerruccio

Bonavia,

a severe

udge.

Already

Leoncavallo

had

written

three

remarkable

ibretti:the

youthful

Chatterton,

Pagliacci

(which

the

astute

publisher

onzogno

had

avidly

accepted

without

ven

seeing

the

score),

and

the

dramatic

Medici,

which

subsequently

o

en-

thused

Kaiser Wilhelm

in,

who

fatuously

dentified

himselfwithLorenzo the Magnificent,hat hence-

forward

'the

great

Italian

master' became

his

favourite

composer.

Leoncavallo

certainly

had a

knack for

what Verdi

termed

la

parola

scenica'-

some

moving

or

gripping

phrase

which

would

instantly

ivet he

attention r

linger

n

the

memory,

or

blaze

forth

ike

a

trumpet.

Fundamentally,

he

seemed

at

momentsmore of

a

poet

than

musician.

Yet his Boheme

ibretto

s not

quite

as

concise

or

inherentlyramatic s those ofhis previousworks.

It has

been

suggested

that he wrote

it

against

the

grain.

This is

unlikely:

and

yet

why

did

he

now

offer

t

to

Puccini,

o

whom

the

book

was

unknown

True,

the fastidious Boito

had

summarily

dis-

missed

Miirger's

novel

as

hopelessly

banal;

but

then,

like

Wagner,

he was obsessed

by

the monu-

mental.

For

Puccini,

however,

this

commonplace

subject'

proved

to be

the

very

ne

afterwhich

he had

been

ceaselessly hankering,

ut

with

no

percipient

librettist

o

guide

his

steps.

However,

he

thought

f

collaborating

again

with the

touchy

and irascible

Leoncavallo

was

anathema

to

him. In

any

case

his

voluble

rival

kept

his best

ibretti

or

himself;

e

had

not breatheda word about Pagliacci. He would

scarcely

have

offered

im his

vociferous

oheme

had

he

been

entirely

atisfied

with

t.

Obviously

Puccini

was

disconcerted

by

what

he himselfwould

scorn-

fully

erm

prattle'.

Those

first

wo

acts

bristle

with

it;

there is

scarcely

a flicker

f

the

idyllic

charm

which

to

him

was the breath

of

life.

For

thetime

being,

he

artfully eigned

ndifference,

though

he was

not

the

sort

of

man

to

let the

grass

grow

under

his feet.

'In a

tearing

hurry'

he

got

in

touch

with

Luigi

Illica,

who

had

hammered

the

recalcitrant

hird

act

of

Manon into

a

masterly

piece

of

stirring

rama

after

Leoncavallo

himself

had

impatiently

bandoned

the

project.

With

Illica's help,and also thatoftheexquisite, nfinitely

painstaking poet,

Giuseppe

Giacosa,

Puccini

was

convinced

that he

could

achieve

something

more

appealing

than Leoncavallo's

verbose

libretto,

transcribed oo

literally

rom

Miirger's

novel.

Curiously enough,

only

a few

months

ater,

he

casually

told

his rival with

extraordinary

nsen-

sitivity

hat he himselfwas

composing

an

opera

on

Miirger's

Vie

de Boheme.

'But

you

can't

do

that',

he

indignantly rotested,

after

ll,

it

was

my

own

idea

And

what is

more,

am

setting

t

myself'.

Puccini

retorted,

All

right,

hen

there

will be

two

Bohemes

instead of

one'.

On March

20,

1893

the Milanese

public

was informed

hat

Leoncavallo

was

writing

an opera based on Miirger's ivelyromance; and a

day

later

that

Puccini

had also chosen

exactly

the

same

theme. But the

composer

of

Manon

Lescaut

497






had,

at

least,

he

grace

o

add: 'If

Maestro eon-

cavallo,

o whom

am

bound

by

strong

entiments

of

friendship,

ad

confidedn

me,

shouldnot of

course

ave

hought

f

Milrger's

ohIme'.

robably

this was

said

with

tongue-in-cheek

umility--

fortunately,

o doubt.

Leoncavallo

ever

orgave

is

dangerous

dversary

what epersistentlyegardeds an act of ngratitude

and even

treachery.

And

Puccinireacted

o his

belligerence

ith

nexpected

irulence;

Leonasino'

becamehis

bugbear,

the swinewhom

taly

o

her

disgrace

has acclaimed

s a master'. Did

some

strange

uilt omplex

ester

nside im?

Rarely

or

him,

he was

worried.

Leoncavallo

mightmprove

his

ibretto;

ome

amiable friend

ad

even

mali-

ciously

intedhat twas

a

miracle' f

beauty

nd

skill.

Yet,

nigmatically,

eoncavallo waited uccini's

Bohime

efore

utting

he

finishing

ouches

o

his

own

work.

This

was

a

grave

rror

nd

has

never

been

dequately xplained.

ater

he

was accused f

brazenly lagiarizingrom is rival's pera. Why,

he

might erisively

ave

eplied,

hould

notborrow

a few

nippets

f

melody

rom

im

when

e,

without

turning

hair,

tole

my

est

ubject

However,

is

opera

would

have stood

a far

greater

hance of

success ad

he been old

nough

oforestall

uccini;

for

e

conceivednd tackled

is hemen

n

entirely

different

ood.

He

contented

imself

ith

oasting

thathis

adversary

ad

a

ludicrously

omantic

dea

of

his

ubject

nd

that

e himself

ould

each

im

well-deserved

esson bout

the real'

BohIme,

hat

implacable,

oul-destroying

ohIme

which

had

crushed

Miirger

imself.

Indeed,

he knew

rom

itter

ersonal

xperience

what uch hand-to-mouthxistencemeant. For

several

ears

e had endured

n

idyllic'

ohemian

life

n

pleasure-loving,

eartless

aris.

'I

passed

whole

nights

ithout

leep

nd

days

without

ood',

he

said,

prolonged rivations

hich

undoubtedly

sapped

hishealth nd

hastened

isdeath. What

id

Puccini

now bout uch

misery

He

would

merely

write

nother

ypically

talian

opera

redolent f

Milan. Leoncavallo

contemptuously

verlooked

thefact hat

e was

now

ompetinggainst

hree

f

themost

stute

rains n

taly.

It was

the

megalomaniac

treak

n his

nature hat

proved

is

undoing.

He

arrogantly

ompared

im-

self

to

Wagner,

who was

also his

own librettist.

Wagner admanagedoconquer king;he himself

had dazzled

n

emperor.

t

is hard o understand

his nflated

go

without

aving

ead

his truculent

letters

nd

manifestos

o

hisfriends.

or

example:

'I

believe

hat

really

omplete

ork f rt

an

only

be

achieved

y

a

single

mind. would

corn o

set

anotherman'sverses

o

music'.

But thevision

f

one

mind,

owever

xceptional,

ay

be

defective.

Particularly

fter

he success

of

Pagliacci,

Leon-

cavallo

gradually

ecame ess

self-critical.

hose

first

wo

cts

fhis

BoIhmemight

lmost

e

summed

up

as

'much do

about

nothing',

ith oo

many

trivial

pisodes,

oomuch

bombastic

hatter.The

new

opera,

despite

ts dramatic

ast

act,

acks the

varietyfPagliacci writtenn fourmonths, ot n

four

ong, brooding years,

as La

BohIume

was).

It

strikes

ne as

claustrophobic;

herereno

open

ir

scenes

t the

Caf6

Momusor

theBarribre'Enfer.

Nevertheless,

t

his best

Leoncavallo

is

more

vigorous,

ecidedly

ess

achrymose

han

uccini,

n

whom

herewas

ust

hint f

he

entimental

alfe.

One thinks f Colline's

lengthy

nd somewhat

irrelevant

postrophe

o his vecchio

imarra'

when

Mimi

s at her ast

gasp;

and

one recalls

Berlioz's

scornful

eference

o Balfe as

'my

old

armchair'

after ne of themoremawkishongs n hisultra-

romantic

Maid

of

Honour.

On the other

and,

n

Leoncavallo's

oheIme

n

element

f

grim

ealism

raduallyweeps

side the

charades.

His Marcello nd Musette

re

no

longer

just

a

happy-go-lucky

oung couple

who bicker

together

ntertainingly

nd

aimlessly.

They

are

overwhelmed

y passion.

In

one

of

his

despairing

moods Marcello

more

kin to Don Jos6

hanto

Puccini's

ight-heartedaritone)

ttempts

o

strangle

Musette;

nd

she,

oorgirl,

s

brutally

victed

rom

her

wretched

arret.

n

the

losely-knit

inal

ct,

little

masterpiece

f

ragic

athos

which eoncavallo

no

doubt

hoped

would

annihilate

is

opponent,

Mimidies simply,lmost usterely,sans gestes'.

Her

faltering

ords

onvey

esolation

with sus-

tained

loquence

which enders

his,

erhaps,

he

finest cene in

all

Leoncavallo.

Even the

last,

gently

heatricalecollectionf

Nodl'

s

moving.

This s nevertheless

ne of

the

most

antalizing

f

operas. During

he

firstct

Rodolfo

nd

Mimi

re

at

times oo

drastically

ubordinated

o the less

poetic ouple.

Subsequently

he

composer

trove

to

remedy

his defect

by concentrating

ntirely

on

thedoomed

irl

nd

her

despairing

over;

harsh-

ly,

even

brutally

e stressed

he

more sombre

aspects

fhis heme. Too much

ilarity

n

the

first

two

acts,

too much adness

n

the

ast

two',

was

Puccini's ry, rofessionalerdict.

The

first

alfof this ndictment

s

undoubtedly

true;

he

econd

s

not. We are made

o realize

hat

the existence f

a

starving

rtist

'in

winter

ol

Saint-Bernard,

pitzbergen,

iberia')

is

a

pretty

grim

ffair. necan

lmost eel he

cy

wind

owling

through

odolfo'swretched

arret

ith

ts

broken

windows.

His

tragic

utburst

t the

eginning

f

he

final

ct is

particularly

emorable;

ts

cumulative

effect s

impressive.

Unlike

Puccini's

Rodolfo,

Leoncavallo's

s

a

true

poet.

It was

a

stroke

f

genius

o ntroduce

t

this

ery

momenthe

gloom-

iestof

Miirger's

itter

allads,

otted

own

hortly-

before is

own

terrible

eath.

Seldom

has a

poem

been translatedo beautifully,r in thatdifficult

process

o

subtly

mproved.

As

compelling

s

any-

thing

n

Pagliacci,

his ria has

been alled

a

hymn

of

despair'.

But

t s evenmore han

hat:

t

s

a

last

farewell

o

art,

o

love,

o

life

tself;

urely

ne of

the most

haunting

nd dramatic

ongs

n

all

post-

Verdian

pera.

The nvocation

o

death

ulminating

in

the

humble

prayer

Perdona

tanta

poverti'

is

unforgettable.

Here

Leoncavallo

surpasses

Puccini;

his

s a nobler

prelude

o

Mimi'sdeath

than the

semi-humorous, semi-nostalgic

banter

betweenRodolfo

and Marcello t the

equivalent

stage

n

Puccini's

work.

For

such

n existencean

at

times e

terrifying.

ven ts

gaiety

s

painfully

spasmodic nd artificial,hough hisvery spect

obviously

ppealed

to the morefrivolous

ide of

Leoncavallo's

complex

nature.

Fortunately

e

relieveshis rather

reary

nd

noisy

funwith a

498






Leoncavallo's

own

copy of

the

programme f

the

Viennese

remiere f

La

BohIme'

couple

of

sprightly

rias

for

Mimi and

Musette,

which

n 1899

took Paris

by

storm.

They

partly

explainwhy, uring he lastyearsof his life,he

despairingly

urned

to what Puccini somewhat

maliciously

ermed

the

degradation

f

operetta'.

Strangely

nough

Leoncavallo's

Boheme,

t one

moment

o

trivial

nd

irritating,

t

the next so

poignant,

as at

first

lightly

ore

uccessful

han

Puccini's

arefully

lanned

nd

idyllic

masterpiece.

This

may

have

been

partly

ue to the fact

that

Pagliacci

ad achieved

reater

nternationalenown

than

Manon

Lescaut. Leoncavallo

was then

to

quote

Bonavia

n TheMusical

imes,

ept

1919)

the

most

opular

omposer

n

Europe'.

But

s

early

s

1898

he

met

with

an

unexpected

rebuff

n

Vienna,

whichhe

had come to

regard

s one

of

hisstrongholds. here Mahlerreigned upreme:

he

deeply

resented

being compelled-owing

to

a

predecessor's

igid

contract--to

onduct

an

opera

he considered

ong-winded,

nd which

lacked Puccini's

entimental

harm nd technical

expertise.

Consequently

e

tampered

ithLeon-

cavallo's

work,

trivingesperately

o

tighten

t

up.

But the

composer,

onstantly

n

tenterhooks,

as

outraged

nd

cruelly

umiliated;

e ended

y

work-

ing

himselfnto

uch

frenzy

hat e struck

ut

his

own name n

a critic's

rogramme

nd substituted

for

t

hat f he

arrogant

utocrat'

see

llustration).

No doubt

Mahlerhad little

eeling

or talian

opera.

All

the

ame,

e

was

egitimately

xacerbated

by he rotractedomfooleryftheopeningcenes

of

Leoncavallo's

work;

nd

that,

robably,

s

why

he

failed

o

appreciate

ts

uthentic

arisian lavour.

Miirger

imself

ould

ave

ecognized

eoncavallo

Boheme,

ut

not Puccini's. For the

creator

of

Pagliacci

had entered nto

his

very

pirit-semi-

farcical,emi-tragic.

With

xemplary

ssiduity

e

had studied ot

merely

heharassed uthor's

rose,

but

lso his

crid,

elf-tormenting

erse.

Indeed,

eoncavallo's

ery

neven

work,

which

had started o

inauspiciously,

bit

ike

a

clumsy

imitation f

the

quintet

n

Bizet's

Carmen,

n

the

end

triumphantly

eveloped

into

a

powerful,

sternly

veristic'

pera.

Here,perhaps

or he

ast

time, here s an unmistakableuggestionf the

driving

orcewhich

as enabled

agliacci

o survive

for

nearly

century

n

the

bitterlyompetitive

s

well as

woefully

estricted

nternational

epertory.

Yet-most

significantly--that

emarkableorce

was

ennobled,

t

certainrucial

moments,

y

restrained

and

penetrating

nguish.

Occasionally

eoncavallo

may

trike ne

as a

buffoon,

nd

a

pretentious

ne

at

that;

buthere

he almost

ustified

he nthusiasm

of

his admirers

including

he

famousbaritone

Maurel)

who

acclaimed

him

as

Verdi's rue uc-

cessor.

Leoncavallo's

La Bohime' willhave its

first erform-

ances in thiscountryt the TownHall, Euston Road

on

May

12,

14 and

15, given by Opera

Concerts,

conducted

by

Gerald

Gover,

as

part

of

the Camden

Festival.

wtr

kr

ldea

ZA

r

r

pm

n

a?

der

a le

100240

r

r?~m

y~~se.

APPOINTMENTS,

AWARDS

Mario Bernardi

has been

appointed

music

director

of

the

Stratford

Festival,

Canada.

Pierre

Boulez

has been

appointed

artistic

director of

Blossom

Music

Festival, USA,

for two

years.

Elliott Carter

has

been

elected

a

member

of the American

Academy

of Arts and Letters.

Geoffrey

Coffinhas been

appointed

administrator

of the

National

Youth

Orchestra;

he succeeds Peter MacLachlan.

Rene

Nicoly

is

appointed

director

of the Paris

Opera.

V.

B. V. Powell

has been

appointed

Secretary

of the Arts

Educational

Trust.

Brian

Priestman

has

been

appointed

music director

of the

Denver

Symphony

Orchestra for

the

season

1970-1.

Jean Sadler

is

appointed

director

of the Rural

Music Schools

Association

from

September;

he succeeds

Helen

Wright

who

retires

n

July.

Yuri

Simonov

has been

appointed

chief conductor

of the

Bolshoy

Theatre

in succession

to

Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Lim

Tshui Fei

of

Singapore,

Virginia

Hopkins

of

Auckland

Ramya

de

Livera

of

Ceylon,

Gabriel

Kwok

Ka

tak

of

Hong

Kong,

have been

elected to

1969

Associated

Board

Scholarships

for three

years' study

in London.

Gulbenkian

Music

Fellowships

have been awarded

to Iona

Brown

(violin),

Norma

Burrowes

(soprano),

Oriel

Sutherland

(con-

tralto);

Anthony

Goldstone and

Thomas

Igloi

have

had

theirs

extended

for

a further

year.

Gwyneth

Griffiths

as been

awarded the

Leverhulme

Scholarship.

Charles

Groves

is

to

receive an

Hon

D Mus from

he

University

of

Liverpool.

Bernard

Haitink

has been

awarded the

Bruckner

medal of

honour

by

the

Bruckner

Society

of

America.

Akiko

Kitagawa

has

won the 47th B6sendorfer

Competition

in

Vienna.

Ivan

Kozlovsky

was

awarded

the

Order

of

Lenin on

his

70th

birthday,

for services in the

development

of Soviet music.

Jane

Manning

has received

a Gulbenkian

Foundation

award

to

enable her to

commission

a work for

soprano

and

piano

from

Justin

Connolly.

Robin

Mukerji

has

won a New

Musical

Express

award

for

his

sleeve

design

of the Decca

recording

of Strauss's

Also

sprach

Zarathustra

(Los Angeles PO/Mehta).

Hansruedi

Willisegger

won

first

rize

in the Aosta

Valley Organ

Competition

with his

Toccata,

Arietta

and

Passacaglia.

Reginald

Stead

has

completed

25

years

as

leader

of

the

BBC

Northern

Orchestra.

Eric

Day

has retiredfrom the

secretaryship

of the GSM.

Paul

Kletzki has

resigned

as director of the

Suisse

Romande

Orchestra.

499




The Other Boheme

Documents