Re: Trsitan: The First Hundred Years (Zuckerman)

The message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
from "A.C. Douglas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> contains these words:

> Does anyone here have a copy of this book (mine was destroyed in a fire)?

> I seem to remember that in that book (last read by me in the '60s) Zuckerman
> makes mention of Verdi having a score of _Tristan_ which he (Verdi)
> copiously
> marked up with comments, some of which Zuckerman quotes.

> Can anyone confirm this with page references and the date of Verdi's
> acquisition
> of the score, or confirm that I'm remembering falsely?

> Thanks.

UPDATE: I've been looking around in all the major books on Verdi I can
find, and so far have come across no single reference of the kind you
remember. However, nil desperandum, because I have found a number of
relevant individual references. The interview expressing Verdi's
admiration for Tristan is quoted in a number of sources, including
Budden (and his Master Musicians volume) never at length (many authors
seem to prefer his earlier, less laudatory comments on Wagner, even
selectively quoting them to make them look harsher!). However, John
Rossellini in his short "Life of Verdi" from Cambridge University Press,
confirms that Verdi owned scores of *all* the major Wagner operas right
up to Parsifal. Mary Jane Philips-Matz in her biography (OUP) records
Muzio sending him Meistersinger and Parsifal. What's more, she describes
Verdi sitting at the back of a box during the famous Italian premiere of
Lohengrin at Bologna in 1871, following the performance from the score
and making extensive marginal comments. The score survives at
Sant'Agata.

So, we know Verdi owned the Tristan score, and it's very reasonable to
suppose he annotated it as he did Lohengrin (Tristan was, I think, the
first mature Wagner to be performed in Italy, also at Bologna in 1888,
but I don't know if Verdi saw it; it's possible, he certainly tried very
hard to conceal his presence at Lohengrin). It is perhaps possible that
you were remembering the Lohengrin episode and conflating it -- such
things happen to all of us -- but even if so, your overall feeling was
undoubtedly correct!

I'll continue looking when able.

Cheers,

Mike

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