Great Books/Stories/Tales That Were Never Turned Into Opera Libretti

[Florestan]

I think this topic might be of interest to some people here.

Otomh, two:

Alessandro Manzoni - The Betrothed

This monumental panorama of the social, political and religious life in the 17th century's Italy was tailor-made for Verdi. Just imagine: the two national cultural icons of Italy in the 19th century united in an opera! Why the idea never crossed Verdi's mind is an enigma to me.

Victor Hugo - Notre-Dame-de-Paris

This monumental panorama of the social, political and religious life in the 15th century's Paris was tailor-made for Meyerbeer. Why he, a cultured and widely read person, never ever entertained such an idea is beyond me as well --- maybe because Hugo was too much of a political firebrand even for the relatively tolerant July Monarchy.

Have at it.

[Ganondorf]

Well, Hugo did write the libretto of La Esmeralda which I guess is closest we get to Notre Dame as Opera...

[ritter]

Good evening, Andrei.

Well, Ponchielli composed an opera based on I promessi sposi, premiered in 1856. It's been recorded by Bongiovanni.



And Franz Schmidt composed a Norte Dame, first performed in Vienna in 1914. Again, there's a recording available (on the Capriccio label).



The Schmidt opera is revived every once in a while, and it's intermezzo, a czardas, has had a lot of circulation. Now, how they got to play a czardas in medieval Paris beats me. 

[Jo498]

Both probably too long, too much expansive novels, not dramas; I have not read the Manzoni, but Notre Dame would also be lacking a good "positive" male hero for typical 19th century opera preferences. There is the villain Frollo, the poor Quasimodo (a mix between Zemlinsky's Dwarf, Rigoletto etc.) but Phoebus is a shallow idiot and that student/poet (forgot his name) also more a sidekick. Esmeralda would also be the only main female part.

[Brian]

Jane Austen has not often appeared on the operatic stage, I think.

[Karl Henning]

The Schmidt opera is revived every once in a while, and it's intermezzo, a czardas, has had a lot of circulation. Now, how they got to play a czardas in medieval Paris beats me. 

(* chortle *)

[Spotted Horses]

We've had Nixon in China , what about Trump in Russia? He could start out as a baritone, but after the summit with Putin be switched with a castrato.

[Brian]

We've had Nixon in China , what about Trump in Russia? He could start out as a baritone, but after the summit with Putin be switched with a castrato.

I remember once interviewing John Adams and asking why he felt that political events made for good operatic material, and he sternly warned me that if I suggested a Trump opera to him, the conversation would be over 

[Mandryka]

Balzac's Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu

[Karl Henning]

We've had Nixon in China , what about Trump in Russia? He could start out as a baritone, but after the summit with Putin be switched with a castrato.

When I was in Rochester, NY, a CD shop had a mock newsletter which suggested not only that Stockhausen was preparing an eight-hour choral work setting the single word Nicht, but that Adams planned a trilogy, and was at work concurrently on Reagan in Santa Barbara and Bush in Kennebunkport.

[Florestan]

Well, Hugo did write the libretto of La Esmeralda which I guess is closest we get to Notre Dame as Opera...

I didn't know that, thanks for the tip. Looks like an interesting rarity. There is a Laurence Foster live recording, I will investigate.

[Florestan]

Both probably too long, too much expansive novels, not dramas; I have not read the Manzoni, but Notre Dame would also be lacking a good "positive" male hero for typical 19th century opera preferences. There is the villain Frollo, the poor Quasimodo (a mix between Zemlinsky's Dwarf, Rigoletto etc.) but Phoebus is a shallow idiot and that student/poet (forgot his name) also more a sidekick. Esmeralda would also be the only main female part.

Obviously cuts and adaptations would have had to be made for The Betrothed but if stripped down to the essentials the action is eminently dramatic and would have suited Verdi very well.. As for Notre-Dame, complexity and longueur were never deterrents for Meyerbeer, on the contrary he relished in them. Nor was a good positive male hero a prerequisite: none of his grand-operas feature one, actually, they're either evil (Robert le Diable, Le prophete) or ambiguous (Les Huguenots, L'Africaine)

[Florestan]

Good evening, Andrei.

Well, Ponchielli composed an opera based on I promessi sposi, premiered in 1856. It's been recorded by Bongiovanni.



And Franz Schmidt composed a Norte Dame, first performed in Vienna in 1914. Again, there's a recording available (on the Capriccio label).



The Schmidt opera is revived every once in a while, and it's intermezzo, a czardas, has had a lot of circulation. Now, how they got to play a czardas in medieval Paris beats me. 

Interesting, thanks. Will investigate.

Well, there are the gypsies in the Court of Miracles and Schmidt was probably familiar with the Magyar ones, hence the czardas. 

[KevinP]

Shifting the topic a bit here, but a recent work that I think would work well as opera is Octavia Butler's Kindred.

Though written by ostensibly a sci-fi author, this book is science fiction only to the extent that Kafka's Metamorphosis is. It's about a modern (well, 1976) woman, and sometimes her husband, who keeps finding herself in the antebellium South.

I'm aware that Butler's (great) Parable of the Sower has been made into an opera, but it's not a classical one.

[JBS]

Both probably too long, too much expansive novels, not dramas; I have not read the Manzoni, but Notre Dame would also be lacking a good "positive" male hero for typical 19th century opera preferences. There is the villain Frollo, the poor Quasimodo (a mix between Zemlinsky's Dwarf, Rigoletto etc.) but Phoebus is a shallow idiot and that student/poet (forgot his name) also more a sidekick. Esmeralda would also be the only main female part.

The poet is Pierre Gringoire, and is sort of a real historical person (sort of because the real Gringoire was about 20.or 30 years younger than the novel's Gringoire, and would at most have been a young boy at the time of the novel's action).

The Romani element is due to Esmeralda, who was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the Romani. The novel eventually reveals that this was done via exchanging her with a deformed baby who turns out to have been Quasimodo.