Mascagni - Gugliemo Ratcliff - The 20 cuts

[BerlinExpat]

I have taken the trouble to compare the Wexford production against the vocal score and am horrified to find the cut are more substantial than I feared.
The are a total of 20 cuts amounting to 410 bars of music a few of which are incredibly short and make no sense dramatically or musically, to me at least.
I am not qualified to suggest how many minutes are missing, but given that the performance totals 113 minutes, I feel completeness would not have been out of order.
The experience of travelling to Wexford leaves me severely disappointed that one cannot rely on a house such as Wexford, whose reputation for exhuming rarities is almost unprecedented. I'm almost glad I don't possess the vocal scores for Koanga and Le Pré aux clercs! I have the impression that the sale of interval champagne and expensive memorabilia seem to be more important than giving us musical value for the expensive tickets.
Some years ago a production of Bizet's Carmen was labelled in the publicity as "a version": a fact I find perfectly justifiable when short measure is on offer.
As a young man I sang in a few amateur opera productions and the companies made no cuts whatsoever!
A text file listing details of the cuts is available under:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/cwoy10tox26p097/Wexford_2015_-_Mascagni_-_Guglielmo_Ratcliff_-_The_Cuts.docx

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks very much nonetheless BE for the upload of the recording, complete or no.

[patmos.beje]

The Wexford Broadcast seems to me to be the best performance (recording) to date.    I have 3 others - at least two of which (Livorno (minus the off stage chorus at the endof Act 4) and RAI\) - both released on CD - have cuts and a third of which (New York) probably has cuts but which, in any event, is marred by the tenor singing out of synch with the orchestra at the end of Act 4.  I am aware of two others - one from the early 50s (the last stage performance in Italy for 30 years until the early 80s) which I have not heard.

The radio broadcast indicated that cuts had been made by the conductor - a great fan of Guglielmo Ratcliff.  The implication was that they mostly related to high notes sung by the tenor - although this may be a misinterpretation by me.

A quick Google search on the Wexford Ratcliff indicates it is is receiving almost universal praise from those who have heard it.  The major criticisms of previous performances and recordings is the inadequacy of the tenors to cope with the hugely demanding role of Ratcliff  (true also of other Mascagni tenor roles e.g. Il piccolo Marat and Isabeau). This is not the case for the Wexford performance where Angelo Villari is being highly praised.

This is probably the best Ratcliff we are likely to hear for some time.  It has never been one of my favourite Mascagni's scores but the Wexford performance is causing me to reassess this.  The 4th Act is marvellous.

Notwithstanding what is said in the broadcasts and reviews, Guglielmo Ratcliff is not Mascagni's first opera - Pinotta was his first, albeit not performed until 1932.  Whilst  he may have started Ratcliff first but the first incomplete draft of Ratcliff postdates Pinotta's completion.

[BerlinExpat]

According to Mascagni's autobiography (Ed. David Scrivener) Pinotta started life as the cantata In filanda in 1881. Mascagni recomposed the cantata as an opera from 1882-1883 and changed the name to Pinotta. During 1883 he sketched the duet from Ratcliff and finished it the flowing year. In 1886 he composed the prelude, intermezzo and act 4 and completed it during 1888. He had even briefly considered entering one act of Ratcliff for the Sonzogno competition until he was advised against doing so.