Philip Gossett
Encyclopedia
Philip Gossett is an American musicologist and historian, and recently officially retired from the post of Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago
. His lifelong interest in 19th century Italian opera, which began with listening to the Metropolitan Opera
broadcasts in his youth, most recently led to the publication of a major book on the subject, Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera, which won the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as the best book on music of 2006.
Philip Gossett's contributions to opera scholarship and how they can influence operatic performance may best be summed up by Newsday
s comment that "some encomiasts claim that soprano Maria Callas
did as much for Italian opera as Arturo Toscanini
or Verdi. Musicologist Philip Gossett arguably has done as much for Italian opera as any of those geniuses."
, Gaetano Donizetti
and Giuseppe Verdi
had been given little serious academic study. As he noted: "If you were going to be a serious musicologist, you had to study Beethoven or Bach or Gregorian chants, but Rossini -- that was a pretty funny idea"
However, he persisted and notes that "I went to Princeton University
for graduate work in musicology (and) I fell more in love with the music and wrote my doctoral dissertation on the music of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Then I went to Paris on a Fulbright and studied Rossini's operas.".
Throughout his career, Gossett's work has frequently taken him to Italy, where he has advised on the presentations of productions at the Rossini Opera Festival
in Rossini's hometown of Pesaro
, and he has worked directly with the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani (Institute of Verdi Studies) in Parma
which was founded in 1960. Also, for the 2001 centenary of Verdi's death, he worked with the Teatro Regio di Parma
on their programming.
of Milan
) and of The Works of Gioachino Rossini (by Baerenreiter-Verlag, Kassel
).
Gossett explained the overall aim of the production of critical editions of the operas by using the example of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, (where)
As of 2004, it was noted that "Gossett's team (had) completed 12 of 33 projected volumes of Verdi's work and more than 30 volumes of an expected 70 for Rossini. "I'll never get through the Rossini," Gossett said. "But the Verdi -- I'm hoping."
Rossini's Tancredi
, Ermione
and Semiramide
are three of critical editions which he has personally edited, while his most recent work is Verdi's La forza del destino
which, while yet to be formally published, was performed at the San Francisco Opera
in November 2005 in its 1869 version, while the 1862 version was presented in the Stadttheater, Bern in April 2006.
(in 1979 for the first production of the critical edition of Tancredi, with its then newly-discovered tragic ending, starring Marilyn Horne
); with the Metropolitan Opera
for its November 1990 production of Semiramide
); with the Santa Fe Opera
(in 2000 for Rossini's Ermione
) and he will again be involved in the 2012 season's production of the critical edition of Maometto II
; and with the Chicago Lyric Opera for the first presentations of Rossini's long-lost Il viaggio a Reims
in 2003.
For the 2010 presentations of Verdi's Attila
for the Met, Gossett also worked with conductor Ricardo Muti on revisions to the score based on new research, which has become a new critical edition of the opera.
Muti has acknowledged Gossett's role in clarifying ambiguities (in this case in Rigoletto) which had crept into many texts
's "Distingushed Achievement Award" in 2004, which gained him a prize of $1.5 million to facilitate his research. Also, in 1998, the Italian government gave him the "Cavaliere di Gran Croce", the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian. Academically, he has been President of the American Musicological Society and of the Society for Textual Scholarship, as well as Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Chicago. In 2008 Gossett was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
.
, General Editor of The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti (Casa Ricordi, Milan)
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. His lifelong interest in 19th century Italian opera, which began with listening to the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
broadcasts in his youth, most recently led to the publication of a major book on the subject, Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera, which won the Otto Kinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society as the best book on music of 2006.
Philip Gossett's contributions to opera scholarship and how they can influence operatic performance may best be summed up by Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
s comment that "some encomiasts claim that soprano Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
did as much for Italian opera as Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
or Verdi. Musicologist Philip Gossett arguably has done as much for Italian opera as any of those geniuses."
Gossett's career
At the time he began graduate musical studies in the mid-1960s, the Italian composers such as Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo BelliniVincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
had been given little serious academic study. As he noted: "If you were going to be a serious musicologist, you had to study Beethoven or Bach or Gregorian chants, but Rossini -- that was a pretty funny idea"
However, he persisted and notes that "I went to Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
for graduate work in musicology (and) I fell more in love with the music and wrote my doctoral dissertation on the music of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Then I went to Paris on a Fulbright and studied Rossini's operas.".
Throughout his career, Gossett's work has frequently taken him to Italy, where he has advised on the presentations of productions at the Rossini Opera Festival
Rossini Opera Festival
The Rossini Opera Festival is an opera festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini....
in Rossini's hometown of Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
, and he has worked directly with the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani (Institute of Verdi Studies) in Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
which was founded in 1960. Also, for the 2001 centenary of Verdi's death, he worked with the Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma is a famous 19th century opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy. The theatre was originally known as the Teatro Ducale....
on their programming.
The critical editions of Verdi and Rossini operas
Given that Gossett's musical interests focus on 19th century Italian opera (especially the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi), most of his career has been devoted to being General Editor of two important projects while at the University of Chicago: the research for the preparation of critical editions of all the operas of both Rossini (some 70) and Verdi (some 33, in their various forms). These are being prepared and gradually published as The Works of Giuseppe Verdi (by the University of Chicago Press in collaboration with the Italian publishing house Casa RicordiCasa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
) and of The Works of Gioachino Rossini (by Baerenreiter-Verlag, Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
).
Gossett explained the overall aim of the production of critical editions of the operas by using the example of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, (where)
- "we used sources in Rome, Paris, Vienna, and New York. The scores reprinted cheaply today simply reproduce all the errors, all the faults of these 19th-century scores—most of which were produced very quickly and, in Verdi's own words, "are filled with errors.".... The new critical editions have tried, for the first time, to return to authentic sources and they allow performers to have access to the various versions sanctioned by the composers."
As of 2004, it was noted that "Gossett's team (had) completed 12 of 33 projected volumes of Verdi's work and more than 30 volumes of an expected 70 for Rossini. "I'll never get through the Rossini," Gossett said. "But the Verdi -- I'm hoping."
Rossini's Tancredi
Tancredi
Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
, Ermione
Ermione
Ermione is a tragic opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on the play Andromaque by Jean Racine.- Performance history :...
and Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
are three of critical editions which he has personally edited, while his most recent work is Verdi's La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
which, while yet to be formally published, was performed at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
in November 2005 in its 1869 version, while the 1862 version was presented in the Stadttheater, Bern in April 2006.
Work with US opera companies
In the US, he has consulted with the Houston Grand OperaHouston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
(in 1979 for the first production of the critical edition of Tancredi, with its then newly-discovered tragic ending, starring Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
); with the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
for its November 1990 production of Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
); with the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
(in 2000 for Rossini's Ermione
Ermione
Ermione is a tragic opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on the play Andromaque by Jean Racine.- Performance history :...
) and he will again be involved in the 2012 season's production of the critical edition of Maometto II
Maometto II
Maometto II is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle, set in the 1470s during the time of the war between the Turks and Venetians. Della Valle based his libretto on his earlier play Anna Erizo...
; and with the Chicago Lyric Opera for the first presentations of Rossini's long-lost Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro is an operatic dramma giocoso, originally performed in three acts, by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Balocchi, based in part on Corinne, ou L'Italie by Mme de Staël.Rossini's last opera in the Italian language Il viaggio a...
in 2003.
For the 2010 presentations of Verdi's Attila
Attila (opera)
Attila is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the play Attila, König der Hunnen by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner. Initially, Verdi had enlisted Francesco Maria Piave to prepare the libretto, after Verdi's own scenario...
for the Met, Gossett also worked with conductor Ricardo Muti on revisions to the score based on new research, which has become a new critical edition of the opera.
Muti has acknowledged Gossett's role in clarifying ambiguities (in this case in Rigoletto) which had crept into many texts
Awards and honors
Gossett was awarded the Andrew W. Mellon FoundationAndrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
's "Distingushed Achievement Award" in 2004, which gained him a prize of $1.5 million to facilitate his research. Also, in 1998, the Italian government gave him the "Cavaliere di Gran Croce", the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian. Academically, he has been President of the American Musicological Society and of the Society for Textual Scholarship, as well as Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Chicago. In 2008 Gossett was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
Royal Swedish Academy of Music
The Royal Swedish Academy of Music or Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien, founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
.
Publications
- Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera Chicago: University of Chicago, 2006 ISBN 9780226304823
- The Operas of Rossini, 1989
- Treatise on Harmony by Jean Philippe Rameau (Editor and translator), Dover Pubns, 1971 ISBN 9780486224619
- Anna Bolena and the Artistic Maturity of Gaetano Donizetti (Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure) by Philip Gossett, 1985) Oxford University Press, 1985 ISBN 9780193132054
- "Gioachino Rossini" in The New Grove Masters of Italian Opera: Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini. New York: W. W. Norton, 1983. ISBN 9780393303612
- Early romantic Opera ... Charles Rosen, (Ed. and intro.) Philip Gossett
- "I Puritani: Melodramma Serio in Three Acts, First Performance: Paris, Theatre-Italien, January 24, 1835 (a facsimile edition of Bellini's original autograph manuscript together With the Naples revision, 2 volumes. Complete by Pepoli, Carlo (Libretto); Vincenzo Bellini (Music); Philip Gossett (Ed, Intro). Garland Publishing, 1983 ISBN 9780824029050
The works of Gioachino Rossini, Section I: Operas
- "La gazzettaLa GazzettaLa gazzetta, ossia Il matrimonio per concorso is an opera buffa by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was by Giuseppe Palomba after Carlo Goldoni's play Il matrimonio per concorso of 1763....
" by Gioachino Rossini, Vol. 18, (Eds.) Philip Gossett and Fabrizio Scipioni, Pesaro, Fondazione Rossini, 2002. ISBN 9780226728643 (First performed at Garsington OperaGarsington OperaGarsington Opera is an annual open air summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. For twenty one years it was held in the gardens of Leonard Ingrams' home at Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire. Since 2011 the festival is now held in Wormsley Park, the home of the Getty family near High...
(Oxford) and the Rossini Opera FestivalRossini Opera FestivalThe Rossini Opera Festival is an opera festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini....
(Pesaro), summer 2001. - "SemiramideSemiramideSemiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
" by Gioachino Rossini: Melodramma tragico in Two Acts, Libretto by Gaetano Rossi, Vol. 34, (Eds.) Philip Gossett, and Alberto Zedda Pesaro, Fondazione Rossini, 2001. - "TancrediTancrediTancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
" by Gioachino Rossini: Melodramma eroico in Two Acts by Gaetano Rossi. Vol. 10, (Ed.) Philip Gossett, 2010 - "Maometto IIMaometto IIMaometto II is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle, set in the 1470s during the time of the war between the Turks and Venetians. Della Valle based his libretto on his earlier play Anna Erizo...
", Dramma per musica in two acts by Cesare Della Valle, Vol. 31, (Eds.) Patricia Brauner, Philip Gossett, and Claudio ScimoneClaudio ScimoneClaudio Scimone is an Italian conductor.He was born in Padua, Italy and studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara. He has established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He has revived many baroque and renaissance works...
, available for rental. This edition is to be presented by the Santa Fe Opera during its 2012 season.
The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, Series I: Operas, Volume 5
- "Ernani" by Giuseppe Verdi: Dramma Lirico in Four Acts By Francesco Maria Piave, (Eds.) Claudio Gallico and (Trans.) Philip Gossett. University Of Chicago Press, 1985 ISBN 9780226853079
- "La forza del destinoLa forza del destinoLa forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
" by Giuseppe Verdi, to be published
See also
Musicologist Roger ParkerRoger Parker
Roger Parker is an English musicologist, and is currently Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London....
, General Editor of The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti (Casa Ricordi, Milan)
External links
- Profile of Gossett on the University of Chicago's website
- Reviews by Gossett appearing in The New York Review of Books
- http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ciao/Rossini%20operas/1mao2.htmlBrauner, Patricia, Philip Gossett, and Claudio ScimoneClaudio ScimoneClaudio Scimone is an Italian conductor.He was born in Padua, Italy and studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara. He has established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He has revived many baroque and renaissance works...
, "Maometto II", Edizione critica delle opere di Gioachino Rossini, Vol. 31. Fondazione Rosinni Pesaro, 1996] on uchicago.edu (Center for Italian Opera Studies, University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
). Accessed 10 May 2011 - List of available titles of Rossini operas on humanities.uchicago.edu Retrieved 11 May 2011