- Conati, Marcello, and Natalia Grilli. “Simon Boccanegra” di Giuseppe Verdi.
Milan: Ricordi, 1993. 263p. ISBN 88-7592-359-0. ML410 .V4 C675.
A variety of viewpoints on the staging and performance history of the opera.
Facsimiles of the original libretti (1857 and 1881) are presented, with the dis-
posizione scenicaof 1881. Well illustrated with drawings of scenery and cos-
tumes and contemporary engravings.
Stiffelio (Aroldo)
The unsuccessful Stiffelio(1850) was revised as Aroldo(1857).
1929.Tornando a “Stiffelio.” Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Venezia,
17–20 dicembre 1985.Ed. Giovanni Morelli. Quaderni della Rivista italiana
di musicologia, 14. Florence: Olschki, 1987. xv, 380p. ISBN 88-22-23484-7
ML410 .V4 T62.
Papers from the conference, dealing with genesis, the libretto, technical obser-
vations on the music, reception, and the transformation into Aroldo. Har-
wood (#1800), item 234, cites the more significant essays. This is one of them:- Chusid, Martin. “Apropos Aroldo, Stiffelio, and Le pasteur,with a List of
19th-Century Performances of Aroldo.” In Tornando (#1929), 281–303.
Reprinted in Verdi Newsletter 144 (1986): 15–28.
A thorough comparison of the two works and the source of the libretto, Le
pasteur,by Emile Souvestre, in its stage adaptation by Eugène Bourgeois.
Includes performance histories of both operas (88 productions), suggesting
that neither was a total failure. All documents relating to the works are
described.
1931.“Stiffelio.” Ed. Mario Medici and Marcello Pavarani. Quaderni3 (1968):
1–157.
The entire issue of Quaderniconsists of essays on the opera. Harwood
(#1800), item 902, cites them.
La traviata
ASO51 (1983; 1993), ENOG 5 (1981), Rororo (1983).
1932.Violetta and Her Sisters: The Lady of the Camellias: Responses to the Myth.
Ed. Nicholas John. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. x, 305p. ISBN 0-5711-
6665-2. NX652 D86 V66 or HQ117 .V565.
Essays about courtesans, by various authors. Genesis, staging, and character
of Violetta in La traviata are thoroughly studied (p.217–303). No index.- Chusid, Martin. “Drama and the Key of F Major in La traviata.” InAtti
(#1802), v.3, 89–121.
Suggests that F major is a key that Verdi associated with happy love scenes, at
least from around the time of La traviata.Chusid gives examples from many
of the operas.
Giuseppe Verdi 359