Abstracts - American Musicological Society

40 Friday afternoon
poem. This xTas the incidental nusic to part I of
Faust, by Prince Anron Radziwill (1,775 _ 1833), which
was prerniered in Berlin in 1820. This paper documents
Goethers collaboration in the alteration of Faust for
Radziwill's libretro, and examines the
and
st!ucture of this score.
Goethe's Gesprdche, diaries, and correspondence
chronicle the evolution of Radziwill's rnusic in the
twelve years following the publication of the first
part of Faust in 1808 . In its final form, the work
consisted of 25 nurnbers organized into two acts that
include most of the essential scenes of the drana, and
all but one of its rnusical episodes. Throughout its
so1os, ensembles, and melodrarnas, Goethe,s text was
generally set faithfully; in a few important scenes ,
however, RadziwiIl clearly contradicted. the poet, s
intentions.
Although Goethe considered Radziwill to be an
ingenious cornposer, he was not uncritical of certain
passages of the score. ZeLxer clairned that he could
noc sufficiently praise Radzir,rill's style, especially
in his sensitive setting of the text, which ZeIter
considered "the best that can be done in this genre."
Following its premiere Radziwill's Faust achieved
considerable popularity, and over the following three
decades it contributed to a wider acceptance of
Goethe's enigmatic and neglected drama. The work was
discussed by Schurnann in the NZfM and acclaimed in the
AITZ. Upon hearing it, Loewe wrote: "One can
truthfully say r,re now have a Faust in musical
literature - "
MEYERBEER AND 'LA COUPE ITALIENNE"
Steven Huebner, McGi11 University
In the early stages of drafting for the libretto
of Les llgguenots in t832, Meyerbeer requested. his
librettist Eugdne Scribe to cast some of the duets in a
"coupe frangaise" and others in a ,'coupe italienne. "
Meyerbeer did not describe what he meant by these
terms, except to indicate that in the former the
"niddIe" and "fina1" ensembles should have identical
texts rrhereas in the latter the two ensenbles should
have different words and "rhythrns.,, Nevertheless, it
seems clear even fron this brief description that the
evolution of the four-part structural conventions
associated by scholars in recent years with set pieces
in ltalian opera frorn Rossini to Verdi cannot be traced
on Italian soil a1one. It wilI be argued that the
great najority of duets in the four French grand operas
of Meyerbeer may be best understood in light of the
Italian rnodel; the "coupe frangaise, " on the other
hand, has a single possible manifestation in the
Robert-Bertram duet of Robert 1e diable
";tl;