On Verdi, Ghislanzoni, And Aid The Uses Of Convention
Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and “Aida”: The Uses of Convention
In the essay, “Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and “Aida”: The Uses of Convention,” Philip Gossett discusses Verdi’s problems finding a librettist who could supply him with texts that sufficiently met his need for articulating drama as well as push the bounds of conventional musical forms. Gossett singled out Verdi’s opera Aida, using examples of correspondence between the composer and the librettist to paint a picture of what Verdi had originally intended and what eventually came to be. Much of the essay contains correspondence from Verdi and Gossett begins with Verdi’s own words, “I should like nothing better than to find a good libretto and with it a good poet (we have such need of one!) but I cannot hide from you that I read with great reluctance the libretti that are sent to me. It is impossible, or almost impossible, for another to sense what I want. I want subjects that are new, great, beautiful, varied, bold, bold to the core, with new forms, yet at the same time appropriate for music….”1 This letter demonstrates Verdi’s frustrations with what he felt were both the lack of compelling subject matter and librettists to set the subject matter. In the essay, Gossett …show more content…
Gossett points out that this example again shows Verdi’s ambivalence towards form and convention. While Ghislanzoni’s wanted two matching parallel sets of seven syllable stanzas, Verdi warned him to “avoid monotony, and forced him to look for uncommon forms, tempos and melodies.” Gossett points out the interesting fact of Verdi’s knowledge of how form and text worked together in a correspondence dated November 13th, “You cannot imagine what a beautiful melody can be made with such a strange form; how graceful the five-syllable line is after three of seven syllables; and what variety the two succeeding eleven-syllable lines
In the essay, “Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and “Aida”: The Uses of Convention,” Philip Gossett discusses Verdi’s problems finding a librettist who could supply him with texts that sufficiently met his need for articulating drama as well as push the bounds of conventional musical forms. Gossett singled out Verdi’s opera Aida, using examples of correspondence between the composer and the librettist to paint a picture of what Verdi had originally intended and what eventually came to be. Much of the essay contains correspondence from Verdi and Gossett begins with Verdi’s own words, “I should like nothing better than to find a good libretto and with it a good poet (we have such need of one!) but I cannot hide from you that I read with great reluctance the libretti that are sent to me. It is impossible, or almost impossible, for another to sense what I want. I want subjects that are new, great, beautiful, varied, bold, bold to the core, with new forms, yet at the same time appropriate for music….”1 This letter demonstrates Verdi’s frustrations with what he felt were both the lack of compelling subject matter and librettists to set the subject matter. In the essay, Gossett …show more content…
Gossett points out that this example again shows Verdi’s ambivalence towards form and convention. While Ghislanzoni’s wanted two matching parallel sets of seven syllable stanzas, Verdi warned him to “avoid monotony, and forced him to look for uncommon forms, tempos and melodies.” Gossett points out the interesting fact of Verdi’s knowledge of how form and text worked together in a correspondence dated November 13th, “You cannot imagine what a beautiful melody can be made with such a strange form; how graceful the five-syllable line is after three of seven syllables; and what variety the two succeeding eleven-syllable lines