# Music Embodying Drama



## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

That's what opera's all about, right? Well, not always. But it's what it should be about. I'm thinking of examples in which the music truly embodies the story told in the libretto, and enriches it too. I just wanted to give two of my favorite examples and invite others to give theirs or comment on these.

1. The love duet in Act II of _La fanciulla del west_
This is one of the great scenes in opera to me. The music embodies the dramatic situation, and enriches the characters and themes of the opera at the same time. It's really wonderful. 
So how does it do so? I would like to make a few comments, using this wonderful recording as reference:




I'm not going to deal with the wonderful arietta for Minnie at the beginning of the clip. Suffice to say it's a lovely moment of repose and reflection, with a marvelous orchestral effect (hard to hear here) of violin harmonics. Her aria "Oh se sapeste" is also a favorite of mine, with lots of tone painting going on (the pizzicato effect on the line about knocking on the door of heaven (5:21) - what orchestration!), but it's the duet that begins directly after that that elevates this scene to true greatness, and gives it literary quality, imo.

At 6:14-20, we get the whole tone sequence that represents the "problem" for the opera musically, this music occurring whenever the need for and prospect of redemption is introduced. The dialogue becomes mundane for a moment, but this isn't a fault in the libretto, it's character writing. The dialogue about "Would you like a biscuit?" is a cover, as the characters are essentially becoming aroused (in a sweet way) and trying to sound casual. The amorous and gorgeous melody in the orchestra underneath tells us everything we need to know about their feelings. While they are still repressing, the vocal lines are mere comments over top the orchestral melody (6:45-7:15), but when the conversation turns to love, and Minnie describes her view that love is eternal, her vocal line falls in sync with the orchestra (7:23). Her outer expression now matches her inner life. Note that this is a subtle development of the verismo staple of having the vocal line doubled by strings. Compare this with Puccini's earlier uses of this device to see how much he has grown as an artist.

Minnie says that love is infinite, and that she doesn't understand how one could love someone for just one hour. Johnson replies that he gets that, and that there are some women you want to love only for an hour, then you die (implying Nina Micheltorena, the anti-Minnie). Remember the music to which he sings this philosophy: (7:41-7:58). This whole passage will repeat later.

Minnie replies cleverly (she is sometimes unfairly represented as a bible thumper or a simple girl in the literature on Puccini), "How many times have you died?" The next important moment is the kiss, which is followed by many variations on the "redemption melody" (9:59). Johnson, reflecting on his own baseness, says he has to leave, but Minnie convinces him to stay, and the melody from the beginning of this scene recurs full force, sung to the words "Io non ti lascio piu", I will not leave you again. The music to which Johnson had declared that love is finite, even lasting only one hour (7:41-7:58), now recurs to the text "Make me, love, worthy of you/I want you to be mine forever" sung in unison on the word "eternamente" (12:52-13:20). They had begun their covnersation as two, in disagreement of the nature of love, but transformed and united through the redemption music, they have become one forever. Sublime. That's music drama if I've ever heard it.

2. Un di felice eterea from _La traviata_
To be honest, I often don't get Verdi. He has many nice arias and some interesting orchestral interludes, but I just don't get why his works are considered great _dramas_. I don't find the characters very compelling or interesting, and to me amount of good music ultimately makes up for that. There are two big exceptions: I recurringly find brilliant and moving _La traviata_, the horribly annoying (even if on purpose) party music excepted, and _Otello_. This is one of my favorite moments from _traviata_, because of how the music perfectly brings the two characters together.

Reference:




Un di felice begins at 5:36. This lovely melody is wonderfully expressive of the halting but amorous nature of Alfredo's confession of love, and leads into the "love is the soul of the world" melody. Violetta's response (7:02) is a perfect tone painting of mocking laughter. But even as she sings the word "dimenticarmi", she lapses into lovely harmony with Alfredo (7:42). The climax sounds like Alfredo is sighing and Violetta is trying to laugh it off, but can't, and the ending is a lovely musical coming together that tells us that no matter what she says now, she will love him forever. It's really wonderful writing by Verdi, and one of my favorite examples of music embodying drama and character.

What are your favorite such examples? I'm sure there are many from Wagner that could be mentioned.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Surprised that you didn't include the stupendous Poker Scene from "Fanciulla" with that marriage of both the intense music along with the couple's reactions were absolutely mind boggling.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Welcome to the forum! You clearly know your Puccini. I enjoyed your analysis, and agree completely that that scene is great music drama. I think _Fanciulla_ has sometimes been underestimated among his works - I find it more subtle and interesting than the usual suspects - and it's been for some time my favorite.

Regarding Verdi, I'm not aware that most of his operas are spoken of as "great dramas," although a goodly number of them are widely considered, and surely are, great operas. The function of music in opera, its relation to and balance with words and actions, is a rather old conversation by now - approximately, oh, 400 years old! Verdi's work spans an extraordinary evolution in that conversation, from the "numbers" opera of the 18th and early 19th centuries to the "through-composed" manner that no one could escape after Wagner. Puccini was an ardent Wagnerian, and his way of illuminating dialogue in that scene from _Fanciulla_ is thoroughly Wagnerian in method. Verdi, in the end, got there too, but in looking at his earlier work we have to take its dramatic effect in terms of the conventions he was working within (and, it must be emphasized, pushing the limits of throughout a long career). Opera is a hybrid form that presents difficult problems permitting of a number of structural approaches. Have you read Joseph Kerman's old classic, _Opera as Drama?_

I would say that there are not many scenes in pre-Wagnerian opera which exhibit the kind of moment-to-moment illumination of text and action seen in _Fanciulla_, and that that's a consequence of the then-common structure of opera as a musical form. If we're going to find that kind of opera yielding real subtleties anywhere, we might look first at Mozart - but, not being a Mozart aficionado, I'll have to leave that job to someone else. As far as Verdi is concerned, one of our members here, Tsaraslondon, knows Verdi like the back of his hand and could no doubt address the matter expertly.

Wagner? There's so much subtle drama-in-music in his works that you could almost dip at random into the mature music dramas starting with the_ Ring. _But a favorite example for me would be the tense, awkward, evasive, ironic, cryptic exchange between Tristan and Isolde culminating in the drinking of the love potion and the pair's confession of love. The layers of conflicting, repressed emotions heard in both the dialogue and the orchestral commentary, and the buildup of tension leading to its release in the lovers' confession of their true feelings, are brilliantly realized, and I can't think of another scene in opera quite like it. Wagner, I think, exceeds all other composers in being able consistently to convey such complex inner drama in moments when no one appears to be doing much of anything, and I think that people who complain that his operas are static are simply missing the real action taking place in the souls of his characters. A scene like this gives us dramatic music at its highest potential, and Puccini, a close student of _Tristan _and _Parsifal,_ learned his lessons well.


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## sharkeysnight (Oct 19, 2017)

I think my favorite example of this is "This Is Prophetic!", from Nixon in China. Maybe just because it was one of the first operas I really fell in love with, and this aria in particular, but I can't think of a better way for the opera to get to this point and express this emotion without that music. The soundscape for that opera in general is terrific - it _sounds _like C-SPAN, carpets, and jewels - and it would've been too easy for Pat's aria to become a longueur, but instead the music perfectly marries the strange passage of text, turning it into, essentially, a piece of modern American witchcraft. It's such a brilliant intersection of reality and unreality, and it gives Pat Nixon, who was, and is, percieved as an example of almost comical domesticity, a depth of feeling and earnestness. The music glimmers and floats, constantly rising like a mist, always a moment behind Pat, who seems to be conjuring it with her thoughts (as written by Alice Goodman) before climaxing with marital bliss, reflecting the wedding of the two dominant global forces:

"The sirens wail
As bride and groom
Kiss through the veil"

I don't know enough about musical theory to analyze it, but I do know that it makes every neuron in my body light up.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Woodduck said:


> Welcome to the forum! You clearly know your Puccini. I enjoyed your analysis, and agree completely that that scene is great music drama. I think _Fanciulla_ has sometimes been underestimated among his works - I find it more subtle and interesting than the usual suspects - and it's been for some time my favorite.
> 
> Regarding Verdi, I'm not aware that most of his operas are spoken of as "great dramas," although a goodly number of them are widely considered, and surely are, great operas. The function of music in opera, its relation to and balance with words and actions, is a rather old conversation by now - approximately, oh, 400 years old! Verdi's work spans an extraordinary evolution in that conversation, from the "numbers" opera of the 18th and early 19th centuries to the "through-composed" manner that no one could escape after Wagner. Puccini was an ardent Wagnerian, and his way of illuminating dialogue in that scene from _Fanciulla_ is thoroughly Wagnerian in method. Verdi, in the end, got there too, but in looking at his earlier work we have to take its dramatic effect in terms of the conventions he was working within (and, it must be emphasized, pushing the limits of throughout a long career). Opera is a hybrid form that presents difficult problems permitting of a number of structural approaches. Have you read Joseph Kerman's old classic, _Opera as Drama?_
> 
> ...


Thanks for your comments! Very interesting. I admit I have not read Kerman's book, in part because the exceprts I've come across quoted in other sources have put me off a bit. Like most musicologists, in the comments I've read he seems to have not studied Puccini's works very carefully before trashing them. I've read a lot of that sort of stuff, and after a certain point it gets hard to stomach any more. But if there's enough other redeeming material, or if what I've come across isn't representative of his real views, I'd be very interested to read his work on this topic.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on Wagner.

I've been thinking of more examples from Puccini lately. Even just listening (for the what, thousandth time?) to Un bel di vedremo the other day, I had a new thought about it. It's not earth shattering and maybe I'm dense to only be arriving at this now, but the musical structure of the aria itself fits right in with the text and allows us to share in Butterfly's fantasy. So the aria opens with the famous melody, then goes through a longer middle section, and the opening melody returns towards the end on the words "per non morir al primo incontro/so as not to die at the first meeting". The musical return of the opening melody coincides with the dramatic moment of return in Butterfly's fantasy, musically giving us the sense of "returning home" at the same time that Butterfly is imagining most rapturously that Pinkerton is returning home to her. of course, the intensity, the word "morir", and the fact that her words no longer match the melody perfectly all add to the feeling of unease at this moment. This is such a famous piece, and most of what I've read about it talks about how it is "emotionally suitable", which I take to mean that she's emotional and the music is intense, so it's a good fit. But if you break it down analytically, I think there's a real case to be made that he's using musical material in a highly literary way. It's just done under such an immediately accessible surface that it's tempting to think there's nothing under the hood. This use of structure to create nostalgia also occurs in Michele's arioso "Resta vicino a me" in _Il tabarro[/I]. The strings go up and up in tight harmonies (like Michele's soaring imagination) at 39:10-39:22, at which point the music from the beginning of the section recurs, giving the listener the sense of having arrived back at home. In other words, Michele's imaginary "ritorno" to the days when Giorgetta loved him is consummated musically. Of course, it is imaginary, and undone at the end of the scene, but it's utterly affecting. Again, a brilliant use of musical form to express character and drama._


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I enjoyed reading your posts (even though, without any spaces whatsoever, visually they are a bit difficult to follow.)
I would add the continued use of the "Vorspiel" throughout _Parsifal_ -- arguably one of the most gorgeous and strong musical sounds in all of opera.


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## Jermaine (Apr 23, 2016)

From Il Farnace / Act 2 Scene 5: Gelido in Ogni Vena

_Context: Farnace believes his son to be dead, devolves into this emotionally charged lament. _ I think the music captures the drama perfectly. Vivaldi was a master at his craft. The continuous reprise just sharpens the pain each time.

I feel my blood like ice
Coursing through every vein.
The shade of my lifeless son
Afflicts me with terror.
And to make my agony worse
I see that I was cruel
To an innocent soul
To my heart's beloved.

​


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