Toussaint Bertin de la Doué (ca.1680–1745)
Le jugement de Paris is in FO,v.29.
Henri Montan Berton (1767–1844)
Silvieis in FO,v.60.
- Robison, Carol Jeanne. “One-Act Opéra-comiquefrom 1800–1810: Contri-
butions of H.-M. Berton and Nicole Isouard.” D.M.A. diss., U. of Cincinnati, - 448p.
- Taiëb, Patrick. “De la composition du Délire(1799) au pamphlet anti-dilettantes
(1821): Une étude des conceptions esthétiques de H.-M. Berton.” RdM 78
(1992): 61–107.
Le délirewas one of the most successful opéras-comiquesof Berton. In it he
depicted madness by exaggerated harmony and orchestration. Then, 22 years
later, turning against fashionable Italian opera, he wrote a pamphlet condemn-
ing such practices. Why this change of mind? Taiëb speculates about the rea-
sons in the light of psychiatric theory of the time.
Ferdinando Bertoni (1725–1813)
- Hansell, Sven H. “Ferdinando Bertoni’s Setting of Calzabigi’s Orfeo ed
Euridice.” In Muraro (#2576), 185–211.
Bertoni’s most successful work was described by Loewenberg as “a rather
clumsy imitation of Gluck’s,” but Hansell points out that Bertoni admitted his
debt in a preface to the Vienna edition of the score (1783). There are indeed
“striking similarities,” which may have helped bring a favorable reception of
Bertoni’s version throughout Europe, though it faded after 1795. Hansell
offers a scene-by-scene comparison of the two operas and finds that Bertoni
comes out ahead in one or two places, e.g., the aria of Euridice, “Che fiero
momento.” He suggests that Bertoni’s Orfeocould be as successful today as
Gluck’s Italian version of 1762.
Franz Adolf Berwald (1796–1868)
- Berwald, Franz. Sämtliche Werke = Complete Works.Ed. by the Berwald-
kommitten. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1966–. M3 .B53 B5.
Includes the operas Estrella de Soria(v.17), Jag gar i kloster(v.19), and Mode-
handlerskan(v.20). Each volume has an introduction, synopsis, full score, and
brief notes.
No substantive literature on the operas has been seen, apart from the following:
- Sundström, Einar. “Franz Berwalds operor.” Svensk tijdskrift för musikforskn-
ing29 (1947): 16–62.
Genesis, reception, and analysis with musical examples of Estrella di Soria
(1862) and Drottningen av Golconda(1864). Work on the lost opera, Der ver-
räther,is described. Influences (Donizetti, Mozart, and Weber, primarily) are
126 Opera