Tenor timbre images in the Giacomo Puccini’s operas: the experience of systematisation

Abstract

The relevance of the article. An essential requirement for a musician-performer of any specialty is a deep understanding of the stylistics of the works performed, based on an analysis of the artistic and figurative foundations of the musical language. For opera singers, an important factor of professional level is knowledge of the basics of opera drama, the style of the era, possession of appropriate means of vocal expressiveness. Addressing the chosen topic determines the relevance and scientific novelty of the issues of this article, in which arias for tenor in the operas of Giacomo Puccini are considered systematically for the first time, in the context of the evolution of the composer's work. The main purpose of the article was to determine the criteria and implement the systematization of tenor arias in Giacomo Puccini's operas through the prism of their dramatic role in the focus of imagery, genre-stylistic and form-creating features, for further typology of the role of "Puccini's voice" — the tenor-spinto. The research methodology is based on the methods of complex-historical, typological, structural-functional and comparative analysis, which allows us to understand the individual approach of Giacomo Puccini to the creation of his "own musical theater", the dramaturgy of the image of an operatic character, and to determine the criteria for the systematization of operatic arias of the tenor role.
 Results and conclusions. The tenor timbre corresponds as much as possible to Puccini's "vision" of a theatrical character, so almost every opera has a main character with this type of voice. The tenor-spinto (lyrical-dramatic tenor) attracts the composer's special attention, which testifies to the composer's clear imagination of a certain timbre-image as a carrier of artistic and meaningful meaning. Aria, as a fragment of an opera that focuses the attention of the listener on the image of the hero and the voice of the performer, in the history of opera-drama has always created a dilemma between the need for continuous action and its stopping in solo episodes of the performers. Puccini's ability to combine thorough musical development with fixation on dramatically important moments is a special feature of his author's vision. The article proposes a systematization of tenor arias in Puccini's operas according to their place in the action of the play. Two large groups are distinguished: musical portraits of the hero and arias of spiritual elevation (the culminating episode of the character's development, often the climax of the opera). The criteria for the systematization of tenor arias are defined: artistic content (differentiation according to the emotional and figurative criterion); compositional and structural features (identification of common and individual features of the construction of musical forms); the predominant type of means of vocal expressiveness (features of Puchchin's melodism). This approach allows the performer to better understand the principles of Puccini's thinking as a playwright. A deep understanding of the stylistic principles of the composer's work, the stylistics of the author's writing, gives the singer the opportunity to create his own performance interpretation, which evokes a response from the audience and becomes a real artistic asset. Further research in the proposed scientific field will contribute to the expansion of ideas about the author's theater of Giacomo Puccini, will help to better understand the principles of Puccini's thinking as a playwright and the degree of his innovation.