Panel 4
November 10
9h00–11h00
Chair: Manuel Deniz Silva
(INET-MD, FCSH/UNL)
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Opera in Silent Cinema: The Case of Vienna
Claus Tieber
(University of Salzburg, Austria)
Since the earliest days, film was attracted by opera and soon opera became interested in film in return. Silent cinema used opera in manifold ways: it adapted its material, used its arias and other famous musical pieces and in some significant examples composers and singers worked for film as well.
In my research project about sound and music in Viennese cinemas I found evidence that
puts a new light on the relation of these two art forms. In Vienna a specific musical and cultural environment could be found in which it is harder to distinct between high and low brow culture, between popular and serious music. Films were not only shown in the entertainment halls of the Viennese Prater, but also at the Konzerthaus, often using famous opera singers to accompany or frame the screenings. The music played in cinemas (and other places where films were shown) included arias from operettas, operas and stage plays. Actors and singers
acted in Austrian silent films.
The “cinema of attractions” (Gunning) as well as the following cinema of “narrative integration” is on many levels not as distinct from the “powerplant of emotions” (Kluge) called opera (or musical theater).
In my paper I want to present the historical evidence for connections of opera and film in Vienna between 1895 and 1930, and sketch out some theoretical thoughts about the relation of the two art forms in general.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
An Operatic Opportunity: Guazzoni’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (1913) in America
James M. Doering
(Randolph-Macon College, USA)
Though linked since the 1890s, the extent of opera’s impact on film accompaniment is often misunderstood. Opera’s dramatic material and cultural status certainly inspired filmmakers, and its continuous music served as a model for early silent film accompaniment. But as Rick Altman has shown, other multi-media art forms such as theater and vaudeville had greater impacts on silent film accompaniment than opera, in part because opera differed so
significantly in size and concept from early film. Prior to 1915, most films were 1 to 2 reels (10 to 20 minutes). Film musicians thought more in terms of sound effects and compilations than the kinds of large-scale musical gestures and compositional intricacies that opera modeled. Two factors converged in the mid 1910s, however, that ultimately brought opera and film closer together: a push from the film trade toward standardized musical accompaniments and the emergence of multi-reel features. A fascinating early example of this intersection is George Kleine’s U.S. release of the 11-reel Italian epic, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (1913). Directed by Enrico Guazzoni, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra combined spectacle, history, and sophisticated storytelling on a grand scale. Given the film’s length and scope, Kleine made the novel choice to commission a “special score” for the film. His intent was more practical than artistic—an attempt to minimize the risk of his investment being ruined by ill-fitting music in local theaters where house musicians wielded complete control. He turned to a locally respected concert composer, George Colburn.
Colburn immediately perceived the operatic opportunity in Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, and in less than three weeks composed an elaborate score based on 18 original, recurring themes, which morph depending on the dramatic circumstances. He created one of America’s earliest original film scores, using cutting edge thematic film scoring techniques. This paper analyzes Colburn’s score, its reception, and most importantly what this example reveals about the emerging relationship between opera and film in the silent era. My research is based on archival sources in the Library of Congress, the extant score and film, and my work as a performer. In 2008, I performed Colburn’s score with the film at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
“A World of Dreams”: The Operatic Fantasy of René Clair’s Le Million
Hannah Lewis
(Harvard University, USA)
With the development of synchronized sound film technology in the late 1920s, cinema was irrevocably altered. Yet, while the transition from silent to sound film was swift, it was not initially systematic; film directors responded to transforming technologies in widely divergent ways, reflecting the controversy surrounding new technology, mediation, and the medium’s unique capabilities as distinguished from live theatrical forms. Within this heated aesthetic debate, music became a powerful interventional force for many directors.
In this paper, I discuss French director René Clair’s work in relation to the debate on sound film. Clair’s ambivalence about the coming of sound is reflected in his films from 1930 and 1931, all of which incorporate music in unusual and provocative ways. I focus on Le Million
(1931), as a way of examining Clair’s unique solutions to new problems during this period of technological transition. Through an analysis of archival and primary source materials, I discuss the working relationship between Clair and the composers for the film: Armand Bernard, Georges Van Parys, and Philippe Parès. Additionally, I closely analyze Clair’s writings from the period, alongside scenes from Le Million, to demonstrate how Clair put his philosophies into practice, paying particular attention to the film’s complex relationship to
live musical-theatrical forms. Le Million engages with sung theater in both its form and its narrative content: in addition to being a “filmed operetta” (operette filmée), the film’s climax occurs in an opera house, onstage during a performance. Clair brings opera and sound film closer together, forcing them to confront each other in their similarities and their differences. Through a historical and theoretical discussion of Le Million, I demonstrate how Clair’s films from this period challenge some of our long-held assumptions about the role of music in cinema, providing an alternative model for film’s sound-image relationship.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
‘Beyond the Film-Opera’:
the Opera in the Documentaries Produced in Italy Between the Thirties and Fifties
Beatrice Birardi
(Società Italiana di Musicologia, Italy)
Since the second half of the thirties of the twentieth century, the Italian cinema staged opera in two different ways, represented by the more famous film-opera and by a small but significant corpus of documentaries that, by assimilation, I decide to define docu-opera. These two modalities represent two different ways of enjoying the opera on the screen: the first more inclined to the fiction, the second closer to the original theatrical mise-en-scène.
During the second decade of the fascist era, a propitious period began for the Italian documentary, thanks to the fruitful competition between the two largest documentary production companies, Istituto Nazionale Luce and Incom, with a remarkable qualitative and quantitative growth that continued after the war.
The development of the docu-opera follows the same path as the film-opera: ‘incubation period’ during the thirties and ‘actual realization’ during the postwar years. The development of the docu-opera is part of the largest postwar phenomenon that saw film makers deeply involved in popularizing opera on the screen through the presentation of complete performances. In the docu-opera the transferring onto the screen was realized through procedures typical of the documentary of the period, from a productive and aesthetic point of view. Thanks to the specific characteristics of the documentary, the docu-opera allowed new possibilities for opera at the cinema, completely different from those offered by fictional films.
There are various typologies of docu-opera: from the first cine-music ‘digressions’ that used
opera music and films explaining the process of staging an opera, to documentaries that transposed entire operas onto the screen. The production of the docu-opera was very accurate and many figures were involved, such as directors, photographers, sound technicians and, especially, musicians – many of them were already operating in the documentary – like Raffaele Gervasio and Giovanni Fusco, engaged in editing, adapting and supervising the musical material.
This research starts from the identification of materials and intends to launch the study about docu-opera, production processes, characteristics of the musical treatment, reception by the public and critics.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
November 10
9h00–11h00
Chair: Manuel Deniz Silva
(INET-MD, FCSH/UNL)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Opera in Silent Cinema: The Case of Vienna
Claus Tieber
(University of Salzburg, Austria)
Since the earliest days, film was attracted by opera and soon opera became interested in film in return. Silent cinema used opera in manifold ways: it adapted its material, used its arias and other famous musical pieces and in some significant examples composers and singers worked for film as well.
In my research project about sound and music in Viennese cinemas I found evidence that
puts a new light on the relation of these two art forms. In Vienna a specific musical and cultural environment could be found in which it is harder to distinct between high and low brow culture, between popular and serious music. Films were not only shown in the entertainment halls of the Viennese Prater, but also at the Konzerthaus, often using famous opera singers to accompany or frame the screenings. The music played in cinemas (and other places where films were shown) included arias from operettas, operas and stage plays. Actors and singers
acted in Austrian silent films.
The “cinema of attractions” (Gunning) as well as the following cinema of “narrative integration” is on many levels not as distinct from the “powerplant of emotions” (Kluge) called opera (or musical theater).
In my paper I want to present the historical evidence for connections of opera and film in Vienna between 1895 and 1930, and sketch out some theoretical thoughts about the relation of the two art forms in general.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
An Operatic Opportunity: Guazzoni’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (1913) in America
James M. Doering
(Randolph-Macon College, USA)
Though linked since the 1890s, the extent of opera’s impact on film accompaniment is often misunderstood. Opera’s dramatic material and cultural status certainly inspired filmmakers, and its continuous music served as a model for early silent film accompaniment. But as Rick Altman has shown, other multi-media art forms such as theater and vaudeville had greater impacts on silent film accompaniment than opera, in part because opera differed so
significantly in size and concept from early film. Prior to 1915, most films were 1 to 2 reels (10 to 20 minutes). Film musicians thought more in terms of sound effects and compilations than the kinds of large-scale musical gestures and compositional intricacies that opera modeled. Two factors converged in the mid 1910s, however, that ultimately brought opera and film closer together: a push from the film trade toward standardized musical accompaniments and the emergence of multi-reel features. A fascinating early example of this intersection is George Kleine’s U.S. release of the 11-reel Italian epic, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra (1913). Directed by Enrico Guazzoni, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra combined spectacle, history, and sophisticated storytelling on a grand scale. Given the film’s length and scope, Kleine made the novel choice to commission a “special score” for the film. His intent was more practical than artistic—an attempt to minimize the risk of his investment being ruined by ill-fitting music in local theaters where house musicians wielded complete control. He turned to a locally respected concert composer, George Colburn.
Colburn immediately perceived the operatic opportunity in Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, and in less than three weeks composed an elaborate score based on 18 original, recurring themes, which morph depending on the dramatic circumstances. He created one of America’s earliest original film scores, using cutting edge thematic film scoring techniques. This paper analyzes Colburn’s score, its reception, and most importantly what this example reveals about the emerging relationship between opera and film in the silent era. My research is based on archival sources in the Library of Congress, the extant score and film, and my work as a performer. In 2008, I performed Colburn’s score with the film at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
“A World of Dreams”: The Operatic Fantasy of René Clair’s Le Million
Hannah Lewis
(Harvard University, USA)
With the development of synchronized sound film technology in the late 1920s, cinema was irrevocably altered. Yet, while the transition from silent to sound film was swift, it was not initially systematic; film directors responded to transforming technologies in widely divergent ways, reflecting the controversy surrounding new technology, mediation, and the medium’s unique capabilities as distinguished from live theatrical forms. Within this heated aesthetic debate, music became a powerful interventional force for many directors.
In this paper, I discuss French director René Clair’s work in relation to the debate on sound film. Clair’s ambivalence about the coming of sound is reflected in his films from 1930 and 1931, all of which incorporate music in unusual and provocative ways. I focus on Le Million
(1931), as a way of examining Clair’s unique solutions to new problems during this period of technological transition. Through an analysis of archival and primary source materials, I discuss the working relationship between Clair and the composers for the film: Armand Bernard, Georges Van Parys, and Philippe Parès. Additionally, I closely analyze Clair’s writings from the period, alongside scenes from Le Million, to demonstrate how Clair put his philosophies into practice, paying particular attention to the film’s complex relationship to
live musical-theatrical forms. Le Million engages with sung theater in both its form and its narrative content: in addition to being a “filmed operetta” (operette filmée), the film’s climax occurs in an opera house, onstage during a performance. Clair brings opera and sound film closer together, forcing them to confront each other in their similarities and their differences. Through a historical and theoretical discussion of Le Million, I demonstrate how Clair’s films from this period challenge some of our long-held assumptions about the role of music in cinema, providing an alternative model for film’s sound-image relationship.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
‘Beyond the Film-Opera’:
the Opera in the Documentaries Produced in Italy Between the Thirties and Fifties
Beatrice Birardi
(Società Italiana di Musicologia, Italy)
Since the second half of the thirties of the twentieth century, the Italian cinema staged opera in two different ways, represented by the more famous film-opera and by a small but significant corpus of documentaries that, by assimilation, I decide to define docu-opera. These two modalities represent two different ways of enjoying the opera on the screen: the first more inclined to the fiction, the second closer to the original theatrical mise-en-scène.
During the second decade of the fascist era, a propitious period began for the Italian documentary, thanks to the fruitful competition between the two largest documentary production companies, Istituto Nazionale Luce and Incom, with a remarkable qualitative and quantitative growth that continued after the war.
The development of the docu-opera follows the same path as the film-opera: ‘incubation period’ during the thirties and ‘actual realization’ during the postwar years. The development of the docu-opera is part of the largest postwar phenomenon that saw film makers deeply involved in popularizing opera on the screen through the presentation of complete performances. In the docu-opera the transferring onto the screen was realized through procedures typical of the documentary of the period, from a productive and aesthetic point of view. Thanks to the specific characteristics of the documentary, the docu-opera allowed new possibilities for opera at the cinema, completely different from those offered by fictional films.
There are various typologies of docu-opera: from the first cine-music ‘digressions’ that used
opera music and films explaining the process of staging an opera, to documentaries that transposed entire operas onto the screen. The production of the docu-opera was very accurate and many figures were involved, such as directors, photographers, sound technicians and, especially, musicians – many of them were already operating in the documentary – like Raffaele Gervasio and Giovanni Fusco, engaged in editing, adapting and supervising the musical material.
This research starts from the identification of materials and intends to launch the study about docu-opera, production processes, characteristics of the musical treatment, reception by the public and critics.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::