MODERN PERSPECTIVES INTHE
PERFORMING
OPERA
HUMAN VOICE
INSHOWS
MUSIC
MODERN PERSPECTIVES IN PERFORMING
OPERA SHOWS
Georgeta PINGHIRIAC
Associate professor PhD, Faculty of Arts, “Spiru Haret” University of Bucharest
Email: [email protected]
Summary
“Opera – “The Verism”, “Madama Butterfly” by
Giacomo Puccini. Cio-Cio-San”s scores, her behavior, her
relations with other characters, the importance of the Jap‑
anese tradition are some of the main reference points of
the main character; Puccini said about this opera that it is
the most modernistic of all his works. “The impressionism” makes a short presentation of the evolution of
impressionism from Debussy to Ravel. From Ravel’s work
I have chosen “L’Enfant et les sortileges” (The child and
the charms),and the objects that around him seem to take
life.“Domnita din departari” (The far away lady) was composed by Mansi Barberis (1899-1988). The first night of
the opera took place in Iasi, in 1976 and it is based on the
medieval Frech story “Le Princesse lointaine” by Edmond
Rostand. Lady Gerilinda is the main character of the opera.
The character Gerilinda has got abstract and mythological
dimensions.The fith subchapter, “The Expressionism”,
focuses on the desire for the emancipation of the musical
expression, the emotional tension, the subjectivity of a
troubled era. Alban Berg by his opera “Wozzek” with lyr‑
ics by Georg Buechner, strengthens a stylistic, aesthetic
and composition epoch.
Keywords: The Verism, the Impressionism, the Expressionism, the emancipation of the musical expression, the
most modernistic.
The musical theatre has all the show elements
to define itself as a specific genre and to impose
itself in the consciousness of the epoch.
Everything takes part to create the efferves‑
cent conception of the show, to combine the sen‑
sorial with the mental, from the composer to the
International Journal of Human Voice
equipped stage, in a hall with ideal acoustics,
with elite stage directors and conductors up to
the approved show. The modern spirit of present
days does not mean to dress the actors with mod‑
ern outfits, but to endow them with modern inter‑
pretative conceptions.
The theatre repertoires include the best crea‑
tions of the past to which a number of recent
works are added all the time.
An audience, which is more and more active
and responsive, is able to make a hierarchy on
value criteria of the show. In our country, those
making opera shows are attracted by the univer‑
sal classical repertoire, and also by the important
works from the Romanian repertoire.
The Romanian lyric genre is an integrated
part in our culture, but it can also participate in
the world competition. It represents the emo‑
tional life which should find communication
ways to the audience by means of a variety of
expression means and themes.
The spectator should be captivated each even‑
ing, he is different from town to town. The opera
performance is an exception to the rule, it is not
an object of luxury, it should appear on the stage
without grandeur , with good taste and emotional
nobleness.
The vocal performer has the duty to turn
words into music, and the music should express
143
Georgeta PINGHIRIAC
the deep meanings of words. The performer has
to love the show and serve it faithfully.
The harmonic architecture (tonal, atonal or
dodecaphonic) appeals to the composers’ human
and poetical sensitivity who have tried to include
it into the vocal music by using new composing
techniques.
Thinking by means of sounds, the purity of
sonorities, involving means or ranking and of
organizing the sonorous space, with contrasts of
nuances full of expressive meanings opens new
paths to the performer, giving him the opportu‑
nity to find the most pure forms having intel‑
lectual elements.
We should not forget that in the appearance
and development of the opera genre, “Camerata
florentina” had an important role.
From the religious rituals, Johann Sebastian
Bach, by dimensions, by the vocal style close to
the modernity of the opera( where “aria da capo”
has a central place), by the orchestral dramaturgy
and by the emotional “earthly”substance, the
music of the “Passion after Matei”, performed
for the first time on 15th April,1729, (on the Fri‑
day in the PassionWeek), imposing and artisti‑
cally emotional, sublime on a humanitarian
background, its being performed represents one
of the most grandiose documents of the human
thinking and feelings in the history of culture.
What would Beethoven have said if he had had
the occasion to see its splendor and perfection?
At the beginning, religious themes were
approached, in time, the content moved on, but,
towards the secular domain. It is to be underlined
the importance of the creation of opera as a dra‑
matic genre, as it generates the appearance of a
new type of performer, having at his disposal
specific means. The lyric genre – the operashould not be taken for the theatre, it is a musical
theatre, it is the sonorous evocation of drama,
without being drama itself. That is why the act‑
ing modalities of the performer, as well as the
scenic and directing ones are specific. The prob‑
lem occurring at the same time with the appear‑
ance of opera is linked to the way in which the
word should sing and the music should speak.
We should select a show characteristic to the
Romantic ideals, which had several stagings and
144
scenographies and various casts ( “Macbeth”,
“Manon Lescault”, “Carmen” …)
The Romanticism is an event of an excep‑
tional importance, due to its complexity, which
occurred at the beginning of the 19th century. For
the romanticism, the world is an ensemble of
relationships in a succession and in permanent
evolution; time is an experience in which man
strives to identify himself with his tendency
towards isolation. The structures of romanticism
belong to some new conditions and reactions.
Unrest in confrontation with events, insatisfac‑
tions, disappointments, nostalgia, conflicting
situations externalize aesthetically in various
ways.
At the end of the 19th century and the begin‑
ning of the 20th century Italy experiences new
musical artistic climate securing conditions of
continuity and development for the genre of
opera.
The Italian Verism can be perfectly included
in what some named post-modernism.
It is the moment when the real, concrete fact
can be identified with the notion “drama per
musica”, in a natural expression. From the point
of view of evolution, the Verism continues the
great traditions of the Italian opera.
The art of harmony is often associated with
polyphony in order to create the musical drama‑
turgy. The composers of Verism penetrate deeper
into the forms of the musical expression by
delayed accord suspensions, chromatic glidings,
enharmonic changes being much preoccupied by
details in order to create a veridical and subtle
outlining of the “physiognomy” and of the characters.
The orchestra uses ingenious timbre combi‑
nations, quite often it becomes the main charac‑
ter, makes comments on the action, increases the
lyric or dramatic expression in many symphonic
pages.
The whole experience, wisdom, the equilib‑
rium of former centuries meet in the lucid, intel‑
lectual and scholarly music of the impressionism.
Beside the most important impressionist vocal
creation from the beginning of the 20th century,
“Pelleas and Melisande”(1902), composed by
Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel got recognition
volume 2 • issue 2 July / December 2013 • pp. 143-147
MODERN PERSPECTIVES IN PERFORMING OPERA SHOWS
with his opera and choreography works. “L’Heure
espagnole” (the Spanish hour)
I had the satisfaction to play the role of Lady
Gerilinda from the opera “The far away lady”
by Mansi Barberis (1899-1988).
The opera in three acts with the libretto by the
woman composer was created in 1948.
I came to know the musical version of the
French medieval story, “La Princesse lointaine”,
through the verses, full of French charm, of
Edmond Rostand. There are also evident the
French echoes from Charles Gounod, Jules
Massnet or Claude Debussy.
On 9th May, 1976, the first night of the opera
“The far away Lady” took place, directed by
Anghel Ionescu Arbore. It was a night of great
musical satisfaction and a great joy from pro‑
moting the Romanian music with strong impres‑
sionist influences. The translation into Romanian
of the poem by Edmond Rostand was made by
the poet (impressionist) from Iasi, Mihai
Codreanu to whom the composer Mansi Barberis
dedicated the libretto and the score of the opera.
The main direction in the expressionist music
was marked by the Viennese “Dodecaphonic
School” led by Arnold Schoenberg.
It appeared in Austria and Germany at the
beginning of the 20th century . In painting, colour
underlines contrastively by its violence the
expressive line of contours. The expressionists
express emotion by the image “for the brain” in
contrast with the impressionists for whom the
image is made for “the eye”.
The exaggeration of some rough sonorities ,
the unrest taken to the tragic, the decadent
impulses, the desire for freedom of expression
are present in the expressionist music in a hostile
opposition to the impressionism. By detaching
from the “post-romantic” tone line, Schoenberg,
Berg and Webern will become well known by
atonalism , by using new forms, sonorous archi‑
tectures and means of expression as a necessity
for “the new” in the process of creation. “The
new” consists of abolishing the major and minor
scales, each piece of work is based on series of
twelve sounds placed in different order follow‑
ing the principle of nonrepeatability and nonpo‑
larisation.
International Journal of Human Voice
Opera “Wozzeck” by Alban Berg, (libretto by
Georg Buechner) is considered to be an expres‑
sionist opera, predominantly atonal , represent‑
ing the stylistic, aesthetic and composing stage
of the modern Viennese school.
Alban Berg’s temperament with romanticism
traces full of emotion, melancholy, love, nostal‑
gia comes into contact with the catastrophic con‑
trasts generated by the First World War, with
periods of crises, overturns of situations and
historical unbalances.
The word, gesture, attitude, glance will be
reflected in the performance of each musical
phrase, in order to define the dimension and
character of the characters, maintaining the
continuity of tension by singing declamation, by
the clarity in rendering the text, by observing the
rhythmic emission of words, which represent
various psychological states going up to the
unreal. Gestures and motion are uncontrolled,
nonconformist reaching vulgarity. Maria’s dra‑
matic nature , with touches of despair, tormented
by adultery generated by a mean life represent
the symbol of a threatened purity.
Among the contemporary Italian composers
, known in the epoch of evervescence and new
stylistic orientation during the first half of the
20th century, Luigi Dallapiccola is the most suc‑
cessful in finding “il filo d’oro della tradizione
italiana” (“the golden thread of the Italian tradition”). The performing of the role Simona
Fabien from the opera “ Volo di note”, very com‑
plex although short , will have to express the
dignity, determination, the clear way of speak‑
ing, the straightforward glance. Gestures and
motions, reserved at first, during the unfolding
of the action become firm, threatening in the
same way as the glance does. From a vocal point
of view, the melodic line is graded from simplicity up to the cry, making use of the acute register
in the moments of despair (from belcanto to par‑
lato).
From a mathematical point of view, we can
distinguish 120 combinations of phenotypes and
we should make a hierarchy of the constitutional
phenotype of the 5 vowels. From a phoniatric
point of view, each vowel is related energetically
to a meridian and also related energetically a to
a certain major or minor tonal entity.
145
Georgeta PINGHIRIAC
Vowels and consonants represent the expres‑
sive basis of the vocal language in communica‑
tion. Each vowel has a Yang and Yin component.
Vowels U,E,I,O,A combine themselves accord‑
ing to the fundamental principles of the energetic
direction (Yang and Yin).
This is motivated by the following aspects:
- The functional integration of the sound in all
tonal entities, major and minor of the tonal
system;
- The doctrinarian system of the traditional
Chinese medicine and the integration in the
energetic configurations of the human body;
- The relationship between the bioenergetic
states and the tonal ones;
- Music and the biosystems of the human body
in relation with the sonorous structures;
- The relational dialectics of Yin and Yang phe‑
nomenon referring to the tonal spectrum;
- Concepts of vocality , ambitous, the phono‑
logical structure of vowels and consonants;
- The spoken and singing voice in various pro‑
fessional and socio-cultural circumstances;
- The development of the domain of phonology
and phonosophy;
- The contrasting tensions between music and
biosystems.
Phonology is concerned with the voice in
training, in its expressive development in music,
with acoustic, phoniatry, vocal technique and
aesthetics.
The assessment of the phonological and sonological realities stimulates the creative and per‑
forming capacities of the human personality in
the emission and perception of the artistic mes‑
sage. There are presented numerous electropho‑
tographic methodologies of the Russian
researcher Kirlian, leading to bioenergetic eval‑
uations that are biostructural phenomenologi‑
cally in relation to the points of intonation and
the major and minor tonal entities.
These results provided the researchers with
therapeutical and preventive methods in sessions
of sonotherapy, melotherapy, armonotherapy
and musical therapy which influence the electromagnetic spectra in Kirlian’s methodology.
Even if music does not have that melody
which attracts immediately a large number of
146
admirers, it would be a mistake to say that it
lacks melody.
If one participates mentally to the reception
and transmission of this music, he will have the
pleasure to embellish it by attracting poetics and
making it survive after the impact with its listeners.
As any vanguard, the contemporary music has
a horizontal as well as a vertical dimension,
ranging from lower to upper levels. Vanguardism
approaches the unknown, being aware of the fra‑
gility of its action and, accepting its conditions,
becomes a symbol as the result of the necessity
of the offering.
The vocal performer is the one to make a synthesis of the four fundamental ways of the existence of art: sound, word, image and the lyric
gesture aiming at creating emotions, to allow the
ego to identify itself with some one else’s life, to
become what it is not but could be.
The vocal music is made up of sound which
transmit artistic messages by means of the per‑
former, who uses the timbre of his voice, the
intensities and height of the sound.
Observing the composer’s indications the
vocal performer makes up a sonorous entity
transmitted to the receptor ( the spectator), mak‑
ing use of other characteristics of his voice like:
duration, correctness, suppleness and expressiv‑
ity.
The duration of the sound is connected to the
possibilities of opening the glottis to facilitates
the emission of the air stream, and the correct
status of the sound depends upon the number of
vibrations given to each sound.
The suppleness and flexibility of the voice
gives the possibility to move easily from one
nuance to another one, and to solve up problems
of virtuosity.
The tension of the musical phrases is imposed
by the performer’s temperament, by his vocal
training in order to create the nuances of forte
and of the piano, during the vocal emission and
during breaks. All these derive from his talent.
The creative tension is a cooperation between
the composers and the performers, in our case,
between the voice and the piano, by the imagina‑
tion projected into the sonorous and visual space,
by the aesthetic conception and the technique of
volume 2 • issue 2 July / December 2013 • pp. 143-147
MODERN PERSPECTIVES IN PERFORMING OPERA SHOWS
a lifetime work. This vital cell, which can be
compared to light and darkness, awaits to be
realized, based on the idea that the whole image
is the result of each detail derived from the solu‑
tions for renewing the composition and perfor‑
mance.
The creative tension means gift in music, a
virtue one is born with and which one carries to
perfection by a continuous study, which leads to
an equilibrium of the creative and performing
inventiveness, creating unique and exceptional
experiences.
The vocal performer uses the singing word ,
he observes other laws than those observed by
the dramatic actor. In an opera show, the dra‑
matic conflict, the action itself, the rhythm, the
relationships between characters are conditioned
by musical structures, by forms, musical phrases,
by the colours and timbres of the voices and of
the orchestra.
The meanings of words are to be looked for
in the ups and downs of the melody line of the
dramatic conflict, rendered by the composer by
means of the orchestra and the musical phrases.
International Journal of Human Voice
The pauses of the dramatic conflict in the opera
show, rhythm, intensities, vocal colours have
specific meanings. The performer is recreating
life by means of music. Music requires a specific
analysis and ,from this, different means of
expression. The spectator perceives the emotion
transmitted by the orchestra and also that of the
performer, provided the latter should succeeds
to make the unity between song and representa‑
tion, to express veridical human experiences.
Bibliography
Irinel Anghel, Orientări, direcţii, curente ale muzicii
româneşti din a doua jumătate a secolului XX, Editura
Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor
din România, Bucureşti, 1997.
Mansi Barberis, Din zori până în amurg, Editura Muzicală,
Bucureşti, 1988.
Ada Burlui, Introducere în arta cântului, Editura Apol‑
lonia, Iaşi, 1996.
Grigore Constantinescu, Splendorile operei, Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1995.
Anghel Ionescu - Arbore, Realizarea spectacolului liric,
Editura Muzicală, Bucureşti, 1992.
Anghel Ionescu - Arbore, Interpretul teatrului liric,
Editura Muzicală, Bucureşti, 1983.
147