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