%0 Journal Article
%T Le Falstaff de Manfredo Maggioni et Michael Balfe : fa onner un op¨¦ra italien pour le public anglais Adapting The Merry Wives of Windsor for the Italian Stage: Falstaff by Manfredo Maggioni and Michael Balfe
%A C¨¦line Frigau
%J Revue LISA / LISA e-journal
%D 2011
%I Maison de la Recherche en Sciences Humaines
%R 10.4000/lisa.4351
%X Le Falstaff de Manfredo Maggioni et Michael Balfe constitue un cas ¨¤ la fois exemplaire et unique de r¨¦¨¦criture lyrique d¡¯une  uvre de Shakespeare. Inspir¨¦ des Merry Wives of Windsor, l¡¯opera buffa est ¨¦crit en 1838 pour le public de l¡¯op¨¦ra italien de Londres, par un librettiste italien et un compositeur irlandais ¨C une premi¨¨re dans un th¨¦atre o¨´ l¡¯on ne passe commande qu¡¯aupr¨¨s de maestri italiens. Des efforts de Maggioni et de Balfe r¨¦sulte un v¨¦ritable op¨¦ra italien qui respecte les codes structurels, les pratiques vocales et sc¨¦niques qui le rendent reconnaissable comme opera buffa sur la sc¨¨ne esth¨¦tique du temps. La question de la r¨¦¨¦criture engage ici la r¨¦flexion sur les processus intimement li¨¦s de production et de r¨¦ception pr¨¦cis, comme sur l¡¯horizon d¡¯attente du public londonien pour circonscrire les fronti¨¨res d¡¯une cat¨¦gorie esth¨¦tique nomm¨¦e   op¨¦ra italien   qui se d¨¦finit aussi et peut-¨ºtre avant tout loin de la p¨¦ninsule, au contact de spectateurs non italophones, au fil d¡¯¨¦changes ¨¤ l¡¯¨¦chelle europ¨¦enne. Based on Shakespeare¡¯s Merry Wives of Windsor, Michael Balfe¡¯s Falstaff, created in 1838 for London¡¯s Italian opera audiences, was the work of an Italian librettist, Manfredo Maggioni, and an Irish composer, a first in a theatre where only Italian maestri were commissioned for new works. Balfe¡¯s and Maggioni¡¯s combined efforts resulted in a truly genuine Italian opera buffa. Not only is it sung in Italian but it also respects the structural codes, vocal and scenic practices which make it recognizable as an opera buffa on the aesthetic stage of the time, and above all on the English stage. The issue of rewriting implies here a reflection on the intimately linked processes of production and reception. Through the study of the libretto and score, its contextualization, as well as contemporary accounts, we will be concerned both with questioning the expectations of Falstaff¡¯s London public and with circumscribing the frontiers of an aesthetic category named ¡°Italian opera¡±. The term defines itself far from the Italian peninsula at the moment when it comes into contact with non Italian-speaking spectators. As a result of cultural exchanges on the European scale, Falstaff aims both at pleasing Her Majesty¡¯s Theatre¡¯s audiences and, if possible, at gaining international fame as an authentic opera buffa. Yet the opera only obtained a ¡°succ¨¨s d¡¯estime¡±, and was never performed again. It nevertheless represents an essential step not only in the works of its composer but in the history of opera in England itself.
%K adaptation
%K Maggioni Manfredo
%K Balfe Michael
%K opera buffa
%K op¨¦ra italien
%K public anglais
%K Londres
%K Shakespeare
%K Falstaff
%K Italian opera
%K London
%K English audience
%K XIXe si¨¨cle
%K 19th century
%K art
%K op¨¦ra
%K th¨¦atre
%K musique
%K music
%K England
%K Angleterre
%K Italie
%K Italy
%U http://lisa.revues.org/4351