Last Acts: The Operas of Puccini and His Italian Contemporaries from Alfano to Zandonai

Abstract

1. One of the main problems was that Wagner did not believe in the old proverb “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” The ballet was a very important feature of every opera, but the box holders, who found it diYcult to be on time, wanted it in act 2, so they could enjoy it and make their assignations with their favorite ballerinas. Wagner refused to put the ballet in act 2, feeling (quite rightly) that it fitted in much better in act 1. The Jockey Club organized anti-Wagner riots, and Tannhauser had to be withdrawn after three performances. 2. Huebner quotes d’Indy’s description of this glorious period: “Wagner had helped bring about regeneration in the decadent ‘periode judaique’ that had reigned in French music, of which Meyerbeer was a prime example” (p. 308). But Huebner fails to refute the comment, which he could easily have done by bringing up the fact that none of the other successful composers of the period (Auber, Adam, Thomas, and Gounod) were Jewish. 3. One of the aspects of Parisian opera life that has always bothered me is the failure of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda to obtain a staging in Paris, even to this day. While Huebner does not actually go into this, no discussion is really necessary. Successful as it was in southern Europe, Latin America, and the United States, La Gioconda is one of the most Meyerbeerian and least Wagnerian of all latenineteenth-century Italian operas. Is it any wonder that it was not given in Paris in view of the prevailing atmosphere? 4. Lohengrin had already reached Vienna in 1858 (eight years after its premiere), Berlin in 1859, Rotterdam in 1862, St. Petersburg in 1868, Brussels in 1870, New York and Bologna in 1871, London in 1875, Rome in 1878, Nice (its first performance in France) and Madrid in 1881, and Lisbon, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro in 1883. Other works by Wagner, such as Tristan and Die Meistersinger, present a similar history. By comparison, Lohengrin took thirty-seven years to reach Paris, at which time it was given at a lesser theater (the Eden), and another four years to reach the Opera, making it one of the last major world capitals to have a successful staging of any Wagner opera. 5. The numbers of performances were obtained from Stephane WolV, L’opera au Palais Garnier, 1875–1962: Les oeuvres, les interpretes (Paris: Slatkine, 1983).