Christoph Willibald Gluck.

Christoph Willibald Gluck. Ipermestra (Venedig 1744): Dramma per musica in drei Akten von Pietro Metastasio. Hrsg. von Axel Beer. (Samtliche Werke, Abt. III: Italienische Opere serie und Opernserenaden, Bd. 6.) Kassel: Barenreiter, 1997. [Vorwort, p. vii-xii; Bildbeigaben (facsims.; libretto: Venice, 1744), p. xiii-xxxiv; score, 308 p.; Anhang, p. 309-13; krit. Bericht, p. 315-31. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49547-4; BA 5776. DM 445.]

Christoph Willibald Gluck. Libretti: Die originalen Textbucher der bis 1990 in der Gluck-Gesamtausgabe erschienenen Buhnenwerke; Textbucher verschollener Werke. Hrsg. von Klaus Hortschansky. (Samtliche Werke, Abt. VII: Supplement, Bd. 1.) Kassel: Barenreiter, 1995. [Vorwort, p. vii-xlv; facsim. reprod. of librettos (Musikdramen; Tanzdramen; italienische Opere serie und Opernserenaden; franzosische komische Opern; verschollene Werke), 447 p. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49550-4. BA 5779. DM 580.]

Any opera connoisseur or student of opera history generally recognizes Christoph Willibald Gluck as an important composer of the later eighteenth century. But it is most likely that he comes to mind primarily as the great reformer of opera seria rather than as a representative of the opera seria tradition itself. The major opera companies severely limit their productions of Gluck's works, so that Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna, 1762) still remains the composer's only stage work likely to be familiar to the opera-loving public. Scholars, on the other hand, have in recent years explored all the aspects of Gluck's works and styles that span the Italian and French reform operas, the operas comiques, and the early operas largely belonging to the genre of opera seria.

Beginning in 1951 under the direction of Rudolf Gerber and continued by Gerhard Croll, the Gluck Samtliche Werke has produced editions of nearly twenty-five operas spanning a period of thirty-six years in the composer's creative career. The new edition of Gluck's Ipermestra now represents the earliest work in the complete edition, antedating Ezio (1750; published in 1990 as ser. 3, vol. 14) by six years. Thus Ipermestra is of special interest as an example of Gluck's early compositions, being only his sixth opera produced in Italy--and only three years after Gluck's debut as a composer with Artaserse (Milan, 1741). Another reason for the special interest is that Ipermestra is the only early Gluck opera extant in a complete score (London, British Library, Add. 16014). Thus it offers an excellent example of Gluck's beginnings as a composer of traditional opera seria, well before the reform period--a testament to his mastery of the style and of his success with the Italian public at San Giovanni Grisostomo, one of Venice's most renowned opera theaters. It was a period of great activity and productivity for the composer, who in addition to writing full opere serie, also contributed to several pasticcios, all produced within a span of less than four years.

Opera seria is, of course, the very genre Gluck's later reform aimed to transform, but for his first operas, Gluck enthusiastically embraced the traditions of the genre, including the use of librettos by its most famous and influential representative, Pietro Metastasio. In fact, Gluck continued to set Metastasian librettos during the 1760s, well after the reform.

The edition of Ipermestra comprises a preface by editor Axel Beer followed by facsimiles of two versions of one aria and a facsimile reproduction of the complete libretto. After the edition of the opera (which is preceded by a detailed table of contents that includes a list of clefs and the vocal ranges required of the roles), follows an appendix that includes two versions of a recitative and the critical report, with a discussion of the sources plus general and specific remarks on details of the score.

This is indeed a very scholarly production, opening with Beer's most informative preface that describes the context of the premiere and evaluates Ipermestra in light of the later reform operas. The editor notes that the composer made minor changes in the text, whereas Johann Adolf Hasse set the identical libretto also in 1744 just as Metastasio wrote it. Beer discusses the subsequent performances of Ipermestra in Prague (1750) and Munich (1751), as well as those in Verona (1745), Florence (1749), and Copenhagen (1754), probably all pasticcios with varying amounts of Gluck's music. Of these, the Prague and Munich versions are explored in detail because of an extant manuscript score in Modena (Biblioteca Estense, Mus. F. 498) that includes much of Gluck's music. Beer concludes that this source represents the Munich performance of 1751. He also acknowledges that the overall impact of Ipermestra must have been slight, for only a few arias and the sinfonia appear in eighteenth-century manuscripts (among the sourc es listed in the appendix).

The facsimiles reproduced in the volume are valuable both to students and scholars: the first two present one of the more popular arias from Ipermestra (no. 20, "Va, piu non dirmi infida") as it respectively appears in the London and Modena scores, facilitating a comparison of the music (transposed in the second version) and of the copyist's hand. Following the current practice of the Gluck Gesamtausgabe, the libretto is reproduced in its entirety, thus including the fairly elaborate title page, the plot background, scenery, and cast, laid out with four of the octavo pages per page of the volume. Among the singers, Vittoria Tesi and Ottavio Albuzzi were especially prominent in opera productions of the time in Venice, Vienna, and elsewhere. As is customary with librettos from this period, only the "historical" framework of the story is indicated--that is, the reasons for the heroine's conflict between loyalty to her father and her future husband.

The indice delle scene preceding the score immediately illustrates the degree to which Ipermestra fits the prototype of opera seria: the customary three acts are divided into as many "scenes" as entrances or exits of characters (11, 10, 10, respectively) and feature mostly recitative-aria sequences with the exception of the final scenes (act 2 ends with a duet and act 3 with an ensemble coro), and several scenes are completely in recitative. Among the more interesting sections are the accompanied recitative in act 1, scene 3, where Ipermestra portrays her inner conflict in a monologue, and the arioso encased in recitative portraying the dramatic final confrontation between Ipermestra, her father, fiance, and the people in the penultimate scene of the opera.

The orchestration for strings and continuo with the occasional addition of two flutes or oboes and two horns and trumpets, likewise follows customary practice, but Gluck's more extensive involvement of the instruments lends considerable interest to the arias in almost every example. The arias largely follow the usual da capo form. Their themes tend to be rhythmically incisive and direct in expression, and relatively modest in coloratura patterns and overall ranges. The generally simple homophony of the style bespeaks the "modern" composer, who may very well have been shaped by his recent tutelage under Giovanni Battista Sammartini, as Alfred Einstein suggested long ago (Gluck, trans. Eric Blom, Master Musicians [London: J. M. Dent, 1936; reprint, 1954], 14-17). This modernity probably also accounts for the longevity of the opera's otherwise unremarkable sinfonia.

Beer facilitates another even more direct comparison by juxtaposing two versions of the recitative "Nuova angustia per me" from the London (act 2, scene 2) and Modena (act 2, scene 3) scores, this time in modern transcription superimposed directly above each other. This comparison is not very interesting, since the rhythmic structure is largely the same for both versions and the pitch changes seem to consist of lowering the tessitura of Ipermestra's part, probably motivated by the change in the cast. According to Beer (p. x, n. 42), Caterina Fumagalli sang the part of Ipermestra in Munich.

The London manuscript forms the basis of Beer's edition, since no autograph score or parts for the performance of 1744 are extant. The critical report begins with an item-by-item overview of all the other manuscript sources for each musical component of the opera, followed by a detailed description of the manuscripts, their provenance, their relationship to other sources, and other relevant information. Likewise the librettos for the Venice, Prague, and Munich performances are cited with their present locations. In exploring all the relevant sources, Beer found considerable discrepancies, described under the general remarks (pp. 322-23), between the full score and the numerous partial versions listed in the previous section. The London score comes from the collection of the eighteenth-century collector Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846) and does not represent a performance score. For his new edition, Beer weighed the possibilities of considering the other partial scores or even parts of the pasticcio score for Munich (the Modena score), since it may have been based on Gluck's own score. He came to the conclusion, however, that all of these versions were secondary and that the Dragonetti score had to remain the primary basis for the edition--the only reasonable solution in view of the partial nature of most manuscripts, the variety of provenances, and the multiplicity of scribes (six alone for the Modena score!). For the seven eighteenth-century manuscripts of the sinfonia, Beer even attempts to develop a stamina (p. 323). In the final pages of the volume (326-31), Beer gives a detailed description of each musical number in the opera with comparisons of divergent details in the secondary sources as well as in the librettos.

Concerning performance practice, Beer finds the indications of tempo and dynamics in the London score uneven. Fortunately the Modena score of the 1751 pasticcio often supplies dynamic markings missing from the London score, and they are duly noted in the critical report if incorporated into the edition. Beer also discusses further editorial decisions regarding notation, text underlay, and other matters of performance practice.

All of the foregoing details make it clear that Beer's edition of Ipermestra is based on thorough research and editorial practice. As part of the Gluck complete edition, the volume's primary purpose is understandably scholarly, hence the extensive preface and critical report. Yet this score can also serve well as a performance edition, and clearly the editor had this in mind. First of all, the score's appearance is extremely clear and legible (except, of course, for the facsimiles, which are not part of the edition per se). The clefs are modernized where necessary for contemporary performers, and the text underlay is more precise and specific than generally is the case for eighteenth-century scores. The basso continuo is realized in a simple, unobtrusive style (there are no figures in the sources) and indicated in smaller notes--but not, as the editor notes, so small as to be unreadable by performers. Tempo and dynamic markings supplied by the editor are given in parentheses, and performance suggestions for appoggiaturas are indicated in small notes above the staff. Added grace notes, slurs, and other editorial changes are distinguished from the original notation. The instrumentation is clearly indicated, and the instruments appropriate for the bass line are thoughtfully suggested according to performance practices of the period and are further elucidated in the critical report (p. 325). The occasional footnotes usually relate to performance issues. This edition, the first of Ipermestra, can serve musicologists studying Cluck or later opera seria as well as performers, especially singers in search of aria repertory from the period.

The facsimile volume of all the original librettos for the stageworks appearing in the Cluck Gesamtausgabe up to 1990 and the librettos of lost works remedies the absence of librettos in the volumes of the Samtliche Werke published prior to 1990, after which the policy changed to include the libretto facsimiles with the opera editions. The librettos are organized analogously to the four divisions in the complete works, beginning with the music dramas. The published librettos span thirty-one years from 1750 to 1781. Added to these are two librettos of lost Cluck works, Arianna and Enea e Ascanio. The lengthy preface is followed by the librettos in octavo format (again with four pages to the volume page). There is no critical report.

The noted Gluck scholar Klaus Hortschansky provides a highly informative preface that makes for unusually interesting reading. He begins with the assertion that the text is the point of departure for any study of opera and dance drama. In this volume the libretto selected for any given opera is--if available--the one intended for the premiere. Occasionally added, in part or in its entirety, is a second libretto parallel to the original version. Locations of other known librettos are listed for each opera but none are given for later performances or rifacimenti. Hortschansky provides detailed commentary on each work without value judgment, information on the premieres, the circumstances of the libretto's origin and development, the librettist and impresario, the patron, and the libretto itself. Other librettos often cast interesting light on the work, including its popularity and esteem at the time. Hortschansky discusses at least four librettos for Orfeo in addition to a German translation by Jacob Anton von Ghelen published in two versions, one for theater performance and the other for literary purposes. The original Italian text with a French translation also appeared in 1762 and is extant in several copies. Some of this information was not known when Barenreiter published the Gesamtausgabe version of Orfeo ed Euridice in 1963, thus further enhancing the value of this informative preface.

In the course of his comments, Hortschansky provides interesting characterizations of libretto-types, such as his comparison of the Viennese and French libretto styles in the discussion of Iphigenie en Aulide (1774). In connection with the late opera Echo et Narcisse (1779), the editor investigates the background and intended message of the practice by Cluck and his librettist (here Ludwig Theodor Baron von Tschudi) of including a motto on the title page.

Needless to say, the libretto facsimiles are in themselves fascinating, since most of them are reproduced complete with initial materials such as title page, dedication, plot summary, and cast list. Telemaco (1765) is an example of the bilingual libretto with the Italian and German printed side by side on opposite pages. Semiramis (1765) includes a Dissertation sur les ballets pantomimes des anciens pour servir de programme au ballet pantomime tragique de Semiramis, in which choreographer and dance master Gasparo Angiolini explains and seeks to justify the new genre of ballet pantomime. He gives full credit to Gluck and to music in general for the success of the work, noting that "La Musique est la Poesie des Ballets Pantomimes" (Music is the poetry of the ballet pantomime; p. 199 of the edition).

Some of the works included fall Out of the framework of regular operatic types--usually they are occasional compositions such as Le Cinesi (1754, extant libretto 1761), which includes only five vocal numbers. La Corona (1765), called an azione teatrale, was not even performed and is given in a manuscript partly in Metastsio's hand and partly by a copyist. The lost works at the end of the volume are both pasticcios. Arianna was assembled in the reform year (1762) with lack of time given as the reason for the absence of newly composed music for the work. The last libretto, the cantata Enea e Ascanio (1764), was discovered in 1967 by Ludwig Finscher.

Overall this is a very useful volume for the study of eighteenth-century opera history and cultural background, as well as for libretto studies in conjunction with other scores in the Cluck Samtliche Werke.