Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-08-24 04:43
I'm preparing the 1st clarinet part to Madama Butterfly for a reading in a couple of weeks. I know the opera pretty well to hear it, but I've never played it before. All of my experience with Puccini operas, except for Flying Dutchman many years ago, is with the standard aria and instrumental excerpts.
In the Butterfly part at Act II, rehearsal #50, the place where Butterfly runs out and brings her child back to show to Sharpless, the father, a new musical section begins quite abruptly - new tempo and meter, fortissimo with the entire orchestra playing. There is a marking where the tempo normally would be, above the top staff in the score, above the right hand in the piano score, "Allegro moderato - molto vibrato." The instruction is apparently for the entire orchestra. It does appear in the clarinet part I downloaded from IMSLP.
It seems like an odd instruction to appear above the entire score of a loud, tutti passage. I don't think I've ever seen it applied in this way anywhere else, including the Puccini excerpt repertoire I've played in the past. Has anyone had enough experience playing Puccini to know if this is common in his operas?
Karl
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