Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis der Werk Ferdinando Paers (PaWV ), vol. 1: Die Opern (review)

Ferdinando Paer (1771–1839) was one of the most important intermediaries between French, Italian, and German operatic culture at the turn of the nineteenth century. His importance is established above all by his Italian adaptations of French librettos from the time of the Revolution. His well-known opera on Jean Nicolas Boilly's libretto Léonore ou L'amour conjugal, written in 1798 for Gaveaux and entitled Leonora ossia L'amor conjugale (Dresden, 1804), is constantly considered alongside Beethoven's subsequent Leonore; Beethoven was personally acquainted with Paer, who was active at the Kärntnerthor theatre between 1797 and 1801, and can be shown to have possessed a copy of Paer's score. The influence of Paer's Achille (Vienna, 1801) on the funeral march in the Piano Sonata Op. 26 and that of the 'Eroica' seems to have been even greater. Napoleon admired this opera so much that he determined to take the composer (by then Kapellmeister to the Saxon court) on the march with him like a trophy. In Napoleon's train Paer went as far as Warsaw, where he met E. T. A. Hoffmann, then the most active music-lover in the city. From Warsaw he found his way to Paris, where he became Napoleon's maître de chapelle and director of the Théâtre-Italien. He would be succeeded by Rossini, who had made his stage debut as a boy soprano in Paer's Camilla ossia Il sotteraneo (1799)—itself a remake of a French rescue opera. Le Maître de Chapelle ou Le Souper imprévu afforded Paer another lasting international success with a genuinely French opera in the age of Boieldieu and Isouard. There can be no doubt that Paer is a figure of European stature.

For long, however, scholars were hardly aware of the fact. That Paer, who straddled the border between two centuries and three musical cultures, has finally emerged from the shadows is essentially the achievement of Wolfram Ensslin: the present catalogue of the operas, over 800 pages long, is only one part of a trilogy, along with a dissertation, Die italienischen Opern Ferdinando Paers (Hildesheim, 2003), which revealed substantial new findings on the composer's chief oeuvre; and a catalogue of the cantatas, oratorios, songs, and instrumental works is in progress.

The catalogue comprises for the first time the entirety of Paer's music for the stage. Besides all relevant sources for librettos and operas it records the cast of the first performance and lists all known revivals up to the twenty-first century. The list of musical incipits gives the themes of the individual sections and movements of each number. Especially helpful for distinguishing various versions and comparing parallel settings is the registration of scene divisions and the scenic directions. Not least are Ensslin's notes, which in some cases extend to miniature articles; they are extremely informative and helpful. A comprehensive bibliography, an index, and a list of first lines complete this valuable book. This catalogue affords a lasting foundation for further research on the light shed by cultural transfer in Europe as it affected nineteenth-century opera.