HISTORY 204 – 20^TH-CENTURY OPERA

(F-11)

1. Drama in 19^th-century opera

Beginning in the late 18^th century librettists and composers developed conventions for opera in which music and drama were tightly linked in specific ways

The opera told this story through a succession of scenes, each centered around an action or an event that moved the story along – Often scenes could be extended to encompass several events, each leading to the next – Connections between events were logical (though often extremely unlikely)

Music (vocal and instrumental) was tightly linked to the story – It set scene and mood - It conveyed the characters’ personalities and changing emotions – It reflected the actions and events that took place on stage – In principle music, words and action onstage all told the audience the same thing at the same time

These are conventions of Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Weber, Donizetti, Verdi, Meyerbeer, Wagner, Massenet, Bizet, Tchaikovsky

We still take these conventions more or less for granted – But they aren’t the only way to tell a story onstage in song and instrumental music – E.g. 18^th-century opera seria drama stopped during arias – Singspiel, vaudeville (and Broadway musicals) alternate speech and song and the songs are pretty much for entertainment, not for drama – Oratorios don’t put the action onstage at all . . .

It’s hard to step back and get perspective on possibilities of opera and drama outside 19^th-century operatic model

2. Continuity and change in 20^th-century opera

In the 20^th century several composers (and librettists and producers) tried free themselves from these operatic conventions and find new ways to tell stories in song – Other composers continued very successfully in the 19^th-century tradition – Many composers did both

Examples of continuity

Puccini – Mme. Butterfly, Fanciulla del West

Berg – Wozzeck, Lulu

Strauss – Salome, Rosenkavalier

Shostakovich – Lady Macbeth

Janacek - Jenufa

Britten – Peter Grimes, Turn of Screw

Poulenc – Dialogues of the Carmelites

Examples of change

Strauss – Ariadne auf Naxos

Poulenc et al – The Wedding at the Eiffel Tower

Ravel – The Child and the Spells

Stravinsky – Oedipus, Rake’s Progress

Orff – Antigone

Janacek – Cunning Vixen, House of the Dead

Weill – 3-Penny Opera, Mahagonny

Britten – Curlew River

Messiaen – St. Francis of Assisi

Glass – Einstein on the Beach, Akhnaten

Stockhausen – Licht

Theofanides – Heart of a Soldier (2011)

List of change shows

All that the ‘change’ operas have in common is that they discard the 19^th-century model – How they do that, and what is the composer’s intent vary tremendously from one opera to another

Innovations in music-drama relation not necessarily connected with musical idiom – Some operas had radical harmonies but traditional dramaturgy (e.g. Berg); some had radical dramaturgy but traditional harmonies (e.g. Weill, Strauss)

Many composers were both conservators and changers – e.g. Strauss, Janacek, Britten

No dominant new convention emerged in the 20^th century – there were many different approaches to transforming 19^th-century model

I will illustrate with 2 examples from each

Continuity: Wozzeck (NAWM 143)

Peter Grimes (NAWM 161)

Change: House of the Dead (Supplementary)

Mahagonny (supplementary)

3. Brecht’s essay on “epic theater” (prep 4)

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) – German poet and playwright – Anti-establishment and modernist, Communist from mid-1920s – Collaborated on theater projects with Weill, Eisler, Hindemith – Fled Germany in 1932 – Exile in US – obliged to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee before he could leave US - Returned to East Germany in 1949 – Librettist for several operas with Kurt Weill: Threepenny Opera (1928), Mahagonny (1930), Jasager/Neinsager (1930), 7 Deadly Sins (1933)

Brecht calls 19^th-century conventions “dramatic opera”; also “culinary” opera, meaning that the audience consumes and enjoys the opera like a good meal – contrasts “dramatic/culinary" opera with “epic opera”

Epic theater presents the story rather than re-enacting it

no continuity of scene or action, non-linear development

doesn’t try to involve spectator

stimulates reason, not feeling

“separation of elements” – i.e. music, text, action, staging, etc. deliver their messages independently – often they work at cross purposes (e.g. glutton scene) – purpose: to force spectator to think about story rather than being swept up in the story

seeks social change rather than aesthetic or emotional satisfaction

Note that 19^th-century operas may have some of the characteristics that Brecht assigns to “epic” opera – e.g. Beethoven’s Fidelio and Verdi’s Nabucco advocate social change – Mozart and Verdi occasionally “separate elements” for irony (e.g. the dance music in the next room as Violetta and Alfredo talk in Traviata Act 1)

“epic theater” was Brecht’s slogan – Other people didn’t tend to use it – But other composers and librettists used these techniques, even if they didn’t acknowledge or even know about Brecht

epic theater was only one of several approaches to transformation of traditional dramaturgy – Strauss took a very different approach in Ariadne (parody), Orff took a different approach in Antigone (ritual), Britten in Curlew River (Japanese noh drama)

For more discussion of Brecht's ideas about epic theater, see: http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ppandp/PDFs/Brecht-a%20brief%20overview.pdf

4. Kurt Weill and Bert Brecht – Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930)

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) – Student of Busoni – musical idiom is a combination of vernacular and neoclassicism – Several collaborations with Brecht in 1920s-30s: Threepenny Opera (1928), Mahagonny (1930), Jasager/Neinsager (1930), 7 Deadly Sins (1933) – To US in 1935 – Wrote for Broadway theater: Lady in the Dark (1937 w/ Ira Gershwin), One Touch of Venus (1943 w/ Ogden Nash), Street Scene (w/ Langston Hughes, 1947), Love Life (1948, w/ Allen J. Lerner)

Threepenny Opera (Berlin 1928) had been huge success – Assimilation of American pop-jazz idiom – politics somewhat disguised by 18th-century setting

Mahagonny is a more explicitly political opera – B & W’s aim is to demonstrate the evils of the capitalist economic and political system and to persuade the audience of the need for social revolution

Premise of Mahagonny – Criminals found a new city where “anything goes” (i.e. modern capitalist society) – Jenny ( a prostitute) and Jimmy (a lumberjack) both arrive – The excesses, vices and injustices of capitalist society are graphically depicted – At the end Jimmy runs out of money and is sentenced to death because he can’t pay his bills

PLAY Jenny’s arrival (DVD track 4) – A famous song! (covered by Jim Morrison, David Bowie) - What is relation between music and drama? – none, the narrator tells you everything you need to know at the beginning – The song illustrates the position of women in capitalist society as commodities

PLAY the eating contest – DVD 23 – This doesn’t advance any plot – Its purpose is to illustrate the perversion of values in modern society – The next scene, about sex, is even more graphic

(if time) PLAY part of last scene, the trial and conviction of Jimmy Mahoney – DVD 33 etc.

5. Alban Berg (1885-1935) – Wozzeck (1922, 1^st performance, 1925)

Wozzeck was based on Woyzeck, a play by Georg Büchner, written in 1837 but not published until late 19^th century – Berg saw it in 1914 – True story of an soldier (an orderly) who murdered his wife, then drowned himself – Study in psychological realism: why would someone do a thing like that? – Berg enhances psychology and emotion with music

Premier was 1925 in Berlin – Controversial but critically acclaimed – Wozzeck was the most successful work by Schoenberg and friends - Performed by many other opera companies in 20s and 30s – Banned in Germany by Nazis after 1933

Wozzeck follows Schoenberg style: atonal (mostly), organized with motifs and counterpoint – But he differs also: occasional diatonic tunes, folk and pop idioms (even when atonal – e.g. lullaby), Leitmotiven for each character – Remember Wozzeck is not a 12-tone piece

Tavern scene – NAWM 143

What happens? – Wozzeck’s crime is discovered

What does music do in scene? – sets mood, portrays W’s character, moves action along, highlights discovery of crime

PLAY DVD track 15 – Listen for how music fits with drama – Despite the atonal idiom, this is very much how Verdi or Puccini would have constructed this scene

Berg called this scene “invention on a rhythm” – the rhythmic motif in piano mm. 122-125 appears throughout scene in various shapes (augmented, diminished, etc)

FIND examples of rhythm in the score (e.g. m.145 simultaneously augemented (strings, horn) and diminished (drum), m.175 in vocal line, m. 180 horns and strings in canon, at end in percussion)

WHAT does the rhythm represent? [knowledge of the crime, guilt] - rhythmic motif provides continuity in scene but it changes character as Wozzeck’s crime is discovered from playful to threatening

Review NAWM notes on rhythmic motif

6. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) – Peter Grimes (1945)

Before the war Britten had composed mainly orchestral and chamber music – One opera: Paul Bunyan (1941) – Grimes was composed during the War and produced immediately after it (June, 1945) – Very successful – Reasons for success (?): 1) successful setting of English speech; 2) anti-war, anti-establishment mood of the public (Labour Party won election in July, 1945)

Story of Peter Grimes – Set in early 19^th century, based on poem by George Crabbe - Impoverished, loner fisherman who abuses his apprentices (one has died at sea and a judge has forbidden Grimes to hire another) – Condemned and persecuted by villagers – Ellen Orford (schoolteacher) befriends him and tries to civilize (and marry) him – He rejects her kindness, defies the villagers and takes a new apprentice, who disappears in his turn – A posse of villagers comes looking for Grimes - Grimes rows out to sea and sinks his boat

What is story about? – Individual vs. society . . . Persecution of homosexuals . . . Britten said it was: "a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual."

Striking features of the opera

Rural setting is proletarian instead of pastoral

Musical setting of colloquial English

Much choral writing to represent villagers and public opinion

Orchestral interludes represent the sea

Is Grimes a “dramatic” or an “epic” opera – Dramatic, for sure

One event leads to or causes the next event in the story

The drama is embodied in the music – the characters are similarly embodied in the music

The spectator gets very involved in the characters and their problems

Act 1, scene 1 – “Hi, give us a hand” (not in NAWM)

This is an excerpt from a long continuous scene in which Grimes interacts with the villagers in several situations – Here he asks for help hauling in his boat, then declares his determination to obtain another apprentice

Listen for how the music conveys character (the villagers, Grimes, Ellen) and co-ordinates with action

recit, arioso and choral numbers are clearly distinguished

the orchestra plays motifs as in Wagner

PLAY DVD 8-9

The NAWM excerpt is the last scene in the opera – Peter gets in his boat and rows out to sea – The villagers (through field glasses) watch him drown – The video will be on reserve if you have time to watch – The excerpt begins in chapter 50 at 2:12

(if time) PLAY DVD track 51-52 – final chorus of villagers

7. Leos Janacek (1854-1928) – From the House of the Dead (1928)

House exemplifies Brecht’s notion of “epic theater,” even though it was written before Brecht’s essay and the Brecht-Weill operas

How different from 19^th-century operas?

No plot – (almost) nothing happens onstage

Most dialogue is humdrum, everyday speech – doesn’t advance the action

Stories are narrated rather than represented in action

Central episode is a pantomime (no singing at all)

Janacek biography

b. 1854 – older than Mahler, Strauss, Debussy, Puccini

From Moravia - Quintessential "late bloomer" – Principal musical work before age 50 were folk song collections, orchestrated folk dances, men's choruses

Jenufa – premier 1904 at Brno – very successful but not performed elsewhere – until Prague in 1916 – This performance launched Jancek's international career (he was 62)

Stream of works from 1916 to 1928: 2 string quartets, Diary of One who Vanished (1917), Glagolitic Mass (1926), Sinfonietta (1926), 5 operas of which House of the Dead is the last

House of the Dead is based on a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky – A memoir of 5 years D spent in prison in Siberia for political activities – published in 1864 – Dostoevsky’s aim was to show Russian readers what Siberia was really like – It’s a collection of observations and anecdotes – Not a promising source for an opera (no story, no female roles!)

Janacek wrote his own libretto, translating from Russian to Czech – He creates a bit of framework plot: Goryanchikov, a political prisoner (Dostoevsky) is brought into prison at the beginning, released at the end – In between prisoners interact idly, bully one another, stage a Christmas pantomime, and tell stories

Focus is on prisoner narratives – Three men tell the stories of the crimes that put them in jail – Action is narrated rather than enacted – All stories involve oppression and violence, 2 of 3 involve love – narratives are very compelling because: 1) you don’t see extreme actions onstage; you hear people describe those actions; 2) language is so much like real speech

Janacek’s theories about music and speech – Believed that speech was the ultimate source of music – Felt that people revealed themselves in the way they talked - Kept notebooks transcribing overheard speech in music notation – Tried to set libretto exactly as the words sounded in spoken Czech (rhythms, pitches)

(if time) – PLAY DVD track 2 – Goryanchikov’s entry – Watch and listen for: banal realism of action, speech setting, how the orchestra picks up on speech rhythms – Also for ostinato motifs in orchestra – HANDOUT with English text

Skuratov’s story – Second of 3 narratives - Skuratov narrates how he he fell in love with a German girl; her family married her off to a watchmaker; S shot the new husband – The narration makes the crime understandable because it draws you into the perpetrator’s mind – The shooting (which would be the climactic event in a 19^th-century opera) is almost incidental, because that’s not what’s important to the narrator – All he can think about still is the girl

PLAY DVD track 7