Francesco Izzo | University of Southampton (original) (raw)
Papers by Francesco Izzo
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Giuseppe Verdi's first French opera, Jérusalem (1847), has often been described as a French v... more Giuseppe Verdi's first French opera, Jérusalem (1847), has often been described as a French version of his fourth opera, I lombardi alla prima crociata (1843). It is hardly a straightforward translation, however; the process of adapting the source to the French stage involved substantial rewriting of the libretto, thoroughly recasting the storyline and therefore requiring numerous changes in the music. Thus, Verdi not only provided several entirely new sections for the score of Jérusalem, but also reused material from I lombardi in radically different dramatic settings. The purpose of this article is to review changing attitudes toward Jérusalem through the twentieth century, and to assert that it may be perceived both as a reworking of the earlier opera and as a new work in which Verdi, under unique circumstances, deployed strategies of self-borrowing. The first part addresses the historiography of Jérusalem, tracing changing attitudes of commentators gradually recognizing the ...
Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 2009
On 7 June 1845, the New York Herald published a letter by an ‘occasional correspondent’ from Phil... more On 7 June 1845, the New York Herald published a letter by an ‘occasional correspondent’ from Philadelphia concerning William Henry Fry's first grand opera, Leonora, which premiered three days before at the Chestnut Street Theatre. The letter contained the following remark:All were delighted with the music, it was so much like an old acquaintance in a new coat; indeed some of ‘the cognoscenti’ said that it was a warm ‘hash’ of Bellini, with a cold shoulder of ‘Rossini,’ and a handful of ‘Auber’ salt – whilst others congratulated Mr. Fry upon his opera being so much like Norma ….
Lo sviluppo del pianoforte negli Stati Uniti dell'Ottocento: economia, società e cultura
Suoni festivi: struttura e drammaturgia di un topos donizettiano
Donizetti's Don Pasquale and the conventions of mid-nineteenth-century opera buffa
A FRANCESCO Izzo . DONIZETTI'S DON PAS QUALE AND THE CONVENTIONS OF MID-NINETEEN... more A FRANCESCO Izzo . DONIZETTI'S DON PAS QUALE AND THE CONVENTIONS OF MID-NINETEENTH-CENTURY OPERA BUFFA1 Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, Italian musi-cians, critics, and literati often suggested that opera buffa was ...
Feste, congiure e delitti in alcune opere serie di Gaetano Donizetti [Festivals, conspiracies and crimes in some serious operas of Gaetano Donizetti]
Rachmaninoff in Italy: criticism, influence, performance
Verdi, the Virgin, and the Censor: The Politics of the Cult of Mary in I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Giovanna d'Arco
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 2007
Christian elements and themes developed rapidly in mid-nineteenth-century Italian culture. This e... more Christian elements and themes developed rapidly in mid-nineteenth-century Italian culture. This essay concentrates on Giuseppe Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843) and Giovanna d'Arco (1845)—the first nineteenth-century Italian operas to include explicit references to the Virgin Mary. Whereas Giselda's prayer to the Virgin in I Lombardi was allowed by the censors with only one minimal emendation, evidence in the autograph score of Giovanna d'Arco reveals that numerous relevant Marian elements in this opera were modified or suppressed. The different attitude of the Milanese censors toward the two operas, both premiered at La Scala, may at first seem contradictory. Examined in the context of contemporary cultural ramifications of the cult of Mary, however, these works and their censorship acquire new meanings, shedding light on the intersections between religion and politics in the phase of the Risorgimento leading to the revolutions of 1848–49. On the one han...
Comedy between Two Revolutions: Opera Buffa and the Risorgimento, 1831-1848
The Journal of Musicology, 2004
Portions of this study were presented at the Eleventh Interna-tional Conference on Nineteenth-Cen... more Portions of this study were presented at the Eleventh Interna-tional Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music (University of London, Royal Holloway College, June 2000), the Symposium Politische Mythen und nationale Identitäten im (Musik-) Theater (Universität Salzburg, ...
Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro
... Izzo, Francesco (2009) Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze ... more ... Izzo, Francesco (2009) Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro. In, Colas, Damien and Di Profio, Alessandro (eds.) D'une scène à l'autre: L'opéra italien en Europe, v. 2: La musique à l'épreuve du théâtre. ...
Books by Francesco Izzo
Il volume raccoglie ventisette contributi di argomento musicologico raggruppati in ambiti tematic... more Il volume raccoglie ventisette contributi di argomento musicologico raggruppati in ambiti tematici quali la storiografia della musica, l’esegesi e l’analisi testuale, la drammaturgia, il teatro musicale e la sua diffusione, le relazioni fra musica e culture letterarie, e include due sezioni dedicate rispettivamente a Beethoven e a Verdi. Le questioni affrontate, con l’ampio spettro metodologico che occupano, rispecchiano i vasti interessi e ambiti di indagine di Fabrizio Della Seta, al quale la raccolta di studi è dedicata in occasione del ritiro dall’insegnamento accademico. Durante tutta la sua lunga attività di studio, Fabrizio Della Seta ha contribuito con saggi fondamentali ai temi di indagine qui riuniti, rendendone fecondo il dialogo. Questi intrecci evidenziano l’inscindibile legame fra ‘ragione’ storico-filologica e ‘pazzia’ artistico-performativa che nutre da sempre la complessità dell’arte musicale occidentale, del suo linguaggio, delle sue trasformazioni, del suo uso e della sua interpretazione. Scavando nella profondità di tale legame, emerge quanto il contributo intellettuale e il magistero del festeggiato abbiano concorso alla formazione e alla crescita di una comunità di studiosi ampia, internazionale e transgenerazionale.
Saggi di Gianmario Borio, Deborah Burton, Daniele Carnini, Damien Colas Gallet, Angela Ida De Benedictis, Serena Facci, Francesco Fontanelli, Michela Garda, Anselm Gerhard, Michele Girardi, Francesco Izzo, Stefano La Via, Lewis Lockwood, Andrea Malnati, Candida Billie Mantica, Roberta Montemorra Marvin, Franco Piperno, Alessandro Roccatagliati, Angela Romagnoli, Daniele Sabaino, Tommaso Sabbatini, Graziella Seminara, Gloria Staffieri, Alice Tavilla, Anna Tedesco, Rodobaldo Tibaldi, Luca Zoppelli.
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Giuseppe Verdi's first French opera, Jérusalem (1847), has often been described as a French v... more Giuseppe Verdi's first French opera, Jérusalem (1847), has often been described as a French version of his fourth opera, I lombardi alla prima crociata (1843). It is hardly a straightforward translation, however; the process of adapting the source to the French stage involved substantial rewriting of the libretto, thoroughly recasting the storyline and therefore requiring numerous changes in the music. Thus, Verdi not only provided several entirely new sections for the score of Jérusalem, but also reused material from I lombardi in radically different dramatic settings. The purpose of this article is to review changing attitudes toward Jérusalem through the twentieth century, and to assert that it may be perceived both as a reworking of the earlier opera and as a new work in which Verdi, under unique circumstances, deployed strategies of self-borrowing. The first part addresses the historiography of Jérusalem, tracing changing attitudes of commentators gradually recognizing the ...
Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 2009
On 7 June 1845, the New York Herald published a letter by an ‘occasional correspondent’ from Phil... more On 7 June 1845, the New York Herald published a letter by an ‘occasional correspondent’ from Philadelphia concerning William Henry Fry's first grand opera, Leonora, which premiered three days before at the Chestnut Street Theatre. The letter contained the following remark:All were delighted with the music, it was so much like an old acquaintance in a new coat; indeed some of ‘the cognoscenti’ said that it was a warm ‘hash’ of Bellini, with a cold shoulder of ‘Rossini,’ and a handful of ‘Auber’ salt – whilst others congratulated Mr. Fry upon his opera being so much like Norma ….
Lo sviluppo del pianoforte negli Stati Uniti dell'Ottocento: economia, società e cultura
Suoni festivi: struttura e drammaturgia di un topos donizettiano
Donizetti's Don Pasquale and the conventions of mid-nineteenth-century opera buffa
A FRANCESCO Izzo . DONIZETTI'S DON PAS QUALE AND THE CONVENTIONS OF MID-NINETEEN... more A FRANCESCO Izzo . DONIZETTI'S DON PAS QUALE AND THE CONVENTIONS OF MID-NINETEENTH-CENTURY OPERA BUFFA1 Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, Italian musi-cians, critics, and literati often suggested that opera buffa was ...
Feste, congiure e delitti in alcune opere serie di Gaetano Donizetti [Festivals, conspiracies and crimes in some serious operas of Gaetano Donizetti]
Rachmaninoff in Italy: criticism, influence, performance
Verdi, the Virgin, and the Censor: The Politics of the Cult of Mary in I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Giovanna d'Arco
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 2007
Christian elements and themes developed rapidly in mid-nineteenth-century Italian culture. This e... more Christian elements and themes developed rapidly in mid-nineteenth-century Italian culture. This essay concentrates on Giuseppe Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843) and Giovanna d'Arco (1845)—the first nineteenth-century Italian operas to include explicit references to the Virgin Mary. Whereas Giselda's prayer to the Virgin in I Lombardi was allowed by the censors with only one minimal emendation, evidence in the autograph score of Giovanna d'Arco reveals that numerous relevant Marian elements in this opera were modified or suppressed. The different attitude of the Milanese censors toward the two operas, both premiered at La Scala, may at first seem contradictory. Examined in the context of contemporary cultural ramifications of the cult of Mary, however, these works and their censorship acquire new meanings, shedding light on the intersections between religion and politics in the phase of the Risorgimento leading to the revolutions of 1848–49. On the one han...
Comedy between Two Revolutions: Opera Buffa and the Risorgimento, 1831-1848
The Journal of Musicology, 2004
Portions of this study were presented at the Eleventh Interna-tional Conference on Nineteenth-Cen... more Portions of this study were presented at the Eleventh Interna-tional Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music (University of London, Royal Holloway College, June 2000), the Symposium Politische Mythen und nationale Identitäten im (Musik-) Theater (Universität Salzburg, ...
Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro
... Izzo, Francesco (2009) Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze ... more ... Izzo, Francesco (2009) Beaumarchais (and Da Ponte) Romanticized: Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro. In, Colas, Damien and Di Profio, Alessandro (eds.) D'une scène à l'autre: L'opéra italien en Europe, v. 2: La musique à l'épreuve du théâtre. ...
Il volume raccoglie ventisette contributi di argomento musicologico raggruppati in ambiti tematic... more Il volume raccoglie ventisette contributi di argomento musicologico raggruppati in ambiti tematici quali la storiografia della musica, l’esegesi e l’analisi testuale, la drammaturgia, il teatro musicale e la sua diffusione, le relazioni fra musica e culture letterarie, e include due sezioni dedicate rispettivamente a Beethoven e a Verdi. Le questioni affrontate, con l’ampio spettro metodologico che occupano, rispecchiano i vasti interessi e ambiti di indagine di Fabrizio Della Seta, al quale la raccolta di studi è dedicata in occasione del ritiro dall’insegnamento accademico. Durante tutta la sua lunga attività di studio, Fabrizio Della Seta ha contribuito con saggi fondamentali ai temi di indagine qui riuniti, rendendone fecondo il dialogo. Questi intrecci evidenziano l’inscindibile legame fra ‘ragione’ storico-filologica e ‘pazzia’ artistico-performativa che nutre da sempre la complessità dell’arte musicale occidentale, del suo linguaggio, delle sue trasformazioni, del suo uso e della sua interpretazione. Scavando nella profondità di tale legame, emerge quanto il contributo intellettuale e il magistero del festeggiato abbiano concorso alla formazione e alla crescita di una comunità di studiosi ampia, internazionale e transgenerazionale.
Saggi di Gianmario Borio, Deborah Burton, Daniele Carnini, Damien Colas Gallet, Angela Ida De Benedictis, Serena Facci, Francesco Fontanelli, Michela Garda, Anselm Gerhard, Michele Girardi, Francesco Izzo, Stefano La Via, Lewis Lockwood, Andrea Malnati, Candida Billie Mantica, Roberta Montemorra Marvin, Franco Piperno, Alessandro Roccatagliati, Angela Romagnoli, Daniele Sabaino, Tommaso Sabbatini, Graziella Seminara, Gloria Staffieri, Alice Tavilla, Anna Tedesco, Rodobaldo Tibaldi, Luca Zoppelli.