Smith, Richard Langham
(2007). ‘Taming two Spanish Women: reflections on editing Opera.’.
In: Kelly, Barbara and Murphy, Kerry eds.
Berlioz and Debussy: sources, contexts, legacies. (Essays in honour of François Lesure).
Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, pp. 83–102.
Abstract
This essay outlines methodologies resulting from, and applied to, my editions of Bizet’ s Carmen (1999, on hire from Peters Edition) and Debussy’s Rodrigue et Chimène (output 1 above). Both works are on Spanish themes and both to some extent employ Spanish modes. In the case of Debussy, the use of Spanish and quasi-Moorish scales presents editorial difficulties, particularly because of the composer’s omission of accidentals at the particelle stage. The essay contrasts the two works in the differences of the extant sources: briefly, Carmen has many sources to draw upon while Rodrigue has only one source, itself partially lost and incomplete. In the case of Carmen, the essay makes a case for consultation of production sources in the editorial process, in particular the livrets de mise-en-scène in the collection of the Association de la régie théâtrale, in the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris. The uses of these, as well as the reproduced Mise-en-scène by the Opéra Comique, are explained, and the notion of a staging, rather than a production (in the modern-day sense) are contrasted. The essay proposes the notion of a ‘Performance-Urtext’ as a way forward for the editing of operas where the staging may be considered an essential part of the spectacle.
| Item Type: |
Book Chapter
|
| ISBN: |
0-7546-5392-7, 978-0-7546-5392-9 |
| Academic Unit/Department: |
Arts > Music |
| Item ID: |
9478 |
| Depositing User: |
Richard Smith
|
| Date Deposited: |
27 Sep 2007 |
| Last Modified: |
02 Dec 2010 20:04 |
| URI: |
http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/9478 |
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