Opera Composer Research Articles

The “operatic of opera” in music history pedagogy – exploring the temporal narrativization of opera

This study suggests that the pedagogy of music history for the professional training of musicians –including opera singers and future opera composers – could benefit from applying narratologyto operatic analysis and acknowledging the “operatic of opera” in the organization of the artisticmaterials as one possible pedagogical approach. By breaking with the canonized forms of musichistory pedagogy, the subject content of opera history can be explored for instance through thearchitecture of temporal narrativization, as made possible by the multiple media types incorporatedinto opera. The study demonstrates this temporal narrativization through examples grouped into threemain categories: “temporal sameness”, “temporal incongruence” and “non-linear temporality”. Whilemost of the examples are drawn from the classical-romantic repertoire, the analysis also shows thatnew pluri-medial ways of dealing with temporality and narration have been emerged in contemporaryopera. The study argues that by analyzing and illustrating the architecture of temporal narrativizationas one form of the “operatic of opera” in Western operatic practice, students will gain a betterunderstanding of the special nature of the pluri-medial nature of opera.

Biblical and religious symbols in Italian romantic opera. Perspectives of musical hermeneutics

The 19th century brings in opera music new ways of thematic and stylistic approach. The escalation of revolutionary and political events influences the artistic life of the Italian nation, awakening in composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi another kind of spirituality. During this period, the Italian lyrical theater is moving towards new ways of expression, emphasizing the relationship between man and divinity. In these conditions, we can observe a stylistic evolution of the musical discourse, dominated by the influence of the biblical themes that the opera composers develop through dramaturgy. Numerous scenes taken from the Old Testament are found in the music of Italian operas from this period, marking an initiatory path of Italian spirituality and ethos of the nineteenth century. In this research we will present relevant musical examples from works such as Mose in Egitto - Rossini, Il diluvio universale - Donizetti, Nabucco - Verdi, Jerusalem – Verdi, highlighting the symbolic elements taken from the biblical text, rendered through music and stage action.

Prokofiev's Soviet Operas by Nathan Seinen

Reviewed by: Prokofiev's Soviet Operas by Nathan Seinen Terry L. Dean Prokofiev's Soviet Operas. By Nathan Seinen. (Music since 1900.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. [xiv, 255 p. ISBN 9781107088788 (hardcover), $99; ISBN 9781107460799 (paperback), $29; ISBN 9781316105214 (e-book), $140.] Music examples, tables, bibliography, index. Sergey Prokofiev dedicated considerable time and creative energy to the composition of opera. An avid reader and lover of literature, the composer revered opera above all other genres, contributing twelve works (eight mature) over the course of his career, [End Page 257] with opera projects extending from his childhood to the final years of his life. In part, it was his love for opera that motivated Prokofiev to return to the Soviet Union in 1936. The Stalinist state's sponsorship of opera and the prospect of a flourishing opera career appealed to him greatly. Unfortunately, the composer's plans did not work out as he had anticipated. Indeed, his status as a seasoned opera composer frequently served as an obstacle for him as he began work in a vastly different Russia from the one he had left nearly twenty years earlier. Nevertheless, Prokofiev completed four operas during his years as a repatriated Soviet composer—Semyon Kotko (Semën Kotko; 1939), Betrothal in a Monastery (Obruchenie v monastyre; 1940/43), War and Peace (Voĭna i mir; 1941–52), and The Story of a Real Man (Povest' o nastoi͡ashchem cheloveke; 1947–48). In Prokofiev's Soviet Operas, Nathan Seinen sets out to examine Prokofiev's four Soviet operas in a multitude of different contexts using a wide variety of resources, including score manuscripts, draft materials for each opera, and the composer's various notebooks as well as a number of Russian-language sources from disciplines such as film studies, history, literary criticism, and sociology. Seinen explores the works from their inception through their critical reception, with particular emphasis on understanding their individual ideological contexts and to "place them in within the wider frame of Soviet cultural history" (p. 4). What emerges is an assessment of Prokofiev's struggle for creative autonomy at a time when collaboration was promoted as an essential component of the creative process and frequently placed the composer in conflict with the demands of socialist realism as espoused by the State Committee on the Arts (forerunner of the Ministry of Culture). Ultimately, Seinen argues that "with all the pressures that were applied to opera composition under Stalin, it is remarkable how 'un-Soviet' all four of Prokofiev's late operas actually are" (p. 18). Undeniably, Prokofiev's efforts to compose operas that would appeal to international audiences served as a major obstacle to his success as a Soviet opera composer who was expected first and foremost to serve the state. Throughout the text, Seinen examines each work individually, emphasizing their role as independent cultural artifacts. As such, each chapter serves not only as a chronicle of its respective opera but also as a case study of Prokofiev's developing identity as a Soviet composer, the ever-evolving demands of socialist realism, and the complexities of high and late Stalinist aesthetics. Each work is revealed to be malapropos when considered against the expectations of Soviet aesthetics. In selecting the source for his first Soviet opera, for example, Prokofiev chose to set Valentin Kataev's I, Son of the Working People (͡IA, syn trudovogo naroda; 1937), which explored its Soviet subject matter through its setting in Bolshevik Ukraine during a period of German occupation. The novella had been reprinted multiple times and had been adapted twice for the stage as well as for film. Thus, Kataev's story seemed an ideal choice and to be an assured success. Nevertheless, Prokofiev's emphasis on action over affect, focus on the individual rather than the collective, and over-engagement with the humor of Kataev's story rendered the opera inappropriate in the eyes of critics and opened the opera to comparison by the Committee on Arts Affairs with Tikhon Khrennikov's Into the Storm (V buri͡u; 1939), which ultimately received the Party's (and Stalin's) official endorsement over Prokofiev's opera. Seinen's study also provides exciting new ways of understanding...

Seinen , Nathan Prokofiev's Soviet Operas (review)

SEER, 99, 1, JANUARY 2021 174 of which is Konstantin Rudnitskii’s seminal book on Meierkhol´d, available in translation. The index is also incomplete in that several names cited in the text do not appear there, an example being that of the cultural commissar Zhdanov, who appears as ‘Zhadanov’ (on p. 163). The Neapolitan author, Elena Ferrante, recently had this to say about the act of writing, of which the present author and his publishers would do well to take note. She speaks of needing the attention of readers ‘who will focus on […] carelessness: mistakes in chronology, repetitiveness, incomprehensible formulations […]. If an editor says: in your text there are good things but we need to work on it, you’re better off withdrawing the manuscript’. London Nick Worrall Seinen, Nathan. Prokofiev’s Soviet Operas. Music Since 1900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2019. xiv + 255 pp. Musical examples. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £75.00. In this important monograph — two of whose four chapters have already appeared as individual journal articles — Nathan Seinen sheds new light on Sergei Prokof´ev’s long career as an opera composer, focusing on the four works composed in the Soviet Union. As one of the most prominent forms of the nineteenth-century Russian canon, opera resurfaced in the artistically more conservative atmosphere of the 1930s, not least because it seemed able simultaneously to answer the need for forms capable of conveying ideology and propaganda on a mass scale. Noting that Prokof´ev had struggled to get his Ognennyi angel (The Fiery Angel) and Liubov´ k trem apel´sinam (The Love for Three Oranges) staged in the West, Seinen suggests that his return to the Soviet Union may have been motivated, at least in part, by the realization that opera was a genre increasingly favoured by the Soviet authorities. Seinen is alive to the ideological implications of the ‘Soviet opera project’, as it has come to be known, whilst expanding his analytical framework to include aspects of cultural history. His account is rooted in an impressive command of a wide range of archival and critical sources, which help to map the complex network of top-down expectations and behind-the-scenes debates which shaped the genesis of each of the four operas under consideration — Semen Kotko, Voina i mir (War and Peace), Obruchenie v monastyre (Betrothal in a Monastery) and Povest´ o nastoiashchem cheloveke (The Story of a Real Man). A recurrent theme is the concatenation of vicissitudes that Prokof´ev faced at each turn. He was, after all, an experienced composer for the stage, and his return to opera in the Soviet Union should have been an exciting prospect REVIEWS 175 for all concerned. Yet the many years he had lived and worked in the West meant that he was always tainted with the accusation of cosmopolitanism (and later, in 1948, formalism), and none of his operas had either an easy path to the stage, or an untroubled reception. Prokof´ev’s brush with politics is a familiar enough story, of course, but the value of Seinen’s study is the way in which he adroitly moves the debate on to issues of form and genre. Refusing to see Socialist Realism in monolithic terms, Seinen teases out important distinctions between the aesthetic premises governing each opera and deftly unfolds some often unexpected intertextual echoes. Each chapter follows a largely similar structure; after an elaboration of the operas’ literary source texts (Valetin Kataiev, Lev Tolstoi, Richard Brindley Sheridan as translated by Mira Mendel´son, Boris Polevoi), attention turns to a detailed consideration of the musical means deployed, which is then followed by a discussion of the relevant critical reaction. Accordingly, Semen Kotko emerges as a work shaped by the generic conventions of melodrama, whereas Obruchenie v monastyre is ‘an opera-ballet hybrid’ (p. 18), with elements also derived from opera buffa. Voina i mir and Povest´ o nastoiashchem cheloveke emerge as more closely linked to aspects of contemporary history — the cult of personality and wartime leadership in the case of the former, and aspects of Soviet heroism, the New Soviet Person and subjectivity in the case of the latter. Seinen’s attention to...

XIX century in the history of European and Russian opera: points of intersection and differences

The development of opera genre in Europe and Russia in the XIX century is of particular interest for the Chinese and Russian art historians. The subject of this article is the history of European and Russian opera in the XIX century. The object of this research is the works of the leading opera composers and the novelties introduced by each of them into the opera genre. The goal consists in examination of the following aspects of the topic: specificity of emergence of opera in Russia in the XVIII century, establishment of the national opera schools – Italian, French, German and their prominent representatives, as well as peculiarities of the Russian opera tradition of the XIX century. The novelty lies in determination of similarities and differences between the European and Russian opera in the XIX century from the perspective of of Chinese art history. The author's special contribution consists in the attempt to discuss the subject matter in the context of Chinese art historians who take interest in the peculiarities of opera of the XIX century. The acquired results demonstrate that the development of opera within the framework of the vocal and musical performance in the XIX century is a unique sociocultural phenomenon, which manifested through the system of spiritual values and spiritual life of the Russian and European nations.

Conrado del Campo (1878-1973) y su concepción del drama lírico en "El final de Don Álvaro" (1910)

En este artículo abordamos una de las cuestiones que evidencian más a las claras la provechosa relación que puede existir entre el drama romántico y el teatro lírico, cuando el texto dramático es la fuente que inspira la composición del libreto y de la partitura de una ópera homónima. Tal es el caso del drama del Duque de Rivas, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835) y la ópera de Conrado del Campo El final de Don Álvaro (1910).Conrado del Campo, uno de los compositores españoles de ópera más relevantes de comienzos del siglo XX, supo descubrir en los elementos musicales existentes en el texto dramático de D. Ángel Saavedra el germen de su primera ópera. Así, mediante la inteligente combinación de los postulados musicales wagnerianos con los ingredientes pasionales propios del drama tardorromántico alumbró su propio modelo de ópera nacional, siempre vinculado a los elementos singulares del folklore hispano.

Мифологические модели и ритуальные формы в современном музыкально-театральном перформансе

Performativity as one of the essential qualities of the present-day art of music has created an important role in the process of renewal of its leading genres. Drawing its sources in the theatrical experiments in the mid-20th century, toward the end of the century musical performance has imbedded itself not only into the sphere of art practice, but also created an impact on such a conservative sphere of academic music as musical theater, and in particular, on the genre of opera. The article sets the issue of manifestations of mythological models and elements of ritual characteristic of theatrical performance in operas by contemporary music. Basing themselves on the theory of performativity, the authors explain the innovations in the production from the point of view of the presence of liminality in them. At the center of attention are compositions insufficiently studied in Russian musicology the analysis of which makes it possible to indicate the direction of development of the opera genre: its revival from within by means of a search of a new form of synthesis by introducing new dramaturgical regularities and also as a result of connection of art with elements of real actuality. From the perspective of the authors of the article, performance becomes one of the forms of theatrical presentation, replacing the traditional theatric demonstration built according to the laws of drama. This position is actively developed in the sphere of contemporary theater studies in Europe in the works of Hans-Thies Lehmann, Erika Fischer-Lichte and Richard Schechner. Such formulation of the question explains the aesthetic foundations of the innovative aspirations of opera composers. Keywords: performance, ritual, contemporary musical theater.

SEDUCTIONS OF THE BOUZOUKI AND THE BRASS BAND: TRANSGRESSIVE REFLECTIONS ON MIKIS THEODORAKIS AND GIUSEPPE VERDI

It may transgress convention to compare Mikis Theodorakis, better known for his songs than for his operatic work, with the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. Both, however, in very different national contexts, were engaged in political activity through their music – which often faced severe censorship – and their parliamentary activity. Both drew on popular traditions and utilised strong rhythms in their earlier works, experimenting later with freer forms. The differences between them meanwhile serve to highlight important differences between two countries often viewed within the shared frame of assumed Mediterranean commonalities and of ancient cultural origins, and help us to understand the role music plays in linking lived time to recorded history.

Concerts for Clavier and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Trends in the Development of the Genre in the Context of His Composer Method

In recent years, research opportunities in the field of Mozart studies have expanded. As a result, new scientific paradigms are emerging that differ from the generally accepted ones. Even the well-known facts of the composer's biography and work can be viewed in a new way today. The interdependence of Mozart's instrumental and theatrical music has long been studied, but still remains an inexhaustible source for new research – this determines the relevance of the study. Main objective of the study – to determine the interaction of the two sides of Mozart's work: instrumental and theatrical and extrapolate it to the formation of composition and thematic dramaturgy in the genre of piano concerto. Methodology of research: biographical method that highlights the context and motivation of writing music works, including piano concertos, analytical and comparative method allows identifying patterns in the development of the compositional form of piano concertos. Results and conclusions. Mozart's piano concertos in the context of interaction with the composer's opera and theatre activities are considered. A synchronized chronography of his piano concertos and operas is provided. It was found that the interdependence does not lie in the intonational affinity of the thematic material of works written in one year (although there is some similarity of themes in several works). Piano concertos, which Mozart wrote during his life (unlike violin concertos, which almost all were written in one year – 1775), demonstrate an evolutionary slice of his work, in the depths of this genre formed a new approach to its composition, which is an important link formation of a piano concerto of the XIX century. Piano concerts are analyzed in terms of trends in the formation of musical themes: almost all works are polithematism in the main parts. Regarding the distribution of themes in the double exposition, there is also a certain tendency, namely in the appearance of part B (or part B2) in the soloist's exposition. Mozart preferred a new keyboard instrument with percussion mechanics – the pianoforte. It met the agogic and dynamic needs in the development of thematic material. Mozart's desire to be recognized as an opera composer in Vienna faced many obstacles - from the established rules of the genre and the dominance of Italian opera on the Viennese stage to even restrictions on thematic development (respectively, intonation and dramaturgy development of the characters). However, it was his opera characters that inspired the composer to create bright themes in instrumental music, including piano concerts. We can say that his piano concertos are a kind of theatre for instruments, in which events develop according to the rules of theatrical dramaturgy. The significance of the research. The article proposes a comprehensive approach, which clarifies how the creative method of Mozart is formed. The analysis of the main tendencies in the development of the intonation form of piano concertos revealed regularities that allow us to speak about the composer's creative motivation, and is a contribution to Ukrainian research of the Mozart’s music works.

Специфика работы с текстами в ранних операх Тан Дуна. К проблеме обновления оперного жанра в творчестве американских композиторов на рубеже XX–XXI веков

The article examines the leading principles of the works for musical theater by Tan Dun – an important American composer of Chinese descent His operas have become brilliant and unique phenomena in the world musical culture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The original interpretation of the opera genre presented in the composer’s musical oeuvres is based on an organic amalgam of the Eastern and Western musical-theatrical traditions, manifested in vocal techniques, which connect together elements of the Beijing, Kunju and Italian opera, in the specific sound and timbre generation, in regular compositional principles. The operatic legacy of Tan Dun also absorbs into itself traits of new musical-theatrical practices which have undergone development at the turn of the 20th and the 21st centuries. Their detailed study reveals the issue of the alteration of the role of the poetical text and dramaturgy in a theatrical performance. The early opera by Tan Dun examined in the present article demonstrates a special type of interaction between verbal and musical texts, which opens up new possibilities for dramaturgical and compositional solutions. The publication is prepared within the framework of scholarly project No. 17-04-00198-OGN\19 supported by the RFFI. Keywords: the opera theater of Tan Dun, revivification of the opera genre, interaction between music and drama, American composers.

FEMALE IMAGES IN OPERA CREATIVITY OF THE AMERICAN COMPOSERS

The purpose of this article is to analyze and understand the interpretation of female images in the works of Opera composer’s national American school. One of the reasons, which prompted the author to dive into the problem and answers Opera performances of American composers such as K. Floyd, John. K. Menotti, J. Gershwin. Methods. In achieving this goal, applied the following research methods a namely the source, comparison, systematization, analysis, generalization of the research problem, used many specialized works on the theory and history of culture. Scientific novelty of the work is that needs to expand views about the development of the Opera genre in American music. In addition, the inspection should be disclosed images of women in the perspective of self-identity of American music like the classic design in the field of Opera. This is due to the necessity of paying attention by the singer relative to the faithful and meaningful interpretation of the female character (Clara – George. Gershwin), Susanna K. Floyd, Monica K. Menotti), as in the dramaturgic sense, and the performing, as well as the emphasis on the vocal abilities of the singer and his acting skills. Conclusions. The analysis of this study was to identify patterns in the musical and thematic material of American Opera composers (K. Floyd, John. K. Menotti, J.Gershwin). In the plots of the operas presented by the harsh realities of the treatment of women at that time. In the women's images traced the line of resistance, the struggle for the future bright and strong-willed traits. The suffering and pain which resonates with the despair, but at the end of the story, spill over into the acceptance of his dark fate. Singer, in the performance of these works, will be able to learn the history of the characters, to understand their national and ideological features, for a more accurate interpretation of the characters in the performance of solo numbers in the Opera. Note also that the transformation of women’s images, which provides an opportunity to trace the psychological and spiritual aspects of their development. This primarily happens due to the influence of social, political and historical moments.

Bel canto na escrita de um compositor de transição: considerações sobre a vocalidade de Fosca e Maria Tudor

Carlos Gomes é assunto obrigatório em uma pesquisa musicológica que se propõe a estudar o período de transição da ópera italiana (1870-1890). Ao lado de uma escrita evoluída, encontra-se uma técnica conservadora, fortemente ligada às convenções da primeira metade do século XIX, compondo o universo criativo do operista brasileiro na organização do discurso dramático do espetáculo ou na caracterização rápida de seus personagens. Propõe-se para esse estudo discutir o termo bel canto a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica de autores e tratados que pavimentaram a visão moderna que temos sobre o assunto e, em seguida, identificar e analisar a presença de gestos do bel canto na vocalidade gomesiana. Com o propósito de demonstrar que procedimentos pertencentes à velha escola (primo ottocento) são constantemente retomados por Gomes, selecionamos as óperas Fosca e Maria Tudor para aplicação dos resultados – obras consideradas de vocalidade ousada dentro da produção do operista.

Berton’s Ludic Pedagogy and the Subdominant Otherwise: Tension and Compromise in the Early Paris Conservatoire Curriculum

The founding of the Paris Conservatoire in 1795 was intended to bring standardization and meritocracy to French musical pedagogy. However, major compromises were reached in the setting of the Conservatoire’s curriculum, aimed at synthesizing the diverse pedagogical approaches of its professors. Charles-Simon Catel’s Traite d’Harmonie (1803), the Conservatoire’s official harmony textbook, was one such compromise, written to bring an end to ongoing disagreements between the pro-Rameau and anti-Rameau factions on the institution’s faculty. This paper examines the music-theoretical debates that underpinned the Catel compromise by placing Catel’s Traite in dialogue with the music and pedagogy of composer Henri-Montan Berton. Although largely unknown today, Berton was one of the most prolific opera composers of the Revolution; in 1795, he was appointed harmony professor to the Conservatoire, where he served on the committee which unanimously approved Catel’s treatise. Comparing Berton’s Rameau-inspired conception of harmonic space with Catel’s more pragmatic harmonic doctrine, this paper will present an archaeology of a single chord, the subdominant, tracing its use from Berton’s pedagogical games to his Revolutionary-era operas. This paper argues that the subdominant chord occupied a much more privileged position in Berton’s work than it did in Catel’s Traite d’Harmonie, Berton frequently employing harmonic forms that seem to emphasize the subdominant at the expense of the more powerful dominant. Thus, Berton’s treatment of the subdominant, both in the opera house and in the classroom, reveals just how far Catel’s treatise was removed from the musical practices of the Conservatoire’s faculty.

The Theatrical Illusion

Otakar Zich (1879–1934) is a striking figure in modern czech aesthetics and art theory. A gifted librettist and opera composer and a professor at Charles University in Prague, his place in the history of aesthetics is still controversial. HisAesthetics of Dramatic Art (Estetika dramatického umění[1931]) came out at a time of paradigmatic change in the humanities (the emergence in the 1930s of functional structuralism through the Prague linguistic circle). Also, it was only in the 1930s that the Czech theatrical avant-garde got into full swing. Zich's work apparently “fell short” both of the new scientific paradigm, imposed by the tandem of Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) and Jan Mukařovský (1891–1975), and of the expectations of the students of theater coming from Mukařovský's seminars, some of them already distinguished avant-garde directors (Veltruský 67). Zich's untimely death precluded the development of his project, as well as fruitful debate about it. Mukařovský, as Zich'fs protégé, felt obliged to address the work of his mentor, but his early semiotic reading was avowedly partial and tentative and barely concealed his puzzlement. This marginal inclusion in the new paradigm without real assimilation left Zich's complex and comprehensive undertaking out in the cold.

A Ryga-Rita Rethink

This article is an edited transcript of a panel convened at the Ryga Arts Festival, held in Summerland, British Columbia, in 2017, about Ryga’s groundbreaking 1967 play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Issues discussed include the play’s legacy fifty years after its premiere and how twenty-first-century issues such as appropriation of voice have impacted the play’s continued production on Canadian stages. The panel, chaired by Canadian Theatre Review founding editor Don Rubin, includes contributions from the play’s original composer-singer-actress Ann Mortifee, opera composer Victor Davies, film-maker Gina Payzant, and writer-critic Patricia Keeney.

Trois fugues de Luigi Cherubini: mises en partition de piano by Frédéric Chopin

Reviewed by: Trois fugues de Luigi Cherubini: mises en partition de pianoby Frédéric Chopin Jonathan D. Bellman Frédéric Chopin. Trois fugues de Luigi Cherubini: mises en partition de piano. Fac-similé et transcription présentés par Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger. (Publications de la Société française de musicologie, Serie 1, Monuments de la musique ancienne, tome XXIX.) Paris: Société française de musicologie, 2017. [Introd. in Fre., Eng., p. ix–xxxi; facsimile and transcription, p. 1–24; crit. report in Fre., Eng., p. 25–28; appendix: excerpts from Cherubini's Cours de contrepoint, p. 29–36. ISBN 978-2-85357-259-0. €35.] It is well known in the Chopin community that the composer studied strict counterpoint with his teacher Józef Elsner as a teenager—he says so in a letter of 2 October 1826 to his friend Jan Białobłocki—and that counterpoint itself would remain a lifelong fascination. In the introduction to this volume, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger assembles the traces of this preoccupation thereafter, through Chopin's youthfully dismissive descriptions of counterpoint pedagogues Luigi Cherubini and Anton Reicha (in a letter of 7 December 1831), to a written request to his friend Julian Fontana (sent mid-June 1841) that the treatises of Cherubini and Georges Kastner be sent from Paris to him in the village of Nohant, in central France, to the many contrapuntal passages that show up in late works such as the op. 65 Sonata for Cello and Piano, "in particular in the reversible counterpoint of the Largo—a sublime Preghiera—and in the rondo finale, with its richly chromatic principal theme" (p. xxx). Harder to pinpoint is precisely how Chopin pursued such study, in the absence of either teacher or study partner, as Brahms and Joachim later found in each other. With the appearance of this publication, we now have a much better idea. Eigeldinger, a towering figure in Chopin studies, now presents Chopin's arrangement, in piano score, of three fugues from Cherubini's Cours de contrepoint et de fugue(Paris: M. Schlesinger, 1835), which were originally published in score, with three C clefs (soprano, alto, tenor) and the familiar F clef for the bass. Instructive excerpts from Cherubini's treatise are provided in the appendix. Eigeldinger observes that Chopin must have been less than completely comfortable reading from score in relatively unfamiliar clefs. Few would blame him if so, and it is no surprise that he would have seen fit to transcribe these pieces into his preferred piano idiom. It has already been established (by among others David Kasunic) that however much Chopin attended the opera, his closest encounters with it took place via commercially available piano-vocal scores—in other words, in reduced and user-friendly form. Moreover, the act of music copying was a study technique with a long, long history; the familiar stories of J. S. Bach sneaking down to his older brother's music cabinet in the middle of the night for unsanctioned copying projects testify to this. Far from a mechanical exercise, Chopin's Cherubini transcriptions reflect a traditional learning strategy that clearly benefited him for the remainder of his compositional life. And despite Cherubini's sometime reputation as a dry and static figure (Chopin himself, in the 1831 letter), a less dynamic and creative teacher than Reicha (Berlioz, Mémoires, quoted here on p. xxiii), or as less visionary than the opera composer Gaspare Spontini (the artist Eugène [End Page 705]Delacroix, quoted on p. xxxi), he clearly had sufficient credibility and authority for the now more mature Chopin to learn from and respect. Eigeldinger points out (p. xxx) that the British scholar Gerald Abraham was among the first to stress Cherubini's intermediary role in Chopin's attraction to Bach's counterpoint. Whether or not an intermediary was needed (I personally suspect it was not), Cherubini did represent a kind of Bachian representative, a systematic tutor of the learned art and aesthetic Chopin had studied and played since his youth. And the fugue transcriptions presented in this book—beautifully presented, thoroughly glossed and explained, and now (for the first time) readily available—are proof of that...

Fanny Tacchinardi-Persiani, Carlo Balocchino and Italian Opera Business in Vienna, Paris and London (1837–1845)

AbstractThis article addresses several historiographical questions about narratives of nineteenth-century Italian opera by discussing the international career of prima donna Fanny Tacchinardi-Persiani during the 1830s and 1840s. A number of hitherto overlooked letters between the singer and Carlo Balocchino, impresario of the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, provide important insights into Tacchinardi-Persiani's strategies of self-representation in the context of a dynamic operatic network that included the Italian States, Vienna, Paris and London. By revealing shifting power dynamics between opera impresarios, performers and composers, these letters, read in parallel with reviews and other writings of the time, offer a fresh look at the economic, ideological and artistic factors that contributed to the shifting geography of the European operatic landscape in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Understanding Handel’s operas

Some readers may be excused for thinking that there might not be much more to say about Handel’s operas following the achievements of Winton Dean and John Merrill Knapp in two volumes (the second by Dean alone) first published in 1987 and 2006. While Dean and Knapp employ a chronological, opera-by-opera approach, offering a comprehensive study of the history, composition, structure and reception of each work, David Kimbell advances a different methodology. In a similar way to Silke Leopold’s Händel. Die Opern (Bärenreiter 2009), he takes a step back, presenting instead a guide to understanding Handel’s operas as a whole, drawing not only on his own experience of European opera studies, but also on a deep understanding of Handel’s musical dramas. Although the fundamental approach is similar to that of Leopold, Kimbell’s book places emphasis on different aspects of Handel’s operas, making it a unique contribution to Handel studies. His intended audience is made up of those ‘who wish to know a little more about Handel’s operas and to understand them a little better’ (p.ix), and he caters to this audience not only through his careful selection of examples drawn from across Handel’s output, but also by focusing on Handel’s early career. If we are to understand his London operas, a deeper understanding of how Handel developed as an opera composer in Germany and during his time in Italy, whilst he was learning his trade, is required. This is particularly evident in the opening chapter, which provides a biographical survey of Handel’s engagement with opera from his education in Halle through to his move away from opera in favour of English oratorio around 40 years later in London.

Music into Fiction: Composers Writing, Compositions Imitated

Music into Fiction: Composers Writing, Compositions Imitated

Ernest Reyer and his Opera “Sigurd”: French Version of “Wagnerian” Subject

It is examined the creative work of French opera composer and critic Ernest Reyer (1823– 1909), who was also the author of opera “Sigurd”. Relevance of the study lies in the attempt to bring in the Ukrainian musicological context the creative work of Ernest Reyer. The main objective of the study is to answer the question of whether the opera of the French composer Ernest Reyer “Sigurd” belongs to the world wagnerian movement. The study was carried out by using comparative method: comparison was made between E. Reyer’s and R. Wagner’s operatic versions of the ancient German legend about Sigurd. It is presented the short biography of the E. Reyer, by underlineding his dimensioned cultural ties with outstanding contemporaries such as H. Berlioz, G. Flaubert, T. Gautier and others. It is presented the general outlook of composer’s creative heritage and short characteristics of Reyer’s main operatic, ballet and symphonic works. It is described the creative work of E. Reyer as French critic. It is raised a question of E. Reyer’s belonging to the world Wagnerism, which is proved by the creation of opera on the plot of “Poetic Edda” and “The Song of the Nibelungs”. It is analyzed the literature sources of libretto of “Sigurd” (its authors – Michel Carre, Camille du Locle and Alfred Blau). It is examined the synthesis of German legendary subject and traditions of French musical theatre. It is proved the fidelity of E. Reyer to the national operatic traditions that is why this opera can’t be regarded as “Wagnerian” opera. It is underlined such urgent tendency in musical dramatic composition of “Sigurd” as using of leitmotivs. It is presented short review of the modern staging and recordings of opera. The conclusion of the study is to determine the historical value of E. Reyer’s opera “Sigurd” as the unique attempt of an alternative French interpretation of the glorious ancient Germanic and Scandinavian epics, which became the source of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. In “Sigurd” E. Reyer’s “Germanic” plot combines the traditions of the French national musical theater and some of the latest techniques of musical drama, making this opera a landmark of European music culture of the nineteenth century.