Edited by Elizabeth Hudson (1998)
Two-volume set: score pp. LIV, 389 + critical commentary
NR 136994
Piano vocal score available
CP 136997
The edition of Il corsaro, in common with almost all titles in the Verdi Critical Edition, uses as its principal source the composer’s autograph full score, a manuscript housed in the archives of Casa Ricordi. Owing in part to the fact that the opera fell out of the repertory in the late 1850s, no printed orchestral score was prepared in Verdi’s lifetime, nor (perhaps more surprisingly) did one emerge in the wake of the opera’s modest postwar revival. The “performance tradition” of the opera, such as it is, has thus been based for the most part on various manuscript copies of the opera, made without the composer’s authorization and without close regard for his intentions. These sources were in large part accurate so far as the basic fabric of the opera is concerned – in the matter of vocal pitches and harmonic structure, for example – but in one important respect they were urgently in need of revision for modern performance.
The point at issue concerns the large mass of performance instructions that Verdi left in his orchestral score, details that range from dynamic markings to instrumental and vocal slurs to placement of stage directions for the singers. These might, at first glance, seem a peripheral aspect of any potential revision, but in fact they constitute the most thoroughgoing and most radical difference between the new Edition and earlier scores of Il corsaro. The problem arose because Verdi, writing as he was for conditions in which there was a thorough understanding of contemporary style, was often less than complete in his use of performance directions: he could rely on performers and copyists to deduce his intentions from the music. In certain cases, for example where dynamic marks are concerned, it is usually fairly easy for modern editors to arrive at a satisfactory interpretation of the composer’s intentions (although attentive listeners to the Critical Edition will find a few surprising differences from the old version, in which dynamics were frequently exaggerated or misunderstood). The case of inconsistent vocal and instrumental slurs is far more complex, as here we deal with an area in which our perception of what is “musical” may lead us to prefer certain types of phrasing over others. The manuscript copies of Il corsaro are in this respect quite clearly an “interpretation” rather than an attempt to grapple with precisely what Verdi’s slurs mean. Verdi’s instrumental and vocal slurs are consistently lengthened, and new slurs are often added with no evidence from the autograph. The underlying effect is to encourage a style of performance that is far smoother and more legato than that suggested by Verdi’s markings.
It is hardly necessary to defend the position of the Edition in upholding Verdi’s directions; to see (and eventually to hear) Il corsaro without its assumed mantle of added performance indications is its own justification. The opera is released from another age’s aesthetic ideals, and can rejoice in its newfound clarity of voice. Of course, we are only at the beginning of this particular road; continuing work on the Edition will inevitably stimulate further research on Verdian performance practice, both vocal and instrumental; it is an area about which, paradoxically, we know far less that we do about the more “distant” eighteenth century. But at least the texts will be available; performers will be able to ponder for themselves the precise nature of Verdi’s written intentions.
The Critical Edition of Il corsaro is thus primarily a business of reclamation, of restoring to performers, scholars and listeners the opportunity to judge Verdi on the merits of his principal legacy. If at some points it is obliged to challenge long-held views about the Verdian “tradition”, that seems a necessary price to pay. Even an opera as little known as Il corsaro is constantly undergoing a subtle process of change, of re-interpretation to suit each age’s needs. The Critical Edition does not attempt to arrest this process; it merely sets out to demonstrate where it began: in the notes and signs Verdi wrote when he gave birth to his opera.