Composer and Painter in one Pod

Just as an author paints a landscape with words, so does the composer when he attaches music to a libretto. He draws the listener into a drama of his choosing by engaging our auditory sense. It sounds so obvious and yet we often forget that this phenomenon exists. Let’s see how this concept plays itself out in opera – Rigoletto for example. The aristocrat Monterone has cursed Rigoletto; the latter is mortified. In the following scene, Rigoletto is on his way home. He cannot shake the curse from his mind; he is pre-occupied by it. Sparafucile, a professional assassin, approaches Rigoletto and the scene becomes a duet. [https://youtu.be/A9CIr6vhsq0]. Two men are engaged in conversation. Are they standing or walking? At the same gait? Most people would say that Rigoletto and Sparafucile are stationary. But the second question is suspicious; why raise it at all? The lilting music that accompanies the scene makes the listener cautious as to the intent of the composer. [00:47 – 01:45]. This musical figure, which is used as an accompaniment, is prominent for nearly a full minute. It has four beats to a measure where the rest is equal to the sound oom and the note is equal to the sound pah. When the figure is played together, and in a continuum, the result is oom-pah, pah-oom, oom-pah-pah-oom, oom-pah-pah-oom etc. If we were to pace this out, we would realize that we are limping or, at best, shuffling along. Verdi is telling us that in addition to being a hunchback, Rigoletto also limps. That and more. The conversation between Rigoletto and Sparafucile takes place as both men are moving. The flowing quality of the melody itself, at the very least, suggests Sparafucile’s gait which, of course, is different than that of Rigoletto. It is a brilliant piece of writing that shows Verdi’s outstanding ability to describe human interaction with sensitive accuracy and, in a sense, painting a vivid picture in musical terms.

Association, Registration, Authentication

An opera composer writes music to a text that he has written or, as in most cases, was written for him by a librettist who he has commissioned. The finished product is an amalgam of word and melody that depicts a specifically defined expanse of time and place. Like the master tailor who sews a custom-made garment, the opera composer takes into account the minutest of details to ensure that the finished product is as individual as the customer who ordered the garment. The greater the attention to detail, the finer is the quality of the product. As the weave and texture of the fabric evoke to the tailor all sorts of associative ideas relevant to the possibilities of self- expression, so do the flavors and the scents of the settings in the story provide inspiration for musical creativity to the composer. Add to this the factor of human inter-relations and the difference between the tailor and the composer becomes exponentially apparent. Though music by its nature may be a free agent, once it has been joined to a specific mass, it becomes inextricably and irrevocably limited to and associated with that mass. Take, for example, Puccini’s opening to La Bohème. Originally the music was written by Puccini in his Capriccio Sinfonica, for his final exam at the Conservatory of Milano. But who remembers that? The association is with the opera. That and more. As the opening melody is associated Puccini’s opera, so is the story including the scenery, costumes, and venue; they are all part of Puccini’s vision of Paris, as he described it in his work. Changing any part of his concept is to taint the flavor of Puccini’s masterpiece. Puccini’s work as is has been registered in the annals of opera; one may not scavenge it for its individual components. To do so would be to divest it of the composer’s visualization. Staging Puccini’s work as he envisioned it, is to authenticate it. Check out my book in http//:amzn.to/20qeTNd Read more at my blog http//:bit.ly/2qiNXR8

Stage Instructions

Stage Instructions The composer’s stage instructions are important and crucial to opera performances. They are a window, as it were, to our understanding of the issues the composer presents in his work. To disregard them means that we are altering the work, sometimes in a drastic way. An example from Verdi’s Otello will serve to clarify this important concept. Act IV. Desdemona has gone to bed and anxiously awaits Otello’s entrance. She is full of foreboding and is uneasy. Otello enters. The music is eerie and the atmosphere is full of mystery and tension. In the scene that follows Otello accuses his wife of infidelity which she vehemently denies. Otello is beyond reason; he has resolved to murder Desdemona based on Iago’s cleverly orchestrated evidence. As Otello’s rage increases with Desdemona’s every hapless and frenzied attempt to deny the false accusations, the tempi of Verdi’s music increase and the orchestra’s volume rises as though a horse is galloping uncontrollably at breakneck speed. Finally, Otello murders Desdemona. Of course, the truth comes out in the end and Otello, full of remorse, stabs himself to death at the foot of the bed where his beloved wife’s inert body lay. https://youtu.be/Uyy2CuTQ_oE Verdi’s stage instruction is clear. Otello is to suffocate Desdemona to death. For whatever reason, best known to stage directors, some productions, have their Otellos stab, Desdemona. It is a small detail; after all, Desdemona dies anyhow. So why make an issue of this matter? But the difference between death by stabbing and by suffocation is tremendous. Consider the following. A person who uses an instrument to commit murder need only throw the instrument aside. By this simple act, he divests himself from any involvement with the deed – a kind of ablution. Suffocation is different; its effect is achieved only when the victim breathes his last and the hand that suffocates must apply pressure until the deed is completed. One cannot discard one’s limb. He virtually watches as the victim’s life ebbs away. Such murder is much more personal, more intimate; the emotional investment is far greater. Verdi was well aware of the difference; he was sensitive and understood the human condition. His instruction to the stage director was made intentionally. Such liberties as taken by stage directors do a terrible injustice to the composers’ deep understanding of and respect for the human spirit for they do not take into sufficient account the composer’s deep involvement and investment in his creation. Check out my book in http//:amzn.to/20qeTNd