Academic literature on the topic 'Mythology, Classical, in opera'

Lack of insight into Greek antiquity, more specifically the nature of classical tragedy and mythology, could be one reason for the negative reception of Benjamin Britten’s last opera Death in Venice. In the first place, this article considers Britten’s opera based on Thomas Mann’s novella as a manifestation of classical tragedy. Secondly, it is shown how mythological characters in Mann’s novella represent abstract ideas2 in Britten’s opera, thereby enhancing the dramatic impact of the opera considerably. On the one hand it is shown how the artist’s inner conflict manifests itself in a dialectic relationship between discipline and inspirat ion in Plato’s Phaedrus dialogue that forms the basis of Aschenbach’s monologue at the end of the opera. The conflict between Aschenbach’s rational consciousness and his irrational subconscious, on the other hand, is depicted by means of mythological figures, Apollo and Dionysus. Two focal points in the opera, namely the Games of Apollo at the end of Act 1 and the nightmare scene which forms the climax of the opera in Act 2, are used to illustrate the musical manifestation of this conflict.

Abstract In his late writings, Jean-Philippe Rameau attributed mystical, almost divine qualities to the corps sonore, a fundamental element in his theory of harmonic generation. This article traces the use that Rameau made of the corps sonore in his stage works as part of a tradition of the oracular pronouncements in the French opera. In addition to using it to symbolize enlightenment, starting from the late 1740s Rameau used it to accompany the spells of the benevolent magicians who take the place of the deities of Classical mythology. The fact that the librettist of these works, Louis de Cahusac, was closely associated with Freemasonry substantiates a case for the influence of progressive philosophy over Rameau. This impacted not only the thematics of his stage works, but the symbolic use of the corps sonore in his musical philosophy and the political message conveyed through his operas.

«Перепела в саркофаге» (1979) — одна из ранних театральных работ Сальваторе Шаррино, написанная по заказу Венецианского музыкального биеннале. Предметом статьи является поэтика оперы, а также механизмы деформирования образа реальности, лежащие в основе мифов массовой культуры ХХ века и ставшие одной из композиторских стратегий, позволяющих выявить основную тему «Перепелов» — непрочность и переменчивость восприятия. Мифология, изъеденная потреблением, или, как ее называет Шаррино, «денатурированная мифология» нашла отражение в сложной интертекстуальной структуре либретто, которое включает в себя фрагменты литературных произведений и пьес, мемуаров и документальной хроники, философско-эстетических и научных эссе, поэзии и текстов эстрадных шлягеров 1920–40-х годов. Контаминация несовместимых компонентов («художественное „амбигю“») становится руководящим драматургическим принципом, проникающим на вербальный, визуальный и музыкально-стилевой уровни сценического синтеза оперы. В фокусе внимания автора также оказываются: воплощение трех сквозных образов-архетипов (Сирены, Идеальные Голоса и Платье), определяющих шарриновскую концепцию денатурированной мифологии; рассмотрение музыкально-драматургических и композиционных закономерностей «Перепелов», в основе которых лежат повторяющиеся «мифические схемы»; характеристика принципов структурирования и взаимодействия семантических слоев оперы, пения и разговорного диалога; изучение механизмов включения и стратегий искажения заимствованного материала из классической музыки, американских джазовых стандартов и европейских шлягеров первой половины ХХ века. Cailles en sarcophage (1979) is one of Salvatore Sciarrino’s early theatrical works, commissioned by the Venice Music Biennale. The subject of the article is the poetics of the opera, as well as the mechanisms of deformation of the image of reality, which underlie the myths of mass culture of the 20th century and have become one of the composer’s strategies that make it possible to identify the main theme of Cailles — fragility and variability of perception. Mythology distorted by consumption, or, as Sciarrino calls it, “denatured mythology” reveals itself in the complex intertextual structure of the libretto, which includes fragments of literary works and plays, memoirs and documentary chronicles, philosophical, aesthetic and scientific essays, poetry and texts of pop hits of the 1920–1940s. Contamination of incompatible components (the “artistic ambigu”) becomes a guiding dramaturgical principle that penetrates the verbal, visual and musical-stylistic levels of the stage synthesis of the opera. The author’s attention is also focused on: the embodiment of three end-to-end archetype images (Sirens, Ideal Voices and Dress), defining Sciarrino’s concept of denatured mythology; consideration of the musical, dramatic and compositional features of Cailles, which are based on repetitive “mythical schemes”; characteristics of the principles of structuring and interaction of semantic layers of opera, singing and conversational dialogue; study of the inclusion mechanisms and strategies for distorting citations from classical music, American jazz standards and European hits of the first half of the 20th century.

The article examines the image of the Perm musical theatrе's viewer, formed in the theatrical environment of the regional center in 2011-2019. It was established that the myth designed by the artistic director of The Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre allows the neophyte to enter the traditionally closed world of classical music by building a specific plot (the logic of the fairy tale). The methodology is based on the concept of V. Ya. Propp. Using its language, the author indicates the stages of the intelligent viewer’s entry into the world of musical theatre. The process of becoming the viewer is based on the concept’s key elements (rite of passage - the madness of the neophyte - mastering the “cunning science”), which exist in the form of the plot’s “embryos” in the personal mythology of T. Currentzis. The main mythological motifs and images read by viewers influence the formation of their own practices of self-presentation. Focused interviews with viewers in Perm, which were conducted by the author in 2016-2019, are used as a source.

The subject of the article is the phenomenon of vitality in music. It is considered as a generic feature of music dating back to its origins and early forms. The historical evolution of musical vitality is briefly described, presented on individual examples, starting from the late Baroque, the works by I. Haydn, L. Beethoven, R. Wagner, A. Scriabin up to D. Shostakovich and the composers of the second half of the 20th — first third of the 21st centuries, to whom the main attention is paid. The purpose of the article is to identify specific, relatively stable forms of vitality’s manifestation which materialize both in individual elements of the musical language (such, for example, is the new monody that arose with the birth of opera at the beginning of the 17th century), and in integral phenomena of a systematic order. Among the stylistic events of the second kind, the article is specifically examined the concept of creation, the gesture of birth. Gradually, it crystallizes in music as thematic constant (based on biblical mythology, as in Haydn’s Creation of the World oratorio), but eventually emancipates from the plot basis, acquiring the universal significance. The result of the research is the identification of the mythological origins of the concept of creation; in some cases they come to the forefront (Introduction to the opera The Rhinegold by Wagner; Stimmung for six vocalists and electronics by K. Stockhausen). Another version of the concept of creation is formed in line with the romantic tradition. Then the birth of the world is associated with the lonely voice of the hero — the initial monologue of the solo instrument dramatically opposed to the orchestral mass (works of the concert genre by A. Schnittke, S. Gubaidulina, W. Lutosławski, B. Tishchenko, E. Denisov). In all such cases, the heightened sense of vitality is enhanced by special performing techniques. In the new music, the concept of creation is further developed and logically completed. The gesture of creation is no longer answered by the final statement of existence but by the gesture of destruction, annihilation of sound material — attenuation, acoustic extinction. The feeling of vitality in such compositions is specific, since musical material lives in them according to its own laws as if it doesn’t need a mirror of the subject (large orchestral compositions by Ch. Ives, Ya. Ksenakis, V. Tarnopolsky). The new music “brings to play” other non-classical aspects of vitality associated with threshold states on the verse of life and death. Starting with I. Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring the vitality of transgression becomes a noticeable phenomenon of contemporary music.