The Resurrexit from Hector Berlioz's Messe solennelle (1825): A Case Study in Self-Borrowing Page: 59
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revisions of the opera between its first performance on 20 March 1852 and its second
performance on 17 November of that year. After the opera's success at Weimar, the
London Philharmonic Society engaged Berlioz to conduct Benvenuto Cellini at Covent
Garden. Unfortunately, the performance on 25 June 1853 was a terrible failure and the
opera was withdrawn."
The section that Berlioz borrowed from the Resurrexit occurs in the second
tableau of Act I. The opera begins as the Pope has commissioned Benvenuto Cellini,
instead of his official sculptor Fieramosca, to create a bronze statue of Perseus. Balducci,
the Pope's treasurer, is extremely unhappy because he has chosen Fieramosca to be his
seventeen-year-old daughter Teresa's future husband. Unknown to Balducci, Teresa has
secretly fallen inlove with Benvenuto Cellini. Together, the two lovers plan an escape for
the next day when Balducci and Teresa attend a theatrical performance at the Piazza
Colunna. While her father is occupied, Cellini and his assistant, Ascanio will dress as
two friars, one in white as a Penitent the other in brown as a Capuchin, who will take
Teresa to Florence. Unbeknownst to the lovers, Fieramosca, Teresa's betrothed,
overhears the entire conversation and plans to intervene, but not before he is discovered
hiding in Teresa's bedroom and is thrown out of the Balducci home.
In the beginning of the second tableau, Cellini is in a tavern courtyard. As the
innkeeper requests payment of the bill, Ascanio arrives with an advance on the
commission of the statue sent from Balducci. Angered at the amount the treasurer sent
him, Cellini arranges to have one of the cast members in the performance the following
9 Ibid.
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Gill, Sarah M. The Resurrexit from Hector Berlioz's Messe solennelle (1825): A Case Study in Self-Borrowing, thesis, December 1999; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2249/m1/65/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .