Lulu's Daughters
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LULU’S DAUGHTERS: PORTRAYING THE ANTI-HEROINE IN CONTEMPORARY OPERA, 1993-2013 by NICHOLAS DAVID STEVENS Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Susan McClary Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2017 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Nicholas David Stevens candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy*. Dr. Susan McClary Committee Chair Dr. Daniel Goldmark Committee Member Dr. Francesca Brittan Committee Member Dr. Susanne Vees-Gulani Committee Member Dr. Sherry Lee Additional Member Faculty of Music, University of Toronto Date of Defense: April 28, 2017 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. TABLE OF CONTENTS Figures ii Examples iii Tables iv Acknowledgments v Abstract ix Chapter 1 Lulu’s Daughters: An Introduction 1 Part I: Remembering the Twentieth Century Chapter 2 Old, New, Borrowed, Blew: Powder Her Face, Polarity, and the Backward Glance 39 Chapter 3 My Heart Belongs to Daddy: Editing, Archetypes, and Anaïs Nin 103 Part II: American Dreams, Southern Scenes, and European (Re)visions Chapter 4 Trashy Traviata: Class, Media, and the American Prophecy of Anna Nicole 157 Chapter 5 Berg, Billie, and Blue Velvet: American Lulu and its Catastrophic Stage(s) 207 Conclusion The Marilyn Triptych and the Cracked Killing Jar: Ways Forward for Opera and 251 Scholarship Supporting Materials Appendix A Timeline of selected significant events, premieres, and publications, 1835-2017 261 Appendix B Louis Andriessen’s libretto for Anaïs Nin and its source materials: a comparison 267 Appendix C Olga Neuwirth’s cuts and edits to Berg’s Lulu in American Lulu 278 Bibliography 283 iv FIGURES 2.1. Anonymous memento mori, used as cover art for the vocal score of Powder Her Face 52 3.1. Stage setting for the 2014 21C Festival performance of Anaïs Nin 110 3.2. Anaïs Nin in the early 1930s; Cristina Zavalloni as Nin in 2010; Zavalloni, still from video recording of Anaïs Nin, 2011; Nin in the 1950s 132 3.3. Zavalloni as Nin watches a film of herself at Allendy’s lecture on jealousy, Anaïs Nin, Amsterdam, 2011 [DVD] 145 4.1. August 22, 1994 cover of New York, with an outtake from a photo shoot with Smith 162 4.2. The death of the protagonist in Act II, Scene 8 of Anna Nicole 168 4.3, Double-scrim interlude presentation, Act II, Interlude, Anna Nicole 179 5.1. BLACK 1 of American Lulu at the Komische Oper Berlin, 2012 227 EXAMPLES 2.1. The Duchess and Lounge Lizard in Canon, Powder Her Face, Scene 2 61 2.2. Dialogue between the Duchess and the Waiter, Powder Her Face, Scene 4 63 2.3. Final sonority of the opera, Powder Her Face, Scene 8 70 2.4. Entrance of the Duke, Powder Her Face, Scene 2 71 2.5. The Duchess Exits with her Phonograph, Powder Her Face, Scene 8 75 2.6. Chromatic melody and Dance rhythms in the tenor’s aria, Powder Her Face, 79 Scene 2 3.1. “Strange days, weather bad” passage, Anaïs Nin (final part of II. Allendy) 108 3.2. End of circus fanfare and beginning of violin solo, Anaïs Nin 139 3.3. Contrabass clarinet ostinato in context, Anaïs Nin 141 3.4. First appearance of the father motive, LH piano, Anaïs Nin 142 3.5. A sadomasochistic beating, musicalized as Nin and Allendy meet, Anaïs Nin 145 3.6. Nin’s triumphant fanfare, followed by her pining for her father, Anaïs Nin 148 4.1a-b. Anna Nicole’s first and final lines, Act I, Scene 1 and Act II, Scene 9, Anna 202 Nicole 4.2a-b. Low wage blues and Drug ballad, Act I, Scene 3 and Act II, Scene 8, Anna 203 Nicole 4.3a-b. Anna Nicole’s aria and Stern’s final lines, Act I, Scene 6 and Act II, Scene 204 9, Anna Nicole 5.1. The “rhythm section” and post-minimal motor of American Lulu, mm. 8-10 223 5.2. Lulu describes her earlier life, Act III, American Lulu 223 5.3. Lulu sings of her johns in her highest register, Act III, American Lulu 234 vi TABLES 2.1. Graphic synopsis of Powder Her Face 45 3.1. Graphic synopsis of Anaïs Nin 136 4.1. Graphic synopsis of Anna Nicole 173 5.1. Berg’s jazz band and roles in Lulu; Neuwirth’s orchestra and roles in 219 American Lulu 5.2. Graphic synopsis of American Lulu 221 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This document could never have existed without the path-breaking work and tireless encouragement of my advisor, Susan McClary. From methodology and structure to style and sensibility, her writings have informed not only my research for this project – the briefest glance at the bibliography will reveal that debt – but also its central conceit. Her seminar in opera since the premiere of Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, and Lucinda Childs’s Einstein on the Beach first sparked my interest in music theatre after the Cold War. In the spring of 2014, when I remained unsure whether I should delve into the music of Alban Berg or into twenty-first century opera, Susan was the first to suggest that I might find a way to reconcile these interests. Throughout my process of making and remaking the resulting argument, Susan read drafts, made suggestions, corrected my course when I digressed, and reminded me at all times that there was more than a personal career milestone at stake. She approached the advising process with patience, enthusiasm, and an irrepressible sense of humor. I have met countless scholars through her, as well as directors and composers of new opera, such as Peter Sellars – who has also offered his encouragement from the first, and thus deserves thanks of his own. As I enter the next phase of my career, I offer this dissertation as an extension of the critical musicology that Susan helped establish – and I cannot thank her enough for her guidance. I also owe much to Daniel Goldmark, whose courses in Film Music, Sound and Media Studies, and Tin Pan Alley provided historical contexts and methodological tools that have shaped this work in ways both subtle and obvious. Whether casually handing me some vital, hot-off-the-press publication, showing me the way to a more precise and considered argument, or simply checking in on my progress, Daniel provided viii indispensable mentorship. Francesca Brittan provided not only the foundational knowledge of nineteenth-century aesthetics and intellectual culture that undergird the entire project, but also innumerable stimulating conversations and an abundance of advice and support. Susanne Vees-Gulani, a scholar of German literature, helped me think beyond the boundaries of my discipline, giving much-needed advice on terminology as well as simple reminders to consider the needs of readers outside musicology. Sherry Lee of the University of Toronto, in addition to corresponding with me throughout my dissertation-writing process, rushed from an unfamiliar airport to an unfamiliar campus to participate in the defense of this document, mere hours before giving a colloquium talk. Georgia Cowart helped steer my development as a writer, patiently pushing me to embrace clear lines of argument and logical structure – while also encouraging me at every turn, and serving as a model of professionalism, collegiality, and scholarly rigor. I am also grateful to David Metzer, Silvio dos Santos, Judith Lochhead, Sherrie Tucker, Drew Massey, and Yayoi Uno Everett for discussing this project with me at various stages of its development. Thanks to Marianna Ritchey and Andrea Moore, the co-organizers of the Musicology and the Present conference series, I was able to receive feedback from music history researchers with similar interests – and thanks to Edward Venn, Catherine Davies, and Paul Archbold, I was able to open lines of communication with other scholars working on the operas of Thomas Adès. I’m particularly grateful for the conversations that I had with Drs. Venn and Massey, Emma Gallon, John Roeder, Philip Stoecker, Jane Forner, Scott Lee, and Thomas Adès in London in April of 2017, at a conference organized around the UK premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel. Many thanks also to Kerstin Baumgardt of the Komische Oper Berlin, for her invaluable assistance with my research on that house’s 2012 premiere of American Lulu. Without the advice of Matt Smith of Case Western Reserve University’s School of Graduate Studies, I might never have hashed out a dissertation completion timeline as fruitful and accommodating as the one I ultimately chose. I must also thank Brandon Bowman, the Manager of Graduate Academic Affairs, for his patience and guidance in administrative matters. Laura Stauffer and Jennifer Wright of the Department of Music helped provide much-needed logistical support, as did its Chair, David Rothenberg. In the Department’s weekly musicology dissertation seminar, I received feedback on this document in a positive environment that, despite its generally friendly atmosphere, never lacked for incisive questions, solid advice, and genuine challenges. Among the various friends and colleagues who conversed with me about the project, few provided as much insight and encouragement as Daniel Batchelder, Sam Lopata, Peter Graff, Kaitlin Doyle, Kate Rogers, Paul Abdullah, Farrah O’Shea, and Sophie Benn. I owe some of my most productive hours to the various coffee shops of Cleveland, Ohio, and to the Kulas Music Library. I wish that the late Stephen Toombs, the endlessly helpful head music librarian at CWRU who once rush-ordered a book just so I could finish a project on time, could have read his name here.