The Birth of Opera. by F. W.

Sternfeld
Review by: Barbara R. Hanning
Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 677-679
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America
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 REVIEWS 677

a richharvestforthosewho pursuetheissuesitraises.Forinstance,
I found thatcanzonettapoems in Vecchi's repertorywere often
printedanonymouslyin chapbooks forsingingto familiartunes
with improvisedinstrumental accompaniment.Twelve of them
appearin theenormouslypopularseriesFioredi vilanelle& ariena-
politaneraccolte. . . per cantarin ognistromento(I609; rpt. 1632).
Many more turn up in earlierhand-written anthologieswithvari-
antscommonin a genresusceptibleto continualtransformation by
amateurpoets and singers(e.g., transposition of lines and substi-
tution,additionor omissionofstrophes).This suggeststhattheflu-
idityofpopularsongformsis a moreprovocativeissuethanauthor-
shipand that"theworkitself"is noteasilydefined.Indeed,Vecchi
"the reader"drew freelyupon familiarmaterialsfromliterateand
oral culture,blendingformsand themes,juxtaposing invention
withtradition.Could he have appropriatedtunesand treatedthem
in the same manneras well? Fortunately DeFord has givenus the
tools to begin questioningthe statusof the reader/listener in the
production of late sixteenth-century popular song.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA Donna Cardamone
Jackson

F. W. Sternfeld.The Birthof Opera. Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1993. xiv + 266 pp. $55.
The title of this volume, The Birthof Opera, belies its true
breadth,forF. W. Sternfeldhas presentedan encyclopedicstudy
whichconcentrates on some ofthemainthemesand devicesofop-
era fromitspre-history in theOrpheusmythof classicalantiquity
to theneo-classicalrepresentations of themythby Stravinskyand
others.To be sure,theauthordwellson Renaissancetreatments of
thesethemesand devices in intermedi, pastoraldrama, and other
types of verse set to music, and theirinfluence
on theearlyhistory
of opera; but he goes farbeyond theirculminationin Rinuccini's
and Peri's Euridice(I600) and Striggio'sand Monteverdi'sOrfeo
(1607) in thefirstdecadeofopera'slifetimeto considerations,albeit
briefones, of Gluck's Orfeo(1762) and Mozart's Zauberflfte(1791)
-where he sees an allegoricalconnectionbetweenTamino's quest
and thatof Orpheus-as well as, forexample,Tippett'soratorio,
The Mask of Time (1984).

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678 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

The books organizationis thematicratherthanchronological,

themain themesbeingtheinfluenceof Ovid (ChapterI), and the
roleand developmentof theensemblefinale(Chapters3-5) and of
thesolo lament(Chapter6). For Sternfeld, lamentand finalearethe
most significant"constituentelementsof earlyopera, indeed of
opera altogether"(34). In thisschemeof things,theimportanceof
recitativeas a centralingredientof earlyopera is underplayed,al-
thoughit does receivesome attentionin Chapter2, entitled"Def-
initionsand Non-Definitions."There,and indeedthroughoutthe
book, theauthor'sapproachto such termsas "opera" and "mon-
ody" is commendablypragmaticratherthandogmatic;forhispur-
poses, "terminology is lessimportant thanan awarenessofthesyn-
thesisof diverseelements"(55). The seventhand last chapter,a
surveyoftheuses ofrepetition and echo in poetryand musicwhich
concentrates especially on the pre-history ofoperain theItalianRe-
naissance,functionsas a fascinating postludeto thechapteron the
solo lament,thecenterpieceof so manyearlyoperas,in whichthe
echo device findsits most convincingapplication.
Ovid andPolizianofigureprominently in Sternfeld'sexploration
of the models thatservedthe earlylibrettists, models which in-
cludedOvid's Heroidesas well as his Metamorphoses. Ovid's stature
as a compellingstoryteller is supportedby Sternfeld's illuminating
discussionof the Roman poet's retellingof Orpheus' tale in the
Metamorphoses and the eightsubsidiarystoriesthatare imbedded
withinitsframe.All aspectsof theOrpheusmythand itsimplica-
tions,as well as its allegoricaltreatment in thefourteenth-century
Ovide moralise, are reviewed.Particularlythoroughis Sternfeld's
discussionofMonteverdi's"Apollo ending,"thealteredversionof
Orfeo,Act V thatwas publishedin the 1609 score,and theimpact
of Apollo's interventionon our interpretation of Monteverdi's
opera and laterworks is fullyevaluated.
The importancein thepre-history ofoperaofAngeloPoliziano's
versepastoral,Orfeo(1480), has long been acknowledged.How-
ever,workingwitha recentscholarlyeditionof Orfeoby Antonia
Tissoni Benvenuti(1986) and bringingto bearhis own impressive
knowledgeofRenaissancepoetics,Sternfeld greatlyenhancesPoli-
ziano's centralityas influential forerunner ofRinuccini,thefirstop-
He devotespartsofseveralchaptersto Poliziano'srole
eralibrettist.
in forgingthedramaticstructures thatservedopera plotsforcen-
turiesto come, as well as in providinga modelfortheecho lament,

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 REVIEWS 679

transmitting classicaltraditionsfromboth Greekand Latinlitera-

tureto the earlyItalianlibrettists,
and establishingthe popularity
of octosyllabicverse which Rinuccinithen adopted as a suitable
meterforhis closingchoruses.Of particularinterestare Sternfeld's
reproductionand wittytranslation(199) of the firstItalianecho
poem, Poliziano's "Che faitu, Ecco," datingfrom1479or earlier,
and theinclusionof theearliestmanuscriptversionof thepoem as
thevolume's frontispiece; and theearliestcompositionson Italian
echo poems (c. I568), includingsettingsof two strambotti by Se-
rafinoAquilano, are among theapproximately brief
thirty musical
examplesin the book.
AlthoughSternfeld emphasizesthemorelyricalstructures, solo
lamentsand choralfinales,in thisstudy,thepairwho collaborated
intheinventionofrecitative, RinucciniandPeri,aregiventheirdue
as thetrueinnovatorsof opera. In additionto creditingRinuccini
with establishingmany of the verse conventionsof the genre,
Sternfeldchroniclesthelibrettist'sinfluencewell beyond Striggio
and Monteverdi,althoughhe admitsthatin some cases it is more
a questionof thehistoricalcontinuity of certainthemesthanof di-
rectinfluence.Like theFlorentinewriterG. B. Doni, Sternfeld vir-
tuallychampionsPeri and does nothesitateto call "great" Orfeo's
movinglament,"Non piango, e non sospiro" in Euridice.He also
includestwo usefulItalianpassagesabout opera's beginningsfrom
Doni's Trattato dellamusicascenica,passages to which referenceis
oftenmade but which are rarelyquoted at length;and here, as
throughoutthe book, the translationsare impeccablyaccurateas
well as readable.
Studentsof history,literature,and music, then, can all learn
muchfrom,and takedelightin, thiswide-ranginginvestigation of
thebeginningsof opera, its humanisticancestry,and its legacyin
moderntimes.
THE CITY COLLEGE AND GRADUATE SCHOOL,
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK BarbaraR. Hanning

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