U.o.a.s. "Lucia Di Lammermoor"

I prefer to watch the entire opera. I am following it with two monitors. In one, the libretto; in the other, the video. I watched LA PARTENZA, tomorrow I will watch the first act and if I can, also the second. I would like to continue, to understand what happens after Edgardo's departure, but if I continue I risk going to sleep at 5, and tomorrow at 7 the nightstand will be dancing.

Thallo, I gave it. I am still alive, so excellent choice

Can you tell us something regarding the female figure in nineteenth-century dramaturgy?

But rather tell me what you think about the subject

That is, for those who don't know much about opera, the figure of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor has often been taken as a model to explain the dramaturgical-vocal treatment of female figures in Romantic opera.

What do you know about it, Tiger?

thallo wrote:

But rather tell me what you think about the subject

That is, for those who don't know much about opera, the figure of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor has often been taken as a model to explain the dramaturgical-vocal treatment of female figures in Romantic opera.

What do you know about it, Tiger?

First question, caught immediately

Jokes aside, what comes to mind for me in general is the typification of characters, such as the soprano representing the female heroine, the tenor the figure of the lover, the bass/baritone the seducer or the jealous one... or something like that.

In Bellini's Puritani, or in Verdi's Trovatore, the baritone and the tenor are lovers of the same woman.

In Verdi (which I know more about), this framework expands and the romantic relationship intertwines with situations of a political, social, and moral nature. The themes treated in Verdi's operas are:

•The emotional bond between father and children (Rigoletto, Traviata, and Aida), the patriarchal structure of the Italian bourgeois family of the era.

•Friendships and power between State and Church (see the opera Don Carlos).

•The attainment of power (see the opera Macbeth)

•The sense of honor (Ernani)

•Marital fidelity (Stiffelio and Otello).

•The struggle for freedom against the foreigner (Nabucco, La battaglia di Legnano, Attila).

The figure of the tyrant is recurring in nineteenth-century operas and has as an antagonist the exile, the political refugee who represents the position of the hero and becomes the main protagonist of the opera.

Other characters characterize works such as "The Pirates," "The Gypsies," or "The Bandits" ("Il Pirata" by Bellini; "Il Corsaro," "I masnadieri," and "Il Trovatore" by Verdi).

Other characters are reprehensible or outcast people like "Rigoletto," a court jester and hunchback, or a woman of the world in the Parisian environment as in "Traviata."

The female figure, devoted to sacrifice, dominates nineteenth-century dramaturgy: unhappy heroines, who are often disappointed lovers, and the disappointment of love itself can lead to madness and "madness" scenes that present moments of intense pathos accompanied by vocal virtuosity (as indeed in "Lucia di Lammermoor").

Just off the top of my head ...

as a start, it's not bad.

Let's put the discussion into a general framework, so as to explain it also to those who truly know nothing about opera (and you don't seem to be such a case).

Operatic dramaturgy is a very complex theme. By operatic dramaturgy, one means that particular way of "conveying meaning" that opera lirica possesses. A minuet is "only" a minuet, it is music, but an operatic aria is an aria (with its musical, formal, and vocal characteristics), it is a moment within a drama (so it can be sung while it's raining, in the middle of a war, in prison, in a thousand different situations), it is sung by a character (and therefore with the words and attitudes of that character). These overlaps between music, libretto, and theater make opera a sign of its times, a very precise historical source. I don't know, Mozart's symphonies tell us little about late 18th-century Austrian society, but his operas, on the other hand, convey models that are much more relatable to society.

But here I will add one thing... most of the university and conservatory courses I have seen/heard regarding operatic dramaturgy limit themselves to talking about poetry, the libretto, or the dramas from which the librettos are drawn.

That is to say... Lucia yields to Enrico's political pressures and marries Arturo but then goes mad, kills Arturo, and dies. So, a vulnerable character who cannot overcome fate and is suffocated by it, a character who in the first aria speaks of ghosts, who arrives on stage with her wedding dress stained with blood, who goes mad on stage... well, all of this IS NOT Donizetti, it is WALTER SCOTT. Donizetti chooses the theme, obviously, and this tells us about his literary sensibility (Donizetti is often surrounded by an aura of ignorance, but in reality, he is one of the most cultured opera composers regarding libretto themes), but these are not the points where he intervenes. The Lucia created by Donizetti does not lie in the plot actions but in the "way" in which she acts, namely, how she sings.

Lucia's great final aria has the longest cadenza present in the repertoire, a cadenza conceived to be accompanied by the Glass Harmonica http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armonica_a_bicchieri, an instrument with an ethereal and "sepulchral" sound. With this instrument, Lucia engages in a duel; the duel between singer and instrument is typical of the 18th-century operatic tradition, often (but not only) simply a way to highlight the singer's vocal abilities. Donizetti takes an ancient stylization and decontextualizes it. Lucia's ethereal vocalizations are sung in a state of madness, in the middle of a scene where there are four other solo singers and a mixed choir, silent, and she has her wedding dress stained with blood (or, sometimes, her dressing gown, since it is assumed that the murder occurred during the consummation of the first night...). What seemed normal in the 1700s, namely a series of explained vocalizations, is completely out of the ordinary in the 1800s; it is madness. And it is one of the few moments in which a female character can let loose, giving vent to her vocalism.

The decontextualization of virtuosity is a constant in Donizetti, even if it is a characteristic that progressively decreases from the 1700s to the 1900s. It is the sign of a change in aesthetics, which becomes more expressive and less "ideal."

Example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8u4ynQW-rI

Edgardo's final aria, a wonderful aria, begins with a very complex recitative. This recitative is extremely Romantic, Sturm und Drang, one might say. You cannot tell where the recitative ends and the "tempo di attacco" begins, which is the introduction to the cantabile of the aria. "For me life is a horrible weight, the entire universe is a desert for me without Lucia" is already a wonderful melody. Then, however, "di faci tuttavia splende il castello" begins a modulating bridge, because the entire beginning of the scene and the recitative is in B-flat major, but the aria, the cantabile "Fra poco a me ricovero," is in D major. And so the tensions of the modulation are channeled into these final bars, as well as the vocal tension, since in the score there is a wonderful and very difficult cadenza that reaches the B-flat on "io della morte."

Donizetti invented much of these dramaturgical and formal languages.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armonica_a_bicchieri

Open content (youtube)

... my doubts regarding the interest that the work arouses in classical musicians are increasingly being reinforced ...

thallo wrote:

... my doubts regarding the interest that the work arouses in classical musicians are growing stronger and stronger ...

... don't tell me you're one of those who throws in the towel after the first attempt?

I was already licking my chops for the second gem

I enjoyed it very much, it's just that between you and Tiger you have already written much of what I had in mind... so I enjoyed the show

Same here, I wouldn't really know what to say other than that I enjoyed it very much...

Thallo, I am really enjoying your effort... unfortunately I don't have much time but I always follow

you are lifting my spirits

quick question: do you prefer that I continue saying something about Lucia or should I propose something else directly?

...can anything else be said?

I believe that if you keep talking about Lucia, questions might come up...