[11/27/2011] Does Verdi's Jago really believe he's evil because he was created by an evil God? (continued)

DON'T YOU THINK IT'S TIME WE HEARD
A DECENT PERFORMANCE OF THE "CREDO"?

Ernest Blanc (1923-2010)

Ernest Blanc, baritone; Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Georges Prêtre, cond. EMI, recorded September 1961 [audio link]


OKAY, I SAID WE WOULD HEAR THE WHOLE
OPENING SCENE OF ACT II, SO LET'S DO THAT

The recorded Jagos are, alas, a generally underwhelming lot, which makes the outstanding performance of Apollo Granforte (1886-1975) in the 1931-32 HMV set that much more valuable.

VERDI: Otello: Act II, Orchestral introduction; Jago, "Non ti crucciar" ("Do not fret") . . . "Vanne" ("Go then") . . . "Credo in un Dio crudel" ("I believe in a cruel God")

A ground-floor apartment in the castle. Through a window a large garden is seen. A balcony. JAGO on this side of the balcony, CASSIO on the garden side.

JAGO: Do not fret.
If you trust in me, you will soon enjoy again
the flighty favors of Mistress Bianca,
proud captain, with your hilt of gold
and figured baldric.
CASSIO: Do not flatter me . . .
JAGO: Attend to what I say.
You just know that Desdemona is
the leader of our leader,
he lives for her alone.
Beg that generous soul to intercede for you
and your pardon is sure.
CASSIO: But how shall I speak with her?
JAGO: 'Tis her custom to stroll in the shade
of those trees with my wife.
Wait for her there.
Now the way of salvation is open to you;
go then.
[CASSIO moves away. JAGO alone.]
JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]
I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.
From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.
I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

-- translation by Gwyn Morris
(stage directions swiped from Andrew Porter)

Apollo Granforte (b), Jago; Piero Girardi (t), Cassio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Sabajno, cond. HMV, recorded 1931-32 [audio link]
Gabriel Bacquier (b), Jago; Peter Dvorský (t), Cassio; Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca recorded September 1977 [audio link]


NOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO IS BREAK
THE "CREDO" DOWN INTO SECTIONS

We've actually got six pretty good performances here, and an interesting variety. We're going to hear them all in their entirety (and in fact a number of the singers do some of their best work in sections other than those I've assigned them, but hey, we needed coverage of the whole piece. I think we'll identify the performers when we hear their whole performances.

You'll note, by the way, that I've overlapped the sections a little to provide some sense of continuity. I originally expected that I would offer some pithy, possibly illuminating comments on each section. But the more time I've spent breaking breaking the "Credo" down, the less pithful I've felt. It's all there in the words and music -- that is, as long as performers don't turn it into cartoon words and music.

[A] "Vanne; la tua meta già vedo"

JAGO [gazing after CASSIO]: Go then;
I see your end already.
Your evil genius drives you on,
and I am your evil genius.
And my drags me on, implacable God
in whom I believe.
[Moving away from the balcony, no longer looking at CASSIO, who disappears through the trees.]

[audio link]

[B] "Credo in un Dio crudel, che m'ha creato simile a sè"

I believe in a cruel God who has created me
in his image and whom, in hate, I call upon.
me like himself; cruel and vile he made me.

[audio link]

[C] "Dalla viltà d'un germe"

From some vile germ or base atom
was I born.
I am evil
because I am a man;
and I feel the primeval slime in me.
Yes! This is my creed!

[audio link]

[D] "Credo con fermo cuor, siccome la vedovella al tempio"

[Yes! This is my creed!]
I believe with a firm heart,
just as does the young widow in church,
that the evil I think and which from me proceeds
was decreed for me by fate.

[audio link]

[E] "Credo che il giusto è un istrion buffardo"

I believe that the honest man is a mocking buffoon,
and in his face and in his heart,
everything in him is a lie:
tears, kisses, glances,
sacrifice and honor.
And I believe man to be
the sport of a wicked fate,
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.

[audio link]

[F] "Vien dopo tanta irision la Morte"

[. . . from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.]
And after this derision comes Death.
And then? And then?
Death is nothingness.
Heaven is an old wives' tale.

[audio link]


BEFORE WE HEAR THE COMPLETE PERFORMANCES,
LET ME SUGGEST WHAT I THINK JAGO IS UP TO HERE

Rationalizing, self-justifying, self-deluding, intellectual obfuscating and tap-dancing. Smart-alecking a little, maybe.

Oh yes, and most obviously, but not unimportantly, venting. His inner self is so wholly closed off to everyone around him -- with the likely exception of his wife, Emilia (who's reduced to a really minor role in the opera, but we can still guess that she's familiar with both his dishonesty and his destructiveness) -- and so masterful at disguising his true feelings and intentions that at this crucial moment in his scheming it's hardly surprising that what comes out of him in this totally private moment is so intense, even violent.

But also dishonest. There's a tendency to think, but he's alone, speaking to himself, so why would he lie? For many of the same reason(s) we all lie to ourselves, and maybe some that are his own special province. See the partial list above.

I have keen memories of a moment from the last watchable season of MTV's Real World, ironically (or maybe not so ironically) the season in which the producers made the fateful turn from showing us how different people often are from the way we first perceive them to wallowing in alcohol and sexual titillation. It was a confessional moment from the very young, innocent-looking fellow from Boston who had (the viewer had come to realize) apparently intentionally been provoking behavior among some of his castmates which was horribly damaging both to themselves and to each other.

In that confessional moment he confessed to the camera that yes, he was lying and intentionally causing all that mayhem to his castmates and he was doing it because it gave him pleasure. For me, in an important sense this "explained" the fellow's behavior in a way that simply hadn't occurred to me. (Okay, I'd led a sheltered life.)

In reality, of course, it didn't "explain" anything about why it gave him pleasure to make people around him miserable, but it suggested where to begin rummaging around in his psyche. I should mention, for example, that the fellow was gay, which may matter not because of easily ascribable cause and effect but because of a likely link among behaviors that have to do with harshly imposed outsiderness and isolation from the "general population." (Remember, this was a lot of years ago, and those years have produced some then-unimaginable changes in the way we think about these things. I would guess, though, that this process of social isolating is far from extinct.)

And Boito, in the text for Jago's "Credo," has given us ample ground for speculation about what's going on inside.

For one thing, like that young Real World fellow, Jago is smart -- we might say scary-smart, both smarter than the people around him and smarter than they realize. For another thing, all that supposedly self-exculpatory stuff about his evil and primordial slimefulness is regurgitated more or less directly from this dear old nurturing Mother Church. He's done at least two things with the fundamental concept of "original sin," normally used by the Church to enslave its worshippers:

* raise the stakes by blaming it, not on that goddamned bitch Eve, but on the much more obvious culprit, her creator, and --

* turned it upside down, so that instead of its driving him on a fruitless quest for salvation it makes the very idea laughable.

One more thing we learn about Jago, as the monologue casts off bravado and quietly digs deeper into what makes him tick, he's wise to his smartypants Church's gamesmanship with regard to death. Oh, nearly all religions do it: Given their inability to do much about the here-and-now, they lay it off on the hereafter -- sometimes pleasingly, sometimes scarifyingly, and sometimes, if they dare try to get the balance right (it's the old carrot-and-stick principle), both. But Jago, as we see and especially hear in the final section of the "Credo," refuses to play this game. Or, rather, insists on playing it by more honest rules.


NOW LET'S HEAR THE COMPLETE "CREDO"S,
IN THE ORDER WE HEARD THE EXCERPTS

[A] Robert Merrill (1917-2004)
studio recording, 1963
New Symphony Orchestra of London, Edward Downes, cond. Decca, recorded September 1963 [audio link]

[B] Giuseppe Taddei (1916-2010)
studio recording, 1951 (not from the 1955 complete Otello)
RAI (Turin) Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Basile, cond. Cetra, recorded 1951 [audio link]

[C] Anselmo Colzani (1918-2006)
live performance, 1964
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Nello Santi, cond. Live performance, Feb. 15, 1964 [audio link]

[D] Robert Weede (1903-1972)
studio recording, 1953
Concert Arts Orchestra, Nicola Rescigno, cond. Capitol/Preiser, recorded 1953 [audio link]

[E] Leonard Warren (1911-1960)
live performance, 1946
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, George, cond. RCA, recorded Feb. 23, 1946 [audio link]

[F] Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960)
studio recording, 1939
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Wilfred Pelletier, cond. RCA, studio recording, May 3, 1959 [audio link]


GET YER "CREDO" VALUE-ADDED BONUSES

Originally there was going to be a gallery of historical "Credo" recordings in this spot. I can't tell you how many hours I spent compiling them, but in the end I've exiled them to a separate "bonus" location, along with a curious coupling of performances featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jago. Partly the idea was to break up this run of Fischer-Dieskau idolatry I seem to have stumbled into, first with his recording of Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhäuser (the first one, mind you, the 1960 EMI one, not the later one for DG) and then with his c1960 recording with Jörg Demus of Schumann's "Widmung." In reality my feelings about him as a performer are wildly mixed.


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