Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

256 Kristel Pappel
score, the vocal score and the libretti. Thus the composer’s score became
a complete work of art. In everyday theatre practice, of course, the “final”
score was adjusted to suit the theatre, but in a much more careful manner.
As theatre-related materials started to appear in Germany in the 1880s,
special director’s copies (Regiebücher) were also published.
Next I examine sources dealing exclusively with performativity at Tallinn
City Theatre (Sources in the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum, Tallinn
= TMM, fund T 187, register 1 and fund Mo 256).
1. Cast lists (Theaterzettel) and announcements. Information about the
cast, scenery and costumes. Some of them give details about the singers as
a form of advertisement.
2. Libretti (Textbücher), either manually copied or printed, which generally
contain all the verbal text together with the staging directions and
remarks. Manually copied libretti in genres such as Singspiel, unlike the
printed versions, do not give the text of the musical numbers (e.g., arias)
but just list the numbers and the performers. In the case of operas with
recitatives all the text is given. The director and prompter used the libretti
(either the director’s or the prompt copy – Souffleurbücher), as did the
stage manager (Inspizient).
3. Scripts (Rollenhefte) that contain the text of specific roles, with remarks
and notes. Manually copied scripts do not include the texts of the
musical numbers.
4. Director’s copies (Regiebücher) are libretti used by the opera director,
possibly specially adapted for him. These books took various forms in the
nineteenth century: 1) a libretto with notes about the direction; 2) a libretto
specially adapted for the director, with blank pages and 3) special notebooks
just for the director. All these were either manually copied or printed.
5. The vocal score (Klavierauszug), which contains both text and music,
staging directions and notes and was used by conductors in the nineteenth
century, and after the 1860s also by directors, prompters and stage managers.
6. The director’s vocal score (Regieklavierauszug) contains the director’s
remarks and staging plans, and usually includes blank pages. They
came into use in the 1860s.
7. The scenario (Szenarium) is a huge chart specially drawn up for the
stage manager. It contains all the necessary information about the characters,
set items, props, sound and lighting effects required for each scene.
Finally, a major source was the newspaper review. The first daily paper
– Revaler Zeitung – in the Baltic provinces came out in 1860, followed by