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Behind the Police Chief's Closed Doors: The Unofficial Censors of Verdi in Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2011

Andreas Giger
Andreas Giger
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
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Extract

A certain Filippo Nardoni, upon completing his review of the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Alvaro (the Roman version of La forza del destino), wrote to the director of the police: ‘I have marked in pencil the proposed corrections, which I have thought advisable for the wretched subject of the opera. If you don't like them, they can be easily erased with sandarac’. It seems strange that an ostensible censor would correct a libretto and then not mind seeing his corrections erased; censors were, after all, gatekeepers of morality and political propriety, and no libretto was supposed to be permitted without their approval. As it turns out, Nardoni was not an official Roman censor, and yet, he and other prominent personalities were more important in censoring Verdi's operas than their official colleagues. They were not only more rigorous when it came to identifying potentially dangerous passages but also worked as a team, passing the libretto around among themselves until an acceptable alternative was found.

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Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , November 2010 , pp. 63 - 99
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 ‘Report of a censor; Rome, 14 November 1862’, quoted in Verdi: A Documentary Study, comp., ed., trans. Weaver, William ([New York]: Thames and Hudson, n.d.): 211.Google Scholar Weaver notes: ‘Signature illegible’. Olga Jesurum transcribes the letter, including the signature (‘F. Nardoni’), in her ‘Note sulla messinscena della Forza del destino (Roma, Teatro Apollo, 7 febbraio 1863)’, Studi verdiani 13 (1998): 88–116Google Scholar , 110–11; however, she identifies neither Nardoni's full first name nor his position. For more on Nardoni, see especially pp. 95–6 below.

2 See, for example, Rivelli, Luigia, ‘G. Gioacchino Belli “Censore” e il suo spirito liberale’, Rassegna storica del Risorgimento 10 (1923): 318–93Google Scholar , 348–9. For Milan of the 1840s, Francesco Izzo has recently suggested that censors were more discriminating than we have so far believed. See his ‘Verdi, the Virgin, and the Censor: The Politics of the Cult of Mary, I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Giovanna d’Arco’ , Journal of the American Musicological Society 60 (2007): 557–97, 564CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 ‘Ho ricevuto il libretto, il quale, secondo me, ha poco perduto, e trovo anzi che in qualche punto ha guadagnato’. Carteggio Verdi–Somma, ed. Ricciardi, Simonetta (Parma: Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani, 2003): 285Google Scholar.

4 See, for example , Giger, Andreas, ‘Social Control and the Censorship of Giuseppe Verdi's Operas in Rome, 1844–59’, Cambridge Opera Journal 11 (1999): 233–65, 237–8Google Scholar.

5 The critic of Il filodrammatico (the official publication of the Accademia Filodrammatica Romana) described the language of Un ballo in maschera in ways reminiscent of Scapigliatura. See Macchione, Daniela, ‘Digressioni verdiane, 1859–60’, Studi verdiani 20 (2008): 46–86, 57Google Scholar.

6 Pascolato, Alessandro, Re Lear e Ballo in maschera: Lettere di Giuseppe Verdi ad Antonio Somma (Città di Castello: Lapi, 1913)Google Scholar ; Rosen, David, ‘La disposizione scenica per Un ballo in maschera di Verdi’, in Rosen, David and Pigozzi, Marinella, Un ballo in maschera di Giuseppe Verdi (Milan: Ricordi, 2002): 5–119Google Scholar ; and Gossett, Philip, ‘Restoring Verdi's Gustavo III’, in Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006): 491–513CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Ricciardi, Simonetta's introduction to the Carteggio Verdi-Somma, 17–19Google Scholar , 22–3 (n. 49) and Verdi's letter of 22 March 1858 to Vincenzo Luccardi in I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi, ed. Cesari, Gaetano and Luzio, Alessandro (Milan, 1913; reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1987): 571Google Scholar.

8 See DISPOSIZIONE SCENICA / PER L’OPERA / UN BALLO IN MASCHERA / DI / GIUSEPPE VERDI / COMPILATA E REGOLATA / SULLA MESSA IN ISCENA DEL TEATRO APOLLO IN ROMA / IL CARNEVALE DEL 1859. / dal Direttore di scena del medesimo / GIUSEPPE CENCETTI / Proprietà dell’Editore / MILANO / DALLO STABILIMENTO NAZIONALE / TITO DI GIO. RICORDI, reprinted in Rosen, and Pigozzi, , Un ballo in maschera di Giuseppe Verdi, 139–58Google Scholar.

9 ‘a dà 26 marzo 1858 / Si permette, osservate le correzioni / indicate nell’annesso foglio, corri= / spondenti ai [numeri] marginali del presente / libretto / Per l’Eminentissimo Vicario / A. Ruggieri Revisore (26 March 1858 / Permitted; observe the corrections / indicated on the appended folio / and corresponding to the marginal numbers of the present / libretto / For the Eminent Cardinal Vicar / A. Ruggieri, Censor)’. Rome, Archivio di Stato (hereafter I-Ras), Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 146.

10 Doria's handwriting can be examined in several reports to Matteucci (for an example of such a report, see pp. 67–8 below); it does not appear in the manuscript libretto of Gustavo III.

11 See Moroni, Gaetano, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica da San Pietro sino ai nostri giorni, 103 vols (Venice: Tipografia Emiliana, 1840–1861): vol. 85, 184–5Google Scholar . The evaluation of the textbook is held at I-Ras, Ministero dell’Interno, Titolo 152, busta 1806, doc. 68448.

12 I-Ras, Ministero dell’Interno, busta 1794, Cart. 468, No. 74721 and Cart. 463, No. 76478. According to Doria, the city did not recognize his position, and the Direzione generale di polizia no longer had a budget for it. The former is confirmed in the Deputazione's minutes. See Rome, Archivio storico capitolino (hereafter I-Rasc), Archivio del Comune Pontificio, Verbali dei Congressi di sezione 1847–1870, Verbali dei Congressi della Divisione VI (Pubblici spettacoli, etc.), 1849–53, meeting of 2 January 1848, item 11. It is difficult to quantify the value of a scudo. But from Giuseppe Gioachino Belli's sonnets, we know that the cost of bread was about two baiocchi (a scudo had 100 baiocchi) and a cardinal's yearly appanage 4,500 scudi. See ‘Scudi, Testoni, Paoli: Rome's Old and Complicated Coinage System’, http://it.geocities.com/mp_pollett/monpap.htm (accessed 14 August 2008).

13 ‘[N]on lieve incarico (ed ora molto pià grave incarico) à la Revisione politica estesa come si à esposto a tanti rami. Esige essa l'applicazione diurna e notturna e in ufficio e in propria casa, ove à indispensabile la mansione in ogni ora in ogni giorno, in ogni mese. Esige l'applicazione anche nelle Feste e nello stesso tempo quaresimale per le accademie. Esige l'applicazione sulle opere in musica, sui balli, sulle Pantomime di ogni genere e specie. Esige l'applicazione sui Concerti musicali e vocali continui alle accademie, su i giuochi di prestigio, sui Canti estemporanei ove à necessaria equalmente la presenza[.]

‘Per tuttociò adunque dirassi adequato e decente, la corrisposta di una bassa mercenaria diaria di 30 soldi? Non è adequata misurati pure i giorni col sole e le notti colla luna e le stelle. Non è decente ad uno che deve supporsi se non scienziato almeno lievemente erudito e non uno Scíolo, non decente ad un Governo che rappresenta un Sovrano.

‘Ogni onesto impiegato non può trascurare l'onesto utile che gli arrechi l'opera sua, non può calpestare la propria decenza.

‘Ogni cristiano padre di famiglia non può senza colpabile taccia di supina indolenza mancare ai suoi doveri, non deve soffocare le voci solenni, assolute, imperiose della propria coscienza’. Pro-Memoria of Giovanni Carlo Doria, I-Ras, Ministero dell'Interno, busta 1794, Cart. 468, No. 74721 (undated; based on dates in the document, Doria must have written it in 1852 or shortly thereafter).

14 Moroni, , Dizionario, vol. 8, 71Google Scholar ; and Calzolari, Monica, ‘La censura nella Roma pontificia dell'Ottocento: Il ruolo predominante della Direzione generale di Polizia’, in La musica a Roma attraverso le fonti d'archivio: Atti del convegno internazionale, Roma 4–7 giugno 1992, ed. Antolini, Bianca Maria, Morelli, Arnaldo, and Spagnuolo, Vera Vita, Strumenti della ricerca musicale – Collana della Società italiana di musicologia, vol. 2 (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana Editrice): 287–97, 290Google Scholar.

15 Pro-Memoria of Giovanni Carlo Doria, I-Ras, Ministero dell'Interno, Cart. 468, No. 74721.

16 Rivelli, , ‘G. Gioacchino Belli “Censore”’, 340–41Google Scholar ; for additional instances, see 349, 353–4.

17 Contrary to Mossa's assertion ( Carteggio Verdi–Cammarano (1843–1852), ed. Mossa, Carlo Matteo (Parma: Istituto nazionale di studi verdiani, 2001): 408n)Google Scholar , the report includes a date. The date appears at the end of the document, in typical Doria fashion, with day and month written as a fraction. In the body of the report, however, Doria misdated the season (‘Carnevale 1851 in 52’): the works listed in Doria's memorandum (Luisa Miller, Elvira Walton (i.e. I Puritani), Il trovatore, and the ballet Lucilla) were performed during Carnival 1852–53, not Carnival 1851–52. The autograph is in I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, fasc. 5111, no. 1557a, ‘Teatro di Apollo – Stagione di Carnevale 1851 in 52’. For a listing of the works performed during the 1852–53 Carnival season, see Cametti, Alberto, Il Teatro di Tordinona poi di Apollo, 2 vols consecutively paginated (Tivoli: Aldo Chicca, 1938): 481–2Google Scholar.

18 Quoted in translation in Verdi, Giuseppe, Il trovatore: Dramma in quattro parti, ed. Lawton, David, The Works of Giuseppe Verdi I/18A (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993): xxii.Google Scholar

19 Rivelli, (‘G. Gioacchino Belli “Censore”’, 331)Google Scholar asserts that the approval by the municipal censor was ‘un atto meramente formale’ (‘a pure formality’).

20 The councillors included Mattei, Matteo Antici, Sala, Pietro, dei, Carlo FeliceBarberini, principi, Bennicelli, Filippo, Negroni, Giuseppe, Spagna, Pietro Paolo, Malatesta, Francesco Saverio, Cardelli, Carlo, and Sarti, Antonio. Montano, Angela Maria, Archivio storico capitolino. I pubblici spettacoli a Roma (1848–1870): Inventario, Pubblicazioni degli archivi di stato / Quaderni della Rassegna degli archivi di stato, vol. 99 ([Rome]: Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali / Direzione generale per gli archivi, 2001): 19Google Scholar.

21 I-Rasc, Titolo XV, cat. 138, fasc. 3 (minutes of 23 December 1856). Cardelli, as the deputy for music, usually signed the librettos in the name of the Deputazione, as he eventually did for Un ballo in maschera and Don Alvaro.

22 Calzolari, (‘La censura nella Roma pontificia dell'Ottocento’, 291)Google Scholar has already pointed to the importance of the Direttore generale di polizia but only as the authority who could overturn favourable decisions of the official censors and the authority who supervised performances in the theatres.

23 Ricciardi, (Carteggio Verdi–Somma, 275n)Google Scholar implies that all the changes are Ruggieri's or that changes by others preceded Ruggieri's: ‘II libretto … era stato approvato fin dal 26 marzo (data segnata dal revisore Ruggeri [sic] sul manoscritto conservato all'Archivio di Stato di Roma) a costo di pesanti modifiche. In particolare, la Censura imponeva di tagliare quattro scene dell'Atto III’. (‘The libretto … had been approved since 26 March (the date signed by the censor Ruggieri on the manuscript preserved at the Archivio di Stato in Rome) at the cost of heavy modifications. In particular, the censorship imposed the cutting of four scenes from Act III’.)

24 The Consiglio di stato was an advisory body to the government, consisting of up to 24 provincial representatives, chosen by the Pope . Ventrone, Alfonso, l'amministrazione dello stato pontificio dal 1814 al 1870 (Rome: Edizioni Universitarie, 1942): 16–20, 89Google Scholar.

25 Ibid., 89; and Moroni, , Dizionario, vol. 99, 124–5Google Scholar . Shortly before his death, Matteucci was appointed a cardinal.

26 The Deputazione had previously been headed by a senator (called Conservatore), as representative of the mayor (called Senatore).

27 See Moroni, , Dizionario, vol. 99, 126Google Scholar , 148; and Rosi, Michele and Giglio, Vittorio, eds, Dizionario del risorgimento nazionale: Dalle origini a Roma capitale. Fatti e persone, 4 vols (Milan: Vallardi, 1930–1937): vol. 3, 531Google Scholar , s.v. ‘Matteucci, Antonio’, by G. Badii.

28 Moroni, , Dizionario, vol. 73, 196.Google Scholar

29 Letter dated 30 July 1858, quoted and translated in Giger, , ‘Social Control’, 259Google Scholar.

30 Matteucci's and Cencetti's hands can easily be identified by comparing them to letters with the respective signature.

Two documents help identify Pasqualoni's hand. The first is a letter of Matteucci to a ‘Caro Avvocato’, soliciting advice on additional censorial emendations for an 1861 performance of Un ballo in maschera. It includes the Avvocato's marginal responses, which match the hand in the libretto perfectly. The identity of the Avvocato emerges from a censorial evaluation signed by Pasqualoni.

The identification of Jacovacci's hand is somewhat problematic because Jacovacci's employees frequently wrote and signed in his name (for example, the nearly 200 letters from Jacovacci to Giovanni Pacini preserved at the Biblioteca nazionale centrale ‘Vittorio Emanuele II’ in Rome are, according to Failla, all in Cencetti's hand; see Failla, Fabio, ‘Giuseppe Cencetti, Verdi e la disposizione scenica di Un ballo in maschera’, Studi verdiani 20 (2008): 15–45Google Scholar , 29). In some documents, however, Jacovacci's signature is in a distinct hand and therefore appears to be authentic. In these cases, it also matches the handwriting of a gloss on the first page of the Gustavo III libretto, ‘to be performed at the Teatro Apollo in Rome during the Carnival 1858–1859’. Two documents at least partly in Jacovacci's hand include ‘Alla Eccellentissima Deputazione Comunale de’ Pubblici Spettacoli, 16 giugno 1854’, I-Rasc, Titolo XV, cat. 133, fasc. 5; and Jacovacci's letter ‘all'Illustrissimo Signor Avvocato Cochetti, Lugotenente del Tribunale Criminale del Vicariato, 12 Febbraio 1866’, Rome, Archivio del vicariato (hereafter I-Rvic), Tribunale Criminale del Vicariato, scaffale 176, busta 115, No. 45.

31 Verdi rejected the censors' changes in his letter of 19 April 1858 to Jacovacci. See Carteggio Verdi–Somma, 328.

32 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 119.

33 A similar instance occurs in Act I, scene 6, where the crowd is about to witness Ulrica's incantation. The text originally read:

Coro Zitto – l'incanto non dèssi turbare Quiet – The incantation must not be disturbed Il Demonio tra breve halle a parlare The devil soon needs to talk to her. Ulrica Re dell'abisso affrettati King of the abyss, hurry Cencetti dutifully transferred Ruggieri's emendation (‘Che Plutone’ [That Pluto] instead of ‘Il Demonio’). Matteucci then provided two emendations in Ulrica's verse (first ‘Vieni Plutone e affrettati’ (‘Come, Pluto, and hurry’), then ‘Nume d'averno affrettati’ (‘Deity of hell, hurry’)) but crossed out both of them. Pasqualoni, unhappy with both Ruggieri's and Matteucci's emendations, offered the following alternative: Coro Tra breve Satanno a Lei dee parlare Shortly, Satan will need to talk to her Ulrica Vieni Satanno, affrettati Come, Satan, hurry Somma did not like any of the emendations; he successfully insisted on his original text in the case of Ulrica's verse and, based on Pasqualoni's suggestion, offered a very colourful alternative to the choir's second verse:

Par che Sàtana guizzi al focolare! It seems that Satan flashes to the fireside.

34 Letter of 30 April 1858, translation modified from Giger, , ‘Social Control', 256Google Scholar.

35 Quoted and translated in ibid.

36 In another instance (Act I, scene 2), ‘S'avanza il Rè’ was changed to ‘Il Conte giunge’ in Pasqualoni's hand, Pasqualoni's version to ‘Il gran Gustavo’ in Cencetti's hand, and Cencetti's version back to ‘Il Conte giunge’ in Matteucci's hand (fasc. 5111, 110).

37 Carteggio Verdi–Somma, 283, 284n.

38 Antonio Vasselli (in his letter of 31 July 1858 to his friend Verdi) refers to ‘troppo crudezza’ (‘too much crudeness’) that offended the censors. See Carteggio Verdi–Somma, 336.

39 Cencetti forgot to cross out the initial ‘E’ and repeated the word ‘il' unnecessarily.

40 0 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 137.

41 The scribe miscopied Jacovacci's ‘sottrarlo’.

42 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 106bis. Although Somma eventually succeeded in preserving a version close to the one originally sent to Rome, he must have realized that his second verse was convoluted. He probably accepted a version derived from Jacovacci's, but the version eventually printed is weaker than Jacovacci's, possibly because of the interference of an official censor during the final review. The original printed libretto (OPL) has ‘Nol celâr le crudeli parole’ (‘The cruel words do not hide it’).

43 An imprecise correction resulted in the misspelling of ‘esecrato’.

44 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 135.

45 Verdi ended up setting ‘Uno il cor, la vendetta sarà’, which is not only stronger than Somma's revision but also easier to sing. The word ‘vendetta’, like the idea of contrast in the first two verses, is derived from Pasqualoni's version.

46 It is thus not surprising that more than two years later, Matteucci would again try to tone down the force of this quatrain (see p. 79 below).

47 Monaldi, Gino, I teatri di Roma negli ultimi tre secoli (Naples: Ricciardi, 1928): 191.Google Scholar

48 Giger, , ‘Social Control’, 248.Google Scholar

49 Cametti, , Il teatro di Tordinona, 257Google Scholar . Jacovacci's biography is relatively well known; for further information, see ibid., 247–59; and Rosselli, John, The Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi: The Role of the Impresario (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984): 24–5Google Scholar , 107–73, passim; and Encounters with Verdi, ed. Conati, Marcello, trans. Stokes, Richard (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984; reprint, 1986): 34–9Google Scholar.

50 For a detailed account of Cencetti's career, see Failla, ‘Giuseppe Cencetti’.

51 ‘Giuseppe Cencetti ad eliminare i molti disordini che dice essere nelle cose del Teatro di Roma propone di nominare un sopraintendente, e sembra che miri (giacché non lo manifesta) che la scelta cada su lui. Essendo altra volta esclusa la dimanda, si esclude pure la presente, giacché mira al medesimo fine’. I-Rasc, Archivio del Comune Pontificio, Verbali dei Congressi di sezione 1847–1870, minutes of 22 February and 25 June 1848.

52 Ibid., minutes of 8 September 1849.

53 ‘sia pel relativo valore delle produzioni rappresentate, sia pel numero delle medesime’ (‘be it for the relative value of the productions, be it for their number’). Ibid., minutes of 24 August 1852.

54 Failla, , ‘Giuseppe Cencetti’, 30.Google Scholar

55 ‘… di troncare tutte quelle arti inique che cospirano a ridurre i leciti e giovevoli divertimenti e spettacoli teatrali in scuola di ferocia e di libertinaggio, di immoralità e di miscredenza’. Quoted in Rivelli, , ‘G. Gioacchino Belli “Censore”’, 345, 380–81Google Scholar.

56 His plays included Il visconte di Berzac, Vizio e virtù, l'artista drammatico, and Un vero artista. See Failla, , ‘Giuseppe Cencetti’, 22Google Scholar.

57 Daila (the censored version of La favorita); Teatro Apollo, 1860. Ibid., 33. Cencetti's letter to Verdi of 16 November 1867 suggests that Cencetti was also responsible for turning Don Carlo into a version acceptable to the censors. The letter is published in Failla, , ‘Giuseppe Cencetti’, 43–4Google Scholar . For Don Alvaro, see p. 81 below.

58 Olivieri, Luigi Pompili, Il senato romano da Romolo fino a noi, 3 vols (Rome: Tipografia editrice romana, 1886; reprint: Bologna: Forni, 1972): vol. 3, 159.Google Scholar

59 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e riservate, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 110. Translation adapted from Seven Verdi Librettos, trans. Weaver, William (New York: Norton, 1977): 201Google Scholar.

60 Matteucci seems to refer to the enclosed copy of the OPL. In the following passages, page numbers refer to the OPL.

61 Italics added for clarity. Samuel and Tom's verses ‘E sta l'odio che prepara il fio, / Ripensando ai caduti per te’ (‘And there stands the hatred that prepares your punishment, / Recalling those who have fallen because of you’).

62 Renato's ‘Un reo disegno / Nell'ombre si matura’.

63 Samuel and Tom's ‘Forse l'astro che regge il suo fato / Nell'abisso là spegnersi de’ (‘Perhaps the star ruling his fate / Must be extinguished there in the abyss’).

64 Ulrica's ‘Rallegrati: omai / I poveri giorni mutarsi vedrai’ (‘Rejoice: now / You will see the sad days change’).

65 Ulrica's ‘Chi voi siate’.

66 Ulrica's ‘É la destra d'un grande’.

67 Amelia's ‘da quei negri dirupi’ (‘from those black cliffs’).

68 Samuel and Tom's ‘Il mattino di domani / Grandi cose apprenderà’.

69 Renato, Samuel, and Tom's ‘Dunque l'onta di tutti sol una’ (for genesis and translation, see pp. 73–4 above).

70 Samuel's ‘Ed a me, cui spegneva il fratello, / Cui decenne agonia di vendetta / Senza requie divora, qual parte / Assegnaste?’

71 Samuel and Tom's ‘Sconterà dell'America il pianto’ (‘He'll pay for America's tears’).

72 Samuel and Tom's ‘Una vendetta in domino / É ciò che torna all'uopo’ (‘A vengeance in domino [i.e. a vengeance while being disguised by a loose cloak and a mask] / Is what suits our need'). Translated in Weaver, , Seven Verdi Librettos, 253Google Scholar.

73 The choir's ‘Morte… abominio / sul traditor!’ (‘Death… abomination / [shall fall] on the traitor!’).

74 Substitution for Riccardo's ‘Tutti assolve il mio perdono’ (‘My pardon absolves you all’).

75 The original Italian text appears in the Appendix. In the translation, quotation marks have on occasion been added for clarity. Translations of the text as it appears in the OPL are added only if the text differs from the text quoted in the letter. See UN BALLO IN MASCHERA / Melodramma in tre atti / Musica / DI GIUSEPPE VERDI / DA RAPPRESENTARSI / AL TEATRO APOLLO IN ROMA / il Carnevale 1859. / ROMA / TIPOGRAFIA TIBERINA / 1859, reprinted in Rosen, and Pigozzi, , Un ballo in maschera di Giuseppe Verdi, 123–36Google Scholar.

76 See the review in the Gazzetta musicale di Milano 17/9 (1859): 71Google Scholar ; reprinted in Carteggio Verdi-Somma, 406–7. For two local reviews, see Macchione, , ‘Digressioni verdiane’, 69–76Google Scholar.

77 ‘… trasportare l'azione dall'Europa in America’. Il trovatore: Giornale letterario, artistico, teatrale 6/19 (5 Mar. 1859): 4Google Scholar.

78 ‘Bisogna ringraziare il Destino se a Roma si è sostenuta. Con tante mancanze e tante assurdità nel libretto è un miracolo se non hanno ammazzato per lo meno l'Impresario. Non era opera da darsi la prima volta a Roma. Ma cosa fatta capo ha: e del resto sarei contento sortirne cosí bene qui’. Quoted in Abbiati, Franco, Giuseppe Verdi, 4 vols (Milan: Ricordi, 1959): vol. 2, 730Google Scholar.

79 See n. 1 above.

80 I-Rasc, Archivio del Comune Pontificio, Verbali dei Congressi di sezione 1847–1870, Verbali dei Congressi della Divisione VI (Pubblici spettacoli, etc.), 1861–63, minutes of the meeting of Friday, 7 November 1862. This is the only reference to the new opera in the Deputazione's minutes.

81 Jesurum identifies this person as Gaspare Sensi, about whom, she notes, no biographical information has been found. A comparison with the handwriting in documents at the Archivio Capitolino, however, identifies this person as Gaspare Servi, about whom some interesting biographical information is available (see pp. 94–5 below). Moreover, Jesurum suggests that the scenario was sent for approval to Sensi (i.e. Servi) but the scenario is actually in Servi's hand. She further suggests that Cencetti's adaptation of the libretto followed the plot summary. But the scenario is clearly based on Cencetti's version and seems to have been intended to give Matteucci a detailed idea of the plot. See Jesurum, , ‘Note sulla messinscena’, 92Google Scholar , 96. An 1862 incident of insubordination vis-à-vis a member of the Deputazione may explain why Jacovacci's handwriting does not appear in the manuscript libretto of Don Alvaro; he may no longer have been tenable in a censorial role. See I-Ras, Ordine pubblico, busta 34, no. 542 (two documents).

82 The verse appears in the libretto printed for the performance: DON ALVARO / LIBRETTO IN QUATTRO ATTI / DI F. M. PIAVE / PER MUSICA / DEL MAESTRO CAVALIERE / GIUSEPPE VERDI / UFFICIALE DELLA LEGION d'ONORE / EC. EC. / DA RAPPRESENTARSI / NEL NOBIL TEATRO DI APOLLO / LA STAGIONE DI CARNEVALE 1862 in 63. / ROMA / Tip. di G. Olivieri al Corso 336 / con permesso, 7.

83 Probably the libretto and the scenario.

84 ‘Accluso la Eccellenza Vostra Reverendissima rinverrà quanto io doveva farLe tenere. / Martedí sera sarò ad incommodarLa[.] / Intanto mi permetta che baciandoLe la mano io possa segnarmi con rispettoso ossequio …’. I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 12. Jesurum reads ‘riceverà’ instead of ‘rinverrà’. ‘Note sulla messinscena’, 110.

85 Letter of Nardoni to Matteucci, 14 November 1862: ‘Ho segnato colla matita la proposta delle correzioni, che ho creduto opportune al tristissimo subjetto dell'opera. Se non piacciono possono cancellarsi facilmente colla sandracca[.] / Tutte le scene dell'accattonaggio, siccome sono episodj semplici fuori, anzi staccati dal brutto argomento possono sottrarsi. l'assieme poi è immorale, impolitico, ed sordido impasto di moderna corruzione’. I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 8.

86 Partially legible are: ‘è giuoco del … ed irregolare’ (‘it's a game of … and unlawful’), referring to the verse ‘Attenti al giuoco… Un asso a destra’ (‘Pay attention to the game… An ace on the right’ (beginning of Act III, 57); and ‘è meglio [lasciare] …’ (‘it's better [to leave] …’) and, immediately following, ‘Sta bene…’ (‘Fine…’), referring to the peasants’ quatrain beginning with the verse ‘Pane pan per carità’ (‘Bread, bread, for Heaven's sake’ (Act III, scene 10, 66). For an erased and superseded passage, see ‘è salvo, evvero è salvo’ (‘he is safe, indeed he is safe (Act III, scene 5, referring to ‘Ecco la palla, è salvo’ (‘Here is the bullet, he is safe’) and superseded by Matteucci's ‘Non è mortal ferita’ (‘It's not a deadly wound'), 63).

87 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 69. The asterisks for verses 2 and 4 of the third stanza were erased but are still, if barely, visible (above ‘terga’ and ‘destin’ respectively); the third asterisk is no longer visible.

88 ‘The warrior did not sustain [the ‘glorious wounds’] in vain’.

89 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 69.

90 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 27. The paper (from the shop of Feliciano Gismondi) has the same watermark as Cencetti's manuscript libretto.

91 Ibid., 28.

92 Philip Gossett has suggested to me that the reference to Bacchus here would have made up for cutting ‘Venere e Bacco’ in Melitone's solo.

93 I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 82–3. The original printed libretto is LA FORZA DEL DESTINO / OPERA IN QUATTRO ATTI / Musica di / Giuseppe Verdi. / SILA SUd'BY. / OPERA V CHETYREKH DîEÂSTVIIÂAKH. / Muzyka Dzh. Verdi. / Perevod pod muzykal'nuju particiju / AP. GRIGOR’EVA. / V tipografii F. Stellovskago.

94 OPL: ‘muore’ (‘dies’).

95 OPL: ‘Vedi destino!..’ (‘Look, destiny!..’).

96 OPL: ‘Io t’amo. / Ci rivedremo in ciel…’ (‘I love you. / We’ll see each other again in heaven…’).

97 OPL: ‘frati cantare il miserere’ (‘monks sing the miserere’).

98 OPL: ‘padre Guardiano, e tutta la Comunità’ (‘Father Guardiano and the entire community’).

99 OPL: ‘Gran Dio!’ (‘Great God!’).

100 OPL: ‘Padre’ (‘Father’).

101 OPL: ‘Imbecille, cerca il padre’ (‘Imbecile, look for Father’).

102 OPL: ‘Un inviato dell'inferno’ (‘Sent from hell’).

103 OPL: ‘M’ingoi l'inferno!.. precipiti il cielo, / Pera la razza umana!..’ (‘Hell shall swallow me!.. May the sky fall, / May the human race perish!..’).

104 OPL: ‘Ascende più alto e si precipita’ (‘He climbs higher and throws himself [into the gorge]’).

105 The reading of ‘fatale’ is uncertain.

106 It traces in ink what Matteucci had written in pencil, omitting, however, the first syllable (illegible) and thus rendering the versification incorrect.

107 These ‘small variants’ appear throughout the manuscript libretto. On p. 46, for instance, Matteucci replaced ‘E gallo, oppur gallina’ by ‘E donna od uom? Rispondi’; Cencetti added above Matteucci's text ‘Dimmi chi sia rispondi’ (the version included in the printed libretto, p. 15).

108 ‘Qualche lieve variazione a qualche parola che combinammo insieme l'ho creduta necessaria per la musica che deve averci composta il Maestro Verdi.

109 ‘Vedròche ho seguito tutte le sue indicazioni nel correggere, fino alle ultime parole di D. Alvaro; ma la situazione in cui questo le pronunciaètale, ed il Maestro deve averla secondata con tanto effetto musicale, che mi parrebbe meglio (se si potesse) lasciar le parole originali nella chiusa dell'opera, parole che d'altronde non mi sembra che tocchino la politica e la morale, tanto più che sono pronunciate da un disperato, fuori di senno …. Perdoni la libertà che mi prendo nell'esternarle questo mio parere.

‘Domani mi farò un dovere di venire alle 4: pom: a prendere i suoi comandi’. Cencetti to Matteucci on 16 November 1862, I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 10.

110 ‘Stà benissimo tutto. Solo, parmi, che sia da evitare, che succeda uno consonante alla correzione nella pagina ove è il segno color di rosa, in cui fu scritto un scellerato dovendo leggersi solo scellerato poichè non può anteporsi una consonante ad un .s. impuro, e specialmente in musica’. I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 8. The markings in the libretto suggest the following sequence of emendations: In the verse ‘Sono un perverso, maledetto in terra…’ (Act III, scene 12), Matteucci did not like ‘maledetto’ and replaced it with ‘un scellerato’; Nardoni then did not like ‘un’, neither before ‘perverso’ nor before ‘scellerato’ because of the clashes of consonances. Thus, he erased the first ‘un’ and (in the letter quoted above) suggested that Matteucci also omit ‘un’ in ‘un scellerato’. The verse now reads ‘Sono perverso, un scellerato in terra…’ (which still includes the necessary 11 syllables). Finally, Matteucci followed Nardoni's suggestion to erase the word ‘un’ before ‘scellerato’ but reinstated it before ‘perverso’ with the following result: ‘Sono un perverso e scellerato in terra…’. In the libretto eventually printed by Olivieri, the second ‘un’ is reinstated, too. See DON ALVARO, 35.

111 ‘Il tutto nel libro mi sembra che stia[.] Feci qualche variante alla penultima pagina ed all'ultima come vedrà – ’ I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 6.

112 Servi's version is transcribed in Jesurum, , ‘Note sulla messinscena’, 104–5Google Scholar.

113 Servi circled ‘o pure = che parli tu? Orrore!’, possibly to indicate his preference (Matteucci had offered both solutions earlier; see p. 87 above).

114 The last verse supersedes a suggestion that is crossed out and difficult to read. It may have read ‘Ahi troppo [m’opprime]’.

115 Matteucci transferred to the libretto a version of this text, too, but it was subsequently (though superficially) erased and remains legible: ‘Ah son sulla terra / Di vivere indegno. Lo strazio che m’ange / É fiero è crudele’.

116 ‘Barcollando’ appears in the manuscript libretto as a correction (itself erased) above ‘appena’.

117 See n. 106.

118 Matteucci's first attempt read ‘Ciel pietade di me, del mio dolore…’.

119 The cancellation by Matteucci renders the versification incorrect.

120 Matteucci's first attempt read ‘Ciel pietade di me, del mio dolore…’.

121 Based on the printed libretto, the official censors accepted the version prepared by Matteucci and his team with only minor changes: in the stage direction to the final scene, they included a reference to the faint chanting inside the Ospizio (the text of the ‘Miserere’ was adapted by Cencetti and Matteucci on a separate sheet) and fixed the versification in Alvaro's final verses (‘Sulla terra / Di vivere indegno… Oh strazio spietato!…’ (‘To live unworthy on this earth… Oh cruel torment!…)).

122 The printed libretto includes the visti of all three official censors on p. 44.

123 ‘Eccole il libbro [sic] dell'opera di Verdi con lievi correzioni approvato dalla Censura Ecclesiastica. Siccome l'Avvocato Vaselli [sic] sta attendendolo a braccia aperte, e mi stimola giornalmente a pregarla in suo nome, di sbrigare la cosa, domani dopo il mezzogiorno non mancherò di venire ad incomodarla con la speranza di trovare il libbro munito anche della firma del Revisore politico, qualora io non ricevo contraria ingiunzione dell'Eccellenza Vostra.’ I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 5.

124 See DON ALVARO, p. 44.

125 Of these, some of the most substantial ones can, however, be traced to Matteucci and Cencetti, too. Melitone's ‘Il campo è fatto un albergo di Cristi’ (Act III, scene 10) was flagged (probably by Cencetti) with a bracket for revision, and the ‘translation’ of the ‘Miserere’ (heard in the final scene but not present in the manuscript libretto) was worked out on a separate sheet in the hands of Cencetti and Matteucci. See I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 26.

126 Neither Scalzi nor Ricci Curbastro is listed in any of the biographical dictionaries. Scalzi, however, receives brief mention in Luigi De Sanctis , Roma papale descritta in una serie di lettere con note, 3rd ed. (Rome: Tipografia Claudiana, 1882): 212Google Scholar , as an indispensable bureaucrat. ‘In the Secretariat of the Vicariato is one Don Domenico Scalzi, who has been in said Secretariat since he was an adolescent. He has acquired all the practical knowledge about it, and so, the Secretary and the Cardinal Vicar himself depend on him in a certain way when doing their work.’ (‘Nella segreteria del Vicariato vi è un tal D. Domenico Scalzi che da giovanetto è in quella segreteria, e si è impossessato di tutta la pratica di essa; e cosí il segretario, il cardinal Vicario stesso dipendono in certo modo da lui nella spedizione degli affari.’)

127 See Moroni, , Dizionario, vol. 73, 206–8Google Scholar and vol. 74, 352, 360–65 for just a few of many references.

128 At the level of the state, he was also member of the Consiglio dei deputati (the chamber elected by the citizens who are eligible to vote; as distinct from the Alto consiglio, which is chosen by the Pope).

129 On 1 February 1849, he also wrote to a certain Francesco [Penzi?], whom I have not yet been able to identify.

130 ‘Rapporto della Sezione de’ Pubblici Spettacoli sulle pretese del Sig. Gaspare Servi,’ I-Rasc, Titolo XV, cat. 128, fasc. 7.

131 Ibid. Servi's memorandum is untitled and bears the number 2592.

132 Dizionario del risorgimento nazionale, vol. III, s.v. ‘Nardoni, Filippo,’ by D. Spadoni.

133 Sanctis, De, Roma papale, 484–6.Google Scholar

134 ‘In questo modo agisce la moralissima polizia del S. Padre.’ Sanctis, De, Roma papale, 486Google Scholar.

135 The Alta polizia was one of the divisions of the Direzione generale di polizia, responsible for matters relating to conspiracies and relations with foreign countries, among others. See Calzolari, Maria and Grantaliano, Elvira, Lo Stato Pontificio tra Rivoluzione e Restaurazione: Istituzione e archivi (1798–1870) (Rome: Archivio di Stato, 2003): 110Google Scholar.

136 ‘Si fa di certo, che domani sera si declamerà ad Argentina la Tragedia di Niccolini intitolata Antonio Foscarini. Il fatto è il più atroce sulle cose di Alta Polizia, e vi sono passi, e dialoghi i più avvelenati contro i Governi assoluti, contro le inquisizioni per delitti di Stato. Si sono fatte delle correzioni a qualche parola, ma sono inconcludenti, poichè il male sta nel fatto.’ I-Ras, Miscellanea di carte politiche e segrete, busta 140, fasc. 5111, 93 (dated 29 January 1833). Related documents suggest that Nardoni's report was sent directly to the Governatore di Roma (who also functioned as Direttore generale di polizia).

137 ‘[E]sito complessivamente lieto.’ Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi, vol. II, 729.

138 Jacovacci was able to use the cuts as an argument to ‘re-introduce’ Don Alvaro during the 1863–64 carnival as the new work required by the contract between the theatre and the city of Rome. I-Rasc, Titolo XV, cat. 141, busta 15, fasc. 3, 4 (minutes of the meeting of 9 October 1863).

139 Rivelli, , ‘G. Gioacchino Belli “Censore”’, 347Google Scholar . Matteucci's assembly of censors seems to have been unique. John Rosselli refers to Bartolomeo Capranica, who simultaneously held the positions of ‘impresario of the Teatro Valle in Rome, owner of the theater, secretary-general of the supervisory board, and secretary-general of the ministry of police. To keep a company of actors in order, he could threaten to appeal to himself.’ But this accumulation of positions does not necessarily mean that Capranica, like Jacovacci, was involved in censoring librettos or that he was one of several external censors. See Rosselli, John, ‘Opera Production, 1780–1880’, in The History of Italian Opera, vol. 4, Opera Production and Its Resources, ed. Bianconi, Lorenzo and Pestelli, Giorgio, trans. Cochrane, Lydia G. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998): 81–164, 102Google Scholar.