Nineteenth-Century Operatic Violin Conductors' Scores

Abstract

It has long been known that until the early or middle of the nineteenth century there was generally no separate conductor of an opera or symphony orchestra; 1 rather, the orchestra was led either by the first violinist alone, or jointly by the first violinist and the performer at the keyboard. What I believe, however, has not been generally known, at least by some students, is what the first violinist conducted from. Frequently no orchestral score, printed or manuscript, was available. The traditional first violin orchestral part would have been inadequate. I have found two examples of what the violin conductor used, each being designated Violino Principale. Each one contains cues indicating when the other instruments begin to play. One, for Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, is engraved and, on the basis of the Ricordi plate number, would have been published about 1859;2 the orchestral score of the opera was not published until about thirty-five years later.3 The other, for Rossini's Guglielmo Tell, with Italian text, is in manuscript; the orchestral score of the opera had been published probably in 18304 but with French text, and it is not known when the orchestral score was first published with Italian text. After extensive searches and inquiries at other leading libraries, one major opera house, opera music rental concerns, and private collectors,