SHAKESPEARE AND OPERA

[rabagas]

Are any members of the club interested in Operas made from Shakespeare's plays ? I've always avoided them, but recently I've been translating librettos by Voltaire and found myself quite fascinated by the relationship between text and music. I think there's a feeling that music somehow degrades rather than enhances a literary work. I used to believe this but I'm revising my views. Verdi wanted to compose operas of all Shakespeare's plays, but only did a few. Berlioz also composed operas based on Shakespeare, I believe. Are we neglecting an important influence that Shakespeare has had on the arts by not exploring this
development of his work ?

[The_Turtle]

Who are we? People at this forum? Or the world at large? I really can't tell whether a great amount of research has been done on the relation between play and opera, but I for one don't see much use for it. Not in the light of 'Shakespeare studies' anyway. I once saw Othello by Verdi and was bored out of my skull. Shakespeare is worldly dialogue and opera needs to take dialogue to a hyperrealistic level which doesn't thrill me at all. But that's just me.

[The_Turtle]

Afterthought: Every month numerous works of art are created that are in one way or another inspired by the bard. You can't possibly intend to evaluate all of these in the light of Shakespeare studies. But then again, why not?

[The_Turtle]

Okay, so that wasn't a very constructive post. I'll be a denizen zoon. That's all that matters right now.

[rabagas]

Dear Turtle,

At least the subject seems to interest you a little. Since my original post I've been doing more worki in opera and I've identified several more opera librettos based on W.S. I have yet to translate them, but I hope to get to some eventually. I don't think it's possible to evaluate every work inspired in one way or another by WS. But I think Shakespeare's relationship to music has been much neglected and that all interested in Shaksepeare would profit by investigating that thread. A great work of art is like a prism; it reflects light in various directions, and pursuing as many of those directions as is feasible tells us something about the original work and the work that was inspired by it. Especially if the inspired work is itself a great work of its kind. I'm not looking at it from a narrow academic viewpoint, but broadly. I'd much rather read a study about Shakespeare's influence on Verdi or Berlioz
than another study of Hamlet that really tells us not much that we didn't know before. When a writer who is considered great in his own right adapts or is inspired by a work of Shakespeare, then I think we should have a look at it because he may have seen something we might have missed. In any event it sheds light on the original

[The_Turtle]

You're more than right. Who, however, wrote the librettoes? Surely not Verdi and Berlioz themselves. Another question: Are they inspired by the original English or the Italian translation? And if the latter: How much of the original survives translation? There are so many implications here, I can't begin to imagine.

I found out that "on the occasion of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death, Martin van Amerongen wrote an interesting article for 'De Groene Amsterdammer' on the congeniality of Shakespeare and the opera composer." Unfortunately I cannot find this article online. I'll keep digging however. Perhaps i can find it.

[rabagas]

I believe Berlioz wrote his own opera librettos in French. He probably had some assistance from his wife the Anglo Irisn actress Harriet Smitghson famous for her porttrayal of Ophelia in Paris with the Engklish Shakespeare company in 1831. Berlioz wrote Beatrice And Denedict and Romeo and Juliette, I believe. About Verdi, I'm not sure. He probably had a librettist but I don't know who it was; he worked with D'Ennery on Nebuchadnezzar.

[The_Turtle]

I haven't found out much. And frankly, I got bored with the subject. Being prone to close reading, I think I'm sticking with the original texts and their literary value and/or implications (which doesn't mean I'm not interested in any views you might have to express on the subject, Rabagas).

[rabagas]

I checked on a couple Verdi operas. Falstaff and Otello. Both librettos were by Boito. He seems to have been an interesting character. He achieved a very fine reputation when young, and even wrote an opera of his own Mefistofele, but then spent 54 years before completeing his second. He was also a novelist and poet.

[Lord3]

Just as Shakespeare stole plot lines from other sources, so other artists steal plots from Shakespeare. It is an age old tradition. These works by Verdi that you are discussing here are some of the greatest creations known to man. They may or may not add to our understanding of Shakespeares work but they definately add to our understanding of the human condition. And that alone makes them worthy of discussion. I think an actor preparing to play either of those roles would do well to hear the play through a genius's ear. I believe Boito wrote alot of Verdis libretti and for obvious reasons was a favourite.

Romeo and Juliet is a popular story. Vincenzo Bellini wrote I Capuleti E I Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montegues), libretto by Felice Romani.

[rabagas]

What you say is true. Shakespeare took the Othello story from Cinthio. But turning a play into an opera isn't really considered stealing it. I would think that those preparing for parts in the opera would probably study the Shakespeare parts as well as their lines from the lbiretto, And vice versa as you point out. You have two men of genius working the same subject matter from different perspectives and that is bound to produce
interesting effects. Also, it testifies to the power of one writer to ignite creative fires in another.