Hector Berlioz
(1803-1869)
Benvenuto Cellini
Opéra comique in two acts. Libretto by Auguste Barbíer and Léon de Wailly (Hol. 76)
Soloists
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Benvenuto Cellini, goldsmith.................................... Giacomo Balducci, papal treasurer.......................... Fieramosca, sculptor in service of the Pope............. Le Pape Clément VII (Paris 2, Weimar: Le Cardinal Salviati).................... Francesco, craftsman in the studio of Cellini............. Bernardino, craftsman in the studio of Cellini............ Pompeo, assassin.................................................... Innkeeper................................................................ Waiter at the tavern................................................. Three actors for pantomime..................................... Two murderers........................................................ Teresa, daughter of Balducci................................... Ascanio, apprentice of Cellini.................................. |
tenor bass Paris:tenor/Weimar: baritone bass tenor bass Paris: tenor/Weimar: baritone tenor dumb role dumb roles dumb roles soprano Paris: soprano/Weimar: mezzo-soprano |
Chorus: Women and children, craftsmen, citizens, sinners, monks and lords Orchestra: 2 (picc), 2 (ca), 2 (bcl), 4 - 4, 4, 2 pist, 3, 0, oph - timp, perc (3) - 4 harps - str Incidental music: 2 guitars, 2 trumpets, tambours de basque, cymbals Benvenuto Cellini, Berlioz's first opera, is a telling example to demonstrate how works of music have to be adapted in performance to suit prevailing conditions. Here a deletion, there an accretion, the scenes reshuffled, the orchestration revamped, even entire figures interchanged - Benvenuto Cellini was not spared any of these alterations. Premièred in Paris in 1838, the work was originally conceived as an opéra comique. Now researchers have examined a multitude of structural changes and interventions to extract three highly contrasting basic versions corresponding to three principal sources. The first two versions date from Berlioz's Paris period around 1838, while the third represents the "working results" of later performances in Weimar. Both the music and the plot take on entirely different dimensions and alternative readings. Fortunately, these circumstances give us an ideal opportunity to form a far more sophisticated view of the material than is possible with a single text-critical "interface": current events and performance history, artistic ideals in sharp opposition with audience expectations and prevailing political opinions - these and other factors are kaleidoscopically reflected in the three versions of Benvenuto Cellini. A practical system for accessing the extant material now makes it relatively easy to compare the various performance versions, and especially to make an informed choice in favor of one version or a personal mixture. For the first complete edition of this opera, published in 1994 as part of the New Edition of the Complete Works, the editor Hugh Macdonald joined forces with the publishers to work out a novel system enabling all three versions to be united in a single volume. This procedure has now been applied as well to the performance material. Whether in full or vocal score, the alternative versions are printed at the spot where they occur in the work, so that successive versions of the same passage or scene also appear successively on the printed page. However, it is always perfectly clear which passage belongs to which version. Guidance instructions and references above the musical text indicate which version one happens to be reading at any given time, where the various versions overlap, or where passages must be skipped. Not only does this make it possible to obtain a complete overview and breakdown of the complex source material, it also serves as a solid foundation for performances that are faithful and appropriate to the work itself. The three versions united in this volume are referred to respectively as "Paris 1," "Paris 2" and "Weimar", reflecting the site of their performance. Paris 1, the "original" version, consists of the earliest surviving layer of the work as Berlioz submitted it to the Paris Opéra in early 1838. In order to be performed there, however, sizable revisions had to be made to the work as the original opéra comique structure of the libretto had to be adapted to the larger theater. Further emendations resulted in the aftermath of the unsuccessful première on 10 September 1838 and the few performances that followed. All these revisions, occasioned by rehearsals and performances, were collated in a handwritten conductor's score and serve as the basis of Paris 2. In 1851, following a ten-year hiatus, Franz Liszt ventured to revive Cellini in Weimar. Berlioz again revised the work beforehand, making severe cuts and other structural alterations and downplaying the work's burlesque elements. Thus altered, the "Weimar version" became a huge success at its performance in 1852. It was this "Weimar version" that dominated the opera's subsequent fate for an entire century. In the 1880s the work was mounted several times in Germany, but after the turn of the century Cellini vanished almost entirely from the boards. In 1966 an attempt was made in London's Covent Garden to reconstruct the allegedly "original" Paris version by restoring the Lisztian cuts. This version also formed the basis of what is, to date, the only recording of the work, conducted by Sir Colin Davis (1972). Our vocal score also includes a separate booklet containing a German and English translation of the libretto. Drawing on the procedure employed for the music, it too presents three distinct readings in the running text, each reflecting the associated version of the opera. With the appearance of the performance material for all three principal versions, based on the Urtext from the New Berlioz Edition, it now becomes possible to retrace the entire source tradition of Benvenuto Cellini, thereby providing the groundwork for restoring this opera to its rightful place on the operatic stage. Katharina Harde-Tinnefeld Rome, Shrove Monday to Ash Wednesday, 1532. Pope Clément VII has commissioned the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini to cast a bronze statue of Perseus. The papal treasurer Balducci takes this amiss, for the commission is a slight to the Pope's official sculptor Fieramosca, precisely the man Balducci has chosen to marry his daughter Teresa. She, however, is in love not with Fieramosca but with Cellini. Fieramosca eavesdrops as Cellini plans their elopement. Taking advantage of the Carnival, he plans to disguise himself as a penitential friar on the eve of Shrove Tuesday while Balducci, Teresa's escort, is distracted by a touring opera company. Cellini, expected to complete his statue on the following day, is given an advance payment from the Pope. Enraged at the niggardliness of the treasurer, the sculptor and his friends resolve to play a prank on him: the satirical opera that Balducci is attending will present a Balducci look-alike in a comic role. This plan, too, is overheard by Cellini's rival Fieramosca. Together with his friend Pompeo he decides likewise to disguise himself as a friar and to pre-empt Cellini's elopement scheme. In the tumult of the performance, while Balducci is angrily thrashing his Doppelgänger on the stage, Cellini kills Pompeo in a swordfight. Fieramosca is arrested by mistake, and Cellini escapes. Hunted as a murderer, he and Teresa resolve to flee. The statue remains incomplete. But before their flight can come about Fieramosca and Balducci reappear. Balducci accuses Cellini of murder and demands his daughter. A fierce argument ensues, in the midst of which the Pope appears and angrily notes that the statue is still unfinished. Balducci informs him of Cellini's misdeeds, with the result that Cellini, in desperation, seeks to destroy the existing model. The Pope thereupon promises Cellini not only his freedom but also the hand of Teresa if he is able to complete the statue by the evening of Ash Wednesday. With superhuman exertion Cellini fulfills the commission on schedule. The Pope, recognizing the intercession of God, pardons Cellini and grants him Teresa's hand in marriage. 
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