Salieri's Così fan tutte (co-author: Bruce Alan Brown)

Salieri's "Così fan tutte" Author(s): Bruce Alan Brown and John A. Rice Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 17-43 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/823700 . Accessed: 16/09/2014 17:40 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 content in 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]. . Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cambridge Opera Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Press Cambridge Journal, 8, 1, 17-43 ? 1996Cambridge Opera University Salieri'sCos fantutte BRUCE ALAN BROWN and JOHN A. RICE The severalcontradictory, and even apologetic,explanationsthatwere put forward ossiaLa scotadegliamantiin the years concerningthe originsof Mozart's Cosifantutte, in its 1790 reflect both the dearth of hard information following premiere the to and the commission unease with which the postMozart, concerning era this most of comic operas. One of the Josephinian greeted unsettling composer's firstbiographers,Franz Xaver Nemetschek,wrote: In theyear1789 in themonthof DecemberMozartwrotetheItaliancomicopera Cosifan or 'The School forLovers';people areuniversally amazedthatthisgreatgeniuscould tutte, condescendto wastehis heavenlysweetmelodieson such a miserableand clumsytext.It was not in his powerto refusethecommission, to him.1 and thetextwas givenexpressly Constanze Mozart's second husband, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, repeated Nemetschek's assertionin his biographyof the composer,2and in 1837 the theatre criticFriedrichHeinse sketchedin furtherdetails,claimingthat ... Mozartwas in factexpresslycommissionedbyJosephII to compose preciselythis libretto.Accordingto a rumour,an incidentthathad actuallyhappenedat thattimein Viennabetweentwoofficers and theirlovers,whichwas similarto theplotof thelibretto, offeredthe emperorthe occasion of honouringhis courtpoet Guemara [sic.;Heinse confusesDa Pontewithone of hissuccessors,Giovannide Gamerra]withthecommission to makethispiece of gossipintoa Dramagiocoso da mettersi inmusica.3 This seems unlikely.The attentionthat the emperor devoted to opera declined markedlyin the final two years of his life, as his health failed, and his military campaign against the Turks absorbed what little of his energies remained. See Nemetschek, desk. k. Kapellmeisters aus Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart, Lebensbeschreibung (Prague,1808;rpt.Leipzig,1978),43: 'In demJahre1789im MonatDecember Orginalquellen schriebMozartdas italienische komischeSingspiel, oderdie SchulederLiebenden; Cosifantutte, manwundertsichallgemein, wie dergroBeGeistsichherablassen konnte,an ein so elendes Machwerk von Textseinehimmlisch siuBenMelodienzu verschwenden. Es standnichtin seiner und derTextwardihmausdriicklich Gewalt,den Auftrag abzulehnen, (All aufgetragen.' translations arethoseof theauthorsunlessotherwise noted.)The overlyprecisedateof December1789 perhapsreflects Nemetschek's awarenessof theearliestmentionof theopera an entry in his thematic allermeinerWerke') byMozarthimself, catalogue('VerzeichnifuB duringthatmonthfortherejectedaria'Rivolgetea luilo sguardo'forGuilelmo. 2 nachOriginalbriefen, GeorgNikolausvon Nissen,Anhangu W.A. Mogarts Biographie, allesiiberihnGeschriebenen, mitvielen neuen Musikbliittern und Steindricken, Sammlungen Beylagen, einem ed. ConstanzeMozartNissen (Leipzig,1828; rpt.Hildesheim,1964), 92-3. Facsimile, 3 Friedrich nebstdramaturgischen BlOttern. 1. Teil(Leipzig,1837), Heinse,Reise-undLebens-Ski,Zen der derAkademie 183ff., quotedin KurtKramer,'Da Pontes"Cosi fantutte"',Nachrichten in Gdttingen, 1. Philologisch-historische Klasse,Jhrg.1973,No. 1 (Gottingen, Wissenschaften mitder Composition 1973), 1-27 (4): '... Mozartnamlichvon JosephII. ausdrucklich wordenist.Einem Geriichtnach hatteeine zwischenzwei geradediesesLibrettosbeauftragt Offizieren und derenGeliebtendamalsin Wienwirklich dem Intrecciodes vorgefallene, TextbuchesahnlicheStadtgeschichte dem KaiserVeranlassung geboten,seinenHofpoeten Guemaramitder Kommissionzu beehren,aus dieserKlatschereiein Drama giocoso da in musicazu machen.' mettersi This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 BruceAlan Brownand JohnA. Rice Furthermore,the emperor'sopinion as of 1788 was thatMozart's music was 'too difficultfor the voice'.4 We are not on any firmergroundwithrespectto Da Ponte's own accountsof the versionof his da Ponte(a preliminary theLifeofLorenEo opera'sgenesis.In hisExtractfrom memoirs),publishedin 1819, the poet includedwhat is clearlya fabricatedletterin whichMozart,reporting to his collaboratoron thetriumphant premiereof Don Giovanni in Prague,asks him to 'Prepareanother Da Ponte adds: MoZart'. opera foryourfriend I was so happyof theopportunity, thatalthoughI had on handat thattime[October1787] I didnotneglectmyfavourite twootherdramas,nevertheless Mozart,andin lessthanthree monthsI gave a tragicomicdrama,entitledAssur,king of Ormus, to Salieri,... an heroicomicto Martini, calledL'Arboredi Diana, and a comicoperato Mozart,withthetitle in Vienna,in Prague,in Dresden,and for of La scola degliAmanti,whichwas represented severalyearsin Paris,withunboundedapplause.5 His claims withregardto the opera's success in Dresden and Paris are exaggerated, to say theleast.And not onlyis the sequence of worksherewrong (L'arborediDiana had in factpreceded Don Giovanni),but this explanationis also at variancewith the one Da Ponte offersin his Italian Memorie. There La scoladegliamanti- Da Ponte's title for Cosi is said to have resulted fromhis liaison with the singer preferred Adriana Ferraresedel Bene - the firstFiordiligi,who had only arrivedin Vienna in the latterpart of 1788: ... to mymisfortune, who without therearrived[inVienna]a singer, havinganygreatclaims to beauty, me first of allbyhervoice;later,as sheshowedgreatpropensity towards delighted inlovewithher.... For herI wroteIlpastorfido andLa cifra withmusic me,I endedbyfalling bySalieri,twooperasthatmarkedno epochin theannalsof his musicalglory,thoughthey werein manypartsverybeautiful; and La scoladegliamanti,withmusicbyMozart,a drama whichholdsthirdplace amongthesistersbornof thatmostcelebrated father of harmony.6 In neitheraccount does Da Ponte offerany words on the actual content of the libretto.This standsin contrastto the relativeabundance of self-serving analysisand anecdotal detail concerningLe no.gedi Figaro,Don Giovanni, and manyother of his libretti,in both the Extractand the Memorie. The literarysaturationof the librettoof Cosifan tutte is so pronounced as to make Heinse's notion of an originin a Viennese Stadtgeschichte, and Da Ponte's claims regardinghis muse Ferrarese,almost beside the point. A textthatdraws as heavily as does Cosi upon mythology(via Ovid and Boccaccio) and Renaissance pastoral and epic poetry(by Sannazaro and Ariosto) would not seem especiallycongenialto 4 Letterof 16 May1788to CountFranzOrsini-Rosenberg, quotedin RudolfPayervon 5 Thurn,Joseph II. als Theaterdirektor (Viennaand Leipzig,1920), 75. Da Ponte,An Extract withtheHistory DramasWritten fromtheLifeofLorenzoda Ponte, ofSeveral II Don Giovanni, & La scoladegliamanti: II Figaro, others, SettoMusicby byHim,andamong 6 (NewYork,1819),19-20. Mozart Da Ponte,Memorie, ed. CesarePagnini (Milan,1960),135:'Permiadisgrazia capit6una midilett6 cantante, che,senzaaveregranpregiodi bellezza, priacol suo canto;indi, mostrando ... Scrissi granpropensione perme,finiicoll'innamorarmene. II perlei lpastorfido e La cifra conmusicadi Salieri, chenonformaron drammi di epocanellegloriemusicali e La scoladegli conmusicadi Mozzart, amanti, quello,sebbeneinvariepartibellissime; chetieneil terzoloco trale sorellenateda quelceleberrimo dramma padredell'armonia.' This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCos fantutte 19 Mozart, who had once declared that a comic opera was no place for anything 'learned'.7But in Vienna at thistime therewas anothercomposer of opera buffaAntonio Salieri - who, by virtueof his keen literaryinterests,was a more logical recipientof a text such as Cosifan tutte.Evidence that he was in fact intimately involved in the genesis of what would become Mozart's finalopera buffahas long lain close at hand, thoughwithoutattractingthe attentionit deserved. 1 One eyewitnessto the creation of Cosifan tuttewas the young composer Joseph Eybler, who helped coach the temperamentalleading ladies while Mozart hastily finishedthe scoring.8Another witness was none other than Constanze Mozart. During the summerof 1829 the music publisherVincentNovello and his wifeMary, both ardentlovers of Mozart's music,travelledto Salzburgto offerassistanceto the composer's elderlyand indigentsister;while there,and in Vienna, theyinterviewed Mozart's widow and as many others as theycould findwho had known Mozart, withthe intentionof writinga biographybased on the materialsgathered.Although the Novellos' plan fora Mozart biographywas neverrealised,theirsurvivingtravel diariesrepresentan importantsource of informationabout Mozart and his circle.9 Constanze Nissen (or 'Constance de Nissen Veuve Mozart', as she signedher name into their autograph album),10 resident in Salzburg since 1820, spoke with the Letterof 16 June1781 to Leopold Mozart,in MoZartBriefe ed. Wilhelm undAufgeichnungen, A. Bauer,Otto ErichDeutsch andJosephHeinz Eibl, 7 vols. (Kassel, 1962-75), III, 132. Prominent of Cosi'sliterary contentare ErnstGombrich,'Cosifantutte amongexplorations andCourtauld 17 (1954), 372-4; the (ProcrisIncluded)',Journal Institutes, oftheWarburg discussionof the operain CharlesRosen's TheClassicalStle (New York,1971), 314-17; the above-citedarticleby KurtKramer;AndrewSteptoe,'The Sourcesof Cosifantutte: A 62 (1981), 281-94 (laterincorporated intoChapter6 of The Reappraisal',Music& Letters, PonteOperas:TheCultural andMusicalBackground toLe nozzediFigaro,Don Giovanni, MoZart-Da andCosifantutte Librettisti e libretti traSette e [Oxford,1988]); Daniela Goldin,La verafenice: Ottocento (Turin,1985), 116-29; Chapters13 and 14 of Daniel Heartz,MoZart's Operas, ed., withcontributing essays,by Thomas Bauman(Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1990); and the as yetunpublishedstudyby ElizabethM. Dunstan,'Da Ponte and Ariosto'.See also Bruce Alan Brown,W A. MoZart.Cosifantutte (Cambridge,1995), 57-81. 8 Friedrich zur Recensionvon Eyblers Rochlitz,'Nachschrift musikalische Requiem', Allgemeine 28: 21 (24 May 1826), cols. 337-40 (338-9): 'Denn als Mozartdie Oper Cosifan Zeitung, tutte noch nichtfertig schrieb,und mitdem Instrumentiren war,gleichwohldie Zeit drangte: so ersuchteer mich,die Gesang-proben zu haltenund besondersdie beydenSingerinnen, Ferareseund Villeneuve,einzustudiren; wo ich Gelegenheit vollauffand,das Theaterleben, mitseinenUnruhen,Kabalen u. dgl.m. kennenzu lernen...' (For whenMozartwas the opera Cosifantutte, and was not yetfinished withthe scoring,and timewas writing and particularly short,he askedme to conductthevocal rehearsals, to coach the singers Ferareseund Villeneuve,wherebyI had morethanenoughopportunity to become and withits disturbances, acquaintedwithlifein thetheatre, cabals,and so forth...). & Mary DiariesofVincent 9 Vincentand MaryNovello,A MozartPilgrimage. BeingtheTravel Novelloin theYear1829,ed. RosemaryHughesand NerinaMedicidi Marignano(London, 1955). 10 See PamelaWeston,'VincentNovello's and Commentary', in AutographAlbum:Inventory Music& Letters, 75 (1994), 365-80 (367). Westonnotes (374) thatConstanzeMozart Nissen conversedwiththeNovellos mainlyin French. 7 This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20 BruceAlan Brownand JohnA. Rice Novellos on several occasions duringtheirstay from 12 to 17 July.Many of her statements,as paraphrasedby the Novellos, can be verifiedby othersources; others have the ringof truth. Among the many subjects upon which the Novellos' conversationswith the widow Mozart touched was Salieri's attitudetowards Mozart, which prompted Constanze to speak of Cosifantutte. MaryNovello paraphrasedConstanze's remarks as follows:'July15th. Salieri's enmityarose fromMozart's settingthe Cosifantutte which he had originallycommenced and given up as unworthy[of] musical invention.'l1The 'of' herewas suppliededitorially, when the Novellos' diarieswere finally publishedin 1955, and probablyreflectsthe manyopprobriouscommentsthathave been levelled againstthe opera's librettofromMozart's time onward. But Vincent Novello's more ample paraphraseof Constanze's commentstends to confirmthat not his collaborator's: was withhis own efforts, Salieri'sdissatisfaction Salieri firsttried to set this opera but failed,and the great success of Mozart in whathe could makenothingof is supposedto have excitedhis envyand accomplishing been the firstoriginof his enmityand malicetowardsMozart... and have hatred, NeitherMozart's nor Salieri'sbiographershave taken much notice of Constanze's declaration,despite its resonance with Mozart's mentionof 'Salieri's cabals, which however have all come to naught',in a letterinvitinghis Masonic brotherMichael Puchbergto a rehearsalof Cosi.2 This scholarlyscepticismmaybe due partlyto the factthat- if one believes Mozart - Salieribegan to act maliciouslytowardsMozart as earlyas 1783 (the episode surroundingthe replacementarias thatMozart wrote and partlybecause physicalevidence supporting for Anfossi's II curioso indiscreto)13 Constanze's statementhas been lacking.But such evidence has recentlycome to lightin the formof a musical manuscriptin Salieri'shand thatrecordshis attempt to set the librettothatDa Ponte entitledLa scoladegliamantibut thatlater,as set by Mozart, came to be known as Cosifan tutte. The card catalogue of the Musiksammlungin the OsterreichischeNationalbibliothek in Vienna documents the library'sextensive collection of Salieri's music manuscripts,includingmany autographs.Under the subheading'Terzette' is a card thatrecordsthe textincipitsof two such pieces: 'E la fededelle femine'(sic) and 'La mia Dorabella', with the furtherannotation'Cosi fan tutte'.14The manuscriptto which thiscard refers,S.m. 4531, is in Salieri'shand throughout.That it has failedto 1 12 13 14 127. Novello,A MozartPilgrimage, H. C. RobbinsLandon,forinstance,quoteswithoutcommenttheremarksof Mary on the originsof Cosifantutte, in Mozart:TheGolden Novello,alongwithotherstatements to Puchberg, Years,1781-1791(London and New York,1989), 174. Mozart'sinvitation fromthe end of December1789,is wordedas follows:'Donnerstagaberlade ich Sie (aber nurSie allein)um 10 Uhr Vormittag zu mirein,zu einerkleinenOper= Probe;- nurSie und Haydnlade ich dazu. - Miindlichwerdeich IhnenCabalenvon Salierierziihlen, die aberalle schonzu Wassergewordensind-' (MogartBriefe, IV, 100). See Mozart'sletterto his fatherof 2 July1783,in Mozart:Briefe, III, 276-7. The manuscript to theMusiksammlung fromthe formerHofkapellein was transferred to Dr 1929,at whichtimeit was givena standardlibrary binding.The authorsare grateful RitaSteblinof Viennaforcheckingthe accuracyof our transcription of the cataloguecard, and forsupplying information on thelibrary's acquisitionof themanuscript. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte 21 ofAntonioSalieri's fromtheautograph Plate1. The first pageof 'E la fededellefemmine' S.m. tutte (A-Wn, 4531) Cosifan but thatstudentsof Salieri's attracttheattentionof Mozart scholarsis not surprising; music have not noticed it calls for some explanation.Those who have browsed throughthe catalogue of the Musiksammlung'sholdingsof Salieri'soperaticmusic have naturallyfocused on completedworks,not the manyindividualnumbers,or has collectionsof these,whichare cataloguedseparately.Only RudolphAngermiiller list includes several secular vocal works. His to list Salieri's attempted complete terzettiin the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde,the other great repositoryof Salieri'sautographmanuscripts,5but not 'E la fededelle fem[m]ine'or 'La mia Dorabella'. Nor do thesenumbersappearin hislistof 'Varia',whichincludes some fragments and beginningsof operas thatwere neverbroughtto completion. S.m. 4531 consistsof eightoblong folios,withSalieri'ssignature- 'd'Ant. Salieri' - at the upper rightof folio 1' (see Plate 1).16 The terzettiare bound in reverse order,compared to thatin Mozart's Cosi. 'E la fede delle fem[m]ine'is writtenon folios 1 to 4r, and 'La mia Dorabella' occupies folios 5r to 8v; on folio4v (the back of the leaf on which 'E la fede' concludes) thereis a short recitativebeginning 15 16 unter SeinLeben Werke Salieri: undseine Antonio besonderer wveltlichen Rudolph Angermiiller, vol.I. Thissameformofsignature is to be foundon otherofSalieri's scores, autograph ormiscellaneous thoseofdetached particularly pieces- e.g.,thearia'Sentol'amicospeme' thecomposer's collection ofnumbers from fromthedisorderly 1782; Semiramide (Munich, A-Wn,Mus.Hs. 16605).The fullscoreofLa locandiera (Vienna,1773;A-Wn,Mus.Hs. in thisfashion. 16179)is alsosignedbySalieri 3 vols.(Munich, seiner Opern, 1971-4), 'grojYen' Ber6cksichtigung This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BruceAlan Brownand JohnA. Rice 22 NB. Si canliprimail RecidLch'bscilto nell' raciata. 44n-f-aa idulima Corno ind VV II D 24YY Ob: I AM l= I -J Vq!~ d'Ant.Salieri "n . 1,=2 I , II I "~ r . Df =. I ' I 1 h I I I I I I I I I i~, ym^_.pj Iitl; Ve Vr - - - * I Fag. d m.... - n I -- Guilclmo Unpox andante. r IJ D r 'pIf )A,l,gonsoPI' - la E fe - de del - -r lr le fe - mi-ne co- me I' I tI I -- (?JJ D. -r - n - ba p P Fe - ni - ce: che vi 3 p rI'r 'r Fernndo - - -I - l I - +=.r,b.,.-. Alfowolri.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~dp oP., I. I i r - ,-Dr D ;p -?_ 1 A f'(, in s t Ex. 1 AntonioSalieri,'E la fededelle femmine'(transcription, in shortscore) 'Terminiamo una volta' and, afterthe recitative,the instructions'segue subito - E la fede delle ferine' (see Plate 3, below). Reinforcingthis instructionis another note in Salieri'shand at the top of folio 1r:'NB. Si cantiprimail Recit0ch'e scritto nell' [cancelled:]altrafacciata[added later:]ultimafacciata'.At present,the firstfour folios comprisea bifoliumflankedby two loose sheets;whetherthe latteroriginally formed another bifolium is impossible to say without dismantlingthe modern This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 23 Salieri's Cosifan tutte 4_- - LFe-ni La Fc-nice- Do-ra - be belI. - la. cee D- ' ( if, T, pP ' La Fe-ni NonI sa. A:'J i Ar $' *jjtr.r r 1,r ri rei F i $' A - I p cec Fior-di - li - gi. Non e - quel quel LP ' r inF p r In, la, non none $^ Ex. 1 (cont'd) binding. The torso of 'La mia Dorabella' fills two nested bifolia. 'E la fede' is complete,and in fullscore,withan accompanimentof strings,oboes, bassoons and horns in D. For 'La mia Dorabella' only the vocal parts have been entered,up to bar 65, at the end of folio 8v,at which point the manuscriptbreaks off;presumably This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Bruce Alan Brown and John A. Rice 24 oftas 2 a* ensd alleaelais V 22 - I-I - kL bk *L25 I k -:71 La Fe-. L F-ni- ce Fio-di- L Fe - di - ce; i - a, o _j^g doe ;.. 'JTIf_h_ -" ''' I '_ P - si su b nes-ma C---. -- 7 +'~ do- ve a, ' t r *ended aftercacdlhaioa of bar27a j ni - ps p- ~1 p cea Y Do-ra-li- r ce. p - ce Fior-di-li- gi. ni .??f s i1 do- ve nes-sun -, /._ 3 J I.hnbs +obs., ---o- o pip' ----- ni no, - - sa, Do-ra-li- ce. Nr P, - t - do - ve bos. P I I - _I I J 1 r-rrrr, r ~ DL a. nos - m vi lv -i.b I pPPD r cee Fior-di-li - gi. P 7 - p-vp p ce naa a+oba., tri.g, srings, bsn. f . ni - Fior-di-li - gi la La Fe- sia JB lla ^ pp.II P \ IJ v E~1 sa, sia La Fe- ^ JJ Y v1 SJj|I ? j r P t F r.r r 1 / v iRi fI Ex. 1 (cont'd) this is all that survives of what was once a complete draft.There are marginal indicationsforan orchestraof strings,oboes and horns in B b, but Salieriwrote out onlythe firsttwo bars of the firstviolin part,and less than a bar of the bass (b. 51). This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte 25 Saliericomposedthetwo numberson at leasttwo different kindsof paper,one of whichMozartis knownalso to have used. 'La mia Dorabella' is on paper thatAlan Tyson designatedas no. 100 in his catalogueof showinga watermark in Mozart'sautographscores;thiswas thesecondof thetwo typesof watermarks and in severalotherworks paper used by Mozart for most of Cosifan tutte, from 1789 until before his death.17 Salieriused the same paper composed shortly also in partsof the autographscore of La cifra, firstperformed on 11 December 1789 (A-Wn,Mus. Hs. 16514). The appearanceof Watermark no. 100 in the score of Salieri's terzetti does not in itself the autograph pinpoint date of their but that their was to La cifra and composition, suggests origin roughly contemporary to Mozart'sCosi. MozartcompletedCosishortlybeforeits premiereon 26 January1790; in his thematic cataloguehe datedtheopera'imJenner'.His entryfromDecember1789 thearia'Rivolgetea luilo sguardo'as havingoriginally been 'meantfor describing the opera Cosi fan tutte,for Benucci', is clearlyfrom a late stage of the titleof theoperahad already compositional process- bywhichtimethedefinitive been decidedupon.It is unlikely thatSalieriwouldhavebeguncomposingLa scola degliamantiafterthe completionof La cfra(premieredon 11 December 1789), because by thenMozartwas certainly faralong withhis settingof the libretto. that Salieri was Assuming busy with La cfraat least fromthe beginningof Novemberuntilthepremiere, and thatDa Pontedidin factwritehislibretto with Ferraresein mind,Salieriprobablybeganand thenbrokeoffthe compositionof La scoladegliamanti sometimebetweenhis mistress's Viennesedebut(13 October and November 1789. As shall be seen the periodduring 1788) early presently, whichSalieriworkedon theprojectmayactuallyhave been considerably shorter thanthis. Thereare good reasonsforsupposingthatDa Ponte mighthave intendedthe librettoof La scoladegliamanti forSalieriratherthanforMozart.Foremostamong themis the close accord betweenthe natureof the textand Salieri'sliterary andinterests. In hismemoirs, thelibrettist describesSalierias 'cultivated, knowledge and learned,thougha composer,and extremely enamouredof literati'.18 Such unusualin a composer,was theresultof a carefulprogramme erudition, of training in (supervisedby Salieri'smentorFlorianGassmann),whichincludedinstruction Latinand in Italianpoetry;theyoungSalieriwas also in frequent contactwiththe 17 18 The paper of watermark no. 100 correspondsto 'Type II' in Tyson's analysisof used in Cosi,in Mozart:Studies Scores paper-types oftheAutograph (Cambridge,Mass., and London, 1987), 180-3. The firstcompletedand datedworkthatMozartwroteon this K. 580 (17 September1789). See paperwas the aria 'Schon lachtder holde Friihling', Alan Tyson,Dokumentation derautographen in Mozart,Neue Uberlieferung: Wasserteichen-Katalog, X: 33/2 (Kassel, 1992), 47-8. Survivingexamplesof thispaper Werke, Ausgabesaimtlicher amongMozart'sautographsare all ruledwithtwelvestaves,whereasthe score of Salieri's piece has onlyten;as Tyson suggestselsewhere(227), Mozartmayhave maintaineda stockof unruledpaper,portionsof whichhe took to a musicshop forrulingfromtime to time. Da Ponte,Memorie, 91: 'colto,dotto,sebbenemaestrodi cappella,ed amantissimo de' letterati'. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 26 BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice imperial poet Metastasio and other Italian librettistsresidentin Vienna. Among Salieri'sItalian operas - both serious and comic - works derivedfromor parodying higherformsof literaturefigureprominently.His 1789 settingof Ilpastorfido,Da Ponte's operaticadaptationof Guarini's pastoralepic, has alreadybeen mentioned. Salieri'sfirstwork forthe stage,Le donneletterate of 1770, was also overtlyliteraryin content,with a cast that included choruses of 'Letterati'and scholars in doctoral robes. The work's librettist, Giovanni Gastone Boccherini,collaboratedwithSalieri two years later to produce La secchiarapita(The stolen bucket), aftera 'poema eroicomico' by the late Renaissance writer Alessandro Tassoni. Boccherini's libretto,like its model, mocked the style of epics by poets such as Homer and Ariosto;extendingthisparodyin a more musical direction,Boccherinialso included humorous imitationsof favouriteMetastasianarias. Several otherlibrettiofferedto Salierifairlybristlewithliteraryreferences- Da Ponte's II riccod'ungiorno (1784), for instance,withits 'sentenza' quoted fromCato (1.2), and GiambattistaCasti's Prima la musicaepoi leparole(1786), which alludes to two charactersfromAriosto's Orlando furioso(in Scene 5). This much is suggestiveof a composer eager to associate himselfwithlibrettiof some literaryostentation,in a genre where this was not always expected. In the realm of serious opera, too, Salieri was anxious that posterityregardhim as well versed in the highergenresof literature, which librettists regularlymined forsource material.As he did withmanyof his operaticworks,late in lifeSalieriread through and annotated his autograph score to Armida (1771, on a libretto by Marco Coltellini),explaininghis compositional goals and methods: Alreadyat that[young]age I had acquiredthehabit,in settingto musicpoetrytakenfrom or fromsome othersource,of readingthepoem or storyfromwhichthepoet had history drawnhis subjectduringtheentiretimeI was composing.Readingthosecantosof Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata thatinvolveRinaldoon the island of Armidagave me the idea of fortheoverture ofthisopera,as a preface[antisoggetto] .. .19 composinga sortofpantomime One supposes thatin embarkingon a settingof La scoladegliamantiSalieriread (or reread) that other great Renaissance epic, Orlandofurioso,which was one of the principalsources for Da Ponte's libretto. Anotherfeatureof Da Ponte's librettothatpoints to Salieriis its originaltitle,La scoladegliamanti.Da Ponte never departed fromcallingthe opera by this title,even when referring, manyyearslater,to Mozart's setting.Da Ponte may have intended not only the libretto'soriginaltitle (with its distinctivespelling 'scola') but also several aspects of the plot as referencesto the opera with which Joseph's comic troupe introduceditselfin 1783: Salieri'sLa scolade'gelosi,on a textby Da Ponte's 19 A-Wn,Mus. Hs. 16517: 'Gia d'allora[i.e.,'in frescaet'] pigliaiil costume,mettendoin musicapoesia tiratadalla storiao d'altrafonte,di legger,per tuttoil tempoche componevo, il Poema e la storiada cui il Poeta avea tiratoil suo soggetto.La letturadei Cantinella Gerusalemmeliberatadel Tasso che riguardano Rinaldonell'Isolad'Armida,mi han fatto venirl'idea di comporper sinfoniadi quest'operauna speciedi Pantomima,come un antisoggetto.' This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCos fantutte 27 friendand mentorCaterino Mazzola.20 In this opera, the attemptsof the amorous Count to seduce the middle-classErnestinainflamethe jealousyof both his wifethe Countess and Ernestina'shusband Blasio. The lieutenant,the teacherof thisschool, advises Blasio and the Countess to make their spouses jealous. He is a man of experience,playinga role analogous to thatof Don Alfonso in La scoladegliamanti. Like Alfonso, he coveys his knowledge of women in the formof a maxim: Chi vuol nellafemmina Trovarfedelta, La lasci padrona Di sua liberta. who wishes to find in a woman shouldallow her to remainmistressof her (He fidelity liberty.) The lieutenant'smaxim appears - always in G major and accompanied by two horns - at the beginningand end of his aria 'Chi vuol nella femmina',and again, quoted by the servantLumaca, in the finaleof Act II. Don Alfonso gives a similarlyepigrammaticlesson on the fidelityof women in the opening scene of La scoladegliamanti,in the terzetto'E la fede delle femmine', whichtakesits firstquatrain(withone crucialalterationin the firstline) froman aria in Metastasio's Demetrioof 1731 (III.3): E fededegliamanti Come l'arabafenice: Che vi sia, ciascunlo dice; Dove sia, nessunlo sa. (The faithof loversis liketheArabianphoenix;everyonesaysit exists,butno one knows whereto findit.) Althoughthe phoenix-metaphor(or simile) was ubiquitous in Classical and Italian literature- appearing,for example, in the frameto a tale in Orlandofuriosoupon which Da Ponte drew in composing La scola degliamanti,both Goldoni and Da Ponte had earlierquoted or paraphrasedthis specificMetastasianversion,with the expectation that their audiences would recognise it.21 Salieri had shown himself partialto Metastasian quotation and parody earlierin his career as well, with La secchiarapitaof 1772. Even in the single German Singspiel he wrote for Joseph's of 1781, Salieri managed to create opporNationaltheater,Der Rauchfangkehrer tunities for settings of Metastasian verses from both Attilio Regoloand Didone Mazzola's and Salieri'sopera had firstbeen performed in Venice duringCarnival1779. French'ecole' plays(i.e., withthiswordin theirtitles)faroutnumberItalian'scuola' (or WhenDa PontewroteLa scoladegliamanti 'scola') libretti. onlya handfulof such operas had been performed; see Claudio Sartori,I libretti italiania stampadalleorigini al 1800,7 vols (Cuneo, 1990-94), V, 160-6. These worksincluded,as it happens,an opera entitledLa scoladegliamanti by GiuseppePalombowhich,withmusicby Giacomo Tritto,was givenin Naples in 1783 and in Palermoin 1784. 2Goldoni quoted thequatrainin La scuolamodema of 1748; see Heartz,Mozart'sOperas, 229. Da Ponte'searliestuse of thismaximwas in his firstlibrettoforVienna- and forSalieri,II ricco d'ungiomoof 1784 (II.9, Giacintoto Emilia): 'Siete savissima,/Ciascun lo dice,/Siete l'arabica/RaraFenice.' 20 This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 BruceAlan Brownand JohnA. Rice abbandonata.22 (One assumesthatSalieri'ssuggestion laybehindhislibrettist Joseph the an Italianchimneysweep, character of title ploy making LeopoldAuenbrugger's singingteacher,and formerstudentof Metastasio's'caro gemello',the castrato Mozartknewand respectedMetastasio'sworks(as is clearfromthe Farinelli).23 butthereis no examplein hiscomicoperas, Idomeneo), correspondence surrounding of overt to Cosi fantutte, quotationor parodyof his ariatexts,as thereis in prior Salieri'sceuvre. If thelibrettoforLa scoladegliamanti showsaffinities to textspreviously set by in itsfinalformas Cosifantutte Salieri,and to thetitleof one of themin particular, it also containspointedreferences, both textualand musical,to his own and The mostobviousofthesereferences is the Mozart'searlieroperaLe nogediFigaro. mottoof the title,takenfromthe lines 'Cosi fantuttele belle,/Nonc'e alcuna novita'whichBasilio singsin No. 7 of Figaro,commenting on CountAlmaviva's in from of Cherubino Susanna's chambers. Evidence Mozart'sautograph discovery scoreof Cosisuggeststhattheopera's'lesson'(No. 30), whichendswiththewords 'Cosi fantutte'sungbyAlfonsoto a deceptivecadenceand repeatedbytheofficers latein the to an emphaticfullcadence,was incorporated intoLa scoladegliamanti at Mozart's We cannot know, compositional process,perhaps given suggestion.24 the fragmentary natureof Salieri'ssetting, whetherthe librettoalreadycontained thesewordsat thetimehe receivedit.ButMozartgavethemottogreatprominence itwas also probablyalso Mozartwho byusingitas a frameforhisopera'sOverture; chose themottoas theopera'sprimary tide,movingDa Ponte'soriginaltitleto a advertised it as subsidiary position.The posterforthe opera's firstperformance in 'COSI FAN TUTTE,/O SIA:/LA SCOLA DEGLI AMANTI' (thealternative letters smaller title thanthoseof themaintitle).WiththischangeMozart(presumably) obscuredthe libretto's references to La scolade'gelosi and puthis personalstampon thelibretto witha tite recallingone of his own operasratherthanone of Salieri's. 2 The Nationalbibliothek manuscript suggeststhatSalieristartedLa scoladegliamanti at thebeginning, as was his usualpractice.Salierirecordedin an autobiographical sketchhowhe wentaboutthecomposition ofhisfirst comicopera,Le donne letterate, in 1769. Havingfirstdevelopeda tonalplan fortheentireopera,he writes, I feltan irresistible often urgeto set to musictheopera'sintrodu!ione [theensemble, withwhichoperebuffe oftheperiodgenerally I tried to as multipartite, opened]. imagine as possiblethepersonalities ofthecharacters andthesituations inwhichtheyfound vividly andright motif thatseemedtometocarry andunify themselves, awayI foundanorchestral thepiece'svocalline,whichwasfragmentary onaccount ofthetext.I nowimagined myself in theparterre, I triedthem myideasbeingperformed; hearing theyseemedin character; 22 23 24 The piecesin questionare thearia'Se pii feliceoggetto'fromthe first-named opera,and the recitative no' fromthesecond. 'Basta,vinceste:eccotiil foglio'and aria'Ah non lasciarmi, See VolkmarBraunbehrens, Master:TheRealStory trans.EvelineL. Maligned Salieri, ofAntonio Kanes (New York,1992), 75, 273. See Tyson,MoyartStudies Scores, 190, 197. oftheAutograph This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifan tutte 29 withthem,I continuedfurther. So, in halfan hour,a sketch again,and sinceI was satisfied of theintrodu!ione was down on paper.Who was happierthanI!25 Salieriwas confrontednot Twentyyearslater,in embarkingupon La scoladegliamanti, with an introduione with a but with threeterzettiin rapid librettobeginning per se, succession (assumingthatthe thirdalreadyexistedpriorto Mozart's involvementin the project). But as these numberswere all small in scale, and for the same three characters,togetherwith theirinterveningrecitativestheycan be considered as a modifiedintroduzione. The two terzettiof S.m. 4531 are in keysa thirdapart ('La mia Dorabella' in B b, ' la fede' in D); in Mozart's later settingall three pieces are related by thirds,descending through the opera's tonic triad, G-E-C. Salieri composed the numbers'vocal frameworkfirst;thisis evidenteven in the completed piece, from the differingshades of inks used, and also from the absence of instrumental partsin two bars (25a and 27a) thatSaliericancelledwhile revisinghis initialdraft.Such a procedureseems also to be impliedin the account of composing the introdu!ione for Le donneletterate: firstthe vocal line, then an orchestralmotifto and it. Salieri's 'carry unify' biographerIgnaz von Mosel is even more explicitin the he had describing way composed Axur 'scene by scene, as Da Ponte brought them to him, sometimeswith just the vocal part and bass, and sent them to the copyistso thatthe singersmightlearnthemwithoutdelay.'26When EmperorJoseph, unaware of this procedure,wished to hear somethingof the work-in-progress, the were fetched from the and found to contain original manuscripts copyist 'just the vocal parts'; 'the other staves (apart froma few ritornelli, or here and therean indicationof the accompaniment)forthe instrumentshad been leftempty'.27 The presentbindingof S.m. 4531 has obliteratedanyphysicalclues as to the order in whichSalierisketchedthe two terzetti.But theone he proceeded to finishwas that most likelyto arouse his literaryinterests:the second terzetto,with the quotation fromMetastasio.This is not the onlyliterary referencein the terzettoas set by Salieri. At the midpoint in the piece, Ferrando and Guilelmo again tryto defend their beloveds' honour, but can only partly utter their names - 'Dorabel...'/ 'Fiordili. . .' - before the philosopher cuts them offwith a returnof his original 25 See Ignaz von Mosel, ueberdasLebenunddieWerke desAntonSalieri(Vienna,1827), 32: '.... befielmichein unwiderstehliches die Introduction der Oper in Musikzu setzen. Verlangen, Ich suchtemirdaherden Characterund die Situationder Personenrechtlebhaftvor Augen zu stellen,und plo6tzlich fandich eine Bewegungdes Orchesters, die mirden,dem Texte nach zerstuckten Gesangdes Tonstiickesangemessenzu tragenund zu verbindenschien. Ich versetztemichnunim Geistein das Parterre, h6rtemeineIdeen ausfuhren; sie schienen mircharacteristisch; ich schriebsie auf,priiftesie nochmal,und da ich damitzufrieden war, fuhrich wiederfort.So standin einerhalbenStundeder Entwurfder Introduction aufdem Notenblatte. Werwarvergniigter als ich!' Salieri'saccountis discussedand quotedat greaterlengthby Heartzin Mozart'sOperas,139, 154-5. 130: 'schrieber Scene furScene,wie Da Ponte sie ihmbrachte,einstweilen 26 Mosel, Salieri, blos die Singstimmen mitdem Basse, und schicktesie zum Copisten,damitdie Sangersie einstudieren konnten.' unverzuglich 27 130: 'Diese [themusicians]bemerketen Mosel, Salieri, bald,daB in den eingelangten blos die Singstimmen Notenblattern vorhanden,die ibrigenLinienaber (einigeRitornelle, oder hierund dorteineAndeutungdes Accompagnements ausgenommen)furdie Instrumente leergelassenwaren.' This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 30 BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice of the originalFiordiligi'sname melody.This is a comic echo of the dismemberment in Canto 42 of Ariosto's Orlando as her dyinghusband Brandimartetellshis furioso, friendOrlando: ... fa che ti raccordi di me ne l'oraziontue gratea Dio; ne men ti raccomandola mia Fiordi...Ma dirnon pote:- ... ligi-, e qui finio. me in yourprayersto God; no less do I recommendto you (... endeavourto remember Fiordi... but he could not say- ... ligi-, and herehe ended.) my As Ariosto's Fiordiligihad done withrespectto her husband,in Da Ponte's libretto Fiordiligisets offto join her fianceon the battlefield- with the differencethatshe betrayshim before even managingto depart.In the definitiveversion of the opera the game withFiordiligi'sname occurs not here,but shortlybeforethe denouement, where the effectis both more noticeable and more comical. As Guilelmo asks the whereabouts of the fianceewho has just betrayedhim, thereis this exchange: FERRANDO: Chi? la tua Fiordiligi? GUILELMO: La mia Fior... fiordi diavolo,che strozzi Lei primae dopo me! (FERRANDO: Who? yourFiordiligi [literally: lily-flower]?/GUILELMO: MyFior... fiordi diavoli she be and then me!)28 first, [devil-flower], may strangled The Ariostan allusion in 'E la fede' was probably an idea originatingwith the composer, ratherthan somethingalreadypresentin Da Ponte's draftlibretto,since the men's exclamations 'Dorabel.. .'/'Fiordili...' clumsilydisrupt the prevailing ottonario metre. In both Ariosto's epic and in Da Ponte's final text to Cosi, the of Fiordiligi'sname is fitcomfortablywithinendecasillabo verses. fragmentation The point of thisreferenceto the originalFiordiligi,whereverit occurred,was to bringto the spectators'attentionDa Ponte's considerabledebt to Ariosto,in terms of his opera's themes, its characters' names, even actual locutions (e.g., in Fiordiligi'sfirstaria, 'Come scoglio immoto resta',and in Guilelmo's aria 'Donne mie,la fatea tanti').29Not only Fiordiligi'sname, but also Dorabella's derivesfrom Dorabella, writesElizabeth Dunstan, is 'a composite name deriving Orlandofurioso. fromthe two ladies who framethe storyin Canto 28. Rodomonte is in love with one afterthe other:his fianceeDoralice betrayshim forMandricardoand Isabella 28 29 thatthisallusionwas consciouslyintendedcan be foundin a muchlater Confirmation addressedto theAmericanconsulin Florence. poem (c. 1821) by Da Ponte,a capitolo of his studentsof Italianliterature, Da Ponte describesAriostoin Depictingtherecitation termsthatrecallBrandimarte's dyingutterance: Piangervedrestegiovanie vecchioni al piantodi Francescoe d'Ugolino[,] fremer con Monti,ridercon Goldoni; a mentedeclamarMirrao il Mattino; e al suon celestedel cantordi Fiordiligigridar:- Per Dio, questo e divino!- ... (Personalcommunication fromElizabethM. Dunstan,6 July1994.) As Dunstanhas pointedout (see n. 7), Fiordiligi's ariaderivesfroma passagein 44: 61, Guilelmo'sfromthe openingof Canto 28. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte 31 of AntonioSalieri'sCosi Plate2. The firstpage of 'La mia Dorabella'fromtheautograph tutte S.m. 4531) fan (A-Wn, confirmation escapes his embracesby cleverlycontrivedsuicide.'30There is striking of thisin Salieri'sabortedsetting,as twicewithinhis draftof 'E la fede' Salierislips and writes'Doralice' instead of Dorabella (see bars 26 and 28, in Ex. 1, above). The manuscriptof Salieri's attemptedsettingof La scola degliamantiis also illuminatingwith regard to the heroes' names. In examining both Mozart's autographscore to Cosifan tutteand the librettoprintedfor the firstproduction, Alan Tyson noticed thatFerrando'sfellowofficeris in factnevercalled Guglielmo, but rather'Guilelmo' (or 'Guillelmo').3' This Latinateformpersistsin severalearly librettiand published scores, only graduallygivingway to the more usual spelling 'Guglielmo'. The marginalindicationsforboth terzettiin S.m. 4531 unambiguously give 'Guilelmo', confirmingTyson's suspicions that this was what Da Ponte intended. Salieri seems to have had second thoughts as to Ferrando's name, however, crossing it out on the firstpage of 'E la fede' and replacingit with 'Feramondo' - the name of the protagonistin Da Ponte's and Martiny Soler's II burberodi buoncuore(after Goldoni), an opera already in the repertoryof the Viennese troupe.In view of Salieri'shabitswithregardto his manuscripts,we must entertainthepossibilitythathe made thischange manyyearslater,perhapsin a vain attemptto disguisethe work's relationto Mozart's opera. Turningnow to the draftof 'La mia Dorabella' (see Plate 2 and Ex. 2), we are confrontedwitha piece in a much earlierstage of the compositionalprocess,with 30 31 Dunstan,'Da Ponteand Ariosto',8. See Tyson, 185-6. Studies oftheAutograph Scores, Mozartt This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice 32 'r r Ir J= = I Oboe SL| hltrit; Vknao I' |I~fFFFcI I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i P^~S3I ~ Do I.=L.- ,,Fag,: D.Alfo B om cie - lo I I G?ic.-||o Guillmo H : iti^.,.] I . la I I I I I I I i r I |r r |f I I fe -del quan-to I I I I I bel- la il cie- lo fe. la It i [D.Alf.] I :r f dir - mi non pl:iP 25 fWS I r Jr sa; I I I p~rl tr lei I I I - za,e bIr I bel - t. \I I ii' rl' Ir r I tan in bel - ta; cos-tan-za,e -gua-le cre do Ho i Ir r i r r r Irr r cri- ni gia gri - gi; ex ca - the - dra r p i1 mia Fior-di - li - gi I J 1' r u lei tra- I I I ~ 1fr F!ir,r ,ir - r I I I I u -gua-lein I I La = I I r p1 + fe; i[Gui]: I I I la cre - do I I cos - I I I I i i iI r r r par- lo.. m ta - li I li in shortscore) Ex. 2 AntonioSalieri,'La mia Dorabella' (transcription, many corrections plainly visible - even in the two-bar violin flourish at the beginning. Motivic resemblances are few; presumably,more would have been supplied by the orchestralmaterial.The voices have onlyjust come togetherforthe This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 33 Salieri'sCosifantutte *origially: -YwEr--t-f-rTr rr r I7Ir 9:3b 33 r r rilrt r * nh ~ pir r r'Ir F ? r irrr, V!ir r r KD i| p:L^ No, de-to ci a - ve - le che in- fi-dees-ser fi - nis- ca 6- Ih 41 no - iI i -"~ r ,pir-.ir ti - gi J ve - te o - nes - - I i I It . ~ !if r' lr r I 9s pon-no. r ! J do - ve - te Pro-var -cel I iI sea i qui. It prr.j.ij t I - plr g pippljrT^ Tai pro- ve la - scia-mo.... j p-y ir -r No o, le vo - glia-so, i i! r- ( ir rr r r I spa- da, rom- fuo- ri o la i i *originally: :o ir r r e |f t 1 i \y r t,mr rr :Trrr1'I iI iII i I I I I I I I I I piam l'a - mis-- ta. y\>: b*iT^T ?? 0 paz-zo I I )9: !pr de - si - re! 'Ir yD7 r rr pr r cer- car di sco - pri - re I I I t quel mal, che tro - va - to I mes- I I ,i irr rr r, SIr1 r r r1 r i^ I ? rprir i '~ r 1' Jirr r r ir irFi r r rIy< r'rtr Ip F r-i+r flb -" Sul vi - vo mi 9: r f chi-ni ci ^ fa! 0 toc- ca chi la - scia di ir r- 4 pir rr , i Ir'] paz-zo de - si - re! boc-ca r cer-car di sco - pri-re sor - ti - reun ac - cen-to Ir.rrJ quel mal che tro - va-to, sor - ti- reun ac - IJJri mes-chi-ni, mes- inMS ofthisphrase indistinct version * original Ex. 2 (cont'd) firsttime as the manuscriptbreaks off.Essentiallyall of the texthas been used up by this point, and littlecan have followed but cadentialperorations. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 34 BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice Plate3. The recitative 'Terminiamo unavolta'fromtheautograph ofAntonioSalieri'sCosi tutte S.m. fan (A-Wn, 4531) The recitativeon folio 4v was writtenafterNo. 2 ('E la fede') had been at least from drafted,if not necessarilyorchestrated.Its textis shorterand quite different that set by Mozart, not least in being forAlfonso alone: Terminiamo una volta O amiciquesteciarle. Che ognundi voi la fedeltade vanti Della sua caraamata, Trovo naturalissimo: Ma perme rimarro sempre Nel direostinatissimo: once and forall;I findit onlynaturalthateach of you (Friends,letus stopthischattering vauntsthe fidelity of his dear beloved;but as forme, I will alwaysremainobstinatein saying:) The last line sets up the Metastasianquotationeven more directlythanin the final version. But technically,this textis unimpressive:witness the ratherfacilerhyme and the superfluoussyllablethatspoils the settenario 'naturalissimo'/'ostinatissimo', metreof the penultimateline.32Other differences of literarystyleand dramaturgy will occupy us shortly.Salieri'ssettingof thesewords is unremarkable, exceptin the way it connectsharmonicallyto the precedingand followingnumbers(see Plate 3). 32 The word'sempre'was possiblyadded by Salieri;withoutit,thelineis a propersettenario tronco. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Cosfantutte Salieri's 35 The openingE-major chord is rudelyeffective in 'terminating' the B b-major is mitigated by the disputesof No. 1, thoughthe abruptnessof the transition melodichalf-step acrossthegap in Alfonso'sline.The third-relation intoNo. 2 is mildbycomparison(withtwocommontones),functioning muchas does thecolon thatspansthesyntactical between the two texts. gap 3 Salieri'sdecisionto leaveLa scoladegliamanti When incompleteis uncharacteristic. he brokeoffthecomposition ofL'isolacapricciosa in 1779becauseofthedeathofthe who had commissioned until1793,when it, the opera lay unfinished impresario Saliericompletedit;theworkwas presented twoyearslateras I mondoallarovescia.33 In 1780 he begana settingof Metastasio'sSemiramide forNaples butleftthescore that he fall out of favourwith his patron, uncompletedwhen, fearing might he asked to be excused from his contract and hurriedback to EmperorJoseph, Vienna.But twoyearslaterwhenhe was commissioned to writean operaseriafor to finishand presentSemiramide.34 Salieri's Munich,he took the opportunity to that he had aside in to stands contrast tendency eventually salvageprojects put Mozart'sseveraloperaticfalse-starts, whichduringthe 1780s includedL'oca del and a settingof a Germantranslation of Goldoni'sII servitore Cairo,Lo sposodeluso di duepadroni.35 The Novellos' recordsof ConstanzeNissen's commentsdo not suggestthat SalierifoundDa Ponte'slibrettoto La scoladegli amanti wantingin anyrespect.His decisionto abandonLa scoladegli amanti had less to do withthequalityof probably thelibretto thanwithhis stateof mindin 1788 and 1789- yearsmarkedbyartistic a low levelof creativeenergy, andvarying indecisiveness, degreesof dependenceon earliermusic.The first monthsof 1788had represented a peakin Salieri'scareer.In Axurred'Ormus was performed forthe January (by Da Ponte,afterBeaumarchais) firsttimein celebration of themarriage of Archduke(and laterEmperor)Francis and Elizabethof Wiirttemberg. AxurbecameJoseph'sfavourite opera,performed oftenduringthenexttwoyears;itwas probablyno accidentthatwithina fewweeks of thepremiere Salieriattainedthemostprestigious musicalpositioninVienna,that of Hofkapellmeister. intervention was Joseph's doublynecessaryforthisappointment,becausein orderto makeit he also had to pensionoffthecurrent occupant of the post,the aged GiuseppeBonno. Normallythe Hofkapellmeister held this for but for the sake of his overruled tradition. life, position protegeSalieri,Joseph Salieri'stwinachievements of 1788werefollowedbyseveraldisappointments. One ofthesewas thesouring ofthecomposer'salmostbrotherly withDa Ponte friendship earlyin 1789,on accountof disputesconnectedwiththelibrettist's pasticcioL'ape musicale. Performed forthebenefitof theparticipating singersduringlateFebruary 33 34 35 Mosel, Salieri, 66-7, 144. Ibid., 67-9, 74. WhetherMozartactuallybegansettingthistextwe do not know;certainly thepreparation of thelibrettowas well underwayby the timehe abandonedtheproject.See his letterof 5 in MoZartBriefe, February1783 to his father, III, 255. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 36 BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice and earlyMarch,thisunusualworkincludedan arrayof ariasand ensembles(changed each night)fromoperas recentlyperformedby the troupe,integratedinto a plot that was, as Da Ponte describesit,'a ratherwittyand agreeablesatireof the public,of the impresari,of the singers,the poets, the composers,finallyof myself'.The mannerin which Da Ponte put the work togetherwas a sure recipe fortrouble: Havingcomposedthisoperawithouttheaid of a composer,and chosenforitthosesingers of thepublicand of the who, on accountof theirtalents,had a rightto themunificence sovereign,all the otherswho saw themselvesexcludedbecame enraged,as much at my forwhomI had imaginedthisspectacle,as at me. The worstoffended of all was mistress, the good maestroSalieri,a man whom I loved and esteemedboth out of gratitude and withwhomI passedmanylearnedly inclination, happyhours,andwho forsixyearsin a row ... had been moremybrotherthanmyfriend.His excessiveaffection forla Cavalieri(let us name her),a womanwho had enoughmeritnot to need to raiseherselfby meansof and myequallyimmoderate affection forla Ferraresi(let us namehertoo), was intrigues, thesorrymotiveforbreaking a bond of friendship thatshouldhavelasteduntodeath. .36 The rage of these two musthave been all the greateron account of the considerable sums earned by Da Ponte and his mistressin benefitperformancesof the pasticcio on the 4th and 6th of March, respectively.Here then are two factors directly relevantto thegenesis of the opera thatbecame Cosifantutte: the two friends'shared literaryrecreations('molte ore dottamentefelici'),and Da Ponte's favouringof his mistressover Salieri's candidate for leading roles.37It is difficultto imagine their collaboration on La scola degliamantisurvivingsuch a rupture,and even more difficultto imagine it being initiatedafterthis time. Of necessitymaestro di cappella Salieri and theatre-poetDa Ponte continued to deal with each other in the Burgtheater,but the only work of theirs to reach the stage subsequent to the Cavalieri debacle, the above-mentionedLa cifra,was an adaptation.38Da Ponte's resentmentwas such thathe named Salierias his 'primaryenemy'in a memorandum he wrote followinghis dismissal by Emperor Leopold in 1791, includingin his indictmentthe fact that Salieri had 'made sing in the capacityof prima donna la Cavalieri,whom I had proposed to dismiss'. In the same memorandum,Louise Villeneuve - the firstDorabella - is called the 'third minister'of Da Ponte's 36 136:'Avendoio composto Da Ponte,Memorie, senzasoccorsodi compositore, e quell'opera cheaveanoun diritto allamunificenza delpubblicoe delsovrano presivi quellitracantanti, tutti ch'esclusi divenner furenti tantocontra la miaamica, vidersi, peri lorotalenti, glialtri, checontrame.Quegli,chesopratutti si quellospettacolo, percuiio aveaimmaginato risenti fuil bravomaestro unuomoch'ioamaie stimai e pergratitudine e per Salieri; concuipassaimolteoredottamente e cheperseiannicontinui ... era inclinazione, felici, mio.I1suo troppoaffetto stato,piuicheamico,fratello perla Cavallieri (nominiamola), donnacheavevaabbastanza di merito e il pernonaverbisognod'alzarsi perviad'intrighi, anchequesta),fuil dolente motivodi mio,parimente soverchio, (nominiam perla Ferraresi unnodod'amicizia, chedoveadurarcollavita.. .'. rompere 37 Franziska knownbythestage-name Catarina hadcreated theroleof Kavalier, Cavalieri, Constanze inMozart'sDie EnOfhrung ausdem Serail. 38 In December to ingratiate himself withthe 1790,a timewhenDa Pontewasstilltrying theatrical he claimed to be collaborating withSalierion an operato be calledII direction, butno traceofsucha workremains; seeVienna,Staatsarchiv, Vertrauliche filarmonico, Karton40,Nr.2 ('Cose dell'Ab. da Ponte'),'Memoria da mepresentata alla Akten, Direzioneil mesedi Xbredell'anno 1790',fol.23v. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte 37 destruction,her motivation also being exclusion from Da Ponte's lucrative pasticcio.39 Of the four operas completed by Salieri duringthe last two years of Joseph's and La cifra, were reign,only threereached the stage,and two of these,II talismano based on earlierworks. Only Ilpastorfidowas a settingof a newlywrittenlibretto, but even for this opera Salieri borrowed the overture,fromPrimala musicae poi le parole.Salieri's other opera fromthis period, Cublai,grankan de' Tartar (begun in Paris in 1786, and presumablyintended for performancefollowinghis returnto Vienna the following year), was never given, probably because it could be interpretedas a satire of the Russian imperial court.40That a composer as well connected as Salieri,at the heightof his career,should complete an opera thatwent In composing Cublai,Salieriwould seem temporarily unperformedis extraordinary. to have lost his judgement as to what was or was not acceptable to the administration of the Burgtheater.His sense of the public's tasteseems also to have falteredaround this time, for IIpastor fido failed to please the Viennese. Salieri withdrewit aftera few performances,revisedit and presentedit again; but again it failed.41 In both II talismano and La cifraSalieridid somethinghe had rarelydone before: he presentedold music as if it were new. Three of Salieri's older opere buffefor Vienna had been revivedduringthe 1780s.42But Salieridid not pretendthatthese were new works,and he did not receive a separatefee forany of them,as faras we and La cifraas new works,and receivedthe fee know.43SalieripresentedII talismano normallypaid to composers fornew operas, in spite of the factthatboth are based on earlierscores. II talismano has its originsin a collaborativesetting(for Milan, in of a libretto by Goldoni, in which Salieri had set Act I and Giacomo Rust 1779) II Acts and III. Da Ponte, preparingGoldoni's librettofor Salieri in 1788, made very few changes in Act I, probably because this allowed Salieri to reuse his old music. La cifrais a reworkingand expansion of La damapastorella, which had been for the first and the time in Rome performed apparently only duringCarnival 1780. In composing La cifraSalierireached back also to Der Rauchfangkehrer, fromwhich 'Cose dell'Ab. da Ponte',fol.19r:'Per farcantarela Cavalierida primaDonna, ch'io aveva Da Ponte states(fol. 19v): 'Costei propostodi pensionare'.Regarding'La Willeneuve', dimentic6tuttele beneficenzee cortesiedella mia amiciziaperchenon l'ho fattaentrare nell'Ape musicale' favoursand courtesiesbecause I did not (She forgotall myfriendly includeherin L'ape musicale). This documentis quotedalso by Otto Michtner, in 'Der Fall Abbe Da Ponte',Mitteilungen desOsterreichischen 19 (1966), 170-209 (199). Staatsarchivs, 40 See Braunbehrens, 158-60. Maligned Master, 41 was performed threetimesin February1789,thenthreemoretimesin October Ilpastorfido and November.That Salierirevisedthe operais knownfrompaymentrecordscitedby DexterEdge in 'Mozart'sFee forCosifantutte', 116 oftheRoyalMusicalAssociation, Journal (1991), 211-35 (212, n. 4). 42 La locandiera of (firstperformed 1773) was restagedin 1782,and fortheinauguration La scolade'gelosi withseveralnew Joseph'snew buffotroupein 1783 Salierirefurbished arias;La fieradi Veneia (1772) was revivedin 1785. 43 See Edge, 'Mozart'sFee forCosifantutte', 222. However,the fee of 450 guldenthatSalieri receivedin May 1790,'formodifications beyondhis obligationmade over severalyearsto variousoperas',mayhave been intendedas remuneration forthe changesthathe made in his earlieroperasin preparation fortheirperformance byJoseph'stroupe;see Edge, 235. 39 This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BruceAlanBrownandJohnA. Rice 38 second theme),and to an earlier he took the overture(thoughwitha different aria'Non L'amore innocente which (1770), providedtheconcertante pastoralopera, vo gia che vi suonino'. of his mentorGluck - to This increasingtendencyof Salieri's- reminiscent in is of an earlier his own works view ironic, episodeinvolvingEmperor plunder to Viennain 1780 afterhis Italiansojourn,Joseph Joseph.When Salierireturned orderedhim to compose a Singspielforhis Germantroupe.Salierisuggesteda in Italy.' "No translation", answered ofone oftheoperashe hadwritten translation "an originalSingspiel!"'44EightyearslaterJosephwas in no themonarch,smiling, He was absentfromViennaformuchof 1788, positionto makesuchdistinctions. leading his army against the Turks, and seriouslyill besides. Under these he had no patiencefortheexcessive(as he thought)salarydemands circumstances, director andinJulyhe wroteto theatre of hisItaliansingers, Rosenbergofhisplans Da and Ponte to dismissthetroupe.45 Rosenberg (amongothers)persuadedhimto reconsider,and the troupestayed;but the emperorhenceforth displayedlittle in to an operaticenvironment interestin opera. All thismusthave contributed whichSalieriwas not encouragedto do his best.His attemptto set La scoladegli amanti was probablyaffected by thisclimate,but the experienceof failureon this as itcoincidedwith have Salieri'sself-doubt, particularly aggravated projectmayalso and creativefriendship withDa Ponte. theloss of an important 4 Salieri'smisfortune was Mozart'sgood luck.As Da Pontewrotemanyyearslater, and second 'Mozartmusthavebeenpleasedwith[myverses],becauseafterthefirst of mydramas,he was happyto have the third'.46 Indeed,Mozart,in precarious whetheror financial musthavewelcomedthechanceto setthelibretto, condition, not he was the firstto whomDa Ponte offered it.47Leopold Mozart'sprediction thatitwouldcosthis son 'muchrunning withregardto Le nozZediFigaro- namely, and arguing, untilhe getsthelibrettoso arrangedas he wishesfor back and forth, his purpose'- can probablybe appliedto Cosias well.48Comparisonof Salieri's - incomplete ofLa scoladegli amanti setting thoughitis - to Mozart'srevealsseveral in the final form of the libretto, manyof themforthebetter.In addition changes of thegamewithFiordiligi's to theaforementioned name,thereare postponement in theversionsforSalieriand forMozartof thefirstrecitative notabledifferences in ways text.The latter(givenbelow) is not onlylongerbut also moretheatrical, in its drafting. thatpointto Mozart'sactiveinvolvement 72. See Mosel, Salieri, 81. von Thurn,Joseph II. als Theaterdirektor, Payer 46 44 45 47 48 Da Ponte, Extract,32. as the Da Ponte could not offerhis textto Martiny Soler,anotherfavourite collaborator, latterwas by thistimeestablishedat theRussiancourtin St Petersburg. Letter(to his daughter)of 11 November1785,in MoZartBriefe, III, 444: 'das wirdihm wie eben vielesLauffenund disputieren bekommt, kosten,bis er das Buch so eingerichtet in Heartz,Mozart's ers zu seinerAbsichtzu habenwiinschet.. .'; quoted and translated Operas,136. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte FER.: Fuor la spada!Scegliete Qual di noi pituvi piace. ALF.: Io son uomo di pace, FER.: Cessate di scherzar,o giuro al cielo! ... Ed io, giuro alla terra, E duellinon fo,se non a mensa. FER.: O battervi, o dirsubito Perched'infedelta le nostreamanti Sospettatecapaci! ALF.: Cara semplicita, quantomi piaci! ALF.: Non scherzo,amicimiei. Solo sapervorrei Che razza d'animali Son questevostrebelle, Se han come tuttinoi carne,ossa e pelle, Se mangiancome noi, se veston gonne? 39 Draw yoursword!And choose whichever of us youprefer. I'm a peaceableman, and don'tfightduels,exceptat table. Eitherfight, or sayat once think our lovers whyyou are capableof infidelity! Sweetsimplicity, how delightful youare! Stop joking,or I swear,byheaven!... And I swearby theearth, thatI'm not joking. myfriends, I onlywishto know whatkindof creatures are thesebeautiesof yours, if theyare of flesh,bonesand skin,like us, if theyeat as we do, if theywearskirts, in theend,if they'regoddesses,or women... Son donne, {FER.: They'rewomen, but ... such ... suchwomen... {GuI.: Ma ... son tali... son tali... E in donnepretendete ALF.: And in womenyouwouldexpect Di trovarfedelta? to findfidelity? How delightful Quanto mi piacimai,semplicita! you everare,simplicity! All threesingersnow participate,instead of just Alfonso, and this last characteris more sharplydelineated,with humour thathelps prepare the 'scherzando' delivery of the numberthatfollows (his disclaimer'Non scherzo, amici miei' notwithstanding). The threatenedswordplayat the beginning(shruggedoffby Alfonso) has spilt over fromthe opening terzetto,and is comicallyreminiscentof the veryreal duel between the Commendatoreand Don Giovanni, at the same point in the action in thatopera. Near the end of the recitativethe officerssing a due- a parodisticidea more likelyto have come fromthe composer than the librettist.In between there are pointed oppositions of 'cielo' and 'terra','dee' and 'donne' - dualitiesthatwill constantlybe invoked throughoutthe restof the opera. The line concerning'care, ossa e pelle' is closelyparaphrasedfroma tale in Boccaccio's Decameron (II. 9) that is an ancestor to this opera's plot; while it is hardlylikelythat this was Mozart's suggestion,Da Ponte maywell have added theline in response to a requestforsome preparationfor the Metastasian quotation in the followingnumber.Also carefully planted are Alfonso's two exclamationsof delightat the officers''semplicita',with a symmetricalexchange of clauses that hints at the many textual and musical exchanges to come.49 In short: the featuresmost characteristicof Da Ponte's collaborationswithMozart became partof thistextonlyafterSalieri'sabandonment of the project. Alfin,se dee, se donne son ... 49 See especially the duets Nos. 4 and 7, in both of which the participantstrade offin singing difficult passaggiagainst a long sustained note. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions - BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice 40 Alego If n p gir r J j jr y '-1 D r D 8 Femnando La nia Do - r - bel - i a-pa - ce pr p Viri D a-pe - c on b, anon: fe- del quar-to I 12 iCf IJ f J i'glFr r r bel - I il cie - 1o_ i.hi _f la, r , _ -_ r fe- del__ quan- to bel - L a_ JlJ il de -o la fl. 'La mia Dorabella',Ferrando'sfirststatement Ex. 3 Mozart,Cosifantutte, In contrast to this recitative,in the firsttwo terzettiSalieri and Mozart set essentiallythe same texts. Of course, it is hardly fair to compare a finished compositionwith a mere vocal skeleton (as in No. 1), or even two finishedpieces (as with No. 2), when one composer has had the opportunityto polish his work duringrehearsalsand performances,and the otherhas not. But even if we confine our comparison to those aspects that are complete in both composers' pieces, several notable differencesin approach emerge.While both Salieri's and Mozart's melodies for 'La mia Dorabella' initiallyfeaturedotted rhythms(Mozart's being assimilatedinto the prevailingtripletsof the accompaniment),Salieridrops his after Ferrando's firstphrase; see Examples 2 (above) and 3. Mozart's more persistent dotted rhythms,togetherwith the sing-songmelodic profile,suggestthe taunting attitudeof the officerstowards Alfonso, as well as theirown rivalry.In the latter respectit is an advantagethatMozart's Guilelmo singsa versionof the same melody (with its second half in the dominant), whereas Salieri's sings completelynew material.And withcannydramaticcalculation,Mozart has Alfonso starthis firstline with different material,but end it with the same sort of tripletphrase with which both officershad cadenced - in effect,preachingreconciliationwith his melody as well as with his words ('Ma tali litigi/finiscano qua'). Salieri's firstterzettois conceived on a smallerscale than Mozart's, lacking the substantialopening ritornellothatMozart used to introducethe charactersand set the scene.50Salieri is also more sparingin his repetitionsof text phrases, relying rathermore on fermatasfor emphasis. Mozart repeats text throughout,eitherin melodic sequences (e.g., 'O fuorila spada'), or in antecedent/consequentphrases. An interestingpoint of comparisonis the textbeginning'Sul vivo mi tocca'. Salieri sets the officers'complainthomophonically,as Alfonso repeats his previous lines, how the officershave ceased to listento theirfriend.Mozart conveysthe illustrating same situationby interlarding the characters'lines. Even afterall threeare singing together,Mozart staggersthe declamationso as to renderthe textat least somewhat comprehensible(see Ex. 4). In Salieri'ssettingof 'E la fede delle femmine',Alfonso's amiable,boundingtune in 6/8 seems as elusive as the Arabian phoenix of which he sings. His melody,the periodicityof which is nicelydisruptedin orderto emphasise the repeatedquestion 'dove sia?', bears a resemblanceto thatof an aria in Martin'sI burbero di buoncuore, 50 ThiswasMozart'snormal at thebeginning ofan operabuffa, andalsolaterin procedure thedrama, whenintroducing characters in a setpiece;seeJamesWebster, 'The Analysis of Mozart'sArias',in Cliff Studies Eisen,ed.,Mozart (Oxford,1991),101-99(124-5). This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 41 Salieri's Cosifan tutte I 39 FerindoJ -dt. 0 Guilel-mo Sul vi - r DonAlfonsoa,o yW i r -P paz - zo vo t' P p nA de- i - re, o o _-T -st. I Sul vi - --p mi toc-ca, toc-ca chi h- sci di cer-cardi n D^ boc- sco-pri-e D P P *DP p D loc-ca chi la scia di boc-ca p r quelmalche ac- cen-to 1 mi I wl vi - chetor - - r chetor - - vo mi ir~n?r J>^ to, me-schi - tro-va-to D p1?r sor-ti - reun vo de - i - re, i ID -I vo mi toc-ca, saor-ti-reun c - cen-to D rpi paz - z 3--XPDI P p r| p i pp^p r 43 +p r l vi - Er to, - to che or tor e ni, me-schi-ni ci r a, fa, X chetor- to e fa, Ex. 4 Mozart, Cosifan tutte, No. 1, bb. 39-47 Andantino p Ex. 5 Martiny Soler,II burbero di buoncuore, 'Son trent'anni of ch'io portolivrea'(beginning vocal line) see Examples 1 (above) and 5. The violins bear though probablyunintentionally; the main burdenof conveyingthe officers'irritation, at theirentrancein bar 11, with dotted figuresthatnervouslydecorate the vocal lines. Mozart, in contrast,sets the Metastasianaxiom in an offhandmanner,more declamatorythan sung, and in cut time. A major differenceis the inseparabilityof vocal and instrumentalparts in Mozart's setting.As Alfonso repeats 'Che vi sia ciascun lo dice', his motifechoes in the firstviolin,fluteand bassoon duringhis rests,and even afterhe has moved on to his next line, 'dove sia', anthropomorphically illustratingthe sense of his words (see Ex. 6). During the reprise of this material Mozart never actually combines the officers'voices withAlfonso's,as had Salieri(at the end), but he does have the formerrepeatedlyinterpolate their beloveds' names into the latter's dismissalof the 'phoenix' of womanlyfidelity. The men's anger spills over into the recititative without the of ensuing impediment a ritornello- in contrastto Salieri's with its four-bar setting, postlude. It is indeed unfortunatethatSalieri'smanuscript breaks offjust before this keyrecitative,since one would like to know whetherthe text alreadyincluded the opening lines of the definitiveversion: FERRANDO:Scioccherie di poeti! GUILELMO:Scempiagini di vecchi! Poetic nonsense!/GuILELMO:Old men's foolishness!) (FERRANDO: This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BruceAlan BrownandJohnA. Rice 42 Do -fo.so cb Ij.d r ir r rr r vi cia - aca si ~g. I&&^~~~~~~~~~~~ k 10 do _ j -jj_ , II I, r I I, T di - c, I - *' n.i AVl, - ve r---r cia - am ir l_ r - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ di- cb.. al*IMM WI r - - -- usi - .a... J j jj r-i C-,r 11 -_ 1 -rpTR}. 1-LJ I I j r' do 5 -JJ j4j j d - ve f4 = = r - a... j-. ; J _ Ex. 6 Mozart,Cosifantutte, No. 2, bb. 5-13 (shortscore) which bear so directlyon how these characters,and the audience, are to take this quotation fromMetastasio. 5 Fragmentary thoughit is, Salieri'sattemptedsettingof La scoladegliamantisheds light on a difficult timein Salieri'scareer,and allows us to dispel some of themore fanciful notions concerning the manner by which Mozart came to set this text. The successful1789 revivalof Le no.ze di Figaromay indeed have spurredthe theatrical directionto requesta new opera fromMozart, but the librettothatwas offeredhim was hardlynew itself.The knowledgethat he was not the originalrecipientof the librettolends supportto Tyson's theoryconcerningthe change of main titlefromLa scoladegliamantito Cosifan tutte, and suggeststhatotherresonanceswithLe no,Zedi Figarowere likewiseadded at Mozart's insistence.This new informationfitsinto a largercontextof rivalrybetweenthesetwo composers,whichincludesalso therecent discoverythatthe commission forthe Prague coronationopera forLeopold II, La di Tito,was initiallyofferedto Salieri,who reluctantlyrefusedit.51 Finally, clemenZa Salieri'sscore affordsa touchstoneby which to gauge Mozart's specificmusical and dramaturgicalchoices - a reminderthat the seeminglyperfectbalance of wit and sonic delightin thisscene was not preordained,but the resultof carefulcalculation. Whetheror not Mozart knew Salieri's music for the firstscene of the opera (as we have seen, it is conceivable thatcopyistshad alreadybegun to provide parts for the singers),he must certainlyhave been aware thathis colleague had commenced a setting.Da Ponte mighthave preferredto keep silent about having previously offeredhis librettoto anothercomposer, one imagines,in order to spare Mozart's feelings.But news of Mozart's work on Figarohad travelledas far as Paris long beforehis score was complete,and we must suppose thatSalieri'ssettingof La scola 51 See JohnA. Rice, WI.A. MozartLa clemenZa di Tito(Cambridge,1991), 7, 45. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Salieri'sCosifantutte 43 was no secreteither.52 (Indeed,ConstanzeMozarthad learntof it,at degliamanti some point.) Before any composerbegan seriouswork on the score for the the approvalof the director,Count Rosenberg(or the emperor), Burgtheater, - as Mozarthimselfinformed in 1781,53and wouldhave been necessary his father as Salieridiscoveredthroughbitterexperience, in the case of Cublai,grankan de' Tartari. In lendingcredenceto Da Ponte'saccountof hisbreakwithSalieri- an account supportedbythelibrettist's personalpapers,we are compelledto doubthis claims of havingreceiveda requestfora new operain Octoberof 1787 fromhis 'friend witha newlibrettocalled Mozart',and of havingspeedilyrewardedthis'favourite' La scoladegliamanti. To some extent,thispictureof amicability was a construction of a laterperiod,and an attempt to paperovera messybeginning to an operamade famousbyDa Ponte'scomposerof secondchoice.Muchremainsuncertain in this the to which Mozart was aware of Da Ponte's with on Salieri story: degree dealings thisproject,theextentof otherchangesin thelibretto, and thenatureof Salieri's - and ofVilleneuve's - cabals.Butmorethananything else,one wouldliketo know the reactionof the composerwho demonstrably hadbeen Da Ponte's 'favourite' and 'friend',Salieri,as he heard,in the theatre, Mozart'smusic- to whatshould have been his opera.54 52 53 54 See Heartz,Mozart'sOperas,138. Letterof 16 June1781: '. . . dennwennich wirklichschonein buch haitte, so wirde ich doch noch keinefederansetzen,weil dergrafRosenbergnichthierist- wennder aufdie letztdas Buch nichtgut finde,so hatteich die Ehre gehabtumsonstzu schreiben'(... for even if I actuallyhad a librettoalready,I wouldn'tset pen to paperyet,sinceCount I would have had the Rosenbergisn'there- ifin the end he didn'tapproveof thelibretto, honourof writing[an opera]in vain); MoZartBriefe, III, 132. PartofJohnRice's researchforthisarticlewas made possibleby a fellowship fromthe Alexandervon Humboldt-Stiftung. This content downloaded from 134.84.192.103 on Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:40:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions