Bibliographie
Sources
Prova d’Orchestra of Federico Fellini, 1978, color, 72 min, RAI-Daimo cinematografica S.P.A (Rome), Albatros Produktion GMBH (Munich).
Fellini’s texts
COSTANTINI, Costanzo, Conversations avec... Federico Fellini, transl. N. Castagné, Paris, Denoël, 1995 (Conversations with Fellini, transl. S. Sorooshian, Boston, Mariner Books, 1997).
FELLINI, Federico, Prova d’orchestra, transl. A. Buresi et al., Paris, Éditions Albatros, 1979.
FELLINI, Federico, Fellini par Fellini. Entretien avec Giovanni Grazzini, transl. N. Frank, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1984 (Comments on Film, ed. G. Grazzini, transl. J. Henry, New York, The Press, 1988).
FELLINI, Federico, Making a Film, transl. Ch. B. White, New York, Contra Mundum Press, 2015.
FELLINI, Federico, The Book of Dreams, ed. T. Kezich and V. Boarini, with the collaboration of V. Mollica, transl. A. Maines and D. Stanton, New York, Rizzoli, 2008.
FELLINI, Federico, CIRIO, Rita, Il mestiere di regista. Intervista con Federico Fellini, Milan, Garzanti, 1994.
FELLINI, Federico et SIMENON, Georges, Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, ed. C. Gauteur, Paris, Correspondance Cahiers du Cinéma, 1998.
Press articles
Archivio Nino Rota. Studi II: Fra cinema e musica del Novecento: il caso Nino Rota. Dai documenti, ed. F. Lombardi, Florence, Leo S. Olschki, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini/Studi di musica veneta, 2000.
« Prova d’orchestra », digiral press review, Bibliothèque de la Cinémathèque française, Paris, 44 articles.
« Dyrygent », digital press review, Bibliothèque de la Cinémathèque française, Paris, 40 articles.
« Federico Fellini », Dossier Positif-Rivages, March 1988.
BOLAND, Bertrand, « Prova d’orchestra (Federico Fellini) », Cahiers du Cinéma, No. 304, October 1979.
COMUZIO, Ermanno, « Fellini/Rota: un matrimonio concertato », Bianco e nero, Vol. 50, No. 4, 1979, p.63-94.
FELLINI, Federico, « Comment je fais mes films », Interview avec Aldo Tassone, Télérama, No. 1532, 23 May 1979.
MORAVIA, Alberto, Cinema italiano. Recensioni e interventi 1933-1990, ed. A. Pezzotta and A. Gilardelli, Milan, Bompiani, 2010.
MYRAT, Alexandre, PAYS, Jacques, « La place vide du chef d’orchestre », France nouvelle, No. 1730, 7 January 1979.
RIDET, Philippe, « Riccardo Muti lâche la baguette à l’Opéra de Rome », Le Monde, 25 September 2014.
References
« Carlo Savina », in MUSIKER, Reuben et Naomi (dir.), Conductors and Composers of Popular Orchestral Music. A biographical and Discographical Sourcebook, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1988.
AMENGUAL, Barthélémy, « Fin d’itinéraire : du “côté de chez Lumière” au “côté de Méliès” », Études cinématographiques, No. 127-130 : « Fellini II : Aux sources de l’imaginaire », 1981, p.81-111.
ATTAL, Frédéric, « Les intellectuels italiens et le terrorisme, 1977-1978 », in LAZAR, Marc et MATARD-BONUCCI, Marie-Anne (dir.), L’Italie des années de plomb. Le terrorisme entre histoire et mémoire, Paris, Autrement, 2010, p.112-126.
BERNARD, Élisabeth, « Le chef d’orchestre », in FAUQUET, Jean-Marie (dir.), Dictionnaire de la musique en France au XIXe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 2003.
BONDANELLA, Peter, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, Princeton (N.J.), Princeton University Press, 1992.
BUCH, Esteban, « Le chef d’orchestre : pratiques de l’autorité et métaphores politiques », Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2002, p.1001-1028.
CHION, Michel, « Fellini et l’orchestre », in Un art sonore, le cinéma. Histoire, esthétique, poétique, Paris, Cahiers du cinéma essai, 2003, p.369-370.
DANEY, Serge, La Maison cinéma et le monde, Paris, P.O.L., Vol. 2 : Les années Libé 1981-1987, 2002 and Vol. 3 : Les années Libé 1986-1991, 2012.
DEL BUONO, Oreste, TORNABUONI, Lietta, « Il prigionero di Cinecittà », in Erà Cinecittà, Milan, Bompiani, 1979, p.218-236.
DE VINCENTI, Giorgio, « Prova d’orchestra di F. Fellini. Sonorità senza sacralità », in MICCICHÈ, Lino (dir.), Il cinema del riflusso. Film e cineasti italiani degli anni ’70, Venice, Marsilio, 1997, p.412-420.
DELEUZE, Gilles, The Time-Image, transl. H. Tomlinson and R. Galeta, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
DYER, Richard, Nino Rota. Music, Film and Feeling, British Film Institute, Londres, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
GILI, Jean A., Fellini. Le magicien du réel, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, 2009.
KEZICH, Tullio, Fellini. His Life and Work, New York, Faber & Faber, 2007.
LAZAR, Marc and MATARD-BONUCCI, Marie-Anne (dir.), L’Italie des années de plomb. Le terrorisme entre histoire et mémoire, Paris, Autrement, 2010.
LEHMANN, Bernard, « L’envers de l’harmonie », Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, Vol. 110, December 1995, p.3-21.
LEHMANN, Bernard, « 7. La répétition : construction sociale de l’interprétation », in L’Orchestre dans tous ses éclats. Ethnographie des formations symphoniques, Paris, La Découverte, 2013, p.192-221.
LETTIERI, Carmela, « L’Italie et ses Années de plomb. Usages sociaux et significations politiques d’une dénomination temporelle », Mots. Les langages du politique, No. 87, 2008, p.43-55.
LIÉBERT, Georges, L’Art du chef d’orchestre, Paris, Pluriel, 2013.
MÂCHE, François-Bernard, Musique, mythe, nature ou les Dauphins d’Arion, Paris, Klincksieck, 1991.
MANGANARO, Jean-Paul, Federico Fellini. Romance, Paris, P.O.L., 2009.
MICHAUD, Éric, « Artiste et dictateur », in Un art de l’éternité. L’image et le temps du national-socialisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1996, p.15-48.
MINUZ, Andrea, Viaggio al termine dell’Italia. Fellini politico, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2012.
PASOLINI, Pier Paolo, “Il ‘discorso’ dei capelli”, in Scritti corsari, Milan, Garzanti, 2008.
SACHS, Harvey, Toscanini, transl. M. C. Cuvillier et G. Zeisel, Paris, F. Van De Velde, 1980 (Toscanini, Philadelphia, New York, J.B. Lippincott, 1978).
SZENDY, Peter, « Genèse (2) : Fantasia, ou la “plasmaticité” » and « Toucher à distance », in Membres fantômes. Des corps musiciens, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 2002, p.111-114 et p.115-125.
WARREN, Paul, Fellini ou la satire libératrice, Montréal, VLB, 2013.
Haut de page
Notes
(But who’s the conductor?) We have taken this question as it appeared in several articles in the Italian press when the film came out
Before its official release in Italy on 22 February 1979, the film was presented to the government and the President of the Italian Republic at Quirinal Palace in October 1978, and at Festival dei Popoli in Florence in December of the same year. It was entered in the official competition at the Berlin film festival in March 1979 and at the Cannes festival on 18 May 1979 (Internet Movie Database; DE VINCENTI, Giorgio, “Prova d’orchestra di F. Fellini. Sonorità senza sacralità”, in MICCICHÈ, Lino (dir.), Il cinema del riflusso. Film e cineasti italiani degli anni ’70, Venice, Marsilio, 1997, p.413) and broadcast on the Italian television network RAI at the end of 1979.
The term “years of lead” covers several time periods. Here, we use it to refer to the broadest period, from the terrorist bombing at Piazza Fontana in Milan in 1969 to the dismantling of most of the extreme-right-wing and extreme-left-wing terrorist groups in the early 1980s. On this notion, see LETTIERI, Carmela, “L’Italie et ses Années de plomb. Usages sociaux et significations politiques d’une dénomination temporelle”, Mots. Les langages du politique, No. 87, 2008, p.43-55, (online), http://mots.revues.org/12032 [consulted on 12 December 2014].
The first quote is from L’Humanité dimanche, 5 December 1980, originally: “Pour Wajda, la musique est, comme pour Fellini, le prétexte à parler d’autre chose”. The other two quotes are from MYRAT, Alexandre, PAYS, Jacques, “Le chef d’orchestre. L’absent”, Révolution, 19 December 1980, originally: “Après Fellini, Wajda utilise aussi l’orchestre pour traiter des problèmes d’une société face à ses contradictions nationales” and “De l’un à l’autre de ces films on observe, relativement à l’orchestre et aux problèmes réels de la société, qu’un traitement symbolique de l’orchestre, qui en néglige dans sa lettre la réalité, correspond chaque fois à une limitation incontrôlée du propos général tenu à travers lui.”
“In browsing the many articles published in newspapers and reviews, we were surprised that there wasn’t even the slightest mention of the score composed by Nino Rota. This struck us as unusual for a movie focused on the world of music”; “Scorrendo i numerosi articoli già apparsi su quotidiani e riviste, ci ha sorpreso l’assenza del benché minimo accenno alla colonna sonora del film composta da Nino Rota. E questo assenza ci pare singolare trattandosi di un film sul mondo della musica” (ACQUAFREDDA, Pietro, “Rota ci prova”, Paese sera, 10 November 1978. Published in Archivio Nino Rota. Studi II: Fra cinema e musica del Novecento: il caso Nino Rota. Dai documenti, ed. F. Lombardi, Florence, Leo S. Olschki, Venice, Fondazione Giorgio Cini/Studi di musica veneta, 2000, p.194).
“Pour moi, la musique constituait avant tout un prétexte” (DUMONT, Étienne, Interview d’Andrzej Wajda, “Wajda : le ‘Chef d’orchestre’ ? C’est Arthur Rubinstein”, Tribune de Genève, 29 March 1980).
For example: “My little film is called Orchestra Rehearsal, and indeed it tells the story of an orchestra rehearsal. Why not be be satisified with this explanation?”; “Prova d’orchestra s’intitola il mio filmetto, e racconta appunto una prova d’orchestra. Perché non accontarsi di questa spiegazione?” (DEL BUONO, Oreste, TORNABUONI, Lietta, “Il prigionero di Cinecittà”, in Erà Cinecittà, Milan, Bompiani, 1979, p.218).
FELLINI, Federico and SIMENON, Georges, Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, ed. C. Gauteur, Paris, Correspondance Cahiers du Cinéma, 1998, Letter from Fellini, Rome, 20 December 1978, p.58-59.
According to the idea of perspectivism applied to self-study as defined by Montaigne (see MONTAIGNE, Michel de, The Complete Essays of Montaigne, “Of the inconsistency of our actions”).
DYER, Richard, Nino Rota. Music, Film and Feeling, London, British Film Institute, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p.154.
Interview with Fellini in L’Europeo, cited by COMUZIO, Ermanno, “Fellini/Rota: un matrimonio concertato”, Bianco e nero, Vol. 50, No. 4, 1979, p.74.
According to the conductor Luca Pfaff, the film is based on real events that he took part in: in 1975, a recording session for the music to Casanova which Pfaff was conducting, and at which Fellini was present, was interrupted by a percussionist. He and other musicians took up arms over the presence of the television crew filming a documentary on the filmmaker. In order to keep playing, they demanded an additional 50% of their “artist’s fee” (cachet), which the producer refused to pay. Thus, the session was suspended. This anecdote was related in several press articles at the time of the premiere and subsequent performances of Giorgio Battistelli’s musical theatre piece inspired by the film (Prova d’orchestra. Sei scene musicali di fine secolo, Strasbourg, Opéra du Rhin, 24 November 1995, director: Georges Lavaudant, conductor: Luca Pfaff): e.g., FRANCK, Erikson, “Prova d’orchestra, la suite”, L’Express, 23 November 1995 and BELTRAME, Paola, “Un aperture di stagione che promette aria nuova”, SWI, 6 October 2007. We did not find any mention of this supposed source for the film in Fellini’s own words or in the critical literature.
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, FELLINI, Federico, Prova d’orchestra, transl. A. Buresi et al., Paris, Éditions Albatros, 1979, p.41. This idea for the project is also confirmed by Rota (see ACQUAFREDDA, “Rota ci prova”, art. cit., p.195).
KEZICH, Tullio, Fellini. His Life and Work, New York, Faber & Faber, 2007, p.332.
We referred to the French translation of these notes for the writing of this article: FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit.
The Fellini Foundation in Rimini is in the process of being wound up, and we did not have the opportunity to go see the collection of Fellini archives at Indiana University Bloomington in the United States.
Rota composed five pieces in all. The three that were used in the film are Gemelli allo specchio, Galoppo and Risatine malinconiche. The instructions he was given were to showcase the different groups of instruments in the orchestra and to follow the plot development (ACQUAFREDDA, “Rota ci prova”, art. cit., p.195).
KEZICH, Fellini. His Life and Work, op. cit., p.233.
COMUZIO, “Fellini/Rota: un matrimonio concertato”, art. cit., p.78.
Both musicians were very familiar with the world of classical music: reputed for his work with Rota, Savina was the son of the first clarinetist of the EIAR symphonic orchestra and had received classical training at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin and Accademia Chigiana in Sienna (“Carlo Savina”, in MUSIKER, Reuben and Naomi (dir.), Conductors and Composers of Popular Orchestral Music. A biographical and Discographical Sourcebook, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1988). Rota was from a family of musicians; he studied privately under Ildebrando Pizzetti at the Milan Conservatory and under Alfredo Casella at the Rome Conservatory, before completing his training in orchestra conducting at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, on advice from Toscanini, a longtime family friend. In addition to his work in the field of cinema, he also had a career as a composer of concert music.
Such as La musica contemporanea, 1952; Prospettiva della musica moderna, 1956; Il Cammino della musica d’oggi e l’esperienza elattronica, 1959.
Such as the ethnographic study by LEHMANN, Bernard: “7. La répétition : construction sociale de l’interprétation”, in L’Orchestre dans tous ses éclats. Ethnographie des formations symphoniques, Paris, La Découverte, 2013, p.192-221. There is also Battistelli, who—in his opera adaptation of the film, Prova d’orchestra. Sei scene musicali di fine secolo—reworked the plot as the representation of a typical conflict situation between instrumentalists and conductor, adding the element of the musicians refusing to interpret a contemporary work.
Anticipating further development of this article, we can refer readers to an example approaching loss of control, which is cited in the biography of Toscanini: “[…] Toscanini sowed terror when Gui [the conductor Vittorio Gui] was preparing the premiere of Adriano Lualdi’s Il diavolo nel campanile. In one passage, the instrumentalists have to play whatever they see fit—to improvise, essentially. A few jokers went as far as to add animal cries. In the first rehearsals, Gui let them have their fun, but when they repeated this at the dress rehearsal, he became purple with rage: the cloud of dust he raised by stomping his feet furiously on the podium unleashed a cacophany in the orchestra—this time, of protests. ‘Completely outraged, Gui left the platform and ran off to complain to Toscanini,’ recounted Minetti. […]”/“[…] The maestro flew down the stairs leading to the dressing rooms like a tornado, yelling as I had never heard him yell before. There was a big, heavy table in the middle of the room. Toscanini seized one side of it and began shaking it and rocking it back and forth, all the while yelling and provoking us to fight […]” (we referred to the French translation of this book for the writing of this article: SACHS, Harvey, Toscanini, transl. M. C. Cuvillier and G. Zeisel, Paris, F. Van De Velde, 1980, here p.167-168).
LEHMANN, L’Orchestre dans tous ses éclats. Ethnographie des formations symphoniques, op. cit., p.210 and 220.
For a complete analysis of this interpretation, see the pages on the film in MINUZ, Andrea, Viaggio al termine dell’Italia. Fellini politico, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2012, p.172-193.
For example: “An obvious metaphor: the orchestra is society, the conductor is power, and rather than rebelling against him, each citizen-musician must resign himself to playing his score”; “Métaphore évidente : l’orchestre, c’est la société, le chef, c’est le pouvoir, et chaque citoyen-musicien, plutôt que de se rebeller contre lui, doit se résigner à jouer sa partition”) (GROUSSET, Jean-Paul, “Prova d’orchestra (À la baguette)”, Le Canard enchaîné, 13 June 1979).
See LEHMANN, L’Orchestre dans tous ses éclats. Ethnographie des formations symphoniques, op. cit., p.192.
As Toni Negri pointed out in an article on the film: NEGRI, Antonio, “L’orchestra di Fellini e quella di Gramsci”, Il Settimale, No. 18, 2 May 1979, cited in MINUZ, Viaggio al termine dell’Italia. Fellini politico, op. cit., p.188.
Mastroianni, who accompanied him, told the following anecdote (our translation from the French): “To pick the ‘faces’ for small roles, he always went to Naples. Sometimes I went with him, like for Orchestra Rehearsal. He ran an advert in the Naples newspaper: ‘Fellini is looking for actors. Come to the hotel, room number x, tomorrow at 10 a.m.’ For this movie, he was looking for musicians. The first Neapolitan came in. ‘What instrument do you play?’ ‘I don’t play anything, but my brother is brilliant!’ […] Fellini hired him on the spot” (cited by GILI, Jean A., Fellini. Le magicien du réel, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, 2009, p.68). We have cited this story not just for the anecdote, but also because it supports the notion of the orchestra as a representation of Italy.
“[…] come nelle favole di Esopo, la volpe sta a indicare astuzia, il lupo prepotenza e cosi via, cosi il tedesco nella favola di Fellini sta a indicare ordine, disciplina eccetera” (MORAVIA, Alberto, “Sul podio c’é Menenio Agrippa”, L’Espresso, 19 November 1978, cited in Cinema italiano. Recensioni e interventi 1933-1990, ed. A. Pezzotta and A. Gilardelli, Milan, Bompiani, 2010, p.1170).
GRAND, Odile, “‘Prova d’Orchestra’ (Bon pour le son, bon pour l’image)”, L’Aurore, 8 June 1979.
From the French “figures dominatrices.” WARREN, Paul, Fellini ou la satire libératrice, Montreal, VLB, 2013, p.21.
“Et dans le noir qui s’installe, on entend la voix du chef passer de l’italien à l’allemand et s’enfler jusqu’à l’hystérie. On entend les bruits de bottes martelant le pavé” (SCHULL, Francis, “L’opinion de Francis Schull. ‘Répétition d’orchestre’ : Fellini au-dessus de la mêlée”, L’Aurore, 19 May 1979).
The conductor had already taken this tone when berating the musicans, but only in Italian, which makes the allusion less obvious.
See LAZAR, Marc and MATARD-BONUCCI, Marie-Anne (dir.), L’Italie des années de plomb. Le terrorisme entre histoire et mémoire, Paris, Autrement, 2010, passim.
See ATTAL, Frédéric, “Les intellectuels italiens et le terrorisme, 1977-1978”, in ibid., p.112.
MINUZ, Viaggio al termine dell’Italia. Fellini politico, op. cit., p.172.
After the term “reportage-interview” used by MANGANARO, Jean-Paul, Federico Fellini. Romance, Paris, P.O.L., 2009, p.87. Fellini first introduced this genre in Marriage Agency (1953), developed it in The Clowns, and again used it in Prova d’orchestra and finally Intervista. Interestingly, there is a similar presence of television cameras throughout Wajda’s film.
In the sense of concrete music.
KEZICH, Fellini. His Life and Work, op. cit., p.330.
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit., p.31 and p.46.
“L’orchestra è l’Italia, siamo noi” (TASSONE, Aldo, “L’Italia è stonata”, Euro, 1 June 1978).
We referred to the French translation of this book for the writing of this article: FELLINI, Federico, Fellini par Fellini. Entretien avec Giovanni Grazzini, transl. N. Frank, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1984, p.165.
ALPERT, Hollis, Fellini. A Life, New York, Marmowe & Company, 1987, p.269.
FELLINI, Fellini par Fellini, op. cit., p.167. We now know that he had already wanted to make a film on this period with the television adaptation of the autobiography of police officer Nicola Longo, La valle delle farfalle. The film was to be entitled Poliziotto (CASANOVA, Alessandro, Scritti e immaginati. I film mai realizzati di Federico Fellini, Rimini, Guaraldi, 2005, cited by MINUZ, Viaggio al termine dell’Italia. Fellini politico, op. cit., p.173). Longo recently wrote a book on this project: LONGO, Nicola, Poliziotto, Rome, Castelvecchi, 2013.
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit., p.112.
See an article in L’Aurore on different reactions to the film, which discusses those for whom Prova d’orchestra is “a reactionary film in which the Hitlerian voice at the end is a message of hope” (SCHULL, “L’opinion de Francis Schull. ‘Répétition d’orchestre’ : Fellini au-dessus de la mêlée”, art. cit.).
Italians set about trying to identify this dictator, drawing parallels between the conductor and the former monarchist partisan and diplomat Edgardo Sogno, accused in 1974 of fomenting a supposed coup called the Golpe bianco, or the powerful manufacturer and president of Fiat, Gianni Agnelli (a friend of the former), based on a vague physical resemblance to Bass.
This last aspect is something the dictator and the artist have in common: Mussolini compared himself to an artist, saying that his work was the shaping of human material; along the same lines, in a letter to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Goebbels presented Hitler as an artist whose medium was the human masses. See MICHAUD, Éric, “Artiste et dictateur”, in Un art de l’éternité. L’image et le temps du national-socialisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1996, p.18 and 22 for Mussolini, p.20-22 for Hitler.
FELLINI, Fellini par Fellini, op. cit., p.197.
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit., p.118.
FELLINI, Fellini par Fellini, op. cit., p.164.
DELEUZE, Gilles, Cinema 2. The Time-Image, transl. H. Tomlinson and R. Galeta, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, p.92-94.
Ibid., p.94.
MÂCHE, François-Bernard, Musique, mythe, nature ou les Dauphins d’Arion, Paris, Klincksieck, 1991, p.45 and p.53-56.
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit., p.39-40.
Ibid., p.126.
SZENDY, Peter, “Genèse (2) : Fantasia, ou la ‘plasmaticité’” and “Toucher à distance”, in Membres fantômes. Des corps musiciens, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 2002, p.111-114 and p.115-125.
On the connections between Fellini and Rota and magic, particularly with regard to Prova d’orchestra, see DYER, Nino Rota. Music, Film and Feeling, op. cit., p.176-182. On Fellini’s interest in the occult, see also the introductory text written by T. Kezich in FELLINI, Federico, The Book of Dreams, ed. T. Kezich and V. Boarini, transl. A. Maines and D. Stanton, New York, Rizzoli, 2008. It is also of note that Fellini was friends with the “clairvoyant” Aldolfo Rol.
SZENDY, Membres fantômes. Des corps musiciens, op. cit., p.120-121.
Ibid., p.112.
See LIÉBERT, Georges, L’Art du chef d’orchestre, Paris, Pluriel, 2013, p.III-IV.
“[…] [I] buy houses. […] Two in America, one in Tokyo, in London and Berlin.”
“C’est peu de dire que Karajan est imité !” (ROCHEREAU, Jean, “Répétition d’orchestre de Federico Fellini”, La Croix, 14 June 1979).
Such as the story of a rehearsal of La Mer and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony with the La Scala Orchestra in 1946: “You over there, the horn, I know you with your hand like that. Play open, open, OPEN – and if you can’t figure it out, change professions! He wants to play is he sees fit... He’s going to make me crazy!/[…] Always try to do better; otherwise die a miserable death./ (Fourth movement of Brahms) It says here ‘Allegro energico et passionato’. Energico – where is the energy? Passionato – Where is the passion? It’s written in Italian, but it’s like you don’t even know your own language!” (Notes taken by Lily Seppilli, in SACHS, Toscanini, op. cit., p.296).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxh-o9ENW5o&feature=youtu.be Another example is the recording of a rehearsal for La Traviata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7Lk83O4Pc [Internet links consulted on 14 December 2014].
“[...] du dictateur mais antifasciste Toscanini au ‘demi-dieu’ Karajan, en passant par Stokowski, la star hollywoodienne” (LIÉBERT, L’Art du chef d’orchestre, op. cit., p.CX). Liébert’s list also includes Furtwängler, “the great shaman of Ur-Germanness” (“le grand chaman de la Ur-germanité”).
From the French term “dictateurs d’orchestre” in SAMUEL, Claude, “À propos de ‘Prova d’orchestra’ : La race des dictateurs d’orchestre s’est éteinte”, Le Matin, 19 May 1979.
I.e., in the version of the subject of the film contained in the script published by Garzanti and entitled Chiacchierata sul filmetto che avrei in animo di fare (Chit-chat on the small flim I plan to make). On the cover, it also contains a blank-ink drawing of a hand condcuting (Lilly Library [Indiana University Bloomington] Fellini MS. 5 [Box 1], cited by BONDANELLA, Peter, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1992, p.288, note 40).
It should be noted that conducting in front of a mirror is an exercise that conductors practice as beginners. See “Conducting (direction)”, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 4.
“personnage dansant, et commenté.” See BERNARD, Élisabeth, “Le chef d’orchestre”, in FAUQUET, Jean-Marie (dir.), Dictionnaire de la musique en France au XIXe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 2003.
Here Fellini uses a theme he will return to in later films, such as Ginger e Fred (1986), Intervista (1987) and La Voce della luna (1994), i.e., the theme of television and what it does to cinema. In Prova d’orchestra, this subject is mainly addressed in the instrumentalists’ interviews, whether in the content of the dialogue or in the way they are filmed. Lorenzo Codelli’s article for Positif (“Orchestre et chœur”, Positif, No. 217, April 1979, republished in “Federico Fellini”, Dossier Positif-Rivages, March 1988) was one of the few to take this element fully into account in its analysis of the film. On this theme, we can cite later critques by Serge Daney (especially: DANEY, Serge, “Intervista : et vogue le cinéma”, Libération, 19 May 1987, published in La Maison cinéma et le monde, Vol. 3: “Les années Libé 1986-1991”, Paris, P.O.L., 2012, p.449-451; id., “Du défilement au défilé”, La Recherche photographique, No. 7, 1989, published in ibid., p.307-313).
FELLINI, Prova d’orchestra, op. cit., p.40.
COMUZIO, “Fellini/Rota: un matrimonio concertato”, art. cit., p.75.
On Berlioz, see FAUQUET, Joël-Marie, “L’imagination scientifique de Berlioz”, in FAUQUET, Joël-Marie, MASSIP, Catherine and REYNAUD, Cécile (ed.), Berlioz : textes et contexte, Paris, Société française de musicologie, 2011. See also the caricature entitled Concert à la vapeur (The Steam-Powered Concert) by Grandville, published in the collection Un autre monde. Transformations, visions, incarnations, ascensions [...], 1844, n.p. and viewable in digital format on the Gallica BnF website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k101975j/f30.image Conductors’ fear of “competition” in the form of a device has long existed, tracing as far back as the eighteenth century, when Rousseau expressed this concern over the “chronometre”, and later taken up by Mendelssohn and Wagner (LIÉBERT, L’Art du chef d’orchestre, op. cit., p.XXIX-XXX).
See Grove, “Conducting (direction)”, art. cit.
On these ensembles, see LIÉBERT, L’Art du chef d’orchestre, op. cit., p.LII-LV and p.CXIII-CXIV respectively.
PASOLINI, Pier Paolo, “Il ‘discorso’ dei capelli” (The “discourse” of hair), in Scritti corsari, Milan, Garzanti, 2008. This article based on the phenomenon of long hair, originally published under the title “Contro I capelli lunghi” (Against Long Hair) in Corriere della sera in 1973, examines the youth of the day mainly from the angle of generational conflict.
MYRAT, Alexandre, PAYS, Jacques, “Répétition d’orchestre sans musique”, France nouvelle, No. 1760, 4 August 1979 and “La place vide du chef d’orchestre”, France nouvelle, No. 1730, 7 January 1979.
SAMUEL, “À propos de ‘Prova d’orchestra’ : La race des dictateurs d’orchestre s’est éteinte”, art. cit.
RIDET, Philippe, “Riccardo Muti lâche la baguette à l’Opéra de Rome”, Le Monde, 25 September 2014.
“En habillant son chef d’orchestre d’un vieux pantalon et d’une chemise froissée, en le chaussant d’une paire d’espadrilles, en l’amenant à se dévêtir dans la loge autrefois princière et à exhiber son buste décharné, Fellini joue sur l’effet de contraste. Il montre la bêtise moderne qui prétend, dans le délabrement, se substituer au rituel antique. Mais l’attaque va plus loin. En choisissant pour jouer le rôle du chef d’orchestre, du dompteur de ses personnages clowns, un étranger qui trébuche sur les mots de la langue italienne, au point de ne plus pouvoir les accorder entre eux, Fellini nous dit, entre autres choses, que le leadership, aujourd’hui, ne colle plus guère à la réalité. À moins de s’imposer à elle par la dictature” (WARREN, Fellini ou la satire libératrice, op. cit., p.169-170).
In agreement with Pasolini, he clearly dissociated himself from the youths we have identified as being the leaders of the revolt: while discussing the film, he was asked, “Do you have the feeling that you are among the youths?” to which he responded, “I don’t know who they are, what they are like. I don’t know them. I don’t know where they are or what they are doing” (FELLINI, Fellini par Fellini, op. cit., p.162-163).
These two quotes are from KEZICH, Fellini. His Life and Work, op. cit., p.322 and p.324 respectively. On Fellini’s use of actors, see also MANGANARO, Federico Fellini. Romance, op. cit., p.46-51 and especially p.49 note 1.
See DEL BUONO, TORNABUONI, “Il prigionero di Cinecittà”, art. cit., p.219 and 234.
GILI, Fellini. Le magicien du réel, op. cit., p.86. It must be noted that Fellini never endorsed this point of view and even rejected it: “I did not mean it as a condemnation of trade unions” (“Je n’ai pas voulu brandir une condamnation des syndicats” – We referred to the French translation of this book for the writing of this article: COSTANTINI, Costanzo, Conversations avec... Federico Fellini, transl. N. Castagné, Paris, Denoël, 1995, p.161). However, in this text he also denied the connection to Italy that he acknowledged elsewhere, as we have indicated.
From the French: “humeur immédiatement transcrite” (MANGANARO, Federico Fellini. Romance, op. cit., p.351). The expression is used in reference to The Clowns and Roma.
“Entretien avec Federico Fellini par Michel Ciment”, conducted at Cinecittà on 21 December 1978, Positif-Rivages, op. cit., p.116. In addition to the short production time, Fellini’s return to narration also makes Prova d’orchestra an exception among the director’s work from this period (see AMENGUAL, Barthélémy, “Fin d’itinéraire : du ‘côté de chez Lumière’ au ‘côté de Méliès’”, Études cinématographiques, No. 127-130: “Fellini II : Aux sources de l’imaginaire”, 1981, p.92).
FELLINI, Fellini par Fellini, op. cit., p.167.
An instrumentalist’s remark (“Ah, so it’s the fault of unions if nothing he writes is any good...”) suggests that he is also the composer, in which case he is an artist as well as an interpreter.
FELLINI and SIMENON, Carissimo Simenon, Mon cher Fellini, op. cit., p.59.
Concerts, like cinema films, take place in front of spectators seated in a dimly-lit, closed space. Both gradually found themselves competing with media that modify the way they are perceived: vinyl records and cassettes for the former, and television for the latter. The way this affects cinema is a subject that interests Fellini, as can be seen in his interview with Michel Ciment: “Entretien avec Federico Fellini par Michel Ciment”, art. cit., p.113. On this topic, see also DANEY, “Du défilement au défilé”, art. cit.
Cited by MANGANARO, Federico Fellini. Romance, op. cit., p.26.
“Allora mi ha impressionato tanto scoprire come individui disparati, scompagnati, contrariati, svagati, dissociati, separati da vicende e interessi personali diversi potessero unirsi sotto la guida del direttore d’orchestra nel tentativio di realizzare un’utopia, ovvero la perfetta esecuzione di un’idea, di un progetto, di un’intuizioni altrui” (cited by COMUZIO, “Fellini/Rota: un matrimonio concertato”, art. cit., p.74).
“Cette ‘masse à l’œuvre’ est campée dans les images d’apathie de la première séquence ; tous ces gens, ces acteurs, ignares, confus, disposent peut-être de savoirs artistiques et artisanaux individuels, mais ils sont dans l’incapacité de les mettre ‘en œuvre’, d’en faire un film” (MANGANARO, Federico Fellini. Romance, op. cit., p.229).
On this subject, see CODELLI, “Orchestre et chœur”, art. cit., p.107.
On this point, see BOLAND, Bertrand, “Prova d’orchestra (Federico Fellini)”, Cahiers du Cinéma, No. 304, October 1979, p.60.
We identified three portraits of Mozart placed around the hall, and two of Vivaldi above the podium. They are rough copies of the following works: “The Young Mozart” painted by Thaddeus Helbling, 1787, Salzburg, Mozarteum, an engraving of Mozart in profile after the medallion by Leonard Posch, 1789, Salzburg, Mozarteum, and “Portrait of W. A. Mozart”, unknown Austrian painter, 1777, Bologna, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica; “Supposed portrait of Antonio Vivaldi”, unknown painter, eighteenth century, Bologna, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, and en engraving of Vivaldi by James Caldwall. It seems to us that one of the portraits on display is of Balduin Baas wearing a wig, disguised as an eighteenth-century composer.
These two counterparts of the artist—the clown and the dictator—have been studied respectively by Jean Starobinski (Portrait de l’artiste en saltimbanque, Geneva, Skira, 1970) and Éric Michaud (“Artiste et dictateur”, art. cit., p.15-48).
One need only recall the example of Toscanini, who was a dictator with his own orchestra, especially at La Scala in Milan where he literally had total authority, but an avowed opponent of fascism and convinced Republican in his private life. See BUCH, Esteban, “Le chef d’orchestre : pratiques de l’autorité et métaphores politiques”, Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2002, p.1022-1023.
As De Vincenti points out, authority and institution were key issues in the cultural debate of the era, which also explored the question of repression. He cites the congress on these themes organised in Bologna in September 1977 by left-wing extra-parliamentary groups, as well as the new hard-line law on public order introduced by the minister of the interior Francesco Cossiga (DE VINCENTI, “Prova d’orchestra di F. Fellini. Sonorità senza sacralità”, art. cit., p.415).
Michel Chion sees the subject of the film as the impossibility of filming an orchestra rehearsal (CHION, Michel, “Fellini et l’orchestre”, in Un art sonore, le cinéma. Histoire, esthétique, poétique, Paris, Cahiers du cinéma essai, 2003, p.369-370). While this interpretation seems excessive, it is interesting to consider with regard to the representation of music: Chion shows that Fellini appears to be aware of the difficulty of filming an orchestra and the fact that articifially isolating the conductor or a musician leads to the atomisation of the music.
AMENGUAL, “Fin d’itinéraire : du ‘côté de chez Lumière’ au ‘côté de Méliès’”, art. cit., p.95.
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