Edited by Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell (2003)
Two-volume set: score pp. XC, 423 + critical commentary
NR 136090
Piano vocal score available
CP 136093
The critical edition of Stiffelio restores the opera to the original version as Verdi completed it. This was done with the aid of sections of the autograph score that until now were believed to be lost, and by recovering a large part of the work which had been used in Aroldo, an opera which was staged for the first time in Rimini on August 16, 1857. This edition is therefore the only extant one based on primary sources.
In the Sixties, following the discovery of two copies of the score at the Library of the Naples Conservatory, a renewed interest for Stiffelio led to two editions in different moments, neither of the which however used the autograph sections of Stiffelio incorporated in the score of Aroldo. Only a performance at the Delaware Opera supervised and directed by the Verdi scholar David Lawton used this irreplaceable source, but still had to rely on a secondary source in about half of the vocal numbers. The final solution came in February 1992, when almost all the missing sections of the autograph score were found in the private library of the composer’s heirs in Sant’Agata. Besides these, the same folder contained twelve books of sketches by Verdi and abandoned fragments of a ‘skeleton score’ of Stiffelio, and further still, four books of sketches for Aroldo.
This made it possible to assemble almost entirely the autograph score, except for the Preghiera and the Finale Ultimo, where the presence of Verdi’s sketches however allowed a faithful reconstruction. The sketches are particularly important for the vocal text, especially in the Finale Ultimo, since the only totally uncensored version is to be found in the so-called ‘continuative sketch’ of N.10. The sketches were also useful as an auxiliary source to decipher those parts of Stiffelio the compser rewrote in the manuscript of Aroldo. As the order of the twenty-eight books of materials for Stiffelio in S. Agata does not always represent the original state (sections of the score were found in between sketches for Stiffelio and Aroldo) the reconstruction required quite some investigative work.
The autograph score of Stiffelio contains a number of additions scribbled with a colour-pencil during the rehearsals for the premiere. These include tempo indications, dynamics, pizzicato and arco markings, accidentals, accents, ties and sometimes melodic changes. The critical edition takes account of all these indications and they are described and discussed in the Critical Notes.