Notes for Wednesday
of Week 11
LECTURE TOPIC: THEATRICAL MUSIC OF THE
ROMANTIC ERA
Watch the following YouTube
clips for Rossini, Wagner, Bizet and Verdi, and
be prepared to write about /discuss those excerpts in class )--Focus
just on these 4 clips for now
(1816)
Rossini, The Barber of Seville (Italian opera buffa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_0wPYFp9A
[Note: In this aria, Figaro (the town barber) is telling the audience just how important and
in-demand he is.
The
singer (Leo Nucci at the Metropolitan Opera)
improvises/adds extra notes to make his performance unique. The focus is on
beautiful singing ("bel canto"). We also
see that Rossini likes to excite his audience by getting faster and
faster/louder and louder]
(1851-74) Wagner, Die Walkure from Der Ring des Nibelungen
(German Musikdrama)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWBAWJ0IPy0
[Note: The subtitles of this clip are in Spanish, but the basic idea is that Siegmund must defend Sieglinde
in a battle for her freedom, and he will use all the love he has for her to
give him the power to extract the magic sword from the tree. Notice the huge
brass, and the power demands on the singers.]
-
A fuller synopsis of this complex 4-night story is provided near the bottom of
this page.
(1875) Bizet, Carmen
(French Grand Opera)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2XyHfi50yE
Here is a clip of the famous "Habanera" sung by Carmen as she seduces
Dom Jose for the first time.
-
Listen to the exotic, chromatic melody, colorful orchestra, and the psychodrama
as it unfolds.
(1887) Verdi, Otello (Italian opera seria)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ms4ek0vbQ
--just watch a few minutes of this clip to get an idea of how different it
is than Rossini's style.
Verdi makes tremendous dramatic and technical
demands on the singers in the Italian "bel
canto" style ("beautiful singing"), with large orchestra,
chorus, and spectacular costumes/scenery
More on Romantic opera styles:
ITALIAN
Opera buffa in the Romantic Era
During Beethoven's lifetime, Rossini's
non-political/highly-entertaining Italian comic operas became very popular all
across Europe.
- Example: Rossini: The Barber of Seville (1816)--Music Guide 45
on p. 21 of the MUS1700 Resource Guide)
This
type of Italian opera still used the traditional operatic structure:
1) Opening "Overture"--now comprised of quotations of famous tunes
from the opera itself;
2) all text is sung--no spoken dialogue;
3) recitative/aria alternation leading to duets/trios and finally ensembles to
end each act;
4) focus is on spectacular singing.
Overall plot: In this cute 2-act opera buffa, the
town barber Figaro, helps Count Almaviva outwit the
bumbling old/retired Dr. Bartolo to win the hand of
Rosina.
ITALIAN
Opera seria in the Romantic Era
During
the Romantic era, other Italian composers--especially Verdi--brought serious
Italian opera to new heights.
- Example: Verdi: Otello (1887)
Verdi makes tremendous dramatic and technical demands on the singers
in the Italian "bel canto" style ("beautiful
singing"), with large orchestra, chorus, and spectacular costumes/scenery
ITALIAN
"Verismo" opera
- The
Italians never gave up on beautiful singing, but after Wagner's impact on
theatrical world, they decided to adopt a more realistic sense of continuous drama
known as "verismo" [which means
"true-to-life"].
One of the most famous verismo operas is Puccini's La
Boheme (See Music Guide 52 on p. 12 of the MUS1700
Resource Guide)
-----
FRENCH
"GRAND OPERA"
-
French opera as a tradition of extravagance ever since the middle Baroque;
however, in the Romantic era, French opera moved to a massive scale--not only
in size/scope, but in expression, exoticism/eroticism/psycho-drama. (See Bizet: Carmen--Music Guide 47 on p.
12 of the MUS1700 Resource Guide)-- a psycho-drama which features a
highly-colorful orchestra, lavish singing, some spicy action, and spoken French
dialogue interspersed at critical moments of the story. Bizet adopts Wagner's
concepts of continuous drama, introductory Prelude instead of Overture, and
Leitmotifs (on a smaller scale than Wagner).
-----
GERMAN
"MUSIKDRAMA"
- Starting in
the 1840s, Wagner promoted a new theatrical format that he called "Musikdrama" to differentiate it from the
traditional Italian model that he felt had lost its sense of dramatic
continuity and purpose. He wanted a new approach that made music and drama
equal, and one that was truly "German"
- The most monumental of Wagner's Musikdramas is his 4-night/20-hour-long
Ring of the Nibelungs (See Music Guide 51,
on p. 13 of the MUS1700 Resource Guide)
- Wagnerian Musikdrama unites all theatrical
elements for the single purpose of driving the heavy dramatic/socio-political
story forward.
1) all text is sung in German--with no spoken dialogue;
2) the drama is continuous--no separation of recitative/aria;
3) the focus is on drama--singing is important but more based on power
than pure beauty;
4) The orchestra does not simply accompany the singers--the orchestra
renders a significant part of the story to the audience by playing Leitmotifs
at critical points
(a Leitmotif is a musical "signature theme" that represents a
particular character or concept in the story)
5) Each act starts with a musical "Prelude" instead of an
"overture"--the prelude is not a separate entity--it is woven seamlessly into
the opening scene;
For example, here is a YouTube excerpt of the Prelude and start of Act III of
Die Walkure--the famous "Ride of the
Valkyries"
that features Brunnhilde's Leitmotif (James Levine conducts
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PHINKZrwRs
Wagner's Ring cycle brings up very controversial subject matter, for the
purpose of getting his audience to question the norm. His socio-political
symbolism is to point out that aristocratic government with absolute/perpetual
control and lacking wisdom/compassion will ultimately destroy the lives of
innocent people.
- Wagner felt that an artist has the OBLIGATION (not just the opportunity)
to uplift and change society for the better.
For a more
vivid idea of the drama of this story, here is an exciting trailer of a 2004
movie adaptation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STRz6XyHghE&feature=PlayList&p=C332BE7D260BBCB5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11
The Ring Cycle
is a complex work that took Wagner 22 years to complete. He wrote the story,
the music, designed the scenery/costumes/special effects, created a series of
various-sized instruments called "Wagner Tubas" to give is orchestra
massive melodic brass that was not available at the time, and eventually he was
allowed to design and oversee the construction of his own opera house
[Bayreuth] in the German Alps.
Here
is an abbreviated synopsis of the four nights [yes, believe it or not this is
quite abbreviated for a 20-hour show], so read it to get the general idea of
what happens in this, the most monumental piece of theater in music history.
You can read the synopsis below and follow the diagram on Music Guide 51 (p. 13
of the MUS1700 Resource Guide)--the arrows in that Music Guide show you
who possesses the gold at each point in time.
DAS RHEINGOLD (Prequil to the Trilogy)
The
drama begins with a glimmer of gold high upon a craggy rock in the middle of
the river Rhine. The orchestra plays the gold's shimmering Leitmotif. A Nibelung dwarf, Alberich, comes
up to the surface of the earth where he encounters the Rhinemaidens.
He falls in love with one of them, but she cruelly rejects his advances. As she
mocks Alberich, this Rhinemaiden
flippantly reveals the secret of the gold's she is protecting (it allows its
possessor to rule the world--but ONLY BY RENOUNCING LOVE). Angrily, Alberich says he will never allow an ounce of love within
him ever again, and then climbs the craggy rock, steals the gold--and then
disappears back into middle earth where he enslaves his own people to make the
gold into fancy trinkets for his pleasure. Alberich
then forges some of the Rhinegold into an
all-powerful ring (powered by all-consuming hate), as well as a tarncap that allows him to change into any shape he can
think of.
Meanwhile,
the gods have their own problems: Wotan (the ruler of the gods) has
tried to appease his wife Fricka by having a
new palace built as a gift for her (Valhalla). Upon completing their task, the
builders--the twin Giants Fafner and Fasolt--ask to be paid by being granted immortality.
When Wotan refuses, the Giants steal Freia (Fricka's sister) and hold her as ransom until they are
satisfactorily paid in some other way. Learning of Alberich's
power, Loge (the god of fire and cunning) convinces Wotan to steal the
ring and tarncap from him. As Alberich
is being tricked out of the ring, he curses it and all those who possess
it--dooming the many mortals and immortals who will
attempt to own it over the next three nights. Once Wotan understands the
ring's power, he tries to keep it for himself (cursing the gods in the
process), but then he decides to use the ring to pay off the twin Giants. In
greed over the ring, Fafner kills his brother Fasolt, and then uses the ring and the tarncap
to change into a dragon who hoards the gold in a cave.
DIE WALKURE (The
Valkyrie)--"Trilogy, Part 1"
Act I
Wotan (the ruler of the Gods) represents eternal power without
common sense (so, symbolically, he also represents the aristocracy of Wagner's
time). His wife, Fricka (the goddess of
marriage and fidelity) represents those who follow the letter of the law
without common sense or compassion.
When
Wotan needs wisdom, he seeks out the goddess Erde
(Mother Earth), which constantly makes Fricka
jealous. Wotan decides to "solve" the problem by having offspring
with Erde--thus creating the 9 immortal Valkyries
who are conceived all at once. Fricka is angered by
the existence of the Valkyries--especially Brunnhilde
(the oldest, wisest and most beautiful of them) who is Wotan's favorite thing
in the universe. Fricka cannot do anything about
this, because the only way a Valkyrie can lose her immortality is to disobey a
direct command from Wotan.
Now
that the gods are cursed (see Das Rheingold, above), Wotan's only way to
end that curse is to get the ring back from Fafner,
and put all the gold back in the river Rhine before the gods are destroyed.
Wotan cannot intercede directly, because he willingly gave the ring to the
Giants. Wotan decides to secretly go to Earth, impregnate an unidentified
woman, so she can bear him a son who can save the world. Instead, this
earth-woman gives birth to mortal twins--a brother and sister: Sigmund and Sieglinde. Fricka is furious
and demands that Wotan kill them. Wotan cannot do this to his own children,
so he convinces Fricka that it will be good enough
just to separate Siegfried and Sieglinde, so they
will never know each other, and eventually grow old and die in obscurity.
Siegmund grows up to
be a fearless protector of innocent victims on earth. In a fight with his
enemies, he is injured and tries to find shelter in the forest. He stumbles
into a hut built around a tree, and encounters Sieglinde, the twin sister he has never known.
Her husband, Hunding, is a cruel man who won Sieglinde in a contest and treats her as a possession. Siegmund swears to free her from Hunding
the next morning in battle. [Here is the scene from the
YouTube clip, above] When Sieglinde leads
Sigmund to the tree in the center of her hut, he sees a powerful sword buried
in it up to its hilt. Sieglinde says the sword was left there by a one-eyed stranger who attended her
forced marriage to Hunding. No one has ever
been strong enough to withdraw it. Naming the sword "Notung"
("Need"), Siegmund wrenches it from the tree,
and in ecstasy the couple embraces and makes love, impregnating Sieglinde with their child, Siegfried. Later, they realize that the one-eyed
stranger who left the sword was Wotan, and that he is their father. There
is no time to worry about this--it is morning, and Hunding
is ready for the fight.
Act II
Wotan wants to help Siegmund in
the forthcoming fight, but Fricka violently
disagrees, saying that incestuous love should not be condoned, even if in this
case it was unintentional, and even if Hunding is
always abusive to Sieglinde. Not being able to kill
his own son, Wotan sadly commands Brunnhilde
to do the task for him. When Brunnhilde appears to Siegmund, he realizes he is about to be martyred, and says
he is willing to suffer the most painful death imaginable, as long as Hunding is not allowed to harm a hair on Sieglinde's head. Brunnhilde now understands why Wotan
could not kill Siegmund, and she decides to do what
Wotan really wants, so she defends both Sigmund and Sieglinde
so they can be together. Seeing this, Fricka forces
Wotan to intercede, and with an angry glance he breaks Siegmund's
magic sword in half, and Hunding kills Siegmund. Brunnhilde grabs Sieglinde and takes her on her flying horse to safety. In
disgust, Wotan slays Hunding, and then realizes he
has to pursue Brunnhilde now and take away her
immortal life for disobeying his command.
Act III
As
the rest of the Valkyries gather in Valhalla, Brunnhilde
arrives and tries to explain that Sieglinde
needs a safe place to bear her child so he can grow up and save the world. Her
Valkyrie sisters are woefully afraid of Wotan's wrath, so they refuse to help,
and they run into hiding when Wotan gets there to confronts Brunnhilde.
Knowing Wotan is about to take away her immortality by putting her to in to
a magic sleep, Brunnehilde wisely convinces her
heartbroken father to surround the rock she is on with magic fire, so that only
a fearless hero will pass through the flames to awaken and thereby own her (she
knows this will be Siegfried when he grows up). Wotan seals her fate with a
kiss, bids a fond farewell to his sleeping daughter as he puts her symbolic
shield (virtue), helmet (wisdom) and staff (power) upon her body, and then he
summons Loge to surround the rock with fire. [The
piano reduction of this scene and a segment in full-score are on pp. 112-117 of
the MUS1700 Resource Guide.]
-----
SIEGFRIED--"Trilogy, Part
2"
Act I
Hidden
away in the forest, Sieglinde has died giving birth
to Siegfried, who is then raised by a dwarf, Mime (a blacksmith, and the
brother of Alberich). When Siegfried grows up big and
strong, he realizes Mime is not his father, and he forced Mime to tell him
about his parents. Mime shows Siegfried the broken pieces of the magic sword,
and Siegfried figures out how to remeld it into one
piece to restore its magic. Mime knows the real power lies with Fafner (who is still in the shape of a dragon hoarding his
gold and his ring in a cave), so he hopes to trick Siegfried into slaying the
dragon and bringing the ring home where Mime can steal it.
Act II
Siegfried kills the
dragon and retrieves the ring and Tarncap, but these
have no power for him because he cannot renounce love (he has never known love,
since his was orphaned at birth and raise by the deceiver, Mime). Mime tries to
trick Siegfried into taking poison, but the dragon's blood has given Siegfried
the power to read Mime's mind, and he kills Mime in disgust. Siegfried, now
alone amid nature, realizes he can also read the thoughts of forest creatures,
so he asks a bird to send him a companion. The bird tells Siegfried about a
fallen warrior lying on a rock surrounded by fire; the bird flies off to show
Siegfried the way.
Act III
On the way, Siegfried
encounters Wotan, and uses the magic sword to break Wotan's symbolic spear in
half--thus ending Wotan's power over the universe. Siegfried then arrives at
the rock, plunges through the magic fire, and is surprised by what he finds on
the other side. He removes the protective armour from
the slumbering warrior and finds the beautiful Brunnhilde,
who returns to life from her slumbers. Her fears over losing her fierce
independence are overcome by the power of Siegfried's love, and they conclude
the opera in a long duet of ecstatic abandon. Siegfried gives her the ring as a
symbol of his love; Brunnhilde give his her horse
(who can no longer fly but is a spectacular steed).
-----
GOTTERDAMMERUNG ("The Twilight of the
Gods")--"Trilogy, Part 3"
Act I
Siegfried's
Rhine journey brings him to the Gibichung Hall, where
Gunther and his sister Gutrune rule. Also at court is
Hagen, their half-sibling and illegitimate son of the Nibelung
dwarf Alberich (Siegfried was born of love; Hagen was
born of hate and lust). As part of his plot to recover the ring, Hagen suggests
that Gunther should consolidate his power by marrying Brunnhilde,
while Gutrune marries Siegfried. Hagen provides Gutrune with a drug which will
make Siegfried forget other women. The trick works, and Siegfried is enraptured
enough with Gutrune to agree to win Brunnhilde for her brother Gunther. Meanwhile, one of the
Valkyrie sisters visits Brunnhilde, bringing a
request from Wotan that the ring should be returned to the Rhinemaidens,
in order to lift the curse over the gods; Brunnhilde
refuses to give up the ring (because it is a symbol of Siegfried's love), and
the fate of the gods is sealed. Later, Siegfried--disguised as Hagen--forces
the ring off Brunnhilde's hand and puts it on his
own.
Act
II
The next day, when Brunnhilde sees that Siegfried is
marrying Gutrune, she tells the real Hagen the secret
of how to kill Siegfried (by driving a spear into the small of his back--but
this will be difficult since the fearless Siegfried never turns his back on an
enemy).
Act III
Hagen tricks Siegfried into joining him on a hunting trip, then
he kills Siegfried, claiming it was a hunting accident. Hagen is unable to
wrest the ring from Siegfried's finger, so he decides to burn the body in a
funeral pyre in order to retrieve it. When Brunnhilde
sees that the ring is still on Siegfried's hand, she realizes that she and
Siegfried have been tricked. She decides to put an end to this madness by
mounting her horse, and leaping into the funeral pyre. She pulls the ring off
the hand of her beloved Siegfried, and throws the ring back into the Rhine
before she is consumed in flames [this is where Brunnhilde
sings her famous 10-minute "Immolation Scene" before she takes the
leap into the flames]. With the ring back in its rightful place, the river
Rhine swells and floods the world, cleansing it off all that has transpired.
The final scene of the Ring Cycle ends exactly as the first one had begun, with a glimmer of gold high upon a
craggy rock in the middle of the river Rhine, and the playing the gold's
shimmering Leitmotif, while the Rhinemaidens giggle
as they protect the gold once again.