OttorinoRespighi (1879 - 1936)

In the summer of1935, while dealing with operatic projects on King Lear and Macbeth, Respighiread Shakespeare"s poem The Rape of Lucrece. After consulting Livy"s Histories,the original source of this edifying Roman legend, he turned to AndreObey"s play Le viol de Lucrece (1931), which made a particularimpression on him, since it makes use of two Recitants who comment onthe action, in the manner of a Greek chorus. In Respighi"s own operatic versionthese parts would be united into one La Voce, a dramatic mezzo-soprano,and sung from the orchestra pit. With this idea in mind, the composerapproached his librettist.

Once again ClaudioGuastalla, who had previously prepared the libretti of Respighi"s operas Belfagor,La campana sommersa, La fiamma and Maria Egiziaca, and of his balletBelkis, regina di Saba, embarked on the collaboration, not withoutmoments of disagreement. Both parties had strong ideas and the fact that aRoman legend had to be set to music, while avoiding some dangerouspseudo-archaisms in the text and the extravert nature of the orchestral writingdisplayed in the earlier trilogy of Roman tone-poems, caused many discussions.

Obey"s play hadbeen written for a Paris actors" group of fifteen, called LaCompagnie des Quinze. Now a full play of four acts had to be transformedinto a sixty minute one-act opera and the concern of both composer andlibrettist was not only to reduce a great deal of secondary dialogue, ofsoldiers, servants and townspeople, but also to tighten the part of the two Recitants,who seem to us today to be unduly prolix. Guastalla"s adaptation is veryintelligent and has, obviously, more Latin flavour in its text.

The short score ofLucrezia was completed within two months. In the autumn of 1935 Respighibegan the orchestration, while at the same time working on an arrangement ofFrancesco Cavalli"s Medea. Negotiations with the Teatro alia Scala ledto the scheduling of Lucrezia and Medea in a double-billproduction for the 1936-37 season.

In January 1936Respighi"s doctor diagnosed endocarditis lenta viridans, a bacterial infectionwhich at that stage a d in those years was still incurable and which led, withRespighi"s strong physique, to a long struggle of four months against death.The manuscript of the opera had not left his bedside since the start of hisillness, even though Respighi could hardly bear to look at it. The same illnessalso caused a distortion o his hearing, not only making him hear real sounds ina distorted form but later causing him to endure nightmarish musical fragmentsheard inside his h ad, bringing about a real aversion from music. Since thefirst symptoms had already appeared in April 1935, it is possible that Lucreziawas composed with that unpleasant feeling that Respighi reports as havingstarted by making him hear "from one ear half a tone lower than from theother", with the obvious terror that he might become completely deaf.

It was Respighi"swidow Elsa, herself a gifted composer, who after her husband"s death completedthe orchestration of some 29 pages of Lucrezia, starting with thesoprano"s final aria "non sono pill quella di ieri". The composer"sdrafts and the fact that the opera had been played to her almost daily, whileit was sketched, were of great help. The results of her work are so good thatit is impossible to detect any stylistic break, as it had been, for example, inFranco Alfano"s completion of Puccini"s Turandot. An unusualcircumstance was that in the autograph that Respighi left the singing parts hadnot yet been entered. This might be the result of the composer"s urge to finishthe more important part of his work, the orchestration, after eventually havingguessed the fatal nature of his illness, a fact that had always been concealedfrom him. Elsa"s additional and painful task, assisted by the composer EnnioPorrino, was to add also those singing parts.

The firstperformance of the work at the Teatro alla Scala on 24th February, 1937, underthe baton of Gino Marinuzzi and with Maria Caniglia as Lucrezia and EbeStignani as La Voce, was coupled with Respighi"s mystery play Maria Egiziacaand a choreographic version of his orchestral suite Gli Uccelli. Theselast two works took the place of the unfinished Medea. Shortly afterwardsthe same production was mounted at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, under thesame conductor, and at the Roman Teatro Reale dell? Opera under Tullio Serafin.Caniglia was to sing Lucrezia again, and for the last time, in a Turin broadcast of 1938. In the 1960s it was Anna deCavalieri who revived this part on stage and on the radio in unforgettabledramatic renderings. As for the part of La Voce, this was to be displayed withall its difficult and varied characteristics by great mezzos such as FedoraBarbieri, Miriam Pirazzini and Oralia Dominguez.

Although scoredfor an ensemble of normal symphonic dimensions (piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, thr etrombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings), the Respighis considered Lucreziaas a work for "chamber orchestra", not only because it appears tobe on a smaller scale, orchestrally, than Feste romane (1928), Lafiamma (1933) and Belkis, regina di Saba (1934), but also because itsmusical language is more simple and straightforward. With Lucrezia thecomposer has conceived music reduced to a minimum of effects and soundingthroughout as an almost unitary accompaniment. A few leit-motifs are to befound in the score, a short "Roman" fanfare, a "riding"motif, Tarquinio"s "erotic" theme and the "household" themein the central episode. In the three short but very tense orchestral interludes(opening the soldiers" scene, concluding both the rape and Lucrezia"s suicide),although they sound heavier through many doublings of instruments, the musicalmaterial is still relatively sober, realisable through perusal of the vocalscore.

Stylistically Lucreziais a more complex affair. To the present writer it appears as a composer"shomage to various earlier influences in his career, as if, perhaps, he haddecided to abandon the most dangerous once and for all and to praise only theone that had been predominant in his stylistic development. Monteverdi"s recitarecantando, in this case mainly connected with the narrative part of La Voce,reminds us of many of the earlier scores of Respighi, including his adaptationof Monteverdi"s Lamento d"Arianna in 1908, and the arrangement of L"Orfeo,which had been given its successful first performance at La Scala in March1935. The decidedly more "dangerous" influence of Richard Strauss canbe found in this score in the above-mentioned leit-motif describing theeroticism of Tarquinio, reaching a brutal climax in the interlude suggestingthe rape. This particular interlude may even give the impression that thecomposer had tried to "rape" and not only pay tribute to the music ofRichard Strauss. Lucrezia, on the other hand, has some recitativiaccompagnati in the ancient style, but more ariosi reminding us of Puccini (Turandotin both "Non mi conosci, tu sei di razza straniera" and "L"orma d"un uomo stranier ...") and Verdi ("Perfido, perfido!", areminiscence of Desdemona"s willow-song from Otello). The mysteriousstring chords that accompany Lucrezia"s retiring to her bedroom may be adistant echo of the interlude in Giordano"s Fedora, beside those fewother tributes to Italian verismo in the score. Finally the"household" or "women"s" scherzoso and naive leit-motif, onwhich the music of the second tableau is based, is not without a certainRussian flavour, a trait of many of Respighi"s youthful symphonic works, whilethe three women are singing together, but turns rather to a baroque mood ofgreat beauty when Lucrezia subsequently remains alone.

Fortunately theseforeign influences in Respighi"s opera do not cloud its beauty and lyric powerand the unmistakable personal style of the composer. There is enough musicalimpact to reach even symphonic dimensions and there is no moment where thetension begins to flag. In this very interesting and original short opera wecan but approve Respighi"s definite return to a neoclassical form of musicaldrama, in which the singing parts become predominant and melody, whetherrecitativo, psalmody, arioso or simple song, is supported by a discreet andtransparent accompaniment.

Even though, insome of her fiery outbursts, the hieratic character of a Greek chorus issurpassed, La Voce emotionally experiences each situation in the play, from thefirst scene of the nocturnal ride to her cries of "Vile!" at theclimax, the rape and" A Roma!" at the very end. Occasionally shereturns to moments of restrained fear and silent warning. To emphasize herpassionate involvement Respighi inserted her strongly felt cries at the mostcritical moments of the drama, even interrupting or taking over theprotagonist"s vocal line. The part of La Voce is one requiring particularlydramatic and varied vocal colouring. The composer"s apparent homage toMonteverdi should not always be taken as reliable, particularly at the momentof Tarquinio"s arrival, where La Voce too is infatuated by the erotic aura ofthe prince and succumbs to Straussian lyricism. In comparison Lucrezia and theother leading characters of the opera appear more static and stylistically more"contemporary", which means that they are the offspring of a few morecenturies of Italian bel canto tradition. It may be asked why Lucrezia"shusband Collatino has a smaller singing part than Bruto, who himself is allowedan arietta and a very effective declamatory recitative in the finale (and alsoshows a stronger development of character). Tarquinio, on the other hand, seemsnot to need any aria as well, since a tremendous duet with Lucrezia awaits him,giving him a splendid opportunity to follow in the steps of Scarpia, notexcluding also the lyric aspects of this r6le. Lucrezia, who sings about halfof the music of the opera, has a part that makes great technical demands,especially at the end, where many lirico-spinto sopranos would find it almostimpossible. Respighi conceived the role for the soprano Maria Caniglia, afteradmiring her in a successful interpretation of Maria Egiziaca in 1932.

The story ofLucrezia, whether legend or fact, had already inspired George Frideric Handelto a cantata in 1706. In 1946 Andre Obey"s play, as adapted by Ronald Duncan,was to provide the plot of Benjamin Brit ten"s chamber opera The Rape ofLucretia, in which the parts of the Recitants remained sharedbetween two singers, a soprano and a tenor. As Livy tells us, it was theviolent death of Lucretia that led the people to rise against the tyranny ofthe Tarquins and banish them from Rome, after the bodyof the martyr to chastity had been carried through the streets of the city.These events transformed Rome"s Etruscan monarchy into a republic. Inthe Italy of 1935, however, the final unison cry of"a Roma!" in Respighi"s opera was to be shortly followed by adecidedly regressive political change, if compared to that of 505 B.C.

Adriano (editedby Keith Anderson)