Verdi and Schiller in Edinburgh 1998

VERDI AND SCHILLER IN EDINBURGH, 1998

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Monday 17th. August
Schiller: THE ROBBERS(Kings Theatre)
Schiller's first play, written in 1781. It's a vast, sprawling, uneven work, with flashes of inspiration, but it gives little indication of how Schiller eventually achieved the restrained classicism of his later works. I'll outline the plot, as neither the play nor the opera (I MASNADIERI) is particularly well-known. The characters of Franz and Karl von Moor are probably based on Edmund and Edgar, Gloucester's sons in KING LEAR. Karl, an impetuous idealist, has run away from home to lead a dissolute life, but now wishes to return to his home, and to his cousin Amalia, whom he loves. But his evil younger brother Franz persuades their elderly father not to forgive Karl, and writes Karl a letter, purporting to come from their father, saying that he has been disinherited. (In fact, their father loves Karl best, in spite of his wildness - of course!) Karl then agrees to lead a band of outlaws - the Robbers of the title. Schiller's point is that Karl likes to see himself as a noble hero, righting wrongs and administering rough justice - not a common criminal like his associates. But at the end of the play he voluntarity decides to give himself up to the authorities, as he realises that he cannot reform the world by breaking the law - he is in fact a criminal like the men he has been leading.
All four Schiller plays are performed by the Glasgow-based Citizens' Theatre Company, in translations by Robert David Macdonald. The translations are excelllent, in clear and comprehensible English which makes Schiller accessible to a non-German-speaking public.
The production itself is minimalist, and it is a touch of theatrical genius to have the brother (they never meet on stage) played by the same actor, Benedick Bates. I was most impressed by the fact that the actress playing Amalia (Sophie Ward) ACTUALLY MANAGED TO MAKE THE CHARACTER CREDIBLE! This is no small achievement, as Schiller later admitted that he didn't know any women, and Amalia is little more than a plot device.

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Sophie Ward and Giles Havergal as Amalia and Count Moor.

Friday 21st. August
Verdi:I MASNADIERI (Edinburgh Festival Theatre)
I will consider the play and the opera together, although I saw the performances on different dates. I MASNADIERI was given by the Royal Opera, in a performance conducted by Sir Edward Downes, a renowned Verdi specialist.
Wisely, little atttempt was made to make the principal characters believable. Verdi wrote the role of Amalia for Jenny Lind and it is really a display of vocal pyrotechnics. (It was her British debut; the opera was written for Her Majesty's Theatre, London, and received its premiere on 22nd. July 1847).
The role of Amalia was sung by Paula Deligatti, who was affecting in her scene of recognition with Carlo, the tenor. (The equivalent of Karl in the play). Carlo was sung by Franco Farina, who acquitted himself quite creditably. I especially enjoyed Dmitri Hvorostovsky's portrayal of the villanous Francesco - very reminiscent of Victorian melodrama! The opera downplays the political aspect of the play; perhaps this was necessary to appeal to the taste (or spare the sensibilities!) of the Victorian opera-going public?
The vocal pyrotechnics were impressive, and there is some rousing, almost martial music for the chorus of robbers.

(Tuesday 18th. August: Queen's Hall
Today I attended a recital of Wolf and Schumann by Ian Bostridge, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. This has nothing to do with Verdi and Schiller, I just like Ian Bostridge!)

Wednesday 19th. August
Study Day: THE VERDI/SCHILLER OPERAS (Empire Rooms, Festival Theatre)
The Study Day consisted of a programme of lectures illustrating the topic of Verdi and Schiller. The talks were illuminating, and I learnt a lot about Verdi's compositional method which I hadn't known before.
The first lecture was by David Kimball, of the Music Faculty, Unversity of Edinburgh. It was entitled
VERDI AND HIS LITERARY MODELS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SCHILLER OPERAS.
He began by outlining the textual history of Italian opera up to the early 19th. century - the main source of plots, from the beginnings of opera in the late 16th/early 17th century, had been ancient history and Greek mythology, or sometimes Italian classics such as Ariosto or Tasso. It wasn't until the 19th. century that composers and librettists began to adapt contemporary or near-contemporary literature, starting of course with the novels of Sir Walter Scott. (Whose monument in Prince's Street I wasn't able to visit, as it's closed for repair!)
When the talk turned to the more specific subject of Verdi's interest in Schiller, Kimbell first of all pointed out that the connection between Schiller's DIE JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS and Verdi's GIOVANNA D'ARCO is somewhat tenuous.
In 1846, having completed ATILLA, Verdi went to a spa to recuperate, and it was here that he made the acquaintance of Andrea Maffei, who had translated Schiller's plays into Italian. It was Maffei who wrote the libretto for I MASNADIERI.
The libretto for LUISA MILLER was by Salvatore Cammarano (also responsible for the libretti of ALZIRA, LA BATTAGLIA DI LEGNANO and IL TROVATORE, although this was completed by Bardare). LUISA MILLER is a rather pale copy of KABALE UND LIEBE - in his correspondence with Cammarano, Verdi expressed regret at having to omit the character of Lady Milford and substitute a mezzo-soprano called Frederica.
One of the afternoon lectures was devoted entirely to DON CARLOS, as it is the most significant of Verdi's Schiller operas.
The next lecture was given by Lesley Sharpe, Professor of German at the University of Exeter. It was entitled THEMES AND STAGECRAFT IN SCHILLER'S DRAMAS. She started off with a brief chronology of Schiller's life, which I shall reproduce even more briefly here. Schiller was born in 1759; his first play, THE ROBBERS, which he had written secretly while he was still at the Karlsschule (the oppressive quasi-military academy in which he was forcibly enrolled at the age of 13) was published at his own expense in 1781 and was produced the following year at Mannheim. KABALE UND LIEBE (which is the source of Verdi's LUISA MILLER) was first performed in 1784, and DON CARLOS was published in 1787. The other work that concerns us here, DIE JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS, came much later, in 1801, towards the end of Schiller's life - he died in 1805. (Note that, though GIOVANNA D'ARCO is an early work of Verdi's, DIE JUNGFRAU is a product of Schiller's maturity. It also contains my favourite line in German literature - "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens" [Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain]).
The years 1780-1787 marked the first phase of Schiller's intellectual development; there was then a ten-year interval during which he concentrated on historiography, aesthetics and philosophy - it was during this period that the BRIEFE UBER DIE AESTHETISCHE ERZIEHUNG DES MENSCHEN (Letters on Aesthetic Education) appeared. (In 1974 his friendship with Goethe began.)
Between 1797 and his death in 1805, Schiller returned to poetry and drama.
DON CARLOS is considered to be the work which marks the transition to maturity. It's the first drama in blank verse.
Schiller's drama all one way or another deal with concepts of freedom, moral autonomy, individual self-expression; he was also aware of the dangers of taking idealism too far. For instance Posa in DON CARLOS comes across as a flawed idealist; he tried to create but destroys instead, because he underestimates the complexity of the political world, and overreaches himself tragically. And of course it's obvious that Karl Moor in THE ROBBERS becomes just as much of a monster as his brother, although he claims to have such high ideals.
The next session was a lecture by David Kimball on MUSIC AND DRAMA IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY ITALY, with some reference to the composition of I MASNADIERI and LUISA MILLER.
It was explained that there were standard practices and procedures that composers and librettists in the early to mid-19th. century were expected to follow. The librettist was often the resident producer of nthe theatre for which an opera was commissioned. Cammarano, for instance, was the resident producer at Naples. He would be at least partly responsible for choosing the subject of an opera, whcih usually had to be something that could be adapted for use by the resident company. The first thing that had to be produced was a synopsis. This focussed a long work of literature into a small number of scenes. It was also a "discussion document", which had to go to the censors to be approved. There was political, moral and ecclesiastical censorship, and the censorship office was especially problematic in Naples - the reason, for instance, that the tenor in LUISA MILLER is called Rodolfo, not Ferdinand like his counterpart in KABALE UND LIEBE is that the King of Naples was called Ferdinando.....(I'm not making this up, you know!)
Next, the needs and capacities of the local/resident company had to be considered. The company would consist of the principal singers - soprano(s), tenor(s), baritone(s)/bass(es), each of whom was entitled to a specific minimum of solos. The secondary singers had no entitlement to individual arias, but did have an entitlement to duets with the principals. Then there were the singers of minor roles and the chorus. This is one reason why LUISA MILLER takes the form it does (rather different from KABALE UND LIEBE); Cammarano would not have been able to find a singer for the role of Lady Milford, so the character was cut - rather to the detriment of the opera - and there had to be three basses - Miller and Walther because they are fathers, and Wurm because he is the villain. In other words, an opera had to have a standardised form, for the singers and orchestra to learn it in the time available. This standardised form is sometimes known as the "Code Rossini". The composer is able to design a scene within this framework, and singers are enabled to show off the full range of their skills. We were also reminded that at this stage in Verdi's development, the orchestra still occupies a fairly subsidiary role.
The rest of the Study Day was devoted to DON CARLOS.
First, David Kimbell outlined Verdi's relationship with the Paris Opera, for which DON CARLOS was written (first performed in March 1867). He had previous adapted I LOMBARDI (1843) for Paris, where it was performed as JERUSALEM in 1847. In 1867, when DON CARLOS was first performed, The Paris Opera was the most prestigious opera house in Europe, and its orchestral resources were better than those available in Italy. There is no definitive edition of DON CARLOS. The Paris version of 1867 contains 5 acts and includes a ballet - the 1884 Italian version consists of 4 acts without a ballet.
The final lecture was given by Peter Jones, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. It was entitled ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS IN DON CARLOS. It was directed somewhat more towards discussion of Schiller's play, which is quintessentially a product of the Enlightenment, but of course the political themes are precisely what attracted Verdi to Schiller.
Peter Jones observed that, in both the play and the opera, Carlos is a "man of feeling" - sensitive, governed by moods (i.e. by passion rather than reason), not good at decision making. In fact in Jones's interpretation Carlos gets rather short shrift - he reminds us that, within the space of three scenes, Carlos is exhorted by the only two people other than himself whom he claims to love (Elisabeth and Posa) to stop wingeing about his unhappy love and think of his duty, but he doesn't manage this until Posa has made the supreme sacrifice for him - by which time it turns out to be too late. The character of King Philip is more interesting dramtically than that of his son.
The theme of DON CARLOS is examination of conflicts between duty and desire, freedom and authority. We are asked whether Man (sic) is governed by Reason or Passion - the idea being that the passions should be guided by Reason into socially acceptable patterns.

Thursday 21st. August Schiller: DON CARLOS (Queen's Hall). Rehearsed reading by the Citizens' Theatre Company.

The Citizens' Theatre Company, who performed THE ROBBERS on MOnday, today gave a reading of DON CARLOS, in a translation by Robert David Macdonald, who also translated (and performed in) THE ROBBERS. The company have previously performed DON CARLOS in Edinburgh in 1995, to great critical acclaim. (Click here for the Company's main information page, which will give you access to reviews of this production.)
Perhaps I should explain a few things for the benefit of those who only know Verdi's opera. In the 5-Act version (the one being performed here in Edinburgh) the First Act consists of Carlos meeting and falling in love with Elisabeth at Fontainebleau, before she is married off for political reasons to his father the King. This scene has no counterpart in Schiller's play, in which Carlos has fallen in love with Elisabeth when he came back from University to find her already married to Philip; he has not spoken to her, and has no way of knowing whether she reciprocates his sentiments.
I have explained this at some length because the relationship between Carlos and Elisabeth is different in the opera - Carlos know that she returns his love and keeps silent from a sense of duty. In the play she never admits, even to herself, that her feeling for Carlos are anything other than quasi-maternal.
It may also be of interest to mention the Duke of Alba and the priest Domingo, characters omitted from the opera but very important in the play, as it is they who are the chief intriguers/plotters against Carlos and the Queen. Carlos was played by Benedick Bates, whom many of us had seen as BOTH the brothers in THE ROBBERS. He was very convincing in his portrayal of Carlos' feelings of neurosis and self-absorption, from which Posa tries to recall him by reminding him of the need to help the oppressed Netherlanders. I was particularly impressed by Stuart Bowman as Posa, a fiery idealist who tragically miscalculates.....especially striking in the scene with the King, which is the pivot of the drama. King Philip was played/read by Giles Havergal, the director of the Citizens' Theatre Company.
The fact that the play was read rather than acted did it no harm, in my view - in fact I thought of it as another "minimalist" production, whih focusses on the text and the interaction between the characters. It certainly lost none of its intensity by being read - and it is a fairly intense experience.

From the 1995 production.
Andrew Woodall and Benedick Bates as Posa and Carlos

Benedick Bates and Giles Havergal as Carlos and Philip

Tuesday 25th. August Verdi: DON CARLOS (Edinburgh Festival Theatre) Seeing the opera was the culmination of my visit to Edinburgh! This was the stunning production by Luc Bondyfor the Royal Opera,(first unveiled in 1996) conducted by Bernard Haitink. I loved this performance, I found it a very moving experience - what I especially loved about Haitink's conducting was the shimmering clarity of the strings.
This was the five-Act version, including the Fontainebleau scene, and Karita Matilla repeated her performance as Elisabeth. She delivers a very intelligent interpretation of the role, developing from innocent young girl to sad, disillusioned woman in the course of the opera.
Thomas Hampson repeated his success in the role of Posa. This is one of Verdi's most attractive baritone roles - I found that Hampson had refined and deepened his interpretation, with beautiful mellifluous tones during the death scene, elsewhere a ringing, heroic baritone.
King Philip was sung by Feruccio Furlanetto, an interesting characterisation, portraying Philip as a man in vigorous middle age. The scene with the Grand Inquisitor was absolutely spine-chilling - the Inquisitor was played by Kurt Rydl, who did not actually convey the impression of being ninety years old and blind!
The role of Carlos was taken by Julian Gavin - I personally thought he was better than Roberto Alagna, who sang it in the first performances of this production - he was skilful in conveying Carlos' indecisive nature.
Eboli was sung by Violeta Urmana - she has a rich, sonorous mezzo, but I felt she could have been more passionate in the scene with Carlos and the Carlos-Eboli-Posa trio which follows.

Scenes from Luc Bondy's production

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Saturday 22nd. August
SCHILLER: THE MAID OF ORLEANS (Citizens' Theatre Company; Queen's Hall)
I will summarise the plot, as it deviates somewhat from the historical facts.
Joan is a shepherdess until she is summoned by a vision of the Virgin Mary to lead the French troops to victory over the invading English. The condition of her continued success is that she is not to hope for a normal woman's life. She is successful and the French armies defeat the English, but Joan falls in love with Lionel, an English soldier, and spares his life. She is asked to preside at the King's coronation, but feels unworthy, as she has broken her vow - so when her father publicly denounces her as a with, she says nothing to defend herself, and is banished. She is captured by the English - when the French realises that she is innocent, they try to rescue her. She escapes fro captivity, and joins her countrymen in the battle - they are victorious, but she is fatally wounded. SHE DIES IN BATTLE, she is not burnt at the stake!
Subsequent generations have had difficulty in interpreting this play - indeed, in his introduction to SAINT JOAN, Shaw calls it "Schiller's romantic nonsense!" The main burden of Shaw's critique is that ....we find DIE JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS drowned in a witches cauldron of raging romance. Schiller's Joan has not a single point of contact with the real Joan, nor indeed with any mortal woman who ever walked the earth".
I think this might actually have been Schiller's point.....Johanna has to forswear her womanhood in order to achieve her victories - this is what she is told by the Virgin Mary in her vision.
The play reading was perhaps less successful that the reading of DON CARLOS, but it was still interesting - for most of us in the audience, it was the one opportunity we'll get in the whole of our lives to see any version of this play!

Verdi; GIOVANNI D'ARCO (Ediburgh festival Theatre)
This was a concert performance of the opera, given by Scottish Opera, conducted by Richard Armstrong.
As we saw, the connection between DIE JUNGFRAU and GIOVANNA D'ARCO is tenuous. The outline of the plot is retained, as is the heroine's death in battle, but the characters are reduced to three principals; Carlo VII, King of France, Giovanna herself and her father Giacomo. Carlo falls in love with Giovanna, and she reciprocates his sentiments, though she tries to flee from him back to her village. As in the play, her father denounces her as a sorceress, and she makes no attempt to defend herself. It is Giacomo himslef who discovers her innocence - too late, of course, but it time for her to achieve a heroic death on the battlefield.
This was Verdi's seventh opera; the libretto is by Temistocle Solera, who claimed that his libretto was 'original'. owing nothing to Schiller. There is a certain amount of truth in this claim, to the extent that the libretto is only vaguely related to Schiller's play, but in this case originality is no great virtue. Like many of Verdi's early operas, it was written with a particular soprano in mind, in this case Erminia Frezzolini. Her particular skills affected the nature of the part Verdi wrote for Giovanna. To a large extent it resembles the role of Amalia in I MASNADIERI (which, as we saw, was written for Jenny Lind) - it's a display of vocal pyrotechnics, with little attempt to make the character credible. In fact neither Schiller nor Verdi (though for different reasons) were trying to portray a realistic character.
The role was sung by Zvetelina Vassileva, she has a bright, ringing soprano voice, highly appropriate to Verdi's score. Giacomo, Giovanna's father, was sung by Anthony Michaels-Moore, who is rapidly making a name for himself as a Verdi baritone. The tenor was Jean-Francois Monvoison, who was reasonably competent.
An interesting feature of the opera is the large part played by the chorus. In the play, Johanna narrates her vision of the Virgin; in the opera, she hears a conflicting chorus of angels and demons - the angels warn her not to open her heart to human afections.

Sunday 23rd. August
Schiller: PASSION AND POLITICS (Queen's Hall) This is the translation of KABALE UND LIEBE, the play on which Verdi's LUISA MILLER is based.
Again, a summary of the plot would probably be useful, as the opera is a very simplified version of the play. Ferdinand von Walther, a young aristocrat - the son of the President of a court in a German principality - is in love with Luise Miller, the daughter of a musician -a bourgeoise, in other words. Both fathers are detemined to destroy the relationship, as the lovers are from different ranks in society. (It could be argued that the play is about "class struggle". although Schiller would not have used this terminology. the clas struggle here is between bourgeoisie and aristocracy, not between bourgeoisie and proletariat.) Luise's father is of the opinion that, since his daughter is not good enough to be Ferdinand's wife, but far too good to be his whore, there is no future for the relationship. The President announces publicly that his son is to marry lady Milford, the Prince's mistress. Ferdinand is horrified at this; he doesn't know that Lady Milford is in love with him, but his confrontation with her doesn't shake his determination to marry Luise. The President then tries to have Luise and her family arrested, and Ferdinand only saves them by threatening to reveal to everyone the secret of how Walther came to be President (he murdered his predecessor). Ferdinand plans to run away with Luise and her parents, but she refuses to go because of her belief in filial duty.
In Luise's absence, her father is arrested, and the President's secretary, Wurm, who had wanted to marry Luise himself, forces her to write a love-letter to another man, and swear an oath that she will let no-one know that it's a forgery, or her father will be executed. Lady Milford tried to pressurise Luise into giving up Ferdinand, but Luise threatens to kill herself. Lady Milford decides to flee the country rather than continue as the Prince's mistress.
Luise's father dissuades her from suicide, but Ferdinand posions a glass of lemonade, from which they both drink. When he tells Luise that she is dying, she says that this releases her from the oath she swore, and he realises her innocence too late.
This actually worked very well as a reading. The fiery young hero was read by Paul Albertson and Luise was read by Patti Clare. I felt that they managed to convey a sense of the imcompatibility of the lovers, Ferdinand determined to conquer every obstacle that stands in the way of their love, while Luise, more fearful, and more afraid of defying social convention, is prepared to give him up almost at the beginning of the play.
The part of Court Chamberlain Von Kalb was splendidly performed by Murray Melvin. Von Kalb is a trivial-minded, absurd figure who loves to spread gossip - it is a nice touch of dramatic irony that Luise is made to address her "love-letter" to von Kalb, of whom she has never heard, and who is the least likely recipient of a love-letter that could be imagined.
Lady Milford is one of Schiller's most interesting creations. In her confrontation with Ferdinand,who despises her and all she represents, she justifies her position by claiming that she had hoped to influence the Prince to be less despotic. One of her scenes is based on historical fact - the Prince sends her some expensive jewellery, and she is horrified to find that the money to pay for it was raised by selling regiment to fight in foreign wars - young men who were forced to "volunteer". This was a common practice at the end of the 18th. century.

Verdi: LUISA MILLER (Edinburgh Festival Theatre)
A concert performance by the Royal Opera, conducted by Mark Elder.
The libretto is by Salvadore Cammarano, and it was first performed in Naples, in Decembr 1849. The title has been changed to the name of the heroine. It has some beautiful music, but the coherence of the opera suffers from the simplification of the plot - von Kalb disappears altogether, (Luise's forged letter is addressed to Wurm), while Lady Milford is replaced by a mezzo called "Frederica" - the libretto implis that she and Rodolfo (the tenor) were childhood friends, and she is now free to marry him. She has some very attractive music (well-sung by Ruby Philogene).
Luisa and her father are villagers, Miller is an old soldier, and the opera opens with a chorus of peasant girls singing to wake Luisa on her birthday. Her lover has concealed his identity, which is reveal to Luise's father by Wurm. In the play, of course, it is rather the point that he doesn't conceal his indentity.
The role of Luisa was sung by Elena Kesselidi, who could have looked more like a shy young girl, but I loved the timbre of her voice. (In fact she looked rather pre-Raphaelite, with her long, curly red hair and blue dress).

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