- Cavell, Stanley. A Pitch of Philosophy: Autobiographical Exercises.Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P., 1994. xv, 196p. ISBN 0-6746-6980-0. B945
.C273 P58.
Includes a chapter, “Opera and the Lease of Voice,” p.129–170, in which the
meaning of opera is found in the roles women play and sing. Singing is a
metaphor for female finding and losing the voice, so opera exhibits women’s
place in society. Gender issues are taken up in Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and
Debussy, and it becomes clear that Cavell is talking about text, not music. - Sala, Emilio. “Women Crazed by Love: An Aspect of Romantic Opera.” Trans.
William Ashbrook. OQ10-3 (Spring 1994): 19–41.
Pursues the theme of madness among female characters through operas of the
late 18th and 19th centuries, including Ninaby Dalayrac,Il pirata, I puritani,
Anna Bolena, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Catalani’s Edmea. - Not used.
Emphasis on Music
- Dahlhaus, Carl. Esthetics of Music. Trans. William W. Austin. New York:
Cambridge U.P., 1983. xii, 115p. ISBN 0-521-1235-081. ML3845 .D18.
Originally: Musikästhetik(Cologne: Gerig, 1967). A fine review of (mostly
German) thought, with imposing perceptions throughout. Interesting critique
of Hanslick (#426). On opera specifically there is a short but important chap-
ter (p.64–69). “Opera is a composite work, but not yet on that account a syn-
thesis of all the arts.... The components have almost always been out of phase.”
Trying to get them into synthesis has been “something like an obsession—an
idée fixe—in the history of opera.” In the juncture of music, libretto, and stag-
ing matters, the text may play only a slight role. “More decisive than words, in
opera, is the visible and palpable situation from which words grow.” Novelty
in opera may come from “the music as well as the text, scenery, or the relations
among the various components.” As for the temporal element: A performance
is “contained in time,” but the score “contains time.” A melody is perceived as
a totality in “now,” though most of it is absent at this instant. We grasp details
as part of an expected coherence.
See also next entry.
- Dahlhaus, Carl. “What Is a Musical Drama?” COJ1-2 (1990): 95–111.
Further thoughts on ideas introduced in #396, positing the value of musical
form in the dramatic schema. “The teleological element is not very strong in
opera, at least insofar as it consists of a configuration of affects, of extended
lyrical elements—of arias, in short.” However, “the fact that in opera, espe-
cially number opera, the teleological element remains—in comparison with the
spoken genre—less prominent than the structural one is not a reason for deny-
ing the dramatic character of the form.”
86 Opera