Review: An Englishman in Vienna
Reviewed Work(s): Gli equivoci by Stephen Storace and Richard Platt
Review by: John A. Rice
Source: Early Music , November 2010, Vol. 38, No. 4, Three centuries of music in
England (November 2010), pp. 606-608
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40963067
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Early Music
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the Praeludium (p.3), but leaves it to the performer to de- blanches). While the exact meaning of this notation, so
cide on the tempo of 2 (bar 1) and O3/2 (bar 17). On pp.5-6 common in Charpentier's manuscripts, is open for de-
two more duple metres are added to the mix (C and (p), and bate, the implied phrasing of beamed white quavers and
still further on we encounter 3, 6/8 and 3/2, without any semiquavers would otherwise be lost if the notes were
mention of how these duple and triple metres relate to each transcribed as black, unbeamed crotchets and quavers. In
other - either proportionally or otherwise. The editor sub- sum, this volume is a welcome addition to modern edi-
stitutes naturals for cancelling sharps or flats, and omits tions of Charpentier's music, and should inspire perform-
redundant accidentals (i.e. accidentals repeated before each ers already conversant with the conventions and practices
note within the bar); her editorial corrections or additions of French Baroque music to explore this repertory further.
appear as small accidentals, and editorial suggestions
appear in small font above the note. In short, the perform- doi: 10.1093/em/caq090
ers have much to sort out prior to rehearsal.
The first vocal solo (p.4, bar 31) for haute-contre is sung
by an 'Angelus summissa voce' who bears the designation
'A'; evidently this singer is drawn from 'choeur A', but to John A. Rice
make sense of this one would have to study pp.lv-lvi of
the Introduction. On p.8 the solo of 'Herodes' is intro- An Englishman in Vienna
duced with a new staff inserted mid-system above the
continuo line - which here seems to be a good solution Stephen Storace, Gli equivoci, ed. Richard Platt, Musica
and causes no confusion. But when the same procedure Britannica vol.lxxxvi (London: Stainer & Bell, 2007), £99
is applied to the introduction of a double-chorus on p.10,
bar 146, the result is six vocal staves sandwiched between Stephen Storace (1762-96) contributed significantly to
an instrumental trio - which gives the score an odd opera in Vienna and London during his short life. The
appearance. On first sight it is unclear whether the lonely older brother of the soprano Nancy Storace, he studied
bass of bar 145, joined by a four-inch line to the treble composition in Naples during the late 1780s. It was prob-
instruments, is the continuo bass or a single bass instru- ably at the urging of his sister, who sang at Vienna's
ment. One must either flip back to p.8 to find an editorial Burgtheater from 1783 to 1786 and created the role of
4 [Be]' notated in the margin of the part, or look ahead Susanna in Mozart's Figaro, that he received commissions
to the following page for telltale figures. And speaking of for two comic operas for Vienna: Gli sposi malcontenti
figures: following the handling of accidentals outlined (1785) and Gli equivoci (1786), the latter to a libretto by
above and for the sake of consistency, continuo acciden- Lorenzo da Ponte. The Storaces, together with the Irish
tals have also been modernized to substitute a natural tenor Michael Kelly, then returned to Britain in 1787. Un-
sign where the composer would have written a sharp for able to find consistent work at the King's Theatre, Lon-
a major 3rd or a flat for a minor 3rd, depending on the don's Italian opera house, they turned to English opera at
key. One might expect that the continuo figures would the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Stephen devoted much of
also be made consistent, with the highest figures on top his energy to the arranging of English versions of foreign
and lowest on the bottom. It seems unnecessarily fussy to works - arrangements that contained varying amounts of
preserve the visual appearance of the figures as found in his own music. He also produced new operas, some (such
the manuscripts, when there is no difference between the as The haunted tower of 1789) containing music by several
9-7 figure with a sharp below in bar 388 and the 9-7 figure composers and others (such as No song, no supper) con-
with a sharp above in bar 398. sisting largely of his own music. With these operas he
Not that these are insurmountable obstacles for per- established himself as a leading composer of English
formers, nor do they in any way mar what is without opera and gave Nancy, his prima donna, an opportunity
doubt a fine scholarly edition. Jane Gosine's research is to win the approval of London's music lovers.
thorough and her scholarship is impeccable. The edition Musica Britannica presented an edition of No song, no
looks handsome and the music is well spaced on the page; supper in 1959, as the 16th volume in the now venerable
familiar clefs are substituted for less-familiar ones; and series that consists of almost 90 volumes. 'British music',
editorial corrections and additions are clearly differenti- to judge by previously published volumes, is music by
ated from the source reading. Furthermore, I am pleased composers born in the British Isles. Thus Storace, born in
to see the retention of passages in void notation (croches London to an Italian double-bass player and his English
606 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 2010
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wife, qualifies for inclusion by the same standards that publish this opera as a piano-vocal score reflects the editorial
allow the publication of three volumes of music of Alfonso committee's ambivalence about the inclusion of this work in
Ferrabosco the Younger. But the series does not include a series mostly devoted to such British worthies as Dunstaple,
volumes devoted exclusively to such foreign-born musicians Byrd, Locke, Boyce, Arne and Parry, and to such distinctively
as Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, Johann Christian Bach or British genres as consort music, the anthem and the ode.
Muzio Clementi. The editorial committee has generally But a piano-vocal score is much better than no score
construed 'British music' so as to exclude music written for at all, revealing an opera that is full of musical and dra-
audiences outside the British Isles, such as the voluminous matic delights. These begin with the overture, an exciting
chamber music that Robert Valentine (born in Leicester) depiction of the storm that tosses Eufemio of Syracuse
composed in Rome during the first half of the 18th century. and his servant Dromio onto the shores of Ephesus. It is
But Musica Britannica has made exceptions in the cases of the first of several numbers with unusual tonal plans: this
the nocturnes that the Irish-born John Field wrote in Russia movement in G minor has a second theme presented first
and many works by the expatriate Catholic, Peter Philips. in G major and then in D major (instead of the expected
With Richard Platt's edition of Gli equivoci, Musica relative major, Bb). In the opening duet for Eufemio and
Britannica adds a major new work to the relatively few that Dromio, lovely solos for clarinet and bassoon, accom-
British-born composers have written to suit the tastes of panied by muted strings, express the calm after the storm.
continental audiences. But Storace, unlike Valentine, Philips With these solos Storace signalled his eagerness (evident
and Field, received most of his training far from Britain. In throughout the score) to take advantage of the expert
his Viennese operas he adapted his Neapolitan musical woodwind players that Vienna's Burgtheater orchestra
background to the vibrant operatic culture of Vienna in the put at his disposal. In his most remarkable use of wood-
1780s. Although Gli equivoci is based on Shakespeare's The wind colour, Storace called for two basset horns (in add-
comedy of errors, and one can hear in it echoes of the Han- ition to pairs of flutes, bassoons and horns) in the
delian style, of British folksong and of the music in the notturno-like duet for Sofronia and Sostrata, 'In pianti ed
London pleasure gardens where Storace played violin as a in querele'. The most prominent of Storace's Handelian
child, this is very much a Viennese opera. By including it in mannerisms are dissonant suspensions, often in long
Musica Britannica, the series repatriates, so to speak, a work chains (for example in the overture and near the begin-
that is hardly more British than Antonio Salieri's Falstaff. ning of the finale of Act I). The suspensions that pervade
This is a piano-vocal score, which seems odd for a 'A me par che questa sia', another duet for Eufemio of
series whose 'chief purpose is an accurate and scholarly Syracuse and Dromio, give parts of it an old-fashioned
presentation of the original texts' (p.vi). Odd also is the flavour; but the comic interaction between master and
absence of any indication on the title-page of what kind servant in this same duet ('Io dico qua' / 'Io dico la') drew
of score is to follow. In the preface we read: 'For practical from Storace music much like that with which Salieri set
reasons, Musica Britannica is issuing the work in a reduc- similar words in La grotta di Trofonio (1785). This duet is
tion for voice and keyboard, together with an English one of the many ensembles in Gli equivoci, including two
singing translation. A full score and performing material huge finales and a quartet, 'Dunque era poco, o barbaro',
are available on hire from the publishers.' Practical for that is close to a finale in length and complexity. In com-
whom? It is certainly practical for the publisher, who has posing arias, Storace explored a wide variety of forms,
been able to present this very long opera in a single from short arias in ABA form (such as Egeone's 'II ciel che
volume. It is also practical for singers who want to learn tutto vede') to a grand two-tempo rondd (Sofronia's 'Ah
the work in the original Italian or English translation, but less come in un istante', placed, unusually, near the end of Act
practical for anyone wanting to sing the opera in German, I). The rondo shows Storace expertly conveying serious-
French or Spanish. The keyboard part includes detailed indi- ness and nobility; in big buffo arias like 'Pensieroso il
cations of the orchestration, giving the score a certain useful- vostro sposo', sung by Dromio of Ephesus, he displayed
ness for music historians. But anybody wanting to study his considerable abilities as a composer in the comic style.
Storace's use of the orchestra in anything but the most super- Although the title-page credits Richard Platt as the sole
ficial way will have to hire a full score, and that will be most editor, he was seriously ill during the later stages of the
impractical (especially if that score is not yet available; accord- preparation of this edition and unable to complete it.
ing to the Stainer & Bell website, the full score is still 'in prep- Harry Diack Johnstone, General Editor of Musica Britan-
aration' as of November 2010). Historians of 18th-century nica, did much of the editorial work and with the help of
opera might be forgiven for suspecting that the decision to Julian Rushton saw the edition through the press. Together
EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 2010 60J
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they seem to have achieved a high degree of accuracy. Brian and instrumental music one against the other. Evidence
Trowell made the lively and amusing English translation. is at hand that supports the idea that each played a more
They deserve our thanks and congratulations for making equal role than previously has been granted in shaping
this charming opera available for study and performance. the contours of what we now call 'Classical' music.
Although much of the era's vocal music holds little interest
doi: 10.1093/em/caq088 for some listeners nowadays, a Darwinian, survival-of-
the-fittest approach does not tell the whole story. If one
is interested in musical and cultural history rather than
James Parsons a museum culture of masterworks, casting a less exclu-
sionary net seems advisable. Of course, jettisoning the
Is there room in the musical either/or mode of understanding is easier said than done.
Whereas Johann Christoph Gottsched in his Auszug aus des
museum for the early Lied and Herrn Batteux schonen Kunsten (1754) took the position that
music without words 'lacks a soul and is incomprehensi-
Singspiel? ble', Friedrich Schlegel could ask in 1798 'does not pure
instrumental music appear to create its own text?' Even
Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Claudine von Villa Bella
though scholars traditionally have adduced such statements
(Berlin, 1789), ed. Robert Meikle and David Hill, Recent
to advance one kind of music over the other, it is worth
Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, vol.lxxix
observing that Schlegel frames his words in the form of a
(Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2009), $295
question. It may be that as one century gave way to the
next, instrumental music indeed learned to script its own
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Complete works, series VI: ineffable text, yet this does not mean that music completely
songs and vocal chamber music. Volume 1: Gellert songs, turned its back on language. The agency of song sometimes
ed. Darrell M. Berg (Los Altos, CA: Packard, 2009), $20; remained important even when words were not present.
Volume 2: Cramer & Sturm songs, ed. Anja Morgenstern Whatever one's response to these issues, the continued
(Los Altos, CA: Packard, 2009), $25 presence of 18th-century music within today's musical life
ought to prompt any number of questions, perhaps the
Are we overdue for a reassessment of 18th-century music, most pressing being, what do we want from such music?
one that balances the age's dedication to instrumental Is it the music itself or the culture that produced it that
music (solo, chamber, concerted and symphonic) with its most interests us? Does quality figure in our considera-
just-as-obvious love of the vocal realm (not only operatic tions or are we drawn to the past only to the extent we can
but also solo song)? The short and sensible answer is yes, cultivate it as a kind of sonic theme park wherein one
especially if one's observations derive from contemporane- work is as good as another so long as it keeps today's dis-
ous criticism. I therefore submit that while we possess a concerting uncertainties at arm's length? Difficult though
good understanding of the first variety of music, knowledge these questions are, these volumes of music by Johann
of the second, especially non-operatic and non-canonic Friedrich Reichardt and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach pos-
operas, has a lengthy road yet to travel. The publications sess the potential to bring answers a bit closer into view.
under review go a long way towards advancing that cause. Reichardt, who by the end of his twenty- third year was
The problem extends beyond the fact we have given Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great, is refreshingly repre-
solo song, not to mention operas and music dramas by sented by his Claudine von Villa Bella, a Singspiel of 1789
composers other than Mozart, short shrift. Indeed, a vo- to a text by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Reichardt was one
cally based aesthetic plays a decisive role in a fair amount of the most prodigious song composers of all time (more
of the instrumental music from the second half of the 18th than 1,500 settings encompassing over 125 different poets),
century, an interest hard to account for if one restricts and one wonders how the composer found time for the
one's frame of reference to a privileged concept of mu- other activities that consumed his attention. Never long at
sical unity or thematische Arbeit. (The choral finale of home and endlessly reporting on the music he heard in
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or the Arietta second England and France, as well as the German-speaking
movement of the op.111 Piano Sonata, both works from lands, Reichardt has left us a sizable legacy of music criti-
the 1820s, demonstrates how such concerns persist into cism alongside an array of keyboard sonatas (many of
the 19th century.) There are alternatives to pitting vocal which can stand comparison with the young Beethoven)
608 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 2010
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