Edited by Jürgen Selk (2017)
NR 141581
Jérusalem was Giuseppe Verdi’s first Grand opéra. Verdi had received his first invitation to Paris in 1845, but various commitments in Italy prevented him from pursuing the prospect of composing for the French stage, until, in 1847, he finally entered into a contract to provide an opera, with a view to having it staged in the fall season of the same year (26 November 1847).
The critical edition of Jérusalem re-assesses the merits of this work by presenting, for the first time, a scholarly prepared score, according the work all the rigors of editorial methodology befitting a major work of considerable artistic and music-historical importance.
Heretofore, the full score of Jérusalem has not been published. Modern performances have relied on rental scores, in reproductions of 20th century manuscript copies produced by Ricordi, Milano. Though professionally prepared, these rental scores have not provided editorial detail that transmits insight into the nature of the original source from which they were derived; users of these rental scores have had to accept the representation of the work at face value, without being able to assess critically the plausibility of the notational choices made in the assembly of the rental scores. The purpose of the new critical edition is to address this neglect by presenting a score rigorously faithful to Verdi’s surviving manuscript, and by critically assessing inconsistencies, lacunae, or outright errors in order to provide scholars and performers a comprehensive philological and editorial account.
The principal source for the critical edition is Verdi’s autograph full score. It resides at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The score is bound in two volumes; volume two, immediately subsequent to the conclusion of the autograph full score and supplied with consecutive pagination, presents a 39-page, non-autograph realization of Verdi’s two-staff reduction of the on-stage banda within the Marche of act 2. The notation of a skeleton score for an on-stage banda was as standard as was the non-autograph instrumentation of such bandas. While the critical edition represents the notation of the banda within the full score as Verdi wrote it (in skeleton score), it will also represent the realization of the banda as it appears in volume 2 within the appendix. It seems very likely, indeed, that this realization was the one used at the première of the work in 1847.
As in other Verdi autographs, the autograph score of Jérusalem is remarkably free of notational errors. Verdi’s notation is clear and efficient. As was his usual practice, dynamic indications of a universal nature are often placed between staves to denote applicability to both staves (this, as always, is true especially for instruments of the same family, such as French horns). Verdi made frequent use of notational shorthands. In accordance with the editorial guidelines for The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, co-published by The University of Chicago Press and Ricordi, Milano, the critical edition always represents such shorthands written out in full; the only exception are the repeat signs within the ballet of act 3 which are seen to be of structural significance and are therefore retained in the edition.
In conclusion, the new critical edition provides the most authoritative text of Verdi’s Jérusalem to date and allows the work to be reassessed both by scholars and by performers. When compared with the modern rental score – hitherto the only entry point for new performances of the work – the critical edition reflects thousands of revisions, changes, deletions, and additions, removes editorial liberties, and aims to represent a score that is as faithful as possible to Verdi’s autograph score.