I am very excited to finally share more about this project of recording the entire lost ballet, Il Conte di Montecristo. I'll provide background information regarding the ballet, choreographer, and composer today. I made a special blog this project; later I'll post more about this ballet along with more recordings of course.
History:
Il Conte di Montecristo premiered at theTeatro La Fenice, Venice, on December 26th, 1856. Il Conte di Montecristo came at a important time during Italian ballet. In the years following Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer's score for La Sylphide, the role of the ballet composer started to become solidified in 19th-century musical life. Certainly one of the fathers of this new genre could be hailed as the Italian Cesare Pugni. When talking about ballet music in 19th century Italy itself however, it should be noted that Pugni's career was contained mostly outside of Italy. The ballets he wrote in Italy (late 1820s - 1830s) still followed the tradition of musically borrowing from the opera, concert hall, as well as popular tunes (often called "pastiche" scores). Despite birthing this man, Italy - during the 1840s - could be seen as behind of countries like the United Kingdom and France who had the composers Pugni and Adolphe Adam respectifully, creating celebrated scores that would lay the foundation of ballet music. during this time many libretti in Italy did not credit specfic composers for an evening's ballet. This possibly signigfies that ballet music in Italy during the 1840s was still following the "pastiche" style of ballet score. Perhaps Pugni's premature termination of his Italian career (which was a result of his drinking and gambling habbits) could have slowed Italian ballet music's development.
Nevertheless, begining in the 1850s, it became quite frequent for composers to be credited in libretti. Along with this Italian composers who worked mainly in ballet began to emerge. Composers in Italy who composed primarily for the ballet did exist before the 1850s (e.g. Luigi Maria Viviani and Robert Gallenberg) but as said before, composer names appearing on libretti were uncommon until the aformentioned decade. Multiple composers would emerge in the latter half of the 19th century, however the patriot and later knight, Paolo Giorza stands out as one of the most prolific.
Paolo Giorza (1832 - 1914) was born in Milan and died in seattle. Giorza started his career early reportly writing a mass at age nine. His first steps in ballet music came at age thirteen when he added music to Pugni's La Fille du Bandit in accordance with Francesco Penco who was reproducing and revising Perrot's choreography for the Teatro Comuale in Bologna. He seems to have be influenced early on by the choreographer, Giuseppe Rota (1822 - 1865). Antonio Ghislanzoni, a friend of Rota's, would write this of the relationship between the composer and choreographer "Paolo Giorza is a creation of Rota. The young maestro was inflamed by the intoxicating words of the young choreographer. They spent the nights together. He declaimed his concepts, evoking the ghosts of his genius in the deserted room.—And ideal sylphs danced around the piano, inspiring A young composer of harmony, a music full of movement and flashes" (translated from Italian). It be for Rota that Giorza would help score many ballets (at least in part) including Un Fallo, Cleopatra, Il Giocotore, and Il Conte di Montecristo. Rota was said to be noble and virtious to quite extreme ends. Ghislanzoni recounts Rota threatening to kill a man with a revolver for beating his horse in Livorno. Rota's genius existed not only in choreography but also science. According to Ghislanzoni, Rota invented a very effective mobile telegraph for use by the Italian and French militaires during the Risorgimento. Credit for this invention was stolen by a Frenchman. Despite creating enormously successful ballets, Rota was deeply unsatisfied with choreography. Rota did not believe choreography to be a very meaningful or high art. After La Maschera o Le Notti di Venezia, Rota abbandoned ballet to create photoscupltures in Turin. This would be short lived, however, as he would die eight days after the inauguration of his studio.
Back to Giorza. He was prolific in the realm of ballet music. His career started assisting Giuseppe Rota but his skills would also be used by Pasquale Borri, Federico Fusco, and Giovanni Casati. Giorza was a patriot and among other nationalistic pieces, composed the famous song-polka, La Bella Giogin. The song had to be banned by the Austrians. Giorza was knighted by Victor Emmanuel II Whilst he was not composing ballets he kept himself busy with composing ballroom music for the entertainment of many who would play it at home on their pianos. Composing popular operas was the highest honor an Italian composer could have during the 19th century. Giorza tried one opera Corrado, il Console di Milano but it does not seem that it was successful. Giorza left Italy in 1867 for America and then would end up in Australia in 1871. He would be an important figure in the important of European (and especially Italian) music there. Among other notable achievements, he directed the Australian premiere of Verdi's requiem. In 1883 he left Australia and returned to Italy. Shortly after his return, he scored Rodope for Raffaele Grassi. He left Italy for the last time to return to the United States again. He lost a considerable amount of his wealth and possessions in the 1906 San Francisco earth quake. He died in 1914, impoverished, in Seattle.
Some quick notes on the recording; I am not a professional. I recorded this piece on a Yamaha upwright piano (circa 1970s). I found the sheet music on the OPAC SBN website. Hopefully as I make more of these, the quality of the recordings will increase. Thank you for your understanding.
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