Towards a Digital Critical Edition of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi

Project Information

DiCrEd

Grant agreement ID: 800280

DOI

10.3030/800280

Project closed

EC signature date 21 March 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 30 June 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DiCrEd (Towards a Digital Critical Edition of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2020-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Issues addressed
Critical editions of 19th-century Italian opera have been appearing in print for over four decades, providing the basis for productions in major theatres around the world. Established in 1983, The Works of Giuseppe Verdi (WGV, Ricordi – University of Chicago Press) plans to publish all of Verdi’s music with a twofold purpose: 1) a philological one, aiming at rendering musical texts that mirror authorial intention; 2) a practical one, providing users with reliable scores correcting errors perpetuated by conventional editions. Its traditional printed book format presents, however, several limitations: a) it does not allow simultaneous visualisation of alternative materials; b) users have no access to source materials on which volumes are based; c) the text of the main score is not modifiable, preventing employment of alternative materials or addition of new sections (if new sources arise). DiCrEd seeks to remedy these limitations, by developing the first model of a digital critical edition for a 19th-century Italian opera series, combining the rigorous approach of WGV with the possibilities offered by digital humanities. The project’s highly multidisciplinary approach, drawn from traditional textual criticism and new digital instruments, allows to overcome the two disciplines’ respective limits.

Overall Objectives
The main research objective of DiCrEd was to develop a model of digital critical edition for WGV, using the revised version of Verdi’s Macbeth (1865) in French as a case study. The original project involved the development of the model for the full score. Due to the COVD pandemic, which prevented me to complete the secondment in Paderborn as initially planned, I have decided to focus on the edition of the piano-vocal score, in agreement with my mentor and General Editor of WGV, prof. Francesco Izzo, and with my Project Officer.
The edition of the piano-vocal score will merge into an open access website, currently under construction, which will ensure the widespread dissemination of the project’s pioneering results. The model will contain:
a) A digital historical introduction tracing an opera’s history, reception, early circulation and performance practices.
b) A digital piano-vocal score, notated with language developed within the MEI.
c) Reproductions of the principal sources on which the musical edition is based.
d) A digital edition of the libretto, based on the libretto printed for the premiere, transcribed with the language developed within TEI.
e) Reproductions of the principal sources on which the edition of the libretto is based.
f) A digital critical commentary for the score, organised thematically.
The model will present an interactive system of fruition of the digital score, allowing users to choose among alternative readings/versions to customise their score.

Importance for Society
Music has a strong potential for impacting non-specialist audiences. However, many musicological projects fail to make their findings available outside academia. DiCrEd’S dissemination has transcended such limitations by envisaging five target groups: 1) scholars; 2) students; 3) publishers; 4) performers; 5) general public. a) Conference papers and scholarly articles contribute to the communication of research results to scholars and students. b) The applied model of digital critical edition that I am currently finalizing for WGV in collaboration with Edirom has considerable impact implications, as the series is considering a long-term collaboration to integrate digital instruments in their standard toolkit. The critical edition of Macbeth in French that I have completed led to c) the opera’s modern world premiere at the Festival Verdi, in Parma (September 2020) as well as to d) an audio recording (Dynamic records), distributed worldwide.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Despite the current sanitary crisis, which had a major impact (also) on academia, I have achieved most of the results originally planned.
1) I have completed the first critical edition of Verdi’s revised Macbeth (1865) in French (full score, and piano-vocal score) for WGV, whose performing materials have been used at the latest Festival Verdi (Parma, September 2020). On that occasion, I had the opportunity to disseminate my work to non-specialist audiences through interviews on several media, including the online journals L’ape musicale, Opera libera, and Opera Charm Magazine.
2) I have started developing a ground-breaking model of digital critical edition, in collaboration with the Paderborn University, which will be available as an open access publication in the following months. I already have an agreement with Casa Ricordi (Milan) for the open access publication of the piano-vocal score.
3) I have completed an article discussing methodologies and aesthetic issues behind the preparation of the critical edition of Verdi’s Macbeth in French, which has been published in a collected volume (Tra ragione e follia, ed. by. F. Rovelli et al.; Pisa: ETS, 2021).
4) I have presented my research on Macbeth at two major conferences, thus disseminating my work to a scholarly audience: a) the Colloquio Annuale di Musicologia del Saggiatore Musicale (2020), and the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society (2021).
5) The production of Macbeth at the Festival Verdi was supposed to be preceded by a pre-performance talk, which did not take place due to the sanitary crisis. Nevertheless, I have subsequently been invited to deliver a talk at the International Conference Bellini@Verdi, organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani (October 2021), where I had the opportunity to disseminate my work to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
I have also been invited to give a talk at a Conference organized by the Teatro alla Scala, entitled “Macbeth opera aperta”, to precede the seasonal premiere.
6) Although the pandemic prevented me to organize the international conference on opera in the digital era that was supposed to take place in Southampton in 2021, I have obtained an expression of interest from the editors of the Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera (Routledge) to publish a collected volume on the subject.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

At a micro-level, DiCrEd has offered the first critical editions of Verdi’s Macbeth (1865) in French, having made its rigorously edited full score available for the first time. The opera had never been performed in French after its Parisian premiere, and its French-language version had never received scholarly attention. Thanks to the work performed for the DiCrEd project, the opera has not only been studied in depth, but it has also received its modern premiere at the Festival Verdi. Conducted by Roberto Abbado, with a stellar, international cast, the performance has also been recorded, thus reaching an even wider audience, and had a major impact on society, obtaining the prestigious “Premio Abbiati”.
At a macro-level, the digital facet of the project will be of enormous scholarly and technological innovation, providing the first model of digital critical edition developed for a 19th-century Italian opera series. DiCrEd has therefore the potential to mark a crucial turning point in the field of musicology and, in particular, of textual criticism, with the long-range perspective of introducing digital instruments into the standard toolkit of the publishing industry connected to 19th-century Italian opera composers.

Poster for "Macbeth" in French at the Festival Verdi (Parma, 2020)

Picture from the concert performance of "Macbeth" at the Festival Verdi (Parma, 2020)