Operatic Genre Research Articles

La famiglia svizzera and Operatic Genre in Dresden and Milan

Abstract: A year after Joseph Weigl's sentimental Viennese Singspiel, Die Schweizerfamilie , premiered in 1809, it appeared in translation as La famiglia svizzera at the summer palace of the King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus. It soon became a mainstay of Dresden's Italian opera company. When a version of this adaptation appeared at Milan's La Scala in 1816, however, it was a catastrophic failure. The stark contrast between the two productions emphasizes the different ideals of the opera's creators, adapters, and audiences. The linked processes of transmission, adaptation, performance, and reception are a growing topic in opera scholarship, although studies of the early nineteenth century have generally considered cultural translations into German, rather than the other way around. La famiglia svizzera provides a valuable addition to our understanding of how operatic genre and its implications were conceived. In this essay, I trace how Dresden's adapters Italianized this opera and explain its divergent reception. The adapters—most likely Adolph Wagner and Franz Anton Schubert—barely changed Weigl's music but dramatically altered the tone, imagery, and characterization of the opera through a thoughtful Italian translation and newly composed recitatives. A reviewer nevertheless praised the opera's artistic unity and hoped for more such translations, "since German art agrees with German feelings." Milanese critics, however, specifically identified aspects of the adaptation that contributed to the opera's failure. These reviews fit within contemporary debates in the musical press about national operatic genre. I argue that La famiglia svizzera offers a microcosm of these debates, which mirrored both its creators' and its viewers' preconceptions.

Composição e análise de uma ópera cômica: investigando a construção do sentido musical

I intend to demonstrate the contribution of specific cognitive devices in regulating processes that determine the perceptive choices and the ways of constructing musical meaning in the compositional process of a comic opera. To this end, from the libretto A Sonâmbula, by Machado de Assis, I develop the composition and a reflective analysis of the composition of an opera in two cycles: (i) In the first, according to the principles of formalist semantics, I generate the first version of opera; and (ii) in the second, from the application of devices of an incorporated semantics, I produce the final version of the opera. Comparing the artistic re-sults of the two cycles, I discuss the process of producing the musical meaning that regulates compositional acts, highlighting the role of cognitive devices described by enacting theories of contemporary cognitive sciences, still little addressed by the literature on musical compo-sition, particularly in the operatic genre.

The Voice Divided: A Data Driven Analysis of Vocal Subcategorization

Vocal subcategorization, or the practice of creating a specific vocal subcategory by adding a descriptor, i.e., dramatic, on to a primary vocal category, i.e., soprano, is both universal and contentious within the operatic world. Many factors attribute to the field’s contentious nature: there is no universal system of subcategorization or subcategory taxonomy; despite sharing both primary vocal categories, i.e., soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and bass, and using many of the same descriptors, i.e., dramatic, lyric, and comedic, no two taxonomies are considered analogues; only one taxonomy has a codifying document; and there are not date-driven analyses of any taxonomy. This document presents the first data-driven analysis of a major vocal subcategorization taxonomy, specifically the German taxonomy as outlined by the Handbuch der Oper (Kloiber, Konold, and Maschka; Bärenreither Verlag, Kassel, 2016), revealing new insights into the inner workings of the Handbuch specifically, as well as operatic genre more broadly.

Scenicheskaya i muzykal'naya kul'tura pekinskoj i zapadnoj opery: kross-kul'turnoe sravnenie

The article is devoted to the study of the stage and musical features of Peking and Western opera in a comparative context. It is said that the formation and development of both types of opera art has the following artistic characteristics: Peking opera music is a process of evolution of folk dance, song poetry; Western opera mainly consists of composers who transform the folk musical heritage, religious music into an integral operatic genre. Although Peking and Western operas are diff erent in performance system and artistic creativity, they have something in common in the form of dramatic music and can absorb and develop together.

A Conversation with Linda Hutcheon on Film Adaptation

Linda Hutcheon is a pioneer on cinema adaptation, with her book A Theory of Adaptation (2006), where she envisions adaptation as a transmedial process rather than as a faithful relationship a film must respect with a book. She has rejuvenated research in the field, overwhelmed dead-ends encountered by the adaptation critique, and offered thrilling perspectives on how to conceive such relationships between medias as different as comics, novels, drama, opera, video games, etc. Although her research interests now shifted to the operatic genre, she was as kind as to answer my questions for this first dossier of Transcr(é)ation.

Butterflies on Sweet Land? Reflections on Opera at the Edges of History

Taking inspiration from Kalle Pihlainen’s philosophy of historical representation, this essay explores some of the ways in which operatic performance can harness the ambiguity between the genre’s historicist and presentist implications to mobilize not just the difference of the past from the present but also their connection. The essay focuses on two recent examples—Heartbeat Opera’s Butterfly (New York, 2017) and The Industry’s Sweet Land (Los Angeles, 2020)—whose unconventional presentations critically engage such temporal complexity. Moving beyond the proscenium and crucially involving the music in their directorial visions, both couch history’s grip on the present in terms of the consequences of past actions. By self-staging their differences from mainstream opera-house productions, moreover, both explore whether opera can still aspire to sociopolitical relevance today. Though Butterfly tackles a controversial repertory staple, while the immersive and site-specific Sweet Land enlists the operatic genre itself to probe various modes of historical imagination, both expose continuities of historical racism in contemporary US culture. Their blurring of lines between past and present prevents audiences from confining racist positions to the operas’ allegedly historical plots: instead of presenting past alterity, the productions reveal transhistorical semblance. Opera thus becomes a medium for performing the multidimensionality and open-endedness of history.

Nielsen’s Saul and David and Italian Opera

In this essay, I focus on the music-cultural context in which Carl Nielsen’s Saul and David (1899–1901) was composed, as Nielsen approached the operatic genre for the first time. This will cast new light on his independence and originality, but also offer the possibility for some seemingly unlikely comparisons, revealing that the work is more tightly integrated with Nielsen’s broader European musical experience than has previously seemed – especially as an alternative to naturalism. I therefore consider the Italian context before, during and after the rise of verismo, focusing particularly on the anti-naturalism debate, to which Saul og David also belongs. Nielsen’s work follows a path that parallels the shift from the so-called noir dramas of the 1880s to the work of Ildebrando Pizzetti, via the almost completely unknown operas of Antonio Smareglia. Unusual as it may be, I believe that this comparison will support the idea of a composer who, while working in the genre of musical drama, was in constant dialogue with his European contemporaries.

Costumes and Cosmopolitanism: Italian Opera in the North

AbstractThis article explores operatic costumes from a perspective of cultural exchange, with a focus on Giuseppe Sarti, first director of the permanent opera theatre in Copenhagen. Sarti's Danish audience had almost no prior exposure to opera and little understanding of Italian. After a disastrous first season, he took measures to realise more successful productions of Italian opera in a context of migration, notably by focusing on the costumes to bypass language differences. I argue here that the theatrical costumes commissioned by Sarti were crucial tools for transmitting and adapting the operatic genre to its new context, functioning as visual signifiers and as body technology. They represented the audience's first encounter with the character and conveyed crucial information about dramaturgy.

Un soggetto scabroso, un progetto ambizioso: il “Giasone” va alla Scuola Primaria

Since 2007, Silvia Cancedda has held five/six-month-long listening workshops in primary schools, focusing on various operas, from Cenerentola to Il trovatore. For the 2017/18 school year, she chose Giasone, by Cicognini and Cavalli (1649). This is an opera that deals with embarrassing themes, and hence apparently not suited for an 8-year-old audience, since it centers on a criminal couple, Giasone and Medea, and on a love triangle in which both women, Medea and Isifile, are single mothers.The article describes the protocol followed in the workshop. Through language and content adapted to the target age group, the workshop aims at providing a historically sound, accurate description of the opera, as well as adequate comprehension of the work as a whole, through an examination of: (1) the literary sources; (2) the plot structure; (3) the constellation of characters and voices; (4) the system of poetic forms (and the basic elements of metric structures); (5) the system of basic musical forms; (6) the framework of the drama and segmentation of the action; (7) the combination of word/action/music (text, scene, singing). These activities are complemented by a (inasmuch as possible) complete listening-viewing of the work.Further points that are briefly addressed include: connections with other school subjects, first and foremost linguistic and historical subjects; the origins of the operatic genre; the relationships between the fabula of the myth and the plot of the opera; the system of voices; key scenes; the tools of the poetical metric system. Finally, an intuitive reading of the score is introduced. The effectiveness of the didactic process adopted is documented in the drawings created by the pupils, in photographs and videos.

Vom Adamsspiel zur Adamsoper

The thesis of the birth of opera as a result of late humanistic reception of anti­quity at the turn of the 17th century has been a commonplace idea within the discussion of dramatic genres. Yet the dominant narrative of change or renewal tends to obscure phenomena of continuity and anachronism which are nonetheless relevant for the tradition of premodern theatre. Those residues of an outlasting dramatic tradition are the focus of this paper which is especially concerned with the transitions between the broad stream of medieval liturgical drama and early modern opera. It is to be shown how close the ties in particular are between the new genre of music theatre and the older theatrical models and their continuities. At the same time the specific achievements and innovations of the younger operatic genre can be accentuated even more distinctly. This paper will concentrate on a paradigmatic case from the early times of German music theatre, the Hamburg inaugural opera Adam from 1678, to demonstrate the characteristic links as well as transformations between the traditions of the medieval liturgical and early modern protestant drama and the operatic genre of the 17th century.

Òpera en texans y This is opera al servicio de la educación musical

espanolEn los ultimos tiempos, la pedagogia musical se sirve del audiovisual para implementar nuevos procedimientos didacticos. Entre otras, son comunes aplicaciones basadas en peliculas o series de television, incluso videojuegos. Sin embargo, no es tan frecuente recurrir a programas televisivos basados en la divulgacion musical. En este texto tratamos de evolucionar Opera en texans y This is opera, dos producciones con similitudes obvias desde su propio proceso de creacion, para encauzarlas hacia la didactica musical. Para ello, se lleva a cabo un analisis de los contenidos, asi como el modo de abordarlos, apuntandose estrategias para su uso en las aulas de educacion musical. El resultado de este trabajo de investigacion e innovacion amplia el modo en que el genero operistico puede ser encarado en el ambito educativo. EnglishIn recent times, the musical pedagogy uses the audiovisual to implement new didactic procedures. Among other, applications based on movies or television series, including video games, are common. However, it is not so common to use television programs based on musical divulgation. In this paper we try to evolve Opera en Texans and This is Opera, two productions with obvious similarities from their own creation process, to take them towards musical didactics. For this purpose, an analysis of the contents and the way to approach them is carried out and strategies for their use in the music education classroom are pointed out. The result of this research and innovation work expands the way in which the operatic genre can be addressed in the educational field.

Opera creativity by Andrei Tikhomirov

Relevance of the study. The work of a contemporary Russian composer, graduate from the Leningrad Conservatory, Andrei Tikhomirov, is considered, with the main emphasis on his operatic work being made. The music and dramaturgical components of his chamber opera “The Last Days” and the large format opera “Dracula” were subjected to analysis.Main objective(s) of the study. The author’s means of creating music. He has relied on the musical context of the epoch, the music “sounding around” (rock, pop music, bard song, jazz, mass song, etc.). His loyalty to the melodic gift, has forced him to create in close connection with classical traditions born by European and Russian opera theaters.Methodology. Evidence is given by authoritative domestic musicologists and music critics, emphasizing, on the one hand, the undoubted originality of A. Tikhomirov’s creative method, and, on the other, his living connection and reverence for the classical heritage and composition of European academic music. Both operas have been investigated for compositional composition, dramatic development and dramatic logic; their literary origins are indicated, as well as conjugation of action and composer’s findings of adequate musical forms and means of musical and dramatic expressiveness.Results / findings and conclusions. The close relationship of A, Tikhomirov’s operas with the traditions of Russian classical music and Russian and European classical literature is shown. There are cited software installations of the composer of a theoretical nature, his philosophical and aesthetic views on the nature of opera, musical theater, academic music, ways of its further development, the essence of the crisis of the opera genre.Significance. In addition, the article contains important biographical information about the composer, a general description of his work and the stages of its development. The article puts an emphasis on the development of possibilities of composer thought and technology (including in the operatic genre) in modern conditions, without breaking with the traditions of European classical music.

The opera of Petr Tchaikovsky “Mazepa” in the scenic decision by Dmytro Hnatyuk

The article recreates the important page of the creative biography of Dmytro Hnatyuk – his directorial activity. In the contradiction of complex socio-political and ideological changes of time, the essence of the artist is crystallized, due to the fierce thirst for national traditions, to the revival of Ukrainian nature in all dimensions of the cultural and artistic space, and in the operatic genre, above all. D. Hnatyuk’s appeal to the operatic classics, to the essence of the national tradition traced in her historical heritage, stimulates the formation of a new aesthetic understanding of the creativity of many composers, performers, and artists. D. Hnatyuk is a person who not only accumulates powerful energy potential, but also generalizes the super-performing experience with compelling and rationally-weighted directorial decisions. Perfectly mastering the mechanisms of solving scenic problems, the laws of development of the drama of the work, the director deliberately forms a qualitatively new level of dialogical unity of all components of the operatic genre: he localizes the personal factor as an irreplaceable component that structures the essence of acting, destroys the stereotypes of the development of the drama of the work, rooted convention. It was through the efforts of D. M. Hnatyuk that the opera of P. I. Tchaikovsky continued in the complex realities of the Ukrainian operatic tradition of the twentieth century, revealing a new dimension of its existence.The purpose of the article is to consider the little-known pages of the creative biography of D. Hnatyuk, his ascent to the Olympus of artistic recognition. By fixing the problem in the coordinates of the director’s practice of the artist and focusing on the production of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s opera “Mazepa”, we have the opportunity to reveal the dynamics of the resuscitation of the Ukrainian theatrical space in the context of the operatic genre.The methodology of the research involves the use of historical, comparative, art criticism and cultural methods, which makes it possible to analyze the opera of P. Tchaikovsky’s “Mazepa” in a new dimension, opening unexcited pages of the creative biography of the artist.The scientific novelty of the work is due to the fact that it uses a considerable amount of archival materials, reviews, and an epistolary heritage, which enables to fill the gaps of the cultural and artistic space of Ukraine at the end of the twentieth century, and, by focusing on the phenomenon of the artist’s creative biography, to reveal his essence in the context. socio-cultural tendencies of this period.Conclusion. The scientific thought of the present stimulates a permanent rethinking of the established and already canonized methods and mechanisms of studying creative biography as a cultural phenomenon, laying the unshakable basis for the development of humanitarianism in the space of modern attitudes and discourses. Investigating the creative biography of D. Gnatyuk, we fill significant gaps in the national cultural and artistic heritage, form orientations for the opera and theatrical performances of the future and introduce the methods of operatic scenography into the practice of educational activities of the Academy.

Некоторые драматургические и композиционные особенности ранних опер Ф. Гласса

The article is devoted to the question of the revival of the opera genre in the musical legacy of Philip Glass. This process came to view in American musical theater in the late 1970s and 1980s and was conducive to the revival of what was deemed to be by the standards of that time period the most conservative genre in the musical output of American and Western European composers. The reform of the operatic genre, which subsequently transformed the perception of the very essence of the musical-theatrical performance as an artistic phenomenon, was carried out under the direct influence of the aesthetical ideas of theatrical experimentalism, musical minimalism and conceptualism. The article examines the dramaturgical and compositional problems connected with the implementation into opera of principles connected with a new form of perception formed in the European avant-garde and American experimental theater. Glass’ early compositions – the operas “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha” and “Akhnaten,” which the composer combined into a trilogy, manifest in a consistent way the ideas of revival of operatic performance. The research identifies the traditions of the “Theater of Cruelty,” the “Epic Theater” and the “Theater of the Absurd” (Antonin Artaud, Bertold Brecht, Samuel Beckett), which have exerted influence on the composer’s musical-theatrical thinking, define the peculiarities of manifestation of the principles of non-linear dramaturgy, characterizes the methods of construction of meaning, and examines the means for compositional organization founding themselves on the innovations of Philip Glass’ musical language developed in his instrumental music. The publication has been prepared as part of project № 17-04-00198-OGN supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Keywords: American musical theater, the early operas of Philip Glass, “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha,” “Akhnaten,” revival of the opera genre.

An epic tradition in the coordinates of the operatic genre: for example, the production of the opera by O. Borodin "Prince Igor" by D. M. Gnatyuk

The purpose of the article. The use of the work is outlined by the problem of highlighting essential aspects of the creative biography of D.Gnatyuk, fixed in the coordinate of the communicative cultural-artistic system of the Ukrainian space of the twentieth century. Applying to the master's directorial practice, we have the opportunity to generalize and rationally-objective analysis of artistic tendencies that were formed in the context of a complex sociopolitical and interethnic continuum. Methodology. The methodology involves the inclusion of the problem of analysis in the space of historical, art critic and culturological discourse with the obligatory consolidation of the issue in an interdisciplinary context. Such conceptual approaches will become a condition for coverage of little-known pages of D.M. Gnatyuk's creative biography, followed by an analysis of the artistic environment as the conditions for the artist to come to the Olympus of national and world recognition. The scientific novelty of the study consists in studying the creative figure of the twentieth century - D. M. Gnatyuk in a new format, which involves the consolidation of the individual in the coordinates of the subject of culture, whose reflection crystallizes in creative searches, tests, and achievements. Conclusions. Investigating the director's steps in the projection of the interpretive decision of the opera by O. Borodin "Prince Igor," we have the opportunity to feel the dynamics of the formation of the individual, in which the director's period is represented by a generalizing and accumulated internal demand model. The mentioned factor is a new stage in the creative biography of the artist, which stimulates a permanent rethinking of his inner essence, taking into account the cultural and artistic and sociopolitical context.

Polish Translations and Musicological Works of Lviv Authors Devoted to Richard Wagner’s Oeuvre at the end of the 19th – early 20th Century

Polish Translations and Musicological Works of Lviv Authors Devoted to Richard Wagner’s Oeuvre at the end of the 19th – early 20th Century

Early Modern Comedy and the Politics of Religion: Reconsidering Comedy in Rospigliosi's Il Sant'Alessio

ABSTRACTGiulio Rospigliosi and Stefano Landi's 1634 revisions of Il Sant'Alessio for the Barberini stage expanded the role of comedy within the opera. These revisions reveal an important juncture in the history of religious comedy and lay the foundation for the development of a comic rubric for the still-developing operatic genre. This article examines the legend of St Alexis and its potential for historic reinterpretation in light of the Barberini family's religious and political goals. Its consideration of the interrelationship of religion and comedy in early modern sacred drama provides the theoretical context for an analysis of scenes in the 1634 version featuring the comic pages Martio and Curtio. Operating as a mitigating force between the extreme ideologies presented by the characters of Sant'Alessio and the Devil, the pages’ comedy promotes a more widespread acceptance of key religious ideals and becomes the driving force behind a significant political statement for post-Tridentine Rome.

The Brontë Sisters in Other Wor(l)ds

The Brontë Sisters in Other Wor(l)ds

An Ethnomusicological Understanding of the Street Performance of Cantonese Opera 街檔 (Jie Dang) in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTCantonese opera is a regional Chinese operatic genre, which because of its flexible and adaptive nature can be performed in diverse venues. Street performances of Cantonese opera occur in parks, community plazas, open-air car parks, and indoor shopping malls, with audiences usually composed of people from the immediate neighborhood. These performances are smaller in scale than Cantonese opera being performed in theaters and are termed 街檔 (Jie Dang), or “street booth,” reflecting the circumstances of their staging. Like many other types of street music, Jie Dang has a long history in Hong Kong, where Cantonese is a dominant social dialect. In the last ten years, Jie Dang has secured a position on the list of District Free Entertainment Programmes provided by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region. Observations of live performances, interviews with artists and professionals in Cantonese opera, and government reports document the phenomenon of Jie Dang from four perspectives: sociological context; performance practice; geographical context; and logistics.

Иосиф Лапицкий и Михаил Бихтер – к истории творческого содружества режиссёра и дирижёра

On December 12, 1912 the Theater of Musical Drama opened up in St. Petersburg with a production of Piotr Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” Its creator, producer Iosif Lapitsky viewed the Theater of Musical Drama as a foothold for opera reform, a space for artistic experiments and innovations, touching upon all the elements of the theatrical performance. Lapitsky found for himself an ideal supporter and associate in Mikhail Bikhter, a young graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, who became the musical director of the theater. Lapitsky and Bikhter saw the main goal of their work with the artists of the theater as the achievement of meaningfulness of singing and scenic authenticity. At his job as musical director Bikhter, following Lapitsky’s advice, carried out scrupulous individual coaching not only for the soloists of the Theater of Musical Drama, but also with the choral singers. According to his contemporaries, Bikhter’s rendition of the musical repertoire as a conductor was distinguished by its high level of freedom in terms of tempo and rhythm and an abundance of unusual accents and nuances. The innovative ideas, countering the traditions of interpretations of Piotr Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden” aroused plenty of lively debates in the press and posed before the opera critics of that time the question of the permissible level of freedom for the artist-interpreter. In various ways, the “battle against the routine” declared by Lapitsky and Bikhter, their struggle against the engrained performance cliches, served as one of the catalyst elements of renewal of the operatic genre. Keywords: I.M. Lapitsky, M.A. Bikhter, opera, Theater of Musical Drama, musical interpretation, opera conducting.