Changing the Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance

by Hilary Poriss

This study seeks to explore the role and significance of aria insertion, the practice that allowed singers to introduce music of their own choice into productions of Italian operas. Each chapter investigates the art of aria insertion during the nineteenth century from varying perspectives, beginning with an overview of the changing fortunes of the practice, followed by explorations of individual prima donnas and their relationship with particular insertion Carolina Ungher's difficulties in finding a "perfect" aria to introduce into Donizetti's Marino Faliero; Guiditta Pasta's performance of an aria from Pacini's Niobe in a variety of operas, and the subsequent fortunes of that particular aria; Maria Malibran's interpolation of Vaccai's final scene from Giulietta e Romeo in place of Bellini's original setting in his I Capuleti e i Montecchi; and Adelina Patti's "mini-concerts" in the lesson scene of Il barbiere di Siviglia.

The final chapter provides a treatment of a short story, "Memoir of a Song," narrated by none other than an insertion aria itself, and the volume concludes with an appendix containing the first modern edition of this short story, a narrative that has lain utterly forgotten since its publication in 1849. This book covers a wide variety of material that will be of interest to opera scholars and opera lovers alike, touching on the fluidity of the operatic work, on the reception of the singers, and on the shifting and hardening aesthetics of music criticism through the period.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Marie-Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

While somewhat dry and repetitive in the early chapters (an inevitability given the need to establish names, dates and other minutiae of historical performance), this is overall a rather engaging and interesting look at the phenomenon of the insertion aria, the divas and divos who drove the practice, and the social and musical/conductorial/technological changes that ultimately led singers to cease adding or substituting extraneous arias to operatic roles. The chapter dedicated to Caroline Ungher is very well done and thoroughly researched and I also greatly enjoyed the later chapter detailing the varied history (pre- and post- Adelina Patti) of the insertion aria in Rosina's lesson scene in 'Il barbiere di Siviglia'. Poriss takes her survey into the 20th century with a brief account of the insertion aria in modern-day performances of 'Il barbiere' and the controversy surrounding Cecilia Bartoli's substitution of two non-standard Mozart arias into the Metropolitan Opera's 1998 production of 'Le nozze di Figaro'. She ends with a fascinating look at a virtually unknown short story, a 19th century object narrative (first published in 'Fraser's Magazine' in 1849) told from the point of view of what is essentially an insertion aria.

Highly recommended for classical singers, aficionados of bel canto opera, and anyone interested in 19th century musical performance practice.