PUCCINI AS MODERNIST: SELECTED TWENTIETH-CENTURY STRUCTURES IN GIANNI SCHICCHI AND TURANDOT BY BERNARD M. McDONALD Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music Indiana University December 2015 Accepted by the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music Doctoral Committee ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Blair Johnston, Research Director ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Betsy Burleigh, Chair ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Dominick DiOrio ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Walter Huff October 13, 2015 ii Copyright © 2015 Bernard McDonald iii To my wife Suzanne and our children Cecilia and Theodore and In memory of our dear friend Jennifer M. Miller iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have made an impact on my studies and research. Jonathan Eaton, artistic and general director of the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, was responsible for my first outing as conductor with Gianni Schicchi, and that experience prompted me to make Puccini the subject of my final doctoral project. Working first-hand on Puccini’s operas with fine colleagues at the New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Glyndebourne were crucial and formative early professional experiences. I am indebted to my doctoral committees for steering me through degree completion with enthusiasm and punctiliousness. To my colleagues at Simpson College, my thanks for persistent reminders that this could be written notwithstanding the demands of teaching, performing, and directing the most unusual and ambitious undergraduate opera program in the United States. My research director, Dr. Blair Johnston, has been a wonderful inquisitor and intellectual companion. Dr. Carmen-Helena Téllez, erstwhile of Indiana University, now at the University of Notre Dame, encouraged me to pursue a doctorate and has remained a mentor and friend throughout. Dr. David Lasocki, former Head of Reference Services in the Cook Music Library at Indiana University, read the whole document and provided many useful edits. Dr. Byron Stayskal of the classical languages faculty at Western Washington University has been a generous friend and interlocutor who helped me clarify my thoughts. My student Chase Shoemaker and former student Danielle Aldach provided assistance with the typesetting of musical examples. Thanks also to Casa Ricordi, Milan, for permission to reproduce the musical examples in this document. v David and Jennifer Miller, of Walnut Creek, California, became dear friends when I was embarking on an operatic career and were a huge support during my doctoral studies. Jennifer’s sudden passing in the summer of 2013 was an enormous blow to all who loved her. My extended family has given unstinting encouragement. My parents, Bernard and Marie McDonald, have provided lifelong support for my musical endeavors, and it would be impossible for me to thank them enough. Finally, my beloved wife, Suzanne Lommler, and our children, Cecilia and Theodore, have borne the frequent absence of a husband and father with fortitude and tolerance. Thank you to all. vi PREFACE The initial impetus for this study was the author’s observation – as a conductor and vocal coach of the opera – that in Gianni Schicchi Puccini seems to calculatedly distort our innate and preconditioned sense of rhythm and meter, manipulating the audience’s (and performers’) perception and expectation of musical fundamentals to formulate a fast- moving comic narrative in which things are only “right” when they are “wrong,” and the grotesqueries of the plot seem to have musical analogues. This spurred an investigation into Puccini’s last two operas that suggested the composer was engaged in the modernist project to an extent that has almost never been acknowledged. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................v Preface ............................................................................................................................ vii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... viii List of Examples ............................................................................................................. ix Introduction .......................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Puccini’s Reception History and the Problem of Modernism .........................8 Chapter 2: Selected Modernist Techniques in Gianni Schicchi and Turandot ...............28 Chapter 3: Neo-classicism in Puccini’s Last Two Operas ..............................................59 Chapter 4: Postmodern Puccini .......................................................................................84 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................106 Appendix 1: Example 23, Gianni Schicchi, [21] ..........................................................111 Appendix 2: Example 28, Turandot, III [9] ..................................................................115 Bibliography .................................................................................................................119 viii LIST OF EXAMPLES Example 1, Gianni Schicchi, mm.8–9 ............................................................................30 Example 2, Gianni Schicchi, [4] .....................................................................................32 Example 3, Gianni Schichi, [49]–[50] ............................................................................34 Example 4, Gianni Schicchi, [50] ...................................................................................37 Example 5, Gianni Schicchi, [64] ...................................................................................39 Example 6, Gianni Schicchi, [77]–[78] ..........................................................................42 Example 7, Gianni Schicchi, [83] ...................................................................................45 Example 8, Turandot, II [44] ..........................................................................................55 Example 9, Turandot, II [45] ..........................................................................................56 Example 10, Turandot, II [45]+9 ....................................................................................56 Example 11, Turandot, II [46]+2 ....................................................................................57 Example 12, Turandot, II [47] ........................................................................................57 Example 13, Turandot, I [28] .........................................................................................64 Example 14, Turandot, I [29]+7 .....................................................................................65 Example 15, Turandot, I [30]+1 .....................................................................................66 Example 16, Turandot, I [37] .........................................................................................68 Example 17, Turandot, II, [1] .........................................................................................69 Example 18, Turandot, II [3]+4 ......................................................................................70 Example 19, Turandot, II [6] ..........................................................................................71 Example 20, Gianni Schicchi, [16] .................................................................................73 Example 21, Gianni Schicchi, [19] .................................................................................73 ix Example 22, Gianni Schicchi, [20] .................................................................................74 Example 23, Gianni Schicchi, [21] ...............................................................................112 Example 24, Gianni Schicchi, [52]+24 ...........................................................................78 Example 25, Gianni Schicchi, [54] .................................................................................79 Example 26, Gianni Schicchi, [55]+20 ...........................................................................80 Example 27, Turandot, I [46] .........................................................................................84 Example 28, Turandot, III [9] .......................................................................................115 Example 29, Turandot, I [38] .........................................................................................92 Example 30, Turandot, II [25]+3 ..................................................................................100 Example 31, Turandot, II [28] ......................................................................................101 Example 32, Turandot, II [29]+8 ..................................................................................102 x INTRODUCTION Puccini among the opera-going public is perhaps the epitome of “Italian” opera: popular, populist; a melodist whose lyricism, sumptuous mastery of the late-Romantic orchestra, heart-wrenching tragic heroines, and strong dramatic situations have given his mature works a permanent place