Ricezione di Rossini nella stampa musicale internazionale tra il 1868 e il 1918
Résumé
This study of the reception of Rossini at the European level during the half century between the death of the composer in 1868 and the end of the First World War in 1918 is based on the analysis of music periodicals, of music encyclopaedias and dictionaries, and of biographies published in Italian, German, French, English, Spanish and Dutch.
The music periodicals selected for this article are in Austria the review "Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst", in Belgium "Le Guide musical", in France the "Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris", "La France musicale" and "Le Ménestrel", in Germany the "Neue Berliner Musikzeitung", the "Süddeutsche Musik-Zeitung", the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik", the "Musikalisches Wochenblatt and Signale für die musikalische Welt", in England "The Musical World" and "The Monthly Musical Record", in Italy the "Gazzetta musicale di Firenze", the "Gazzetta Musicale di Milano", "Il Mondo Artistico" and the "Gazzetta Teatrale Italiana", in the Netherlands "Caecilia, algemeen muzikaal tijdschrift van Nederland", in Spain the "Gaceta musical de Madrid" and in the United States the "Dwight’s Journal of Music", the "Boston Musical Herald" and the "New York Musical Gazette". The music dictionaries and encyclopaedias which are under consideration include works of Paul Oscar, Hermann Mendel, F. Riewe, Giovanni Masutto, August Reissmann, Hugo Riemann, George Grove, Alexandre Bisson and Théodore de Lajarte, Peter J. Tonger, Georges Humbert and Theodore Baker, besides some general encyclopaedias. Some biographical works dedicated to the composer are also considered, in particular works of Ferdinand Hiller, Henry Sutherland Edwards, Arthur Pougin, Lodovico Settimo Silvestri, Antonio Zanolini, Edmond Michotte, Lionel Dauriac, etc.
The analysis of this large corpus makes it possible to compare the reception of Rossini geographically in the various countries and chronologically with regard to the writings published while the composer was alive. Particular attention is paid to the aesthetic oppositions or parallels made between Rossini and his Italian and foreign colleagues, as well as the potential influences of the international political context on the image of the composer, from the last events of the unification of Italy until the First World War.
In the first four parts of this study are presented a synthesis of the four most important events connected to the international commemoration of Rossini between 1868 and 1918, i. e. his death in 1868, the transfer of Rossini’s mortal remains from the Père Lachaise Cemetery of Paris to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence in 1887, the centenary of his birth in 1892 and the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 1918.
The period from 1868 to 1918 corresponds to the canonization of two of Rossini’s operas, "Il barbiere di Siviglia" and "Guillaume Tell", in the operatic repertoire which begins to emerge gradually worldwide, while most of his operas sink into oblivion or are merely mentioned in the list of his musical works. Whereas the cult of the composer seems to be still highly developed in France and in Italy two decades after his death, Rossini’s international fame regresses in the era of triumphant Wagnerism. Paradoxically, the development of the international music press, occurred in the second half of the 19th Century, promotes the circulation of numerous prejudices which supplies the myth of the character instead of making known the variety of his music production.
Mots clés
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
Neue Berliner Musikzeitung
Musikalisches Wochenblatt
Zellner’s Blätter für Musik
Theater und Kunst