A critical edition of an opera has been defined by American

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

Philip Gossett Philip Gossett (September 27, 1941 – June 12, 2017) was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. His lifelong interest in 19th-century Italian opera bega ...

as "an edition that bases itself wherever possible on the very finest and most accurate sources for an opera. That means that it must study the entire performance history of a work." Gossett continues: :In some cases of course we have an autograph manuscript, and that helps us, but it is also where many of the problems start, because composers are known to have made mistakes in their autograph manuscripts. And therefore we are required—we feel it is necessary—to intervene and to correct errors that sometimes have been perpetrated on these works by printed editions from the beginning, so they are just mistakes in the old editions, simple mistakes.Luiz Gazzola
"Exclusive ''Opera Lively'' Interview with Italian Opera scholar Dr. Philip Gossett"
on operalively.com. 17 June 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2013 The emergence of critical editions of many works from the 19th-century Italian operatic repertory did not begin until the 1950s and resulted from the revival of interest from that time forward in the ''

bel canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

'' era—early 1800s to approximately 1850 and known as the ''primo ottocento''—written by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania". Many years later, in 1898, Giu ...

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

, and

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

, in addition to many other relatively minor composers who composed many works. But, as musicologist Ellen Rosand also notes, "the editing of operatic works from the 17th century, the 18th century and 19th century provides many considerable challenges. In an online essay – "What is a critical edition?: Answers to Questions You Never Thought to Ask" – which focuses primarily on Rossini, musicologist Patricia Brauner of the Center for Italian Opera Studies at the University of Chicago explains several different aspects of a critical edition, including the process of producing published editions and the ultimate value of them for performers and conductors.

Musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

s such as Gossett and

Roger Parker Roger Parker (born London United Kingdom, 2 August 1951) is an English musicologist and, since January 2007, has been Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London. His work has centred on opera. Between 2006 and 2010, while Profess ...

represent parallel approaches to the works of the Italian ''bel canto'' era. The former is now General Editor of ''The Critical Edition of the Works of Giuseppe Verdi'' at the University of Chicago's Center for Italian Opera Studies – in addition to being an acknowledged expert in preparing critical editions of the operas of Rossini – while the other is Professor of Music at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

and editor of many of the operas of Donizetti, as well as having written extensively on Verdi. He is the founding co-editor (with Arthur Groos) of the ''Cambridge Opera Journal'', and he continues as General Editor (with Gabriele Dotto, who headed the editorial division of Ricordi until 2001) of ''The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti'' published by

Casa Ricordi Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...

of Milan. Gossett clarifies how the existence of these editions may affect performances: :We don’t believe that everybody has to perform just what we do, because that’s not what they did in the nineteenth century, not what composers did or expected, but we do think that performers should base their work on the finest editions possible, and that’s what we try to produce. The pioneering work of the major Italian music publishing house,

, reveals how extensive the company's involvement in restoring the work of 19th-century composers Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi has been. Since 2007, the German publishing house Bärenreiter-Verlag has been producing editions of Rossini's operas, having become the successor to the Fondazione Rossini Pesaro, which produced many editions between 1979 and 2005. Today, many are still published by Ricordi in Europe and in the US by the University of Chicago.List of critical editions produced under the Fondazione Rossini, 1979 to 2005
on hum.uchicago.edu

References

Notes Sources * Gossett, Philip (2006), ''Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Parker, Roger
"The Critical Editions of Gaetano Donizetti's Operas"
on ricordi.it *Rosand, Ellen (1998), "The 17th Century" in Sadie (ed.), Vol. Two. *Rosand, Ellen (1998), "18th century", in Sadie (ed), Vol. Two *Sadie, Stanley (1998), "The 18th Century" in Sadie (ed.), in Vol. 2, *

Sadie, Stanley Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

(ed.) (1998), "Editors", Sections 1 to 3, in Sadie, ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', Vol. Two. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. {{ISBN, 1-56159-228-5

External links

"Complete Editions and Editions of Selected Works"
on baerenreiter.com
Website
of the

American Institute of Musicology The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern editions ...

Center for Italian Opera Studies
University of Chicago Textual scholarship Opera scholarship