Luigi Dallapiccola/'s Sketch For Ulisse
Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress | Table of Contents
Luigi Dallapiccola's Sketch for Ulisse
Wayne Shirley
Ulisse, an opera in a prologue and two acts, is the only full-length opera of Luigi
Dallapiccola. It was preceded by two one-act pieces, Volo di Notte (1940) and Il
Prigioniero (1950); by Job, a "sacra rappresentazione" in one act (1950); and by an edition
of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (1941-1942). Like Monteverdi's opera, Ulisse
is based on the Odyssey (Dallapiccola was annoyed during his work on the opera by
frequent statements that the opera was to be "based on James Joyce's Ulysses," a work he
was known to admire). Unlike Monteverdi's work, Dallapiccola's opera draws on
traditions, beginning with Dante, which see Ulysses's quest as not ending with his
homecoming to Ithaca. The work received its premiere on September 29, 1968, by the
Deutsche Oper Berlin under the direction of Loren Maazel. Annabelle Bernard sang the
dual roles of Calypso--whose music is sketched in the Moldenhauer manuscript--and
Penelope.
The Moldenhauer manuscript is a sketch for the opening scene. In fact, it is the sketch for
the opening words of the opera: the start of Calypso's monologue, which forms the first
scene of the Prologue. Calypso speaks in apostrophe to the departed Ulysses.
Son soli, un'altra volta, il tuo cuore ed il mare.
Desolata ti piange Calypso, la Dea senz'amore.
Ti rivelasti a me, mormorando in profondo sopore:
"Guardare, meravigliarsi, e tornar a guardare."
Compresi. Era menzogna la nostalgia del figlio, della patria,
del vecchio padre, della tua sposa...
Once again you are alone, your heart and the sea.
Desolate, Calypso, the goddess without love, weeps for you.
You revealed yourself to me, murmuring in deep sleep:
"To look, to marvel, and to look again."
I understand: it was all a lie,
Your longing for your son, for your homeland,
For your old father, for your wife...
The verbal text of the monologue is identical in the sketch to that of the final version; the
musical text of the sketch differs, sometimes profoundly, from that of the opera as it was
published. Sketch and opera are closest together on the first page of the sketch, which is
reproduced here; by the final page, which contains the setting of the original of the last
three lines above, sketch and opera represent essentially two quite different approaches to
the same set of words.
Calypso's monologue, sketch and score, begins (through the words "tornar a guardare"--"to
look again") by presenting the basic tone row in its four main forms: original, retrograde
(starting with "desolata," final measure of the facsimile), retrograde inversion (starting
with "Ti rivelasti"--"You revealed yourself", and inversion (starting with "Guardare"--"To
look".) This kind of exposition of the row in its four principal forms--the Grand Row
Tune1--occurs at the beginning of many large-scale serial works: one can almost depend
on it at the start of a late Schoenberg serial piece.
The vocal line of the first four measures in the sketch--first sentence of the text, exposition
of the original form of the row--is the closest to the final score at any given spot. Pitches
and the octaves in which they appear are identical to those in the published score: though
the rhythms have been changed, the general rhythmic profile is similar.
The general profile of the vocal part in the opera through the words "tornar a guardare"-
that is, through the end of the Grand Row Tune--continues to show similarities, in rhythm
and general melodic profile, to the voice part of the sketch. But the row-forms are at
transposition levels different from those in the sketch--a change which itself has caused
several octave shifts in order to keep the voice within a good singing range--and the
rhythmic changes are more considerable than in the opening four measures. The changes
in pitch level of the row all seem to have been done for the purpose of getting the voice in
a more graceful range. In particular, Dallapiccola wants the phrase "Guardare,
meravigliarsi, e tornar a guardare" to be at a pitch higher than in the sketch. This is one of
the key phrases in the opera--Calypso repeats it towards the end of her monologue, and
Ulysses sings it at a critical moment in the final scene--and Dallapiccola wants it, at its
first appearance, to lie somewhat higher than the pleasant midrange of the voice at which
it appears in the sketch.
The accompaniment to the voice is much changed in the final score, yet its basic pitch
content (duly transposed) and shape are already present in the sketch. In particular, the two
most distinctive textures are established: a set of static six-note chords in elaborate
slowing-down rhythm (on page 3 of the sketch; thus not visible in the facsimile) and the
complex single- and double-note texture immediately after the words "il mare" (bottom of
page 1). This latter texture, which occurs often in the opera, seems to represent the
undifferentiated flux of the tranquil sea. This fact is more evident in this sketch than in the
final score, where its appearances are slightly more sophisticated in texture: a sketch can
sometimes reveal the composer's intentions more clearly than the final work.
The last page of the sketch corresponds to the final version only in Calypso's words; the
music is completely rewritten. In the sketch Calypso begins her new text immediately after
the static six-note chords in elaborate slowing-down rhythm. In the opera these lines are
preceded by the first appearance of a new motif. It will be associated with the word
"nessuno"--"nobody." In the Odyssey "nobody" is the reply which Odysseus gives when
the Cyclops asks him for his name. In Dallapiccola's opera it serves as a symbol of
Ulysses's quest for a meaning to his adventures: has he really become "nobody"? This
motif will be extremely important in Acts I and II of Ulisse; it is essential that it appear as
well in the Prologue.
Dallapiccola thus adds an important element which is not present in the sketch. He also
alters the emphasis of Calypso's outburst. As set in the sketch, the key word is
"Compresi"--"I understand." The emphasis is on the fact of realizing, not what she
realizes, which is what is in the final version: "It was a lie." Lies, all lies--as Calypso cries
at the departed Ulysses--are all the longing for his home and family which seem to
motivate Ulysses through the remainder of the opera until the final scene. We need this
passionate cry at the opening to remind us that beneath the outer action of the opera is an
inner action, a searching for the truths beneath the adventures.
1 "Grand Row Tune" is my own term, a nontechnical phrase I have found useful. (A "Row Tune"
nonGrand-is a melody presenting one full version of the row and one only.)
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