Bioto's Masterpiece "Mefistofele"

When Arrigo Boito died in 1918 the Musica of Rome began its review of his life with the following significant words:

"Arrigo Boito e morto nel momento piu tragico del gigantesco confiltto di razze e di civilta e alla sua anima sublimemente italiana non e stata concessa la goia attesissima della vittoria."

Indeed, at his funeral, among the throngs there were the greatest men of Italy who could be spared from the actual war service. Here was a master who was first of all a poet, and a very great poet. In the case of Wagner one wonders how so fine a musician could also have written such wonderful texts for his works. In the case of Boito one is surprised that so great a poet could also write such extraordinary music.

Boito was born in Padua, February 24, 1842. His father was an Italian and his mother a Pole. From 1856 to 1862 he was a pupil at the Milan Conservatorio. His success with two cantatas inspired the Italian government to provide him with the means for two years' travel in France and Germany. He was quick to discover that Italy, saturated with operas of the old Italian and the older French style, had not kept step with the tremendous musical developments of France and Germany. Keen for new effects and new conceptions of things, he set to work to produce Mefistofele, and was rewarded, upon its production in 1868, with the failure that usually awaits men who are ahead of their times. After two performances the opera was withdrawn.

His pro-Wagnerian tendencies made him a subject for ridicule, and he set about in a manner that it might retain the originality he sought and at the same time come nearer to the conventional taste of the Italian public. Accordingly the work was changed and produced seven years later when the Italian musical taste had advanced sufficiently for them to realize that in Boito they had a real master. Instead of the whistles, howls, and screams which drove it from the stage at the first performances, the composer and poet was now received with acclaim. Boito's changes make interesting musical history and were in some ways quite radical. Faust, in the original version, for instance, was a baritone instead of a tenor.

His posthumous operas, Nerone and Orestiade, are said to be works of large musical caliber; but the public of the world at large has had no sufficient opportunity to become acquainted with them. His opera librettit for other composer have been very remarkable, indeed. They include the books of Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, Ponshielli's La Gioconda and others. He has written novels, books of verse. He took an active interest in Italian politics. His translations from the German, of Tristan and Isolde and Rienzi, are exceptionally fine. In the war of 1866 he served in the army of Garibaldi.

Boito was also a journalist and started two publications for the elevation of Italian musical taste. Among his many distinctions were those of Commendatore of the Crown of Italy, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Inspector General of the musical Conservatories of Italy, doctor of Music of Cambridge University. While his work was said to have proven lucrative, it is hardly likely that he earned any such royalties as Verdi, who during his life is said to have received $800,000 from Aida alone.

It is not improbably that Boito's Mefistofele (produced 1868) may have been one of the great factors in leading Verdi to reform his former style and produce such a work as Aida in 1871. Verdi and Boito were fast friends, and there is little doubt that the message that the younger man brought back from France and Germany may have affected the older master.

The Faust Legend has appeared upon the stage in almost as many forms as that of Harlequin and Columbine. Indeed, a musical piece known as Harlequin's Faustus was given in London as early as 1715. Spohr, Gounod, Berlioz, Donizetti and even the English composer, Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, all have made versions. By reason of its extreme tunefulness, its popular dramatic situations and its colorful appeal, Gounod's work has been the most successful.

Boito knew this and realized that the French work written almost twenty years before Mefistofele, would always be considered a serious rival to his own composition in the scope of its appeal. He was a great admirer of the poem of Goethe and endeavored to adapt his book from both parts of the great German epic. The reader who is familiar with the second part of Faust will be surprised to learn of this aduacity since the heavy philosophical character of Geothe's wonderful masterpiece is almost alien to the demands of the stage. Boito, however, does not wholly reject Goethe's original idea, as was done in much of the Gounod work, but shows us Faust returned to old manhood at the end. Mefistofele surrounds him with sirens to tempt him, but Faust resists, and at his death defeats Mefistofele, who is repulsed by a shower of roses dropped by angels.

The work was first given in London in 1880, with Nillson, Trebelli and Campanini in the cast. It was given in New York in the same year, with Anna Louise Carey and Signor Campanini in the cast. Its lofty character, despite its more or less episodic symphonic development, mark it as the historical genesis of modern Italian opera, the forerunner of Aida and La Gioconda. One of the greatest Mefistofeles is the great Russian Chaliapine.

The Story of "Mefistofele"

This opera is a free version of both parts of Goethe's Faust.

The Prologue: A chorus of invisible angels praises the Ruler of the Universe. Mefistofele, poised between earth and hell, plots against the soul of Faust.

Act I: A Square in Frankfort. Faust and his pupil Wagner, are alarmed by a gray Friar following them. Faust enters his study, the Friar slyly following. Throwing off his disguise, the Friar reveals himself as the devil and bargains for the service of Faust.

Act II: The Garden of Margaret. Faust gives Margaret's mother, Martha, a sleeping potion, that they may meet secretly. The scene suddenly changes to the Brocken Mountain. Mefistofele leads Faust to the summit, where he beholds the orgies of the infernal host, followed by a vision of Margaret led to prison.

Act III: The Prison of Margaret. Margaret, demented by the accusation of murdering her mother and child, raves on a straw cot. Faust enters with Mefistofele, whom he begs to save Margaret. In a frenzy, she falls dying in Faust's arms.

Act IV: Transported to Greece, Mefistofele resurrects the beautiful Helen of Troy to tempt Faust. Mefistofele, out of his atmosphere, leaves Faust in Helen's arms.

Epilogue: Faust, again an old man in his study, quotes Scripture and prays for forgiveness as Mefistofele sinks into the ground and a shower of roses indicates his own salvation.

The Etude Magazine April 1921