Keynote Adress
November 9
15h00–16h15
Operatic-Cinematic Dream Notes
Richard Leppert
(University of Minnesota, USA)
Opera and cinema share a tendency toward representing dream worlds (whether utopian or dystopian), one in which music plays a key part—obviously foundational to opera but sometimes nearly as important in film, and particularly in films on musical subjects. The question addressed here tends towards the micrology of affect and effect, that is, examples of the specific means by which music drives the dream world of operatic and cinematic
representation. The operas I’ll speak about are Ernani (Verdi) and La bohème (Puccini); the films of my principal concern are Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg), Fitzcarraldo (Herzog), and Humoresque (Negulesco). I’m especially interested in (1) operatic dream world constructed by Herzog; (2) one note from Act III of La bohème; and (3) the use of closeups of actress Joan Crawford during the final scene from Humoresque. Opera plays against the
inadequacy of words to express with immediacy the depths of emotion that invade human beings; opera gives itself over to the expression of these emotions precisely at the moment when subjectivity in modernity gains entry as the defining characteristic of what counts as the human. Film took up the job from opera; in the climactic scene of Humoresque all but eschews words; like recitative, the words we do hear accomplish little more than moving the plot to the point where aria takes over. But the “aria,” well known to be sure, in this instance is opera without words. What substitutes for words is Joan Crawford’s body, her face especially.
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November 9
15h00–16h15
Operatic-Cinematic Dream Notes
Richard Leppert
(University of Minnesota, USA)
Opera and cinema share a tendency toward representing dream worlds (whether utopian or dystopian), one in which music plays a key part—obviously foundational to opera but sometimes nearly as important in film, and particularly in films on musical subjects. The question addressed here tends towards the micrology of affect and effect, that is, examples of the specific means by which music drives the dream world of operatic and cinematic
representation. The operas I’ll speak about are Ernani (Verdi) and La bohème (Puccini); the films of my principal concern are Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg), Fitzcarraldo (Herzog), and Humoresque (Negulesco). I’m especially interested in (1) operatic dream world constructed by Herzog; (2) one note from Act III of La bohème; and (3) the use of closeups of actress Joan Crawford during the final scene from Humoresque. Opera plays against the
inadequacy of words to express with immediacy the depths of emotion that invade human beings; opera gives itself over to the expression of these emotions precisely at the moment when subjectivity in modernity gains entry as the defining characteristic of what counts as the human. Film took up the job from opera; in the climactic scene of Humoresque all but eschews words; like recitative, the words we do hear accomplish little more than moving the plot to the point where aria takes over. But the “aria,” well known to be sure, in this instance is opera without words. What substitutes for words is Joan Crawford’s body, her face especially.
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