The first page of the Finale I
The autograph score, 1809-1819-1824
(Parigi, Bibl. nationale de France)
Click on the texts to view the autograph score and its edition.
At the end of the summer 1809, on his way back to Paris after his staying in Parma where he composed Agnese, Paer certainly brought along the autograph score of the opera. In 1819, preparing the adaptations for the Parisian Théâtre Italien, the composer intervened with alterations, puntature, cuts, substitutions on sheets glued onto the score, plus various additions directly on the original autograph. In this way the autograph score, now in Paris at the Département de la Musique of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Ms. 7628, Ms. 7746 and Ms. 8258), appears like a collage, made up for the most part of pieces belonging to the first Parma version, as well as fragments and corrections added in 1819 and again later.
The autograph, existing in two volumes corresponding to the first and second acts, unfortunately appears mutilated, as many numbers are missing, perhaps excised by Paer himself or by others to be possibly used again in some other context.
Surprisingly, however, in the appendix to the second volume, after the Finale of the opera, there are two new autograph tracks written by Paer after the Parisian première, part of a third version of Agnese, presented by the composer again at the Théâtre Italien in 1824: the first piece, «L’amato padre mio», is a new duet for Agnese and Ernesto replacing the original one made for Parma, «A questo sen ritorna», and performed in Paris in 1819; the other one, «Come la nebbia al vento», is instead a new movement inserted in the Finale II. Finally, it needs to be pointed out how Paer’s autograph contains, sometimes glued over the original, more or less extended musical fragments by different copyists.
