Monteverdi's musical theatre

Musical Times, Autumn 2003 by Williams, Peter

Stageworthy PETER WILLIAMS Monteverdi's musical theatre Tim Carter Yale UP (New Haven & London, 2002); x, 326pp; L25. ISBN 0 300 09676 3.

Near the close of his major new book, Professor Carter explains its thrust: much of what happens in Monteverdi's stage music is determined at least by the arts of poetry on one hand, and of the theatre on the other, and to treat these works as somehow purely, or even supremely, 'musical' is fundamentally to miss their point. To this end he discusses what is documented and can be speculated about the composer's priorities, context, biography, colleagues, patrons, circumstances and understanding of stagecraft and verse, with respect to the wide-ranging genre or genres we might call 'musical theatre'. His expert handling of the primary and secondary literature is clear on every page, and particularly helpful to English-speaking devotees of Monteverdi and of early opera generally - its character, purpose, distinctiveness - will be the author's command of Italian poetic forms, metres, verse-types and thus musical types. Many practical issues of performance, especially of the three extant and complete operas (Orfeo, Il ritorno, Popped), are covered at length, though not performance practice as such. The book is assured of a place in the literature of early opera for this as for its presentation of what is known and unknown about the many lost works, the questions of authorship in Poppea, the ample discussion of various kinds of dramatic work that is not strictly opera (such as the Combattimento), and for its alert interpretation of the stories and myth (Orpheus, Nero, Seneca, Ulysses, Penelope) as they were used in the new musical genres. Very welcome is the setting out of precisely what-happens-where in such pieces as the Combattimento, or showing in a table how in the complete operas the singers' roles can be distributed. The chapter on balli raises interesting doubts as it attempts to deal with such musical cruxes as the dubious seven-bar phrases in Ballo delle ingrate by finding reasons in the text for them. Perhaps there is something a bit cold-blooded or prosaic in listing the keys of the exquisite Prologue of Orfeo or in describing the fabulous opening of Il ritorno as having 'expressive power and dramatic effect', but some such discussion seems inevitable in any book on great operas.

A focus on texts and their position in all kinds of Italian secular vocal music of the time leads to a rather wordy book not very easy to follow in its layout, especially when a music example precedes its reference. A glossary would have helped, e.g. to remind one what versi sdruccioli are, as would the original texts of the translated documents - replacing, perhaps, some of the self-references and unnecessary politesses (e.g. why apologise for not viewing Monteverdi 'through the prism of gender studies'?). Since the documentation is a strength of the book, to have the originals as well would have given it permanent value. There are many insights into the texts and significances of the libretti, including some of the old agonisings over whether Poppea is a respectable opera or not, and it could be that some things can now be quietly forgotten. But there need never be confusion again over the versions of Il ritorno, rather the contrary: this particular chapter, because different versions of the work happen to be extant, is a useful reminder that so often over the centuries there may never have been a 'final, definitive version' of a certain major work.

Most readers will learn a great deal about Italian poetic forms, relevant too to madrigals, but how much they will about the music itself I am less sure. For instance, can one not usefully analyse (and help the reader to discern) how and why the quality of Monteverdi's music is so superior to Peri's - are value-judgments out these days? Similarly, more can be offered on the important question of modal versus diatonic than appears in the book, where reference to technical-musical matters is often too oblique to be enlightening (allusions to Schenker don't enlighten me, I'm afraid). One major area of interest takes such a back seat as to be hardly there at all, although one could call it the nitty-gritty of such music: that is, Monteverdi's handling of figurae, the specific motifs and devices that were the bar-by-bar concern of composers as they were actually creating sounds to convey their 'musical theatre'. Two examples:

First, is not an important (for all I know, the only) purpose of the decorated version of 'Possente spirto' in Orfeo to demonstrate the working of rhetorical figurae? Whatever else the aria is, it is a marvellous model for them and their handling, and moreover throws light on Orpheus himself as a persona dramatis. I have wondered whether the opera was exceptionally published in order to instruct buyers, including potential imitators, in this and other arts of musical creation? Or take Orfeo's Prologue again: surely it is no accident that the goddess of music sings in the first of all keys, a form of tonus primus, very startling and beautiful after the fanfare?