Aut
Ed.
Puteaux,
Lunedì mattina
I signori di mia casa domani t’aspettono a pranzo. Ti prego non mancare: l’avrebbero a male, essendo la terza volta che m’impongono invitarti. Non dimenticare portar teco
Tu chiamerai il mio raggionare con tutto i titoli che vorrai, non avrai neanche provato nulla. Scolpisci nella tua testa a lettere adamantine = “Il dramma per musica deve far piangere, inorridire, morire cantando”. Difetto, il voler condotta eguale in tutti i pezzi; ma necessità che tutti questi siano d’una certa maniera impastati da render la musica intelligibile con la loro chiarezza nell’esprimersi, concisa come frappante. Gli artifizii musicali ammazzano l’effetto
Vuoi capire una volta o nò? Io ti prevenni avanti d’incominciare il libro: e sai tu perché io ti dissi, che il buon dramma per musica è quello che non ha buon senso? perché conosco appieno che bestia feroce ed intrattabile è il letterato e come è assurdo con le sue regole generali di buon senso: ciò che dico, in belle arti lo prova il fatto, poiché quasi la maggior parte delle vostre celebrità si sono ingannate nell’effetto.
à Monsieur
Monsieur le Comte Pepoli
passage des petit pères
à Paris
291
30.
Puteaux, [early June] 1834
Vincenzo Bellini to Carlo Pepoli. Letter.
Aut. Valente privant collection. One bifolio, four sides plus address and partially preserved seal in red wax on the verso.
Ed. Pepoli, pp. 29-31; Cambi 1949, pp. 399-400; Neri 2005, pp. 287-288.
Monday morning
My dear Carluccio
My hosts with whom I'm residing expect you here for lunch tomorrow. I beg you not to decline, since this is the third time they've insisted I invite you and they would take it badly. Don't forget to bring along the pièce Têtes rondes so that we can have a definitive discussion about the first act, which, if you come supplied with the patience of a monk, will turn into interesting and magnificent poetry worthy of music, in spite of yourself and all of your absurd rules [of prosody] that are only good for shallow prattle without ever convincing any living soul who's been initiated into the difficult art of moving one to tears with song. If my music is beautiful and the opera pleasing, you can write a million letters complaining about how composers abuse the poetry, etc., but you will have proved nothing. Were one to be convinced of that sort of eloquently polished but misleading nonsense rather than the facts, everything would end up becoming weak and insipid broth. -
You can call my reasoning whatever you want, and you'll still have proved nothing. Keep this fixed in your head as if it were etched in stone: "Opera must excite tears, horror, despair in song". It's misguided to want all of the pieces to proceed in like manner, when instead each one should be structured in a way that renders the music intelligible by virtue of its clarity of expression, which is both concise and compelling. Musical artefice destroys the effect of a given dramatic situation, but poetic artifice in opera is still worse. Both the poetry and the music must be natural and nothing more. Anyone who strays from this is lost and ends up creating an opera that is plodding and stilted, pleasing only to pedants and never to the heart, the first portal through which emotional impressions must pass; whereas if the heart is moved, one is always right, over so many, many words that cannot prove a damned thing.
Isn't it high time you understood this? I told you as much before you began to write the libretto, and do you know why I said that a good opera is one that lacks good sense? Because I'm abundantly aware of what a ferocious and intractible beast the belletrist can be, and how absurd with his general rules guided by good sense. What I say with regard to the fine arts is a proven fact, since nearly all of your famous colleagues have strayed down that misleading path. Just the other day Mamiani spoke thus of Alfieri - So put all that aside - Carluccio e Vincenzillo are charged with creating something that does them both honor, and whether you believe me or not I will continue to insist with every ounce of strength I have, and if inspiration and your compliant nature do not abandon me I'm absolutely certain I can prove it to you. Farewell. A warm embrace from your incorrigible Vincenzillo
à Monsieur
Monsieur le Comte Pepoli
passage des petit pères
à Paris