CHAPTER 5
EPILOGUE
It has been my aim in this thesis to address a two-fold proposition. Informed by my reading of the work of Gilles de Van, I have discovered that Verdi wished to realize a concept which he called posizione. He provided musical strategies which would delineate characters in their subjective and objective ‘position’ with regard to circumstance and to their relationship with other characters at any given moment of the operatic narrative. The term posizione was intended to denote a musico-dramatic mapping of the co-ordinates which could pinpoint this relationship.
With Verdi’s concept in view I have investigated the posizione of Violetta Valéry’s character as it has evolved throughout the course of the operatic narrative of La traviata. In addressing the second facet of my proposition I have taken the term posizione into the broader context of its social implications for the character of
Violetta and for women of suspect moral status. In order to do this I have investigated the literary and factual provenance of the narrative and the contemporary response of
Despite Budden’s own speculative objection to the notion that Verdi compared
Violetta with Giuseppina Strepponi, the possibility remains that the courtesan character elicited a special sympathy from Verdi. The life of Alexandre Dumas fils is the origin from which the narrative of La traviata is drawn. Dumas fils turned the experience of his own liaison with the courtesan Marie Duplessis into the novel La
Dame aux Camélias which he later adapted for the stage. As characterized by Dumas,
Duplessis, transformed into the more noble Marguerite Gautier, renounced her own happiness in order to save the reputation of the family to whom her lover Armand
192 Duval belonged. Since his own experience provided the model for Armand’s character, Dumas had a personal interest in that character’s social position. For Verdi this appears to have held the lesser fascination.
The composer found in Marguerite a ‘subject from our own time’. For Verdi (pace
Budden), the special appeal of La Dame aux Camélias stemmed from his relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi. Mother of two illegitimate children, Strepponi was an operatic soprano whose own powers of vocal display had been curtailed because of physical deterioration. Widowed for several years with the death of his first wife,
Margarita Barezzi, Verdi conducted a spirited defence of Giuseppina when his father- in-law objected to Strepponi’s living openly with him. He insisted that his own private relationship should not be subjected to the judgement of others just as his opera would insist that Violetta’s love for Alfredo should be sacrosanct. The exigencies of theatrical life and unfortunate love affairs could condemn a woman to disgrace and destitution. The capacity for selfless love possessed by that same woman could free her from the clutches of the unscrupulous, were she to find a haven with an honourable man. It is not difficult to find in La traviata both a celebration that
Strepponi had found the honourable man and a plea that society should withhold judgement on unjustly maligned women such as Violetta.
Verdi’s strategies provide clear metaphorical signifiers for the social space as well as the emotional states and responses of Violetta as her posizione changes throughout the narrative. These strategies demand from the singer a variety of vocal techniques as these changes occur and necessitate an initial virtuosic coloratura control which is relinquished by degrees and replaced by the necessity for other tactics during the course of the opera.
193 Verdi used musical strategies in order to elicit sympathetic emotional responses from his audiences as they became aware of the characters’ posizione. He clearly stated his view that, ‘When form is intricate, contorted and difficult, there is no emotion, and arousing emotion is the aim of art’.495
Over the period of several hundred years many theories have been proposed to explain how music could actually achieve this aim. Imitation of emotion or mimesis; beauty as the manifestation of an emotional idea and the Dionysian release of expressive force, have all been attributed to music. Other approaches have posited a cognitive response to music’s emotive content, or cited the human need for shape and satisfaction of expectations. Apart from those who have attempted to reduce music to an objective scientific formula through analysis, others have sought to identify its semantic and semiotic qualities. Neuroscientific research attempts to locate and quantify emotional response to music.
Rather than relying on any one of the foregoing, I have used a wider approach for this thesis. In view of Verdi’s own faith in the ability of music to convey and to elicit emotion, I have chosen the method of critical analysis. In addition, I have availed myself of de Certeau’s perspective on cultural artefacts including music as being, like rhetoric, composed of strategies which require tactical responses from those who use or witness them.
I have avoided imposing arbitrary constructions upon musical strategies in order to assign meaning to them, in the manner of certain gender-based studies. Instead, it has been my aim to heed Cook’s advice regarding the value of using metaphor as a
495 de Van, Verdi's Theater, p. 119, quoting, Conati, Encounters with Verdi, p. 284.
194 descriptive tool in discourse on music while using music theory as a discursive device. In view of the contingent and unpredictable nature of performance as it affects both performer and audience I have also been mindful of Cook’s statement that ‘[a]s constructed in performance ... meaning is emergent’.496
In composing operas Verdi created music which already possessed a programmatic meaning in its narrative. His task was to use musical strategies to create agreed metaphors and cues by which the audience could be made aware of his character’s posizione as the narrative progressed. He did this by using the musical elements of duration, pitch, form, texture and dynamics, with the added possibilities inherent in timbre and articulatory technique.
In Chapters 2 and 4, I noted the importance of Verdi’s use of duration in placing
Violetta within the metrical space of the waltz, thus providing clear signposts to
Violetta’s posizione both socially and emotionally. In the same way, Verdi uses quadruple metre where the narrative suggests that Violetta is under the constraint of forces outside her accustomed social space. Other rhythmic figures signify further emotional refinements when supported by the text.
Verdi’s use of pitch is evident in the harmonic palette of La traviata in which the keys of D-flat, F and A major are important. His change of mode to signify change of mood utilizes an agreed metaphor of Western tonality that major indicates positive emotion while minor can indicate the negative. Alteration of significant intervallic gestures by a semitone, particularly with regard to use of the minor and major sixth could signal an important change in emotional mood or altered posizione. Melodies
496 Nicholas Cook, “Theorizing Musical Meaning,” in Music Theory Spectrum 23, no. 2 (2001), p. 179.
195 which recur during the opera are able to remind the audience of a particular character or emotional state as happens with Alfredo’s ‘Di quell’amor’, first heard in Act I.
Pitch ranges and intervals provide further detail in delineating a character’s emotions.
Incongruity of rhythms and melodic shapes with each other or with the text create the tension of irony.
Verdi made use of musical forms such as the composite aria of cavatina and cabaletta and developed combinations of arioso and parlante in the flexible forms of the scena.
He brought various textural combinations to bear on creating focus upon individual characters and their changing posizione in relation to other characters and groups. The timbral qualities of instruments further support the process of creating mood and emotional space. Used with a variety of articulatory techniques and changes in dynamic level, they complement the individual timbres and ranges of the singers who must also use various vocal techniques to suit changing posizione. The singer who performs the role of Violetta begins her performance with the Finale of Act I in view.
In the Finale, having already performed a demanding series of vocal feats, the singer presses on to the triumphantly defiant Sempre libera. This is a headlong bravura manifesto for dazzling display which pointedly rebuffs the advances of quieter lyricism. By the end of Act I the singer has reached the height of sustained vocal brilliance. She has used a vocal technique requiring the high laryngeal position and flexible control of gorgie suitable for coloratura singing. In other words, she has established her credentials as a virtuosic purveyor of powerful vocal display designed to impress and seduce an audience. Within the narrative, however, are the seeds of doubt in her character’s ability to sustain this power indefinitely.
196 Violetta does not hold to her resolve. She risks losing the seductive control which she has exerted by turning her attentions to one man. In Act II Violetta has now changed spaces by becoming the protector of the naive Alfredo. In attempting to move into the social space of bourgeois respectability, Violetta has actually removed herself from the place of her former power and made herself vulnerable to those who find such power repugnant. Seducing Violetta with visions of innocence regained, Germont encourages her to think of herself as the ministering angel who will save his family by her renunciation of Alfredo. In this way she will transcend the earthly space of the courtesan, but paradoxically can only achieve this by returning to it. Her decision to sacrifice herself, however, allows her to be placed in a posizione which morally transcends the powers of her respectable accuser.
In Act II Violetta has changed her mind and the singer has changed her vocal character. The role has become technically easier in that it no longer requires dazzling feats of bravura coloratura. At the same time it has become more difficult in its demand for sustained, unadorned dramatic force in an entirely new range. In the first scene, the singer is required to conduct a series of exchanges in arioso and parlante.
She uses the wider pharynx and lower larynx suitable to a lower tessitura and more dramatic and sustained melodic lines where there is no opportunity for a display of coloratura. This scene is a clear and sustained instance of allowing the opera, in
Verdi’s terminology, to ‘run’ rather than to ‘sing’.
In the second scene of Act II Violetta has carried out her plan of self-sacrifice. When she is publicly insulted by Alfredo, her posizione has developed to one in which
Violetta is surrounded by the supporting voices of those who know that she is morally ascendant. She is forcefully defended by her friends of the demi-monde and by
197 Alfredo’s father who has also witnessed the insult. She is, however, fêted as victim, not as conqueror. Only when the Act reaches its ensemble Finale does the singer temporarily regain some of the vocal pre-eminence which she displayed in Act I.
Although requiring strong carrying power in high tessitura this does not involve the florid coloratura technique previously employed. She will no longer be the virtuosic seducer of her audience.
Act III is set in the final space of the sickroom, Violetta now abandoned by those who have admired her only while she could still assert the physical control of her beauty and display. When Alfredo does return, Violetta is too ill for their plans to leave Paris to become reality. She must die amidst the very small group of people who care for her but cannot save her. Violetta is thus delivered from the untenable posizione in which neither the world of the courtesan nor the world of earthly love can sustain her.
In Act III the singer must succumb further to the constraints of her character’s decline.
She sings in recitative and, after a passage of spoken declamation, moves to a simple folk-like melody. During Violetta’s reunion with Alfredo the singer performs the coquettish trill which is no more than a faint reminder of earlier displays. The statement most indicative of Violetta’s and her own posizione comes with the exclamation ‘Gran Dio! non posso!’ (Great God! I cannot!) The words ‘oh gioia!’ later reach for high notes which mock the brilliance of Act I. The singer’s prowess and vocal space has been dismantled as Violetta has travelled toward her own demise.
In the course of my investigations I have found an intriguing correlation between the social space of the courtesan and that of the female singer. The power of each of these social entities has relied on the ability to seduce client or audience through elements
198 of display which have historically also involved vocal virtuosity. This relationship has caused a conflation of identity to be made by audiences of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such conflation has ensured that audiences have strongly suspected operatic singers of having the same moral status as the courtesans whom those audiences both admired and feared. Rutherford comments that ‘in Italy the terms “virtuosa” and “prostituta” were ... interchangeable’.497
In the West, the courtesan has traditionally lived in a social space apart from the respectable domestic relations of the married woman who gives herself physically to, and provides heirs for, only one man. The courtesan uses the intimate physical attributes of her body to entice any men who will pay for her favours and provide her with luxuries. She is related to the legendary archetype of the siren whose mesmerising song lures men to their deaths. She is a dangerous woman.
The character of Violetta appears at the beginning of La traviata as a powerfully attractive example of the brilliant courtesan. In her manifestation as a singer she dazzles with her powers of seductive display. The singer who plays the role of
Violetta behaves in the gregariously free manner of a courtesan and uses herself as the embodiment of the siren. Violetta ends her first encounter with the possibility of domesticated love by declaring a manifesto of wanton and death-seeking freedom. In order to portray, this the singer uses every vocal means at her disposal to create an impressively virtuosic display. She places her voice and her body in the balance for the sake of this display.
497 Rutherford, The Prima Donna and Opera, p. 42.
199 Despite Violetta’s manifesto, she puts herself in an intermediate social space outside that of the courtesan. She is vulnerable to the attractions of a respectable provincial life possibly similar to that of her childhood. When confronted by Germont’s demands she is in a posizione of defence rather than defiance. Faithful to Alfredo, she has no reason to use her courtesan’s display on Germont. This essentially reactive performance continues until the ensemble Finale to Act II. She forfeits the transgressive power of display in favour of a transcendent moral nobility. Despite ever weaker attempts to reassert control within a space of her own choosing, she will never recover the physical power manifested in Act I. Verdi’s musical strategies require novel tactical responses from both singer and audience and are complicit in removing the perceived threat of the dangerous courtesan-singer. By the end of Act III they have effectively silenced both the siren and the voices of censure.
The correlation between courtesans and singers may have, albeit unwittingly, exercised the mind of Verdi during his composition of La traviata. Rather than functioning to form an apologia for female singers such as Giuseppina Strepponi,
Verdi’s strategies impose a posizione on the singer which devalues her seductive power. Paradoxically, the vocal demands of the music become easier after the Finale of Act I, but require an unusual versatility in the ability to use a different vocal technique and range. The narrative of La traviata portrays the gradual diminution of the courtesan’s dangerous physical power within her social space. This happens during the ascent of her moral power in the social space of the respectable bourgeois to which her affection aspires. It becomes the means by which the seductive voice of the singer is rendered harmless in the social space of the nineteenth-century audience.
Such an audience is able to use the tactics of acceptance and forgiveness in this
200 context. The narrative speaks not only of the sacrifice of a courtesan for love, but the sacrifice of a singer for respectability. The singer approaching this role must be aware that she wagers her own powers of physical display against an emotional drama which seeks to diminish them. Verdi’s later dismissal of the vocal qualities necessary for the role as being for one in which ‘even a mediocrity could ... shine’ may reveal more of his unconscious hopes than he intended.
201 GLOSSARY
Terms and phrases used in this thesis.
Acciaccatura literally, ‘crushed’; an auxiliary note preceding and above the principal note before which it is played or sung as quickly as possible. Sometimes called a ‘crushed’ note.
adagio a piacere slowly and at the performer’s pleasure. Ad libitum.
alla breve a metre of two minims per bar in which the equivalent of four crotchets is taken twice as fast and would be conducted as duple time.
allargando becoming gradually slower, and fuller in tone
allegro literally, ‘merry’, i.e., to be performed in a quick and lively manner
allegro agitato quick and in an agitated manner
allegro agitato assai vivo quick, agitated and rather lively
allegro assai mosso quick and with much movement
allegro assai vivo quick and rather lively
ancora piu vivo still more lively
andante moving along (often expressed as ‘at walking pace’)
andante piuttosto mosso going along, somewhat with movement
andante sostenuto going along in a sustained manner
animando a poco a poco little by little becoming more animated
animando con molto passione animated and with much passion
202
appoggiatura literally, ‘leaning’; an auxiliary note preceding and above the principal note on which it ‘leans’ and from which it takes much of the emphasis and time.
aria a solo vocal piece, usually in closed form
aria di sortita aria in which the singer literally ‘comes out’, or makes a grand entrance
arioso sustained and melodious singing combining the qualities of recitative and aria
arpeggio a chord of which the individual notes are played or sung consecutively
bel canto ‘beautiful singing’ generally within the context of the florid Italian style of singing in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It has also been applied to Italian opera of the seventeenth century whose character did not differ to any great extent from from the later practice of projecting beautiful tone in the execution of florid music with which it is more properly connected.
bravura demanding skill in the performance of a brilliant aria
cabaletta the final, usually accelerated section, of an elaborate composite aria
cadenza an ornamented elaboration of a cadence, before its conclusion
cantabile performed in a smoothly melodious and ‘singable’ manner. Also a term applied to the slower first movement of a double aria.
cavatina a short aria, sometimes placed immediately after the recitative in an elaborate composite aria. The term has evolved from the eighteenth-century usage indicating an aria without da capo to that of the nineteenth century where it was applied to a principal’s opening aria. In the twentieth century it has also been frequently applied to the slower cantabile first movement of a double aria.
coloratura manner of singing in which the melody is decorated with divisions of longer notes into shorter, in the form of runs, roulades, passaggi and cadenze. Voice capable of performing in this way.
203
con effetto questo ripiglio with the effect of a repeat or reprise
con estremo dolore with extreme sadness
con forza with force
con passione e forza with passion and force
con voce bassa senza suono ma a tempo with lowered voice and without sounding in pitch, but keeping the tempo
dolente e pianissimo, legato e dolce performed sadly and very softly, smoothly continuous in an undetached manner and sweetly
dramatic soprano soprano voice capable of performing notes below c and with strong carrying power and dramatic declamatory ability
estremamente piano e legato performed extremely softly and smoothly continuous in an undetached manner
fioritura literally, ‘flowering’, embellishment of a vocal or instrumental melodic passage
fortissimo very loud
gorgie precise and rapid throat articulation requiring control of repercussions of the glottis for production of accurate passaggi
largo literally, ‘broad’, to be performed in a dignified and slow manner
libretto literally, ‘little book’, the lyrics and directions of the dramatic material to be set to music
204 lutta di vocale the ‘vocal contest’, in which the inspiratory and expiratory forces of the singer are balanced to control the supporting pressure of breath. The word lutta is an archaic form of the modern Italian lotta (battle).
lyric soprano female voice with lighter quality than that of the powerful dramatic soprano, and cantabile in style
opera seria opera of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, developed from the eighteenth-century Italian Arcadian academic reforms, ideally observing the unities expounded in Aristotle’s Poetics and subject to many strictures with regard to good taste and literary value; on a serious or tragic theme, as opposed to opera buffa, or comic opera. parlante literally, ‘in a speaking manner’, where the singer uses speech rhythms, with each syllable sung on a single note and the orchestra plays a more distinctively melodious supporting role amenable to transition into arioso sections
parola scenica as Verdi’s terminology; words which leap out to engage the audience with the dramatic force of the moment
passaggi melismas, or passages of several notes performed by a singer on a single syllable
piano direction to sing or play softly, at low dynamic level
pizzicato sounding of notes on stringed instruments by plucking rather than with use of the bow
posizione as Verdi’s terminology; place in time and space in which a character subjected to the actions of others, responds by performing a particular musical gesture, often related to a given form
programma scenario, or general outline of plot (cf. selva)
puntature literally, ‘pointing’, in the sense of indicating where notes and syllables should coincide or be emphasized
scena an arioso melodic monologue accompanied by distinctive orchestral motives, and often linking sections of a composite aria
205 secco literally, ‘dry’, recitative accompanied only by supporting chords
selva scenario, or general outline of plot; skeleton libretto
semplicità simply
situazione literally ‘situation’, as Verdi’s terminology; extended usage related to posizione, where particular moments in the development of plot or character are considered as part of an ongoing and related process
soli performed by solo players or singers
sostenuto in a sustained manner
spinto a female soprano voice literally, ‘pushed’ between the lyric and dramatic
stanza group of metrically determined lines which form the division of a song or poem
tenuto literally, ‘held on’, to the full extent or beyond the time value of the note
tessitura literally, ‘texture’;the prevailing position within the voice’s range in which a piece of music is written
tinta in Verdi’s terminology, literally the ‘colour’, or analogous qualities of style which link various passages in an opera
un fil di voce literally, ‘a thread of voice’, in which the singer must maintain audible, but controlled soft sound
velocissimo to be played or sung very quickly
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Recordings
Verdi, Giuseppe and Piave, Francesco Maria. La Traviata. Joan Sutherland, Luciano
Pavarotti, Matteo Manuguerra with National Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Richard Bonynge. London: The Decca Record Company, 1979.
Digital audio disc remastered 1991.
______. La Traviata. Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Mario Sereni, with Coro e
Orquestra Sinfónica de Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisboa conducted by
Franco Ghione. Lisbon: EMI Records, 1958. Digital audio disc remastered,
1997.
215 Films
Luhrmann, Baz and Pearce, Craig. Moulin Rouge! Directed by Baz Luhrmann. DVD.
Twentieth Century Fox, 2001. 91105SD.
Segal, Erich, Love Story. Directed by Arthur Hiller. Motion picture. Paramount
Pictures, 1970. ASIN B000059TEQ.
Verdi, Giuseppe and Piave, Francesco Maria. La traviata. Directed by John Copley.
Joan Carden, Richard Greager, Neville Wilkie. Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra
and Australian Opera Chorus conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario. DVD. ABC,
1987, R-105750-9.
______. La traviata. Directed by Brian Large. Anna Netrebko, Rolando
Villazón, Thomas Hampson. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Carlo Rizzi. DVD. Deutsche Grammaphon, 2005. 0734189.
______. La traviata. Directed by Terry Edwards. Angela Gheorghiu, Frank
Lopardo, Leo Nucci. Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra and
Chorus conducted by Georg Solti. DVD. Universal Pictures, 1994.
044007430903.
______. La traviata. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Teresa Stratas, Placido
Domingo, Cornell Macneill. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
conducted by James Levine. DVD. Universal Pictures in association with
Radiotelevisione Italia and Cinécitta, 1982. 025192032622.
216