| This article is for you if you're a behind-the-scenes | | | | orchestra pit as they are.Many elements go |
| kind of person - the admin assistant who gets the | | | | together to produce the opera we see that bears |
| presentation ready for the guys in marketing but | | | | the name of one man only. Take "Turandot" for |
| doesn't get to go to the meeting; the PR pro who | | | | instance. It was librettist Semoni who gave Puccini |
| writes all their speeches and answers all the | | | | the suggestion for the opera in the first place, |
| complaint letters for the president or CEO; the | | | | telling about "Turandotte," a play written by Gozzi, |
| at-home mother who makes sure the concert | | | | based on a fable from the Arabian Nights.Puccini |
| pianist practices; the deputy chief whose job | | | | had been searching for two years for a suitable |
| description is doing all the things the chief doesn't | | | | plot for an opera, and at the age of 61 began |
| like to do or can't do; or the paralegal who | | | | "Turandot," instructing his librettists, Adami and |
| prepares all the pleadings, knows all the codes, | | | | Semoni to "pour great pathos into the drama." |
| and does all the licking and stamping.Temistocle | | | | Puccini was known, incidentally for being |
| Solear, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Henri Meilhac, Jules | | | | extremely demanding, requiring endless rewrites |
| Barbier, Michael Carre, Guiseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, | | | | from his librettists.From his point of view |
| Renato Semoni, and Nicola Haym all know what | | | | however, the librettists were difficult. We can |
| this is like.Who on earth are these people??Well | | | | read his letters begging them to do their work. He |
| even if you're not an opera fan, I bet you've | | | | wrote frantically to Simoni, in charge of Act III, |
| heard of the composers Verdi, Bizet, Mozart, | | | | "The third! The third! The third!"At one point, he |
| Strauss, Gounod, Handel, Donizetti and Puccini. And | | | | confessed to a friend "Music disgusts me...", as he |
| I'm sure you've heard of some of their operas - | | | | evidently had periods of self-doubt and |
| Aida, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, Madame Butterfly, | | | | composer's block. Toscanini paid him a visit and |
| Faust, and Don Giovanni, for instance.Did you | | | | gave him the encouragement to keep going. |
| know that these composers wrote the music for | | | | Every team has their Toscanini; or needs |
| their operas but not the lyrics? Solear, Ghislanzoni | | | | one.Puccini was justified in urging completion of |
| and the other individuals in the list are what's called | | | | the opera as he died before the team had |
| "librettists." It is they who wrote the words to the | | | | completed the third act. The collaboration |
| music that tell the story, without which you would | | | | continued on, as Toscanini found a composer |
| be listening to a symphony, not an opera. And we | | | | named Franco Alfano, whose name is rarely |
| never hear their names!They're called "librettists" | | | | mentioned, to complete it. The world premier |
| because the words to the songs, which basically | | | | took place on April 25th, 1926, the work of one |
| comprise the script of the opera, is called a | | | | guiding genius and many hands, hearts and |
| "libretto." It's Italian for little book.Like Gilbert and | | | | minds.It isn't that teamwork and collaboration is |
| Sullivan, the pairs worked together. The inimitable | | | | new, it's that it's newly being recognized. Most of |
| Richard Wagner was the only one to compose all | | | | us realize we couldn't accomplish anything alone, |
| his operas entirely by himself, creating both music | | | | while those behind the scenes who work long and |
| and lyrics, which may account for why they are | | | | willing hours, long for some recognition. |
| so powerful, so "Wagnerian."This is quite a feat | | | | Appreciation, after all, is what tops the surveys |
| because composing music and writing words | | | | when employees talk about what they want at |
| require different parts of the brain.Sometimes the | | | | their job, and it's so consistently there, it's a |
| composer and librettist met in person, while other | | | | wonder it isn't heeded more.Richard Montuori, |
| times the work was done by correspondence. | | | | town manager of Bellica, Massachusetts, knows |
| Strauss worked exclusively with one librettist, | | | | and appreciates his team. "I love [my] job," he |
| after writing his own lyrics for his first opera and | | | | said a newspaper interview. "Every day is |
| finding out he wasn't good at it, but most other | | | | different and presents new challenges. Finances |
| composers switched around, finding the right | | | | are a daily and yearly challenge, but no one |
| librettist for the job, or one who was available. It's | | | | person ever accomplishes anything alone. We |
| not unlike the way a lot of us work these days - | | | | have excellent department heads and town |
| long distance and by contract.Again, grasp the | | | | boards that help keep the town moving in the |
| significance of the work these unsung heroes did. | | | | right direction."Isn't it nice to hear someone publicly |
| The words are so integral to the opera they are | | | | acclaim the team that makes him shine? I hope |
| never translated. Subtitles run across the big | | | | your boss or manager does this for you, and that |
| screen on stage, or the little screen on the chair | | | | if you're the boss or manager, you appreciate and |
| in front of yours at the opera. We read them in | | | | acknowledge - and sing - the unsung heroes in |
| our native tongue while they are sung on stage in | | | | your midst.But how do you praise everyone? |
| the original German, Italian, or French. (For | | | | There are always so many.Here's a leadership |
| aficionados, anyway. Beginners may enjoy | | | | trick I learned from a pro. At the culmination of |
| translations, such as The Chandos Opera In English | | | | an anniversary banquet, engineered by many, and |
| series, which translates the lyrics into English.)What | | | | funded by many more, the director of the |
| an incredible collaboration an opera is. It takes | | | | benefited-agency rose and thanked "everyone |
| costume designers as well, because an opera is as | | | | who helped make it possible to raise the $50,000." |
| much visual as it is auditory. The Grand Opera is | | | | Then he added, looking around the room, "And I'd |
| known for its elaborate sets and costumes. In | | | | especially like to thank someone whose name I |
| "Turandot," when the mob turns surly and the | | | | won't mention, but they will know who I mean."I |
| moon appears, she is personified and costumed in | | | | thought it was me! So did a dozen other people, |
| a magnificence dominated the stage for what | | | | I'm sure, and that was what the director had in |
| seems like half an hour, that will keep you | | | | mind, he told me later when I asked him whom |
| transfigured.One opera I hope to see one day is | | | | he had in mind, because his glance around the |
| Verdi's "Aida," excuse me, Verdi and Ghislanzoni's | | | | room was professionally ambivalent.It works, and |
| "Aida" at the Bath of Caracalla in Rome, where | | | | it's always, always true.©Susan Dunn, MA, |
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