Mozart's Magic Flute and the Mediatized Space of Opera TUFTS UNIVERSITY
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In diesen heil’gen Hallen : Mozart’s Magic Flute and the Mediatized Space of Opera A thesis submitted by Justin Mueller In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Music TUFTS UNIVERSITY May 2013 Advisor: Alessandra Campana ii Abstract This thesis seeks to address how technology and film have come to influence operatic staging practices in recent years. It begins first with an assessment opera’s place in the cinema by looking at how two film versions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte —Ingmar Bergman’s Trollflöjten (1975) and Kenneth Branagh’s Magic Flute (2006)—both strive to fuse the theatrical and the cinematic into a hybridized artform, capable of engaging audiences as a combination of opera and film. The second chapter shifts focus to staged opera, but with an eye towards space and place and their interaction with filmic technologies. As a whole, this project seeks to confront what I see as a fundamental problem in the way scholarship has thus far approached the subject. This thesis argues for the need of a more integrated approach to how we think and write about operatic mediatization and intermediality in the twenty-first century. iii Acknowledgements : First and foremost, I wish to thank Alessandra Campana for her tireless support and encouragement of this project, from its earliest stages through its completion. Her advice and assistance over the past two years has shaped me not only as an academic and as a writer, but as a person. I could not even begin to enumerate the many ways in which she has helped me grow, and my gratitude to her knows no bounds. A heartfelt thanks to Joseph Auner and Jane Bernstein as well. Their thoughtful comments and critiques have gone a long way in helping to shape this paper, and they have provided me with many additional insights that will no doubt continue to influence this project in its future stages, too. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance I have received through a generous endowment from the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Fund, which has enabled me to acquire several of the recordings discussed in this thesis. A loving and heartfelt thank you to my family as well; their patience and support throughout many years of schooling (with more to come) has been a true blessing, and I would not be here without them. Lastly, I wish to thank my partner, whose words of encouragement and affection never cease to inspire me to greater heights. Above all, this is for you. iv Table of Contents List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………v Introduction : Operatic Death Threats……………………………………………………………2 Chapter 1 : Opera-Film Hybridization in Ingmar Bergman’s and Kenneth………………….12 Branagh’s Magic Flute Films I. Bringing Opera to the Cinema…………………………………………………..13 I.i. Filming A Stage/Staging A Film………………………………………16 I.ii. Special Effects or Theatrical Effects…………………………………..23 I.iii. On Matters of Authenticity…………………………………………….26 II. A Return to the Big Screen: Opera-Film in the Twenty-First Century………....32 II.i. Cutting, Zooming, Fading, and the Importance of Camerawork ….....36 II.ii. CGI, 3D Video Projections, and Other Twenty-First ……………......40 . ….. Century Techniques III. Seen, But Not Heard? Speaking Softly and Internalized Singing ………….......44 as Cinematic Effects IV. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………49 Chapter 2 : The Displaced Spectator: Or, Space and Place in Mediated Opera……………...51 I. Pathways From Bergman to Branagh: Popularization…………….…..………...53 II. Mixed Media, Experimentation, and Improvisation…………………………….56 III. Authentic (Re)contructions? ……………………………………………………60 IV. Opera Outdoors………………………………………………………………….72 V. Another Outdoor Opera: Breisach’s La Traviata im Hauptbahnhof …………...79 VI. Konwitschny’s Don Carlos ……………………………………………………..83 VII. A Foray into Regietheater ……………………………………………………….89 VIII. The Allure of the Cinema……………………………………………………….99 IX. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...105 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...109 v List of Figures Figure 1.1 Cinematic break-down of images accompanying Bergman’s overture………………19 Figure 1.2 The contrast between “set” and “stage” in Pamina’s…………………………………22 and Papageno’s suicide scenes Figure 1.3 An example of the placards held up by the characters……………………………….25 Figure 1.4 McVicar’s and Besson’s approaches to “traditional” stagings……………………….29 Figure 1.5 Images accompanying the overture to Branagh’s Magic Flute (2006)……...……….35 Figure 1.6 Two examples of CGI in Branagh’s opera-film……………………...………………41 Figure 1.7 Lepage’s use of interactive scenery in Siegfried ………………...…………………...43 (Metropolitan Opera, 2012) * * * Figure 2.1 A doll and toy horse depicting Kundry’s first appearance (right)…………………….55 and Parsifal’s journey with Gurnemanz (left) as they appear in Syberberg’s Parsifal (1982) Figure 2.2 McVicar’s and Besson’s respective takes on Die Zauberflöte ………………………65 Figure 2.3 Traditional costuming, stagecraft, and scenery in Järvefelt’s ………………………..66 production for the Drottningholm Court Theatre in 1989 Figure 2.4 Papageno as he appeared on the cover of the original libretto……………………….69 as compared with realizations of Järvefelt’s staging and Forman’s film Figure 2.5 A view of the stage from afar showcasing the massive audience at a………………..73 ……………production of Herzl’s Zauberflöte Figure 2.6 Tamino’s mountainside descent to the stage and the set’s…………………………...73 Transformation into the Queen’s dress in Act I Figure 2.7 The Trial by Fire and the pyrotechnical display that vanquishes ……………………74 the Queen’s forces at the end of the opera Figure 2.8 Alfredo boards the train in Act I of Breisach’s La Travia im ………………………...80 Hauptbahnhof (2008) and speaks with Anina outside a Zürich café regarding Violetta’s whereabouts in Act II Figure 2.9 The auto-da-fé as media event in Konwitschny’s Don Carlos ……………………….88 (Hamburgische Staatsoper, 2001), with a fake anchorwoman and news crew on hand to .chronicle the arrival of the Grand Inquisitor, the condemned prisoners, and .the King of Spain Figure 2.10 Tamino and others struggle to free themselves from………………………………...96 the snakes onstage in Kušej’s production Figure 2.11 Tamino and Pamina successfully endure their trial by fire,………………………….98 but the Queen and her servants are not as fortunate 1 In diesen heil’gen Hallen : Mozart’s Magic Flute and the Mediatized Space of Opera 2 Introduction Operatic Death Threats “Hollywood films are killing opera!” So Zachary Woolfe, writing less than a year ago for The New York Times , would have us believe.1 But remarks lamenting the state of the industry—that the genre is a “dying artform” or that its repertoire has become stagnant beyond repair—remain all too common amongst well-meaning journalists and even some music and film scholars who wish to serve as defenders of this “underdog” genre. To make such broad claims about opera’s seemingly-impending death, however, is to refuse to acknowledge the many ways in which the genre has adapted to and learned from newer modes of entertainment. In reality, opera is thriving like never before, both in United States (as Woolfe discusses) and abroad. To cite one such example, the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD telecasts have been crucial in garnering continued exposure to the artform by making it much more accessible to the general public, as it has brought dozens of repertory classics and new productions alike into cinemas the world over since its inception seven years ago. With millions of tickets sold per season, these broadcasts are a boon not only to those living in cities without thriving opera houses, or beyond the major urban centers where opera is typically performed, but also for people who might not otherwise be able to afford the trip to such a venue. Likewise, opera directors have begun incorporating cinematic technologies into their stage productions and have been bringing these works of 1 Zachary Woolfe, “How Hollywood Films Are Killing Opera,” The New York Times (16 August 2012), C1. 3 theatre to places and spaces well beyond the operatic stage, often in an attempt to garner fresh perspectives of tried-and-true works. Two directors have even gone so far as to create big-budget opera-films exclusively for the “Big Screen” in that same seven year time span since the Met’s simulcasts began airing in theatres. Add to this picture the exponentially increasing amount of “live recording” opera titles available for purchase on DVD and Bluray, opera’s continued presence on public television and radio, and the proliferation of online opera streaming (both free and subscription-based), and this hardly sounds like the description of a dying genre. With an eye towards contemporary endeavors such as the ones mentioned above, this thesis will address not only events taking place inside the “ heil’gen hallen ” of the world’s most technologically ambitious opera houses, but will widen the space of these “halls” to consider events occurring outside its traditional boundaries as well. That is to say, the scope of this thesis encompasses contemporary approaches to operatic mediation and mediatization both from the side of the stage and from the screen. It seeks to address what I see as a fundamental problem in the way scholarship has thus far handled the discussion of operatic intermediality and re-mediation in the twenty-first century, and will offer a new way of thinking about the subject. Not only will it concern itself with notable attempts at creating “opera-films” (cinematic adaptations of repertory classics) over the course of the past thirty-five years, but it will also include a discussion of the ongoing relationship between the two genres. The very “place” of operatic spectatorship will be called into question, too, as the adoption of these 4 technologies and practices have resulted in an environment in which viewing opera has become equally possible on the stage, at the movies, or in the home.