Word: ricordi
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Casa Ricordi in Milan is the world's most fabled storehouse of Italian opera. In 17 zinc cases sunk 45 ft. below the ground, the firm has stored away original operatic manuscripts by most of the great Italian composers, including Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini. One discordant note in this musical melange: the firm is under heavy criticism for permitting errors by the thousands to creep into its printed scores-and for refusing to let outsiders compare them with the originals. Last week the criticism grew so loud and bitter that the Italian Senate considered new copyright rules that...
...dispute was touched off by Australian-born Conductor Denis Vaughan. While studying Italian opera in Italy, Vaughan, 34, was struck by the variations between different printed editions of Puccini's operas. He visited Ricordi, turned his attention to Verdi and began comparing printed scores with manuscripts. Eventually, Ricordi officials confiscated Vaughan's notes and banned him from the archives, but not before he had made some surprising discoveries: there are 27,000 errors in printed versions of Falstaff, 8,000 in the Requiem, 18,000 in Tosca. Examples, from Falstaff...
...Ricordi's angry response is that certain changes are inevitable in the hands of strong conductors like Toscanini, who simply made the music "accord with the times.'' The company's irritation at Vaughan and his supporters is heightened by the fact that the Verdi copyright is due to run out at year's end, and Ricordi is anxious to extend its profitable monopoly for another 20 years. As for Vaughan, he is looking ahead to an "artistic revolution." When the copyright expires, he hopes, the whole operatic orchestra will be tuned back to its proper...