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Get your own Free Home PageBY TOM KAUFMAN
Of all of the important composers of nineteenth century Italian opera, Giovanni Pacini is probably the least familiar. You might well say, "What are you talking about, "Pacini an important composer"? Well, what would you call a composer with over 70 operas to his credit, one of which was given literally thousands of times all over the world, and with several others with close to 100 or more stagings? A composer, five of whose operas are already available on CD, one three times. What would you call him? Unimportant, hardly, minor, certainly not. Before the advent of LP only one Rossini opera, only two Donizetti operas, only one Bellini opera, and only eight Verdi operas were available in complete recordings. The combined number for these composers is now close to 100 (an eightfold increase). What is your guess as to the number of Pacini operas that will be available someday?
Other biographies and/or discussions of Pacini can be readily found in either the New Grove Dictionary of the Opera (by Scott Balthazar), the Grove Dictionary of Music (also by Balthazar), in the International Dictionary of the Opera (by myself), or at Giovanni Pacini's Homepage (by Thomas Lindner). But, I thought that it would be appropriate to include an update of the one by myself here.
Giovanni Pacini was born in Catania on Feb. 2, 1796, being the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of the younger man's operas. The family was of Tuscan origin, and just happened to be in Catania when the composer was born. During his lifetime, Pacini wrote what are, at the latest count, some 74 operas. This is less than earlier estimates which ranged from 80-90, since it has now been ascertained that many were just alternate titles for other works. His first 25 or so operas, written during the time when Rossini was still in Italy were, not surprisingly, in the Rossini style, but so were everybody else's. After Rossini left, Pacini and his contemporaries (Meyerbeer, Vaccai, Coccia, Bellini, Donizetti and Mercadante) started to modify the nature of Italian opera around 1824. Collectively, they created a new style for bel canto opera. This new style differed quite a bit from Rossini's. The orchestration became heavier, there was considerably less coloratura, especially for men's voices, and there was much more lyrical pathos. While there were exceptions, romantic leads were much more likely to be assigned to tenors (in Rossini's day, they were frequently sung by women referred to as "musicos"), and villains were generally basses or later baritones (They frequently were tenors in Rossini's operas). Over a period of time, far more emphasis was to be placed on the dramatic side.
The role that Pacini played in instituting these changes is only now beginning to be recognized, and is discussed in slightly more detail in the review of L'Ultimo Giorno di Pompei. There can be no doubt that both Pacini, and his contemporary, Nicolo Vaccai, exerted a much stronger influence on Bellini than they had been credited with before the revival of key works, both composed in 1825, in Italy last year (1996).
The success of many of his lighter operas (especially Il Barone di Dolsheim, La sposa fedele,, and La schiava in Bagdad (all composed between 1818 and 1820) made Pacini one of the most prominent composers in Italy. His position was greatly enhanced by the rapid-fire successes of Alessandro nelle Indie (Naples, 1824; with a recording of an Opera Rara performance to be released in Nov. 2007), Amazilia (Naples 1824, revised, Vienna, 1827), the previously mentioned L'Ultimo Giorno di Pompei (Naples, 1825) and Gli arabi nelle Gallie (Milan, 1827). The latter eventually reached many of the world's most important stages and was the first of Pacini's operas to be given in the United States. It was staged quite frequently in Italy, and it was not until 1830 that Bellini's first success, Il pirata (also Milan, 1827) passed Gli arabi nelle Gallie in performances at the Teatro alla Scala. While this is not generally recognized, it was Pacini, rather than Donizetti, Mercadante or Bellini, who gave Rossini the stiffest competition in Italy during the 1820s.
. A good number of operas, generally forgotten, followed. Still, one of these, Il Corsaro (Rome, 1831) was revived, albeit with piano accompaniment, in 2004. It is different in many ways from Verdi's later work, by the same title. The title role (Corrado)is now sung by a musico (armour bearing contralto) and Seid by a tenor. But different in no way means inferior. Based on the parts I was able to hear, it is an interesting opera, with some quite thrilling individual numbers, and was reasonably well sung. In spite of its limitations, it is to be hoped that a CD will eventually be issued.
While almost each of Bellini's subsequent works was moderately to highly successful, and Donizetti also had more than his share of triumphs, Pacini was unable to keep up, some of his ensuing operas over the next few years being failures. Still, the complete recording, released in early 2002, of Carlo di Borgogna makes one yearn for more Pacini operas, and makes one wonder why it was such a failure at its premiere. Pacini was the first to recognize his apparent defeat and made the following entry in his memoirs: "I began to realize that I must withdraw from the field. Bellini, the divine Bellini has surpassed me." Some years later, he resumed composing, and, after one more setback, enjoyed his greatest success, Saffo (Naples, 1840).
After Saffo, Pacini entered into another period of great prominence in the early and mid 1840s. Bellini had passed away years ago, Donizetti had left for Paris, and only Mercadante and the young Verdi were important enough to be serious rivals. Mercadante's major successes were already behind him, thus Verdi offered the only important competion, and it was not until 1844 that Verdi eclipsed Pacini with the unparalleled triumph of Ernani. (Successful as Nabucco and I lombardi were, they were initially less so than Saffo.) It was in these 1840s that Pacini enjoyed his most glorious years, with one hit after another. These included La fidanzata corsa (Naples, 1842), Maria, regina d'Inghilterra (Palermo, 1843), Medea (Palermo, 1843 with several later revisions), Lorenzino de'Medici (Venice, 1845), Buondelmonte (Florence, 1845), Stella di Napoli (Naples, 1845,to be given in Catania in Dec. 2007) and La regina di Cipro (Turin, 1846). A concert performance of Lorenzino had been planned in Italy in 2006, but was postponed indefinitely. This was followed by another, and much longer, period of gradual decline, marked only by Il saltimbanco (Rome, 1858).
A discussion and discography of the available recordings of Pacini's operatic music is provided in the Discography
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