# Arrigo Boito



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Arrigo Boito
(Naples, 1842 - 1918)

Italian composer, writer and librettist.

He studied at and graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Milan. In 1861 he won a bursary to study in Paris, and there he met important figures in the literary and musical world such as Victor Hugo, Hector Berlioz, Gioacchino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi. While in the French capital he conceived the idea of writing operas on the subjects of Faust and Nero. After travelling in other European countries (France, Belgium, Germany, England, and Poland), he returned to live in Milan. There he collaborated with several newspapers as literary critic, joined the Scapigliatura group and wrote the libretto of _Mefistofele_, inspired by Goethe's Faust. The opera was performed at the Scala in 1868, but was coldly received by both the public and the critics, who accused Boito of imitating Wagner. Boito began a lengthy rewriting process, and the opera was presented in 1875 in Bologna, this time with success. Besides the librettos for his own operas, Boito wrote _Amleto_ (1865) for Franco Faccio, _La Falce_ for Alfredo Catalani, and, under the anagram-pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio, _La Gioconda_ for Amilcare Ponchielli, first performed in 1876.

In 1879, the publisher Giulio Ricordi suggested to Giuseppe Verdi to collaborate with Boito for the composition of an opera based on Shakespeare's tragedy Othello. Boito had already worked with Verdi, writing for him the text for the Hymn to the Nations and later working on the revision of the libretto for _Simon Boccanegra_ (1881).

Among Boito's literary works, the Libro dei Versi, L'alfier nero and Re Orso are worthy of mention.

In 1881 he began his collaboration with Verdi, first with the revision of _Simon Boccanegra_, and later with the librettos for _Otello_ (1887) and _Falstaff _(1893).

In 1924, his unfinished opera Nerone was performed posthumously at the Scala Theatre in Milan.

From 1887 to 1898 Boito was sentimentally attached to the actress Eleonora Duse, for whom he translated Anthony and Cleopatra, Macbeth and part of Romeo and Juliet.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I've got three versions of _Mefistofele_ on CD




























I can't choose between them. Love them all.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

And this DVD (of course)


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

how very strange! Just a few hours ago I thought about asking which other recordings of Mefistofele I should check out as I listened to the Serafin one yesterday and liked it a lot. You done saved me the trouble :tiphat: Next time I have a question I will try to beam it at you


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I think Mefistofele's garden scene is one of opera's greatest quartets. Very ambitious, entertaining and musically exciting.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I've got three versions of _Mefistofele_ on CD
> 
> 
> 
> ...


---
I can't choose between the _covers_! Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.-- though I do of course have the Caballe.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Took me ages to like Falstaff but it's now one of my favourites. And this is a good one.










"Tutto nel mondo è burla. 
L'uom è nato burlone, 
La fede in cor gli ciurla, 
Gli ciurla la ragione. 
Tutti gabbati! Irride 
L'un l'altro ogni mortal. 
Ma ride ben chi ride 
La risata final."


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

Unfinished at his death yes but Nerone was his masterpiece in the music field.

Mefistofele is a good listening but often happens to me to think he tried too hard with melody in an almost amateurish way.

L'altra notte + La divina Muzio = <3






EDIT:
A shoutout for Catalani's La falce, probably my favorite opera from the lucchese composer.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

sospiro said:


> Took me ages to like Falstaff but it's now one of my favourites. And this is a good one.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is the best one !


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## Romantiker (Feb 23, 2014)

There is a free download of _Nerone_here: http://www.liberliber.it/musica/b/boito/index.php It's of decent quality for a 1957 live recording. This thread inspired me to listen to two versions by Maria Callas of "L'altra note." Her 1954 recording for EMI has been truly a revelation for me for the musicak and dramatic depths of that aria.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I've got this. Haven't read all of it yet, just dipped into it but it's charming and informative.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

William Weaver! I used to read a lot of stuff by him, back in the day.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Today, 5 March 1868: Mefistofele received its première performance at La Scala.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I revisited the Samuel Ramey Mefistofele DVD last night. For its age (1989?) the picture quality is pretty good.

This is what opera is all about. A grand staging, big voices, big tunes and a charismatic performer in the title role.

(And nostalgic memories for me of visits to San Francisco's Opera House)


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Fans of Boito may be interested in this instance where some of his words from Falstaff, translated back into English seem to have caught on and become widely attributed to Shakespeare - usually Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2 - which it certainly isn't. Although it is from Falstaff act 2 scene 2.

Fenton:
Come ti vidi
M'innamorai,
E tu sorridi
Perchè lo sai.

which seems to have become:

_When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew._

It seems also to have inspired a great amount of tacky merchandise.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

'L'altra notte in fondo al mare' will be performed at the season-ending gala on the 30th.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

English/Italian libretto of _Amleto_ by Franco Faccio, words by Arrigo Boito

[ clicky ]

Anthony Barrese Amleto project

[ clicky ]


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

A live performance of Nerone (Split 1989) was posted last year. I enjoyed watching it right through, although some of the singers are better than others.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Boito gets short shrift and sadly sat in the shadow of his hero Verdi. His potential for composing was thwarted by his obsession with getting back in Verdi's good graces. The Boito-Verdi Correspondences is a number one fine read.
IMO his _Mefistofele_ is a tour de force of musical genius and is not highly regarded enough.
I also agree with Don Fatale that the garden quartet is simply brilliant.
He had much more to offer than the little that we got.
Too bad.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I've got three versions of _Mefistofele_ on CD
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you get lucky enough to find the live excerpts with Olivero/Campora/Hines, grab it.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I've got this. Haven't read all of it yet, just dipped into it but it's charming and informative.


One of the finest insights into a relationship I have ever read.


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## Jorge Hereth (Aug 16, 2015)

I would like to mention Arrigo Boito (1839-1875) followed up on the libretto started by Emilio Praga (1839-1875) to the 1879 opera _Maria Tudor_ composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896); in the end, the libretto was finished by Ferdinando Fontana (1850-1919) and Angelo Zanardini (1820-1893).


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## Ramiste (Nov 4, 2015)

Nerone is a very deserving work that should be much better known.
Unfortunately it lacks those excpertable arias that are key to the success of any opera, quite unlike Mefistofele that has plenty of them.

For the curious i recommend the Bongiovanni version, possibly capturing the finest hour of two underrated and under-recorded singers: Bruno Prevedi and Ilva Ligabue. Excellent conduction by Gavazzeni and perfect, crips italian diction from all the involved, which gives it a definite edge over the otherwise quite good Hungaroton studio recording.
This is a radio broadcast in perfectly adequate sound.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Hm, anyone know whether the original Wagnerian version of Mefistofele is still extant? Are there any recordings of it?


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

gardibolt said:


> Hm, anyone know whether the original Wagnerian version of Mefistofele is still extant? Are there any recordings of it?


The 1868 version is said to have been destroyed. We Boitophiles live it hope that it may one day turn up

The following certainly leaves us aching to know what we're missing. I've no doubt it would be worth hearing.



from elsewhere said:


> His initial conception was highly ambitious; he hoped to change the face of Italian opera forever. His was one of the many musical works of the time which sought to capture the essence of Goethe's Faust on the operatic stage. Perhaps more than any other musician of the day, Boito understood the spirit of Goethe's text, and he remains quite true to much of it throughout the opera. The premiere took place on March 5, 1868 at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. It was not well received by the conservative Milanese public, who had been given advance notice in the press that Boito hoped to change Italian opera traditions. They loved the opening, which is a poetic prologue set in heaven, and contrasts demonic declamatory writing for Mefistofele with the hymn-like intoning of the heavenly hosts. However, the opera was unwieldy in its first version; after the prologue came five more monumental acts. The exhausted audience rejected it almost completely.
> 
> For the revival of his opera at Bologna's Teatro Communale in 1875, Boito completely rewrote the score. The length of the work was greatly reduced and much of the music changed. Anything that had offended the audience, *such as the battle symphony and the emperor's court scene, was completely cut*. Some of the more massive numbers were given smaller settings, and the amount of dialogue was lessened. The second performance also had the advantage of a very fine cast; the initial cast at La Scala hadn't been equal to the complexities of Boito's opera. But the singers in Bologna triumphed, and the public applauded the new work. A year later, Boito made further revisions, and it is this version which is usually performed and considered the definitive work. Mefistofele was often revived in the twentieth century (memorably with Caruso and Chaliapin in 1901), and it has become a part of the standard operatic repertoire.
> 
> The original version of the opera, although massive, was carefully conceived, and contains many structural and musical unifying elements. The heavenly chorus of the opening prologue returns both at the prison scene, the highlight of the opera, and at the close, as Faust is redeemed. Boito transforms entire pieces into new, contrasting numbers, in order to emphasize changes of contexts and highlight dramatic tensions in the story. He also organizes the entire structure through his selection of keys for different emotional contexts. Overall, though there are many Germanic touches, evoking Beethoven as well as Wagner, it is the French models of Meyerbeer that define the music more strongly. Boito's Mefistofele, although lesser in stature than Berlioz's Damnation of Faust and less popular than Gounod's version of the tale, is probably the most faithful to the original conception of Goethe's poetics.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Don Fatale said:


> The 1868 version is said to have been destroyed. We Boitophiles live it hope that it may one day turn up
> 
> The following certainly leaves us aching to know what we're missing. I've no doubt it would be worth hearing.


Fascinating, thank you!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I never even knew there was such a version. As I own just about every _Mefistofele_ cd there is, I'd be interested to know if they ever find the Wagnerian one.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Renata Tebaldi: Boito - Mefistofele, 'l'altra notte in fondo al mare'

*Arrigo Boito *( *24 February 1842* - 10 June 1918)


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I have Galina Vishnevskaya singing it in the Russian language on LP. I'll try to digitise and upload it when I get a chance.

I don't need to. Found it!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Lucky me. I will get to see his "too little performed" masterpiece at the Met next season. It is a lifelong dream of mine that I never thought would come true in my lifetime.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

nina foresti said:


> Lucky me. I will get to see his "too little performed" masterpiece at the Met next season. It is a lifelong dream of mine that I never thought would come true in my lifetime.


Great to know you're going to make it there. Actually it's looking like a good year for Mefistofiles as there is also a selection of productions in Europe too.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Nerone is a fascinating opera . It's somewhat problematical form a dramatic point of view , and the last act is missing, which might have been really spectacular , as it would have been the famous burning of me where Nero supposedly "fiddled ". But it works in torso form .
The music is interesting, because it shows how Boito's technique had matured since Mefistofele . 
The harmony and orchestration are much more complex and sophisticated than his first attempt at an opera .


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

superhorn said:


> Nerone is a fascinating opera . It's somewhat problematical form a dramatic point of view , and the last act is missing, which might have been really spectacular , as it would have been the famous burning of me where Nero supposedly "fiddled ". But it works in torso form .
> The music is interesting, because it shows how Boito's technique had matured since Mefistofele .
> The harmony and orchestration are much more complex and sophisticated than his first attempt at an opera .


Agreed.
Whilst not having the huge arias of Mefistofele, the melody writing is strong and complex. Leitmotifs?
... the choral ending to the first act is a tour-de-force.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

*Arrigo Boito (24 February 1842 - 10 June 1918)*



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrigo_Boito


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

An historic classic. I hope this takes:


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Another classic! Watch the build up in the Prologue.











The choral finales are incredible in the House!


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

nina foresti said:


> An historic classic. I hope this takes:


Magda was unique - vocal phenomenon. Saw her as Tosca (The Cavaradossi was 40 years her junior) and "Elle" in La Voix Humaine. 
Fabulous.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Arrigo Boito - NERONE
I love this opera


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> Agreed.
> Whilst not having the huge arias of Mefistofele, the melody writing is strong and complex. Leitmotifs?
> ... the choral ending to the first act is a tour-de-force.


Well now...I gave this a good listen. It's pretty formless, and in three-quarters of an hour offers scarcely a melodic idea of any distinction. If Boito has a style, I'd be hard put to define it; maybe a dilute mix of Wagner and Mascagni, and inferior to both.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> Well now...I gave this a good listen. It's pretty formless, and in three-quarters of an hour offers scarcely a melodic idea of any distinction. If Boito has a style, I'd be hard put to define it; maybe a dilute mix of Wagner and Mascagni, and inferior to both.


Ouch! Harsh, but not unfair. I listened to "Nerone" ages ago and was not involved at all.

"Mefistofele" itself in uneven, a mixture of brilliant (Marguerite's aria, some of the Prologue and the finale) and the rather banal, but it plays well on stage. Better than many a modern opera I've seen ("Angle Of Repose," anyone? "The Midsummer Marriage?" "Doctor Atomic?").


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