UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA PORTUGUESA ANNA NICOLE: AN OPERA (?) BETWEEN TRADITION AND TRANSGRESSION a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary enquiry into an ambiguous work Tese apresentada para o grau de mestre em Estudos de Cultura Por Vera Jerosch Herold da Costa Reis (136311001) Sob a orientação de Prof. Doutora Alexandra Lopes Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, Cursos de Mestrado em Estudos de Cultura, LEA e Tradução Setembro de 2015 UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA PORTUGUESA ANNA NICOLE: AN OPERA (?) BETWEEN TRADITION AND TRANSGRESSION a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary enquiry into an ambiguous work Tese apresentada à Universidade Católica Portuguesa Para obtenção do grau de mestre em Estudos de Cultura por Vera Jerosch Herold da Costa Reis (136311001) Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, Cursos de Mestrado em Estudos de Cultura, LEA e Tradução Setembro de 2015 2 Abstract In this dissertation, I will analyse whether the opera ANNA NICOLE by Mark Anthony Turnage (music) and Richard Tomas (libretto) is embedded in the tradition of the operatic canon, or if it just transgresses that legacy. It is based on the true life account of Anna Nicole Smith, a Playboy model turned celebrity whose scandalous behaviour was closely followed by the media. I will discuss whether Anna Nicole can be inscribed in the lineage of opera’s other fallen and scandalous women, such as Violetta, Manon or Carmen, and how these “real” life women have been translated into the genre. As some critics contend ANNA NICOLE is a musical, I will also discuss how the work could be defined within the history of musical theatre, looking in more detail into the first 200 and the last 100 years of the genre’s existence, and within musical modernism and contemporaneity. Finally, I will look into the traditions of opera and its reception from the emotions’ viewpoint, especially with regard to the use and effect (or lack thereof) of the lament and the aria, asking whether Anna Nicole humanizes the “real” Anna Nicole Smith, as Violetta may have done with Marie Duplessis. Over the next hundred or so pages, I will examine if this undaunted portray of a celebrity, famous for being loud and vulgar can move us once she faces tragic events, and if her complaint can give us insight into her heart, thus making it possible to have a more clement approach towards her. Resumo Na presente dissertação pretendo analisar se a ópera ANNA NICOLE de Mark Anthony Turnage (música) e Richard Thomas (libreto) se insere na tradição do cânone operático, ou se é apenas uma obra transgressora. A obra baseia-se na vida real de Anna Nicole Smith, modelo da Playboy que se transformou numa celebridade cujo comportamento escandaloso era seguido de perto pelos media. Irei debater se Anna Nicole se inscreve na linhagem operática de outras mulheres perdidas e escandalosas, como Violetta, Manon ou Carmen, e ainda a forma como estas mulheres “reais” foram traduzidas para ópera. Uma vez que alguma crítica defendeu que ANNA NICOLE seria um musical, irei também investigar como a obra se define dentro da história da ópera, sobretudo no que respeita os seus primeiros 200 e os últimos 100 anos, bem como no modernismo e na contemporaneidade musical. Finalmente, irei estudar as tradições da ópera, bem como da sua receção, no que respeita às emoções, em particular o uso e o efeito (ou a falta destes) do lamento e da ária, para questionar se Anna Nicole humaniza a Anna Nicole Smith «real», da forma que Violetta terá humanizado Marie Duplessis. Ao longo das cerca de 100 páginas que se seguem, irei examinar se este retrato desassombrado de uma celebridade famosa por ser rude e grosseira consegue comover-nos, quando esta defronta acontecimentos trágicos, e se a sua queixa nos permite vislumbrar a sua humanidade, levando-nos a olhá-la com maior clemência. 3 Thank you to my parents for their support and example. to Francisco for his unfaltering love and sense of humour. to my daughters for their spontaneous support and enthusiasm and, last but not least, to Prof. Alexandra Lopes, for her infinite patience and generosity …la veritá di cui non si riesce a parlare, bisogna cantarla, bisogna dirla in musica. E con questo vi saluto. Luciano Berio (1925-2003) Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding, he sings. Ed Gardner (1901-1963) It’s very expensive to be me. It’s terrible the things I have to do to be me. Anna Nicole Smith ( 1967-2007) 4 Contents Introduction 6 1. OPERA – FROM COURTLY LOVE TO BROADWAY 1.1 The beginning – Florence or Venice? 19 1.2 From Venice beyond the Alps 27 1.3 Infected opera – from medieval passion plays to Freddie Mercury 34 1.4 Anna Nicole Smith, fit for the Opera? 44 1.5 Let’s talk numbers! 52 2. LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 2.1 How it all started 59 2.2 Who cares if you listen ? 70 2.3 Sprengt die Opernhäuser in die Luft! 75 3. OPERA NOW – NO CLEMENZA FOR ANNA NICOLE 3.1 When God is listening 84 3.2 Eros and Thanatos – Violetta, Carmen, Anna Nicole 85 3.3 Why sing if you can speak? 102 3.4 All together now – the ensemble and forgiveness in a community 110 Final remarks 122 A – Figure 1 131 Bibliographies 132 5 Introduction The opera ANNA NICOLE (Mark Anthony Turnage & Richard Thomas), based on the true life story of the (in)famous Anna Nicole Smith, was premiered in February 2011 at the Royal Opera (RO) in London and the object of both an important media campaign and critical reaction. Reviews of the opera were mixed, and varied between the dismissal as popular, futile and lacking depth, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the defence that the opera’s main character, Anna Nicole, was in line with other fallen, scandalous, even murderous women of the operatic tradition, such as Violetta, Carmen, Lulu or the various versions of Manon. By choosing the life of Anna Nicole Smith as the subject matter for an opera to be premiered in one of the most important opera houses of the world, its authors not only an attempted to fuse high and popular culture, they brought together what may be perceived as incompatible: two extremes of high and low, grand opera and American white trash . With its refined social practices, opera is considered the most elitist and aristocratic of the performing arts, whereas everything Anna Nicole Smith did on and off stage is just as often considered one of the most lurid forms of American trash culture. Did Turnage and Thomas succeed in mixing these two worlds, or are Anna Nicole and opera like oil and water? Is Anna Nicole an opera, and if it is, does it conform to previous operatic models, or is it in itself transgressive? Would the opera be successful with the public, the critics and among opera professionals, i.e. programmers, conductors, directors and singers? Four years later, the question has partly been answered. The first run at the Royal Opera was a public success seldom witnessed in contemporary opera. In 2013, the opera was premiered outside the UK in a new production, with some minor changes to the score and the libretto. Directed by Jens Herzog for Oper Dortmund, it is a different, slightly darker reading than that of Richard Jones for the RO. Finally, the RO’s production premiered in America with an almost completely new cast of the New York City Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In September 2014, the RO reprised the production. All four runs were a public and a mediatic success, receiving altogether more good than bad reviews. More importantly, the 6 opera is no longer one of the many contemporary works with just one single performance or run. The life of Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan; 28 November, 1967 in Houston, Texas – 8 February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida) served as the inspiration for the opera. She was a model, actress and TV personality who reached global fame due to her marriage to the 89-year-old Texan oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 years old. Raised in the backwater Mexia, Texas, Anna Nicole Smith dropped out of school in her sophomore year (10 th grade) and went to work at Jim’s Crispy Fried Chicken in Mexia. There she met Billy Smith whom she married in 1985 – she was 17 and he was 16 years old. Their son Daniel was born nine months later in January, when Anna Nicole was barely 18. According to the website marriage.about.com, she left Billy in 1987, although their divorce seems to have been filed only six years later, in 1993 (http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/annasmith.htm, last accessed on June 23, 2015). She tried for a better life in Houston, where she first worked at Walmart. Later, she decided to try her luck at a strip club, the Rick’s Gentleman’s Club, where she was not very successful, and, according to the owner, was “rather plump to be working [t]here” (http://www.people.com/people/anna_nicole_smith/, last accessed on August 10, 2015), but her success was furthered once she had breast augmentation surgery. A photographic session for Playboy magazine did the rest: Anna Nicole Smith became famous and desirable. She was Playboy cover, centrefold and Playmate of the Year. Later she replaced supermodel Claudia Schiffer as the face and body of the Guess Jeans campaign, appeared on the cover of the German edition of Marie Claire and in several other magazines, advertisements and films.