David Trippett, Liszt Sardanapalo Project: (1) article, Trippett, 'An Uncrossable Rubicon: Liszt’s Sardanapalo revisited', Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 143, No. 2 (October 2018), pp. 361-432; (2) critical edition, ed. Trippett, Sardanapalo, Act 1 (Fragment), ed. Trippett, Neue Liszt Ausgabe (Editio Musica Budapest, 2019); (3a) orchestral edition, ed. Trippett, Sardanapalo – an Opera Fragment in One Act (Schott Music, 2019); (3b) recording, Sardanapalo, with Joyce El-Khoury (Mirra), Airam Hernández (King), Oleksandr Pushniak (Beleso), Weimar Staatskapelle, Kirill Karabits; Audite – independent CD label AUDITE97764, released 8 February 2019.
- Submitting institution
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University of Cambridge
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 12849
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- this output has been created to faclitate the submission of REF2021 and comprises a collection of works by the researcher
- Open access status
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- Month
- October
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The project of working on Liszt’s opera 'Sardanapalo' is explicitly multidimensional in scope and methodology. Its outputs reflect three principal stages: historical and archival research over three years in three archives and an auction house (GSA Weimar; Liszt Museum, Budapest; Houghton Library, Harvard; Sotheby’s); then applied research over three years in establishing methodologies for, and producing the critical edition of, a "fragment", as well as creating the first edition of both music and libretto; finally, practice-based research over two years with professional performers in five cities, while studying historical methods/prototypes in orchestration to create a historically informed performing edition.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Three strands of research combined in this project to ensure that the music of Liszt’s 'Sardanapalo' was recovered for performance, when it had been assumed irrecoverable.
Trippett researched Sardanapalo’s historical emergence across three international archives, addressing the work’s formal and dramaturgical character and its historiographical significance to our understanding of mid-19th-century opera. Research on unpublished sources permitted the first analyses of the uncovered music, established a new timeline for the opera’s genesis and determined the weak libretto as the main reason Liszt abandoned the work. (Item 1)
Trippett applied this research in a critical edition. Preparing it involved deciphering the score, cross-referencing ostensibly indecipherable passages, interpreting Liszt’s shorthand, retrieving and occasionally reconstructing the libretto (using metrical and rhyming schemes), and unpicking missing details and alternative versions. (Item 2)
Practice-based research led to a historically-informed performing edition. Performance workshops at the Royal Opera House informed editorial decisions regarding tempos, articulation, and dynamics, orchestral texture and accompanimental registers. Trippett’s orchestration was based on Liszt’s own instrumental cues and texture specifications, alongside information from scores Liszt conducted in Weimar and paraphrased for piano (Berlioz, Wagner, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Meyerbeer). (Items 3a & 3b)
'Sardanapalo' premiered in 2018, adding to the repertoire a "new" 19th-century opera. Performances have been broadcast internationally.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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