Ariens 915067 - 1740 User Manual download pdf (Page 22)

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No.8 – Belfiore’s ‘family tree’ aria – which in the Dresden copy of the Prague version was

assigned to the Podestà – is the ‘catalogue’ or ‘enumeration’ aria that was de rigueur in a

comic opera of the period. Already, in the original version, two trumpets and timpani were

added to the standard forces of the pre-Classical orchestra (two oboes, two horns). The Prague

version uses the complete orchestra. The enumeration of all Belfiore’s illustrious forefathers

corresponds to that of all available orchestral instruments, whose complacent virtuosity

imitates and mocks the Count’s vanity.

No.12 (Finale I) – In terms of richness of invention and subtle adjustment to the changing

situations in the action, the Prague reorchestration of the two extended finales is on a par

with Mozart’s scoring of his Da Ponte finales. From bar 248 the Prague arranger quotes and

develops a motif from Le nozze di Figaro, so popular in Prague. With its catchy rhythm (

), it is soon unmasked as a ‘reconciliation motif’ from the second act finale of the later opera

(where it begins at bar 226). In the last section (Più allegro) of the original version of La finta

giardiniera, the vocal tutti is suddenly interrupted by a rest in all the parts. This general pause

is followed by two mysterious bars for the strings. In the Prague version the mystery of these

two bars is ‘explained’ by an echo of them in the woodwinds, supported by Sandrina and

Belfiore (at the words ‘Che smania orribile!’). This echo is heard as an encouragement, coming

from the ‘heaven’ of Reason, to persevere on the path of initiation.

No.13 – In this aria di furia for Arminda – and its counterpart no.26, in which Ramiro’s rage

is turned on Arminda – one may regret the disappearance of the two additional horns in the

Prague version. Whereas the demonic sound of four horns in the original version seems to

anticipate Elettra’s fury in Idomeneo, the more balanced wind band of the Prague version

(only two horns, but with an enrichment of the oboe and bassoon parts in compensation)

reminds us of the much more human character of Elvira in Don Giovanni.

No.15 – In the closing section of this aria for Belfiore, the Prague arranger surprises us

with a significant dramaturgical improvement on the original version. During the Count’s

declaration of love to Sandrina, the jealous Podestà has secretly entered the room. He

takes advantage of the rapt emotion of the lovers to slip between them, so that Belfiore

inadvertently kisses his hand instead of Sandrina’s. In the Prague version the ensuing

Allegro is sung in alternation by the Podestà and Belfiore, and not only by the latter as in the

original version, which substantially enhances the buffo effect of the scene.

No.23 (Finale II) – E flat major: a further stage on the initiatory path of the pair of lovers, which

began with Belfiore’s cavatina (no.6) in the same ‘mystic’ key – the key of the ‘Sublime’,

of Baroque arie d’ombra, of Die Zauberflöte. A sombre, Piranesi-like horror landscape

(cf. p.103), strewn with crags and ruins, to which Sandrina has been banished: here the

protagonists lose not merely their footing, but at the same time their wits – the final trial,

as it were, on the path to Reason. Their shared fits of mental disturbance, with their voices

generally singing in homophony, produce a grotesque effect. It would be more accurate

to describe them as ‘clownish’, for the two initiates seem to turn into sad circus clowns,

laughed at by the onstage ‘audience’. One cannot but admire the strategic way in which the

Prague arranger deploys the trumpets and timpani, as when an unexpected drum roll turns

into thunder, announcing the storm of which the deranged pair of lovers sings. Whereas in

the original version, with its standard scoring, the storm was still purely imaginary, in the

Prague version it seems menacingly real. In her madness the noble Sandrina is humanly and

stylistically reduced to Belfiore’s lowly level (Gallarati makes this point).

No.24 – In the original version, the second clownish mad scene, which turns into a trio for

Nardo, Sandrina and Belfiore, seems superfluous at this point (after the second finale, at

the beginning of the third act). But thanks to the Prague rescoring (with two clarinets and

a flute as a more ‘humanising’ substitute for the original oboes) and the return of the key

of E flat major, this ‘comic number’ is closely linked with the duet scene, no.27, situated

on Sandrina’s ‘tragic’ stylistic level (Gallarati), in which the couple will be ‘cured’ of their

madness.

No.27 – Following a liberative sleep, Sandrina and Belfiore are cured of their shared, inhuman

madness by the magic of ‘humanising’ music (‘al suono di dolce sinfonia’), exactly like the

delirious Orlando in the eponymous operas by Handel and Haydn. In the Prague arrangement

this ‘magic music’ is even more magical than it already is in the original version. The first

clarinet anticipates the little motif ( ) with which the first violins begin in the Munich

version: the first ray of light in the garden of Reason, no longer in the garden of the Podestà?

It is with similar ‘music of enlightenment’ that Idomeneo’s initiatory path comes to an end

(the accompagnato recitative before his last aria).

Hence this opera – sometimes rather puppet-like in its original version – combines a very

ancient form of theatre, which ‘blithely mingles crude jokes with great passions and does

not shrink from the improbable and the far-fetched’ (to quote Volkmar Braunbehrens on Don

Giovanni), with elements – clearly brought out in the Prague version – of a ‘modern’ initiatory

opera.

V. The problem of cuts

Our recording does not aim to be a slavish reconstruction of the Prague version of 1796.

Aside from the reorchestration, other decisions made in the eighteenth century – Italian

original text or German singspiel adaptation? Cuts: where and how? – were closely linked

with the practical circumstances and the expectations of the time. Nonetheless, the recording

faithfully follows the musical and literary (Italian) text of the Náměšť score – but with one

exception: we have ignored most of the cuts inflicted on the closed musical numbers in the

opera. Such cuts are not indicated in the usual way – by ‘al segno’ markings or pasting over

the sections to be excised – in either the Brno or the Dresden score. Instead of this, all the

numbers were written out afresh with the cut passages removed, so that we need to rely on

comparison with the NMA to see exactly what has been cut and how.

The Podestà’s third aria (no.25) is entirely missing. The numerous cuts in other numbers,

which become increasingly drastic as the opera advances, may be divided into three

categories:

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