(What's that, you say? What's an opera starring the Devil got to do with Tolkien's creation myth? Read on....) Note: This is a repost - I've been waiting for a quieter time when the diary might get more attention.
TheOneRing.net hosted a discussion a while ago about what the "Music of the Ainur" might sound like, if anyone were to have the sheer nerve to attempt a film or TV version of the Silmarillion. http://www.theonering.net/... It links offsite to another discussion at http://atolkienistperspective.wordpress.com/... . Several interesting suggestions were made, but I didn't think that any of them had enough raw power behind them.
Where Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele comes into the picture is that it takes whole chunks of the Goethe version of the Faust legend and renders them in an idiosyncratic manner - Boito was no more a professional opera composer than Tolkien was a professional novelist, and it shows. He had to radically rewrite and edit his work before it became a success, keeping what worked and discarding whole acts that didn't work. One piece that worked - and works superbly to this day - is the "Prologue in Heaven" which begins with five minutes' heavy workout for the orchestra brass and strings, and then segues into this: http://www.youtube.com/...
Note: that's the Santa Cecilia Chorus of Rome, from what is still the most highly recommended recording of the opera, almost sixty years later (it was made in 1958).
Notice how the singing begins softly, almost monotonously, and then rapidly diversifies and builds and builds and BUILDS. And then the brass returns for a final fanfare....
At this point in the opera there is a radical change of tone, as guess-who enters to complain about how bored he is with tempting silly little humans who are hardly worth the trouble: http://www.youtube.com/...
This is from the same recording as above, and just LISTEN to that deep ringing bass! Cesare Siepi was a true basso cantante, with a bright enough upper register that he could, and did, also excel in the lower-range baritone roles like Don Giovanni (unarguably his signature role).
Anyway, Mefisto's complaints lead to a sporting wager on whether he can win the soul of one Faust - and, of course, the rest of the opera. (More below the drunken C-clef!)
The Prologue concludes with more, and more complex, and even more majestic choral singing once Mefisto has headed off to do his dirty work (Heaven bores him even more than running temptations). http://www.youtube.com/... This clip features the legendary Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the Robert Shaw Chorale, and the Columbus Boys Choir, dated 1954.
Here's how Mefistofele introduces himself to Faust: http://www.youtube.com/...
Siepi takes the pace a little faster than we are used to - and actually hits the lowest notes squarely, which hardly anybody does any more (many because they can't - those notes are just not there for them). If anything he's underplaying the aria just a bit, particularly in "sulla sol e sulla terra distruzion'!" (on the sun and earth, destruction!) He just sings the bass notes with cold malice, doesn't shout, doesn't overdramatize - and it's chillingly effective.
The next two acts follow the pattern familiar from Gounod and Berlioz: the temptation, fall and last-minute salvation of the unfortunate Margherita. (Here's a taste of what the divine Renata Tebaldi made of her, again from the 1958 recording: http://www.youtube.com/... ) But Boito - and only Boito - follows the story into Goethe's second half, spending a whole act on Faust's dalliance with Helen of Troy (which bores Mefisto nearly as much as heaven - he bugs out before it's half over), and finally catching up with the re-aged Faust back in his study and the showdown over his soul. (You have GOT to hear this!) http://www.youtube.com/...
That clarion trumpet of a tenor is Mario del Monaco - almost forgotten today, but you can see why he was an international sensation in his time.
The Devil doesn't get the last word or win his wager, as the concluding chorus (you've heard it twice before, if you were paying attention) makes explicitly clear.
Well, that's some highlights of Mefistofele, and I think I've indicated why anyone wanting to mess around with the Silmarillion could do a lot worse than study what Boito did and how he did it.