Vincenzo Bellini | Two autograph sketchleaves for "Norma", 1831, apparently unpublished

Vincenzo Bellini.

Two autograph sketchleaves for Norma, APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED

comprising a variety of unilinear and multi-stave sketches, some representing initial first thoughts, others, more neatly written, indicative of a more advanced stage in the composing process, DIVERGING IN MANY DETAILS FROM THE LATER MUSICAL TEXT, notated in dark brown ink, on up to 19 staves per page, including for: Pollione's cavatina, no.2, "Meco all'altar di Venere" (from the cabaletta "Me protegge, me difende [...] L'empio altare abbatterò"), with autograph title ("La Cavatina di Pollione"), 21 bars [fol.2v, staves 16-18]; Scena e Terzetto (Finale I), no.5, "Ma di'...l'amato giovane", c.66 bars [fol.1r, staves 7-19; fol.1v, staves 1-2]; the chorus "Guerra, guerra!" from Finale II, no.8, c.54 bars [fol.2v, staves 7-14]; the duet between Norma and Pollione ("In mia man alfin tu sei...[up to "Al tuo piè son io piangente!]") in Finale II, no.8, c.121 bars [fol.1v, staves 14-19; fol.2r, staves 1-18; fol.2v, staves 1-4]; and including a number of unidentified sketches, as well as a sketch possibly relating to the chorus "Guerra, guerra!", with autograph title ("tema marziale"), 2 bars [fol.1v, stave 12]; with autograph tempo indications, singers' names ("Norma"; "Nor:"; "Adal:" etc.), and many autograph cancellations, corrections and revisions

4 pages, large oblong 4to (28.3 x 41cm), 20-stave paper, later cancelled numbering of the leaves ("22" on fol. 1v; "21" on fol. 2r), with a note of authenticity by Bellini's brothers in the margins of each leaf ("Autografo di Vincenzo Bellini / i suoi fratelli / Mario Bellini / Carmelo Bellini"), as well as notarial stamps ("Notaro Carbonaro Carmelo Catania") and notes in other hands, including by Professor Venturino Caravella (dated Catania, 19 March 1902), on guards, modern green morocco gilt, gilt lettering to spine ("Vincenzo Bellini Norma"), c.September to December 1831, a few small tears to margins of first leaf, two with old repairs, three vertical creases, some light browning and spotting

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BELLINI AUTOGRAPH TO APPEAR AT AUCTION FOR OVER 20 YEARS.

Norma is Bellini's masterpiece, widely considered to be the greatest Italian Romantic opera before Verdi. One number in particular, the celebrated "Casta diva", where the tragic eponymous heroine and High Priestess of the Druids, addresses the chaste moon, is one of the most adored arias in all opera, its affecting and seemingly endless melodic periods regarded as the epitome of the bel canto style.

The present leaves provided a fascinating glimpse into Bellini's composing 'workshop' in the months before the opera's premiere at La Scala, Milan, on 31 December 1831: they well illustrate the composer's methodical approach to drafting and refining melodies, the jotted-down sketches either drawn upon immediately for current projects, or used as an idea-bank for future projects. In one regard the present leaves are unusual among the corpus of Bellini sketchleaves since they contain evidence of different stages of the composing process: in addition to sketches proper, there are also more neatly written-out entries which evidently belong to a later phase of work on the opera: see the entries relating to Pollione's cavatina, no.2, and the duet in no.8 - the latter an extensive 121-bar notation of the famous confrontation between Norma (the role created by the great soprano Giuditta Pasta) and the Roman proconsul in Gaul, Pollione at the climax of the drama ("In mia man alfin tu sei").

Although autograph manuscripts from Bellini's major operas appear only rarely at auction, a large amount of autograph material relating to Norma does in fact survive. In addition to the autograph score of the complete opera (preserved today at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di musica "Santa Cecilia", Rome), and a 4-page section originally from it, containing the opening of the chorus "Guerra, guerra!" from Finale II, no.8 (Sotheby's, 6 December 1991, lot 37), over 140 pages of related sketches, drafts and rejected versions are known to exist, including: 128 pages of sketches, in the Museo Belliniano, Catania; 6 pages of draft fragments for the duetto, no.4, "Va, crudele", in the New York Public Library; 2 pages of melodic sketches for Norma, Beatrice di Tenda and I puritani, formerly in the private collection of Arturo Toscanini ('Toscanini 1-2': Sotheby's, 6 December 1991, lot 38); and a 2-page draft for Pollione's act I aria "Meco all'altar di Venere" (Sotheby's, 21 May, 2004, lot 32).

LITERATURE:

Philip Gossett, ed., Norma [...] a facsimile edition of the original autograph manuscript and the surviving sketches, 2 vols., (1983) [the above numbering follows that of the facsimile edition]