Talk:Henry Clifford (opera)

Removal of source: Amadeus Almanac for 8 May 1895

The Amadeus Almanac source has ben deleted from the article. This was the reference;

Amadeus Almanac (8 May 1895), accessed 22 January 2009

It's unusual for an editor to remove references completely without explanation. There may be a reason in this case, but I think it should be discussed here. If there's no special reason for its deletion it should obviously go back. --Klein zach 12:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the reference because it was very sketchy, listing some of the singers' names but not the roles they sang, and more importantly the information was incorrect. Hariclea Darclée did not sing in the premiere. (She may have sung in later performances, but I can find no record of that either.) I replaced the Amadeus Almanac with a far more authoritative and detailed English source for the complete premiere cast, date, and theatre:

Clark, Walter Aaron, Isaac Albeniz: Portrait of a Romantic, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 130.

Clark's data is confirmed by a contemporary account (which I also added to the references):

La Vanguardia, "El estreno de la opera «Henry Clifford»", 8 May 1885, page 4.

Voceditenore (talk) 13:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(Edit conflict) Fine, if there is confirmation from a third source - but that needs to be referenced/cited to the cast list, so it's clear what is happening. (In general it's better, and more scholarly, to keep all the references and explain why one is more likely to be right than another.) Incidentally, the Almanac did at least confirm the date of the premiere. (There have been many cases when dates have been wrongly given in sources, and the Almanac has been a useful double check on this basic fact.) --Klein zach 14:13, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I should also point out that while the Amadeus Almanac can be a very useful source, I have found occasional errors in it before. Wherever possible, it should be cross-checked with other sources. Voceditenore (talk) 13:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

All the opera sources are fallible - and that includes Grove. They should be compared with each other, but I don't think they should be excised from the record when they appear to err. In this case, there may be a reason why the other soprano was credited. If it is isn't made clear, someone else may come along and change the text again. --Klein zach 14:18, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Amadeus error may have come from the fact that Darclée was singing at the Liceu at that time, in Les Huguenots (the final performance was on 7 May 1895, the day before the premiere of Henry Clifford). See:

La Vanguardia, " Espectáculos", 7 May 1895, page 6.

I've re-added the Amadeus reference and expanded on the discrepancy in the footnote. Note that nowhere in the Amadeus reference does it specify what role Darclée supposedly sang in Henry Clifford. Voceditenore (talk) 15:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I originally added the Amadeus reference, and placed Darclée in the role that she would almost certainly have sung. I agree that Amadeus is not perfect. --GuillaumeTell 00:54, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Even if the Amadeus Almanac had been right, it's not clear that Darclée would have sung Lady Clifford (Henry's mother). Henry and Annie Saint-John are the lovers with several big duets and arias. Interestingly, Adele Marra-Mirò usually sang mezzo-soprano roles. No wonder the critics thought that she was the weakest link in the cast. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 11:44, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you to everybody for resolving this one. I hope we can regard this as a useful precedent for the way we treat these discrepancies in the future. Best. --Klein zach 01:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]