Christian images in the operas by the European composers of the nineteenth century

Abstract

Statement of the problem. Undoubtedly, the operas by G. Rossini, G. Verdi, F. Halévy, and G. Meyerbeer, which appeared in the Romantic era, belong to secular culture. However, all of them, in one way or another, used plots and motifs from the religious experience of people, delineating the image of a man of faith (Homo Credens) as a cross-cutting theme of art, the “crossing point” of the secular and religious worlds. Therefore, researchers and performers of opera music face the problem of understanding the religious and spiritual component of the opera genre through the assimilation of the imagery and plot specificity and genre symbolism of the musical language, which goes back to Christian services. The identification of Christian influences helps to understand the depth of the spiritual content of the opera work, through musical symbolism to feel the religious and ethical “resonances” of the existence of a new European person who makes sense of his history, which is inseparable from Christian culture. This makes it possible to reproduce both the objective factors of the Christian worldview embedded in the plot, as well as the hidden meanings of the spiritual content of the opera work, its musical and linguistic resources. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to trace the connections between the vocal and stage images of romantic opera with Christian religious themes, the interpretation of which is often a performance problem for modern artists-vocalists. The performance aspect of the problem of the presence of Christian content in opera works has not yet come under the “focus” of the researchers of this topic. The attempt to reveal Christian influences on the vocal and scenic images of opera works in this article is carried out on the platform of spiritual-semantic analysis (Aleksandrova, 2018) of genre and stylistic specificity of the operas by G. Rossini, G. Verdi, F. Halévy, and G. Meyerbeer. Results and conclusion. The opera works of Western European composers of the 19th century demonstrate the constant presence of images related to the Christian religious tradition, in particular biblical ones. This is the introducing of characters that are connected to Church life, or plot lines and motifs that unfold against the background of Christian history. In G. Rossini’s opera “Moses in Egypt” we meet the case of the most complete approximation of the libretto to the story from the Old Testament. A sign of the presence of Christian imagery in the semantic range of a secular opera work is the prayer genre represented by arias or choruses. Observations on the embodiment of religious themes (plot motifs that go back to Christian history, characters of personages related to church life, ideas and symbols of Christianity, genre semantics, interpretation of iconic figures by famous singers F. Furlanetto and R. Raimondi) in the operas of the Romantic era led us to certain conclusions about the specifics of vocal-stage reproduction of figurativeness of the Christian tradition. ● Vocal intonation is derived from the way of thinking and worldview. Therefore, due attention to the performer’s understanding of Christian imagery and plot is important for the correct use of vocal and stage techniques that contribute to an adequate interpretation of the image and the work as a whole. ● If the artist’s interpretation of the vocal and stage image corresponds to the spiritual and religious content of the work, then in this case it embodies and presents to the viewer certain aspects of the spiritual ideal – the Christian image of a person, Homo Credens. Therefore, revealing the connections between opera as a secular genre and the Christian value system on the basis of the spiritual-semantic analysis of the opera image contributes to the self-improvement of performers, the growth of their spiritual maturity, general erudition and culture.