Work Information
| Publisher |
G Schirmer Inc |
Category |
Opera and Music Theatre |
| Sub-Category |
Grand Opera |
Year Composed |
1957 |
| Duration |
2 Hours |
Solo Voice(s) |
Soprano, Mezzo soprano, Tenor, Baritone [=Bass Baritone], Alto, 2 Basses, silent role |
| Chorus |
SATB chorus |
Orchestration |
2+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.2/4331/timp.perc/hp/str — stage band:1122/2100/perc/pf.cel.org.acn/str
alt.: reduced orchestration by James Medvitz: 2(pic).1+ca.2(bcl).2/3.2.2(btbn).1/syn(covering organ, celesta, accordion parts of the original)/timp.perc/hp/str — stage band:1111/2100/snare dm/str |
| Languages |
English, German, Italian |
Availability |
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| Discography |
Here... |
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| Libretto(s): |
50340390 |
Libretto(s): |
GS34039 |
| Vocal Score(s): |
50338080 |
Vocal Score(s): |
GS33808 |
Programme Note
1958 Pulitzer Prize in Music Librettist Note: This is the story of two women, Vanessa and Erika, caught in the central dilemma which faces every human being: whether to fight for one's ideals to the point of shutting oneself off from reality, or compromise with what life has to offer, even lying to oneself for the mere sake of living. Like a sullen Greek chorus, a third woman (the old Grandmother) condemns by her very silence the refusal first of Vanessa, then of Erika, to accept the bitter truth that life offers no solution except its own inherent struggle. When Vanessa, in her final eagerness to embrace life, realizes this truth, it is perhaps too late. -- Gian Carlo Menotti
Cast List: VANESSA, a lady of great beauty, in her late thirties: Soprano ERIKA, her niece, a young girl of twenty: Mezzo-Soprano THE OLD BARONESS, Vanessa's mother and Erika's grandmother: Contralto ANATOL, a handsome young man in his early twenties: Tenor THE OLD DOCTOR: Baritone NICHOLAS, the Major-Domo: Bass FOOTMAN: Bass The Young Pastor, Servants, Guests, Peasants, their Children, Musicians.
Synopsis: At Vanessa’s country estate, around 1905, Vanessa meets Anatol, the son of a long-past lover and becomes close to him, as does her niece, Erika. Even though Erika says she is pregnant by Anatol, she refuses his offer of marriage. Vanessa and Anatol marry instead and go off, leaving Erika to wait for her true love.
Reviews
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“Once in a while an opera company presents a new production that prompts a re-evaluation of a misunderstood work. That’s what happened on Sunday when New York City Opera unveiled its staging of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa.
From the fitful orchestral music that opens the score, Barber comes across as a composer fully aware of what had been going on around him in contemporary music. He was never really tempted by dodecaphonic techniques and remained essentially a tonal composer. Still, the music teems with astringent orchestral flourishes, skittish thematic riffs with hints of 12-tone contrapuntal writing and pungently chromatic harmony.
Whole stretches are plaintively tonal and colorfully scored, music at once elegant and fraught with tension. Barber’s melodic invention never flags, and he writes deftly for the voice without milking vocal lines.
Vanessa is rich with set-piece arias and ensembles, and here you sometimes wish that Barber had been less beholden to old models. The set pieces are skillfully conceived and always affecting, especially the ingenious quintet (a canon) near the end. But they sometimes stop the dramatic flow. For example, Vanessa sings a yearning Act I aria to the man she believes to be her former lover, which ends just at the moment she discovers the truth. But on Sunday, hearing the aria conclude so definitively, the audience understandably broke into applause, breaking the spell completely.
Still, Vanessa is an opera that knows what it is. Composers today writing in neo-Romantic styles can seem tentative in taking this conventional approach. No wonder. Barber was there first, and did it much better.
Could it be time to reconsider Antony and Cleopatra, Barber’s much maligned 1966 opera, in a comparably illuminating production?”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 06/11/2007
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The very real merits of Barber's lush, bittersweet VANESSA are in the score itself, which is ornate, vivid, tinged with modernism yet rooted in lyrical tradition... [The] music is deeply, richly autumnal. Barber never forgets that he is writing for the human voice, with all the glories and frailties that entails. At no point does he fall into the trap of treating the voice as merely another virtuoso instrument with which to explore the stratosphere. The final quintet has been justly celebrated and there are many other [wonderful] moments. This attractive, atmospheric production may be recommended to anybody with a fondness for this opera.
Tim Page, The Washington Post
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