Vincenzo Bellini | Autograph manuscript of part of "Beatrice di Tenda", c.1833, apparently unpublished

Vincenzo Bellini.

Autograph manuscript of part of the Act I duet of Beatrice and Filippo from the opera Beatrice di Tenda, APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED

a composing manuscript, notated in dark brown ink on one 20-stave system per page, representing apparently an early version of part of the B-flat section of the Act I, scene 8, duet no.4 "E quali? quali? spergiura! ingrata!" (from the 'stretta' - '[pian]gente...la morte!' [Beatrice] - to the first eight bars of the cabaletta), c.34 bars of music in all, with a number of autograph deletions, erasures, revisions and corrections

4 pages, large oblong 4to (28.4 x 41.3cm), 20-stave paper, with a note of authenticity by Bellini's brothers in the outer margin of each leaf ("Autografo di Vincenzo Bellini / i suoi fratelli / Mario Bellini / Carmelo Bellini"), as well as notarial stamps ("...Carbonaro Carmelo Catania") and notes in other hands, including by Professor Venturino Caravella (dated Catania, 19 March 1902), modern green morocco gilt, gilt lettering to spine ("Bellini Beatrice di Tenda")

A FRAGMENT OF THE FINEST NUMBER IN THE SCORE, THE GREAT DUET IN ACT I.

Beatrice di Tenda, the first opera completed by Bellini after Norma, was written for the greatest soprano of the time Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865), whose natural style of singing and expressive harnessing of technique in the service of the drama proved an important influence on Bellini's (and Donizetti's) style of writing. Other title roles created by Pasta include those of Bellini's Norma (1831) and Donizetti's Anna Bolena (1830). It was the singer who, on seeing in Milan in October 1832 the ballet based on Tedaldi-Fores' play Beatrice Tenda, had enthused the composer about the subject - the real-life fifteenth-century tale of Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda's unhappy and ultimately fatal second marriage to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti in Milan. The composition of the work was delayed on account of the dilatoriness of Bellini's librettist, Felice Romani, and the first performance at the Venice Teatro La Fenice was pushed back from the second half of February to 16 March 1833. The opera was received indifferently, although subsequent performances drew large audiences. Bellini himself expressed his satisfaction with the work, stating that it was 'not unworthy of her sisters' (i.e. Bellini's recent operas Norma and La somnambula). Unfortunately, the very public recriminations of Romani in the press (which started with complaints about the delayed production) resulted in the rupture of the relationship between composer and librettist, although there were signs of a rapprochement before the composer's untimely death, at the age of 33, in September 1835. There have been a number of notable modern revivals of this jewel of bel canto writing, including those in 1961 at New York and at La Scala, with Joan Sutherland in the title role.

The present manuscript, probably a rejected bifolium from the autograph score (preserved today at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica "Santa Cecilia", Rome), differs considerably from the version of the duet's section as found in the posthumous full score, published in Rome, c.1840. While the beginning and end of the present fragment correspond fairly closely to the full score - aside from the latter's doubling of the note values - the music of the last six or so bars of the second page of the manuscript diverge markedly (even though the B flat pedal is present in both versions). Autograph music relating to Bellini's major operas is only rarely offered at auction. A critical edition of the opera has not yet been published.

LITERATURE:

Facsimile edition of the c.1840 printed full score in Early Romantic Opera, ed. Philip Gossett, vol. 5 (New York, 1980) [above numbering follows that of the facsimile]