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by Luca Logi
It is quite rare to find a cut in a symphonic performance. Sometimes Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony or Mahler 7th Symphony get cut, but usually symphonic music is played as written (we are not talking about doing or not doing ritornellos, we are talking about omitting some chunk of music).
On the contrary it is quite common to do some cuts during opera performances. The current trend is to be as faithful as possible to the written text, but an opera production is a quite complex work - and the text is only the starting point. Deciding about cuts involves considerations about production, direction, musical direction and the singers themselves.
In order to explain some of the problems involving opera cuts, let us take some examples from operas in the common repertoire.
The problem here is that the opera was written for Prag (1787) and later revised for Wien (1788). In the Wien revision Mozart added an aria for Don Ottavio ('Dalla sua pace'), an aria for Donna Elvira ('Mi tradi' quell'alma ingrata'), a buffo duet for Zerlina and Leporello ('Per queste tue manine'). The Don Ottavio aria written for the Prag version ('Il mio tesoro') was cancelled in Wien.
The correct theorical approach would be performing or the Prag or the Wien version, but this is rarely done, as it would mean cancelling some beautiful music in both cases. The commonly performed version is a mixed version, which includes both the tenor arias and excludes the new duet. You can think what you like about this procedure, but really this has become the 'traditional' version. A really strong motivation is needed to deviate from this tradition.
Apart from these large scale concerns, the Don Giovanni is usually performed without other cuts; the music of Mozart is supremely balanced and cuts are not necessary and not forgivable.
A new version (published by Ricordi, edited by Jesus Lopez Cobos) has recently appeared. The main concern of this version is the revelation that the Lucia role was conceived for a lyrical soprano, and later traditionally edited for the now usual soprano leggero, mainly by transposing some arias. (Strangely indeed, all these transpositions were downward, to make place for added high notes and variations. While the arias were transposed downward, the balance of the part got higher.))
Apart from these concerns, there are a lot of 'traditional' cuts than can be applied to the Lucia text. Of course if you apply all of them Lucia becomes a torso, while if you want to hear every single bar you need a lot of stamina from the singers.
There are different levels of cuts to be applied.
At the highest level, whole numbers could be cut. Among of them the Raimondo aria ('Cedi, cedi, o piu' sciagure'): you need a good bass, and the aria also keeps the soprano busy, while she would like to spare her voice. Very often the 'storm' duet gets enterely cut (not necessary to the understanding of the plot, quite taxing for Edgardo and Enrico). Almost ever a little recitative after the 'madness' scene disappears (some details of the plot also disappearing here, but the recitative is quite anticlimactic after the big Lucia scena).
Even if there are no whole piece cuts, a lot of cuts are still possible if you realise that almost every cabaletta is written twice. Of course it would be quite improper to cut the second repetition of 'Quando rapito in estasi': here everybody is waiting from some variations from the soprano. But a conductor could be excused if some of the repeated cabalettas (like in the Raimondo aria, the storm duet, or also the Lucia-Enrico duet) get cut; sometimes it is just a question of sheer singer's resistance (or lack of).
Sometimes there are some overly repeating cadenzas, and it is customary to cut two or four or eight bars just to get them a little quicker. This is better left to the conductor's discretion, but in general the current trend is trying to keep as more as possible.
The new critical edition (published by Ricordi, edited by Alberto Zedda) is still not quite common. In its prefaction it is clearly explained that all the recitativi and the two arias for Alidoro and Clorinda were not written by Rossini, but by a lesser composer, Luca Agolini. All these materials are already present in the autograph score (of course they are not written by Rossini's hand), so they were somewhat approved by Rossini. Rossini later composed a different Alidoro aria ('La' del ciel nell'arcano profondo') in substitution of Agolini's aria.
For these reasons it is quite natural to cut Clorinda's aria. For other possible cuts the same considerations as Lucia di Lammermoor are good.
Some decades ago it was quite common to do a lot of cuts in the recitativi: everybody was waiting for big arias and the recitativi could be disposed of. This is rarer now, as usually productions are more accurate on the visual side, and the recitativi offer a lot of possibilities for the stage director.
This opera was born as an opera-comique, that is with spoken dialogues between musical numbers. Even during the reharsals for the very first production, Bizet began cutting some music - probably for practical reasons. Soon after the composer's death Ernest Guiraud did compose music for the spoken dialogues, thus transforming Carmen in a traditional aria/recitativo opera. Only in 1964 a somewhat critical edition (published by Alkor, edited by Fritz Oeser) came out. This edition includes both the dialogues and the recitatives by Guirad, so everybody could assamble from this is own version.
The real problem is what to do about the cuts Bizet himself did during the reharsals. Some of the music here involved never got printed before the Alkor edition (like a melodrame just after the children's chorus or five bars at the very moment Don Jose' stabs Carmen), but the editing by Oeser has been questioned, with some of his choices being considered quite personal and not critical at all. It is everybody's guess to decide if a piece got cut by Bizet because he did not like it anymore, or because he was forced on necessity grounds to cut it.
For all these operas there are some cuts accepted by Strauss himself - they are not marked in the score but they are very much standard. Strauss scholars will discuss how much they can be considered authentic, but all these cuts are very rooted in the practical tradition. By the way, these operas are quite long even with cuts.
This is the very contrary case of Strauss: when Puccini did decide a cut (or generally a change in the music) he did have it engraved in the printed score - till the time he did change idea again. So you can still find old piano scores of Manon Lescaut that do not include 'Sola, perduta, abbandonata' (this aria was cut by Puccini and only lately restored); or you can find Suor Angelica scores with an extra aria for the soprano ('Amici fiori') which Puccini decided to cut in a second thought. There also around some old scores for Turandot with the complete finale by Alfano (which Toscanini did reduce to the bare minimum).
Some big cuts here possible to spare Tristan or Elektra's voices. Not necessary when the singers are strong, which is not always the case.
These are only some examples of the problems met when dealing with cuts in opera. It should be clear that there is not such a thing like a 'politically correct' way of facing all these problems; you should add that an opera production is a very complex business (basically, not much different than shooting a motion picture live and without editing ...) and sometimes a cut it is the only way to make ends meet. The theoretical 'correct performance' approach is fundamentally not good for live opera.
A further consideration. The present generation of singers has - generally speaking - not as much stamina and volume as the voices Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Strauss took for granted; they are also stressed by production schedules, management problems and air travel. There is not very much to do about it and amplification of voices is still not common in opera. Even when you would like to perform an opera exactly like the composer wrote it, sometimes some cuts are necessary just to get an overstressed star to the end of performance.
This article © 1997 Luca Logi
Aggiornata al 10 novembre 98 - Last updated Nov. 10th, 1998 - (C) Luca Logi 1998