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Morneault Thesis A Barthesean Analysis of Revisionist Stagings of Verdi's La Traviata Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Morneault, Gwyndolyn E. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 10/10/2021 23:11:34 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/636931 A BARTHESEAN ANALYSIS OF REVISIONIST STAGINGS OF VERDI’S LA TRAVIATA by Gwyndolyn Morneault ____________________________ Copyright © Gwyndolyn Morneault 2019 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC WITH A MAJOR IN MUSICOLOGY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2019 3 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER I: REVISIONIST DIRECTORS ............................................................................................................ 6 Revising La Traviata ................................................................................................................................................. 7 Historical Background ............................................................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER II: THE PRELUDE ............................................................................................................................... 19 La Scala, Milan. 2007. Directed by Liliana Cavani ................................................................................................ 21 Salzburg Festival. 2005. Directed by Willy Decker. ............................................................................................... 21 Parma, Festival Verdi. 2017. Directed by Andrea Bernard ..................................................................................... 35 Prelude Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER III: THE WHITE CAMELLIA ............................................................................................................ 43 La Scala, Milan. 2007. Directed by Liliana Cavani ................................................................................................ 44 Salzburg Festival. 2005. Directed by Willy Decker. ............................................................................................... 48 Parma, Festival Verdi. 2017. Directed by Andrea Bernard ..................................................................................... 53 The White Camellia Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER IV: THE PARTY’S END ...................................................................................................................... 56 La Scala, Milan. 2007. Directed by Liliana Cavani ................................................................................................ 56 Salzburg Festival. 2005. Directed by Willy Decker. ............................................................................................... 59 Parma, Festival Verdi. 2017. Directed by Andrea Bernard ..................................................................................... 61 The Party’s End Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER V: THE PAYMENT FROM ALFREDO ............................................................................................. 64 La Scala, Milan. 2007. Directed by Liliana Cavani ................................................................................................ 64 Salzburg Festival. 2005. Directed by Willy Decker. ............................................................................................... 67 Parma, Festival Verdi. 2017. Directed by Andrea Bernard ..................................................................................... 72 The Payment from Alfredo Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 73 CHAPTER VI: THE DEATH OF VIOLETTA ...................................................................................................... 75 La Scala, Milan. 2007. Directed by Liliana Cavani ................................................................................................ 75 Salzburg Festival. 2005. Directed by Willy Decker. ............................................................................................... 77 Parma, Festival Verdi. 2017. Directed by Andrea Bernard ..................................................................................... 80 The Death of Violetta Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER VII: THE CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 84 Final Comparison of the Three Stagings ................................................................................................................. 85 Importance of Revisionist Stagings ......................................................................................................................... 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................................... 92 4 List of Figures Figure 1. Willy Decker’s minimalist stage ................................................................................22 Figure 2. The partially shrouded clock ......................................................................................24 Figure 3. Violetta’s red cocktail dress .......................................................................................27 Figure 4. Violetta’s white slip ...................................................................................................28 Figure 5. The mystery man with the clock ................................................................................31 Figure 6. Violetta accepting camellia ........................................................................................31 Figure 7. Valéry’s art gallery ....................................................................................................36 Figure 8. The original photograph by Annie Leibovitz.............................................................39 Figure 9. The recreation used for the opera...............................................................................39 Figure 10. White camellia in Violetta’s bodice .........................................................................49 Figure 11. “Violetta” from Alfredo’s nightmare .......................................................................51 Figure 12. The clock center stage ..............................................................................................68 Figure 13. Stage set up for Violetta’s death...............................................................................77 Figure 14. Germont holding the photograph over Violetta’s corpse .........................................80 Figure 15. Facebook example 1.................................................................................................89 Figure 16. Facebook examples 2 & 3.........................................................................................89 Figure 17. Instagram example 1.................................................................................................89 Figure 18. Instagram example 2.................................................................................................89 Figure 19. Instagram example 3.................................................................................................90 5 Abstract David Levin wrote in his book Unsettling Opera, “Staging has played an important role in the history of opera, dictating compositional choices and affecting public reception. However, the notion that staging is integral to both the interpretive work and the eventness of opera is relatively recent.”1 Levin made this remark in 2007, but more than ten years later, we still have not developed a consistent framework for which we as an audience can judge the value of revisionist productions. In this document I will analyze and evaluate three different productions of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata in terms of their effectiveness as revisionist stagings by using a set of criteria from the writings of Roland Barthes as laid out by Alessandra Lippucci in her article “Social Theorizing on the Operatic Stage: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s Postmodern Humanist Production of La Traviata.”2 Lippucci borrows Barthes’s concepts of relevance, logic, and innovation from his research in reading revisionist literature and
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