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Round table 1 Papers |
Round Table 4
chairperson: Helen Geyer (Weimar-Jena)
"The dramma per musica on the way". Forgotten Keys
of the 19th-Century Opera
The last two decades of the 18th century and the first of the 19th are first of all to be understood as an experimental field regarding very different and very complex aspects. The results of these processes seem to be well-known and well defined latest in the late twenties of the 19th century. The processes, which focussed several developments and passed over others should be discussed and shown, and of course put in relation to several discussions of aesthetics and art. The discussion should focus and exemplify the following aspects and should not be determined by italian opera: it should embrace the developments of german opera, Singspiel, tragédie lyrique and the new developments of "national"-operas.
The transformation of drama per musica at the end of the 18.th century concerns nearly all parameters and the result is a very different "product" with different ambitions regarding the parameter of orchestra, particularly regarding the relation between cantus and orchestra, the capacity and semantic values of harmonics, "Klangfarben", Instrumentation, new psychological differentiations and therefore the breaking down of classical character-formations, a new reality, combined with new ideas of semplicita, beauty and verita of the expression, new technical experiments regarding the combination of space, time and simultaneity, a different structure of the composition itself, where the fattura of the score gains new qualities of semantic and new techniques, in vicinity and applications of techniques as counterpoint, Sonatensatzform, first ideas of Leitmotivik. Therefore the virtuosity itself gains new qualities. On one hand it is more fixed, even restrained or completely abandoned, on the other hand virtuosity undergoes the transformation to become a vehicle of semantic expression, that means to offer a new level of inherent dramatic structure, as a further "dimension" of interpretation, but fixed and concentrated on non arbitrary aspects, by the composer.
Furthermore the drama per musica usurps several ("foreign")developments, deriving from other dramatic genres: as oratorio, as farsa, including the particular demands. A very important influence derives from the tragédie lyrique, which as in aesthetics as in structure fertilizes the drama per musica and the german Singspiel and provokes an aesthetic approach, which undermines the maximes of lieto fine, promotes several "sceneries" and even characters.
At the very end one should consider the quasi systematic exploration of "foreign" cultures, topics and structures of music. One aspect has not to be forgotten, and is eventually deeply connected with the new quality of the fattura of the composition: and it leads to one core of the so-called romantic dimension of melodrama per musica or grande opera or Musikdrama in Wagnerian sense: the importance of "nature". The roots are going back at least into the eighties of the 18th century, and should be discussed, because there, in combination with the new techniques rgarding the orchestral structure of the drama per musica one might be aware of a certain "emancipation" from the textual fixed ground of opera.
In the basic paper, many of these aspects will be pointed out in discussing a few examples of Cherubinian operas (focus on Lo sposo di tre, Idalide, Medée (not deeply!)), in comparison to his teacher Sarti, and others and in relation to some aesthetic-theories of the time.
Fields of thesis to be worked on and focussed:
Under the influence of the tragédie lyrique: transformation of so-called fixed genres as opera seria and the reciprocal influences.
The "fine" in transition: convention and lieto fine versus tragico fine. Ideas of new reality and "veracity" - ways to ecstasy and transfiguration as catharsis.
Semplicita - new approaches to expression versus new qualities of virtuosity - or: preparing the way to Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini and others (including the discussion of aesthetics)
The struttura and fattura or the density of the score: techniques in vicinity of the Viennese Classic versus counterpoint and first traces of Leitmotivik and Leitideas in the field of semantic meanings and importance.
New ways of semantics: exploring Klangfarben, instrumentation, and phenomena in harmonics.
The new hero: characters in transition, the anti-hero and the consequences
Witch- Megaera-Femme fatale: female protagonists as keycodes to new expressions and enrichments of the melodrama/opera - an answer to tendencies of independency and emancipation or: exploring new fields (of sound, voice-characteristics, drama)? [Medea, Queen of the night, Alisbertha, Leonora, etc] versus: naivité, and transfiguration by intention? [reception: Pamela and others]
A new curiosity: existential situations under the focus: new psychology or verosimilitas?: Defining and transition of certain scene-structures in the drama per musica/tragédie lyrique and their reception.
The drama per musica/melodrama and opera as melting point and on the way to the Gesamtkunstwerk: Opera between new tendencies of the theatre, in the field of farsa, as secularisation of the oratorio? - Reception of Shakespeare and others and its importance.
The importance of ethnology, sciences and other "realities": integration and adaptation of "foreign" parameters or enrichment? The search for new identities and new aspects of perception or only a fugitive transitoriness? (Le Bon Sauvage, other identities, nature and its importance, fugue, acceptance or possibility?) [the influence of Herder, the systematic collection and observation of foreign musical cultures, etc.]
Under the wings of revolution: Incarnation of the terror and mass- phenomena: new contents, a new approach to the individual, the new importance of "couleur locale".
