General Editors:
Francesco Degrada and Mercedes Viale Ferrero
The function of the Disposizioni sceniche, which originated in France and spread to Italy around the middle of the 19th century, was to establish a canonical model for each opera in terms of musical interpretation, the gestural dimension and movements, scenes and costumes, adhering to the authors’ conception, and such that it could be reproduced, substantially unchanged, in any theatre. They constitute – insofar as they were written with the direct collaboration of the librettist and the composer – not only a testimony of great interest on the thought, taste, and spectacular vision of the authors, but also offer a valuable integration of the interpretative indications contained in the scores. The practical efficacy and fortune of the Disposizioni sceniche declined rapidly in the first decades of the 20th century, both due to the rapid renewal of staging techniques and to the imposition of an idea of opera interpretation as a free ‘recreation’ – each time profoundly different – of the authors’ original project rather than as a faithful and static reproduction of a model.
The current reissue of these documents – hitherto known only to a small circle of specialists, but in reality indispensable to directors and performers – aims to critically re-propose the authors’ original dramaturgical vision as it became fixed within a specific moment in the history of musical theatre, its taste and conventions. Therefore, the original libretto and the disposizioni scenica (suitably analysed from a musical-dramaturgical and scenic-spectacular point of view) have been juxtaposed with the images of the stagings (sets, costumes, props) of the world ‘première’ or of immediately subsequent performances, documented by drawings or sketches or contemporary illustrations. An attempt has been made, in short, to reconstruct – on the basis of the most significant iconographic and documentary evidence available – the spectacular model that the authors had approved and proposed as exemplary, integrating it with a historical-critical apparatus updated to the most recent research in the fields of musicology, theatre history and set design.
For more information, please contact the Sales Office at cs@halleonardeurope.it.
Published Volumes
1. Otello di Giuseppe Verdi
Edited by James A. Hepokoski (1990)
2. Simon Boccanegra di Giuseppe Verdi
Edited by Marcello Conati and Natalia Grilli (1993)
3. Mefistofele di Arrigo Boito
Edited by William Ashbrook and Gerardo Guccini (1998)
4. Un ballo in maschera di Giuseppe Verdi
Edited by David Rosen and Marinella Pigozzi (2002)