Genre and content in mid-century Verdi: ‘Addio, del passato’ (La traviata, Act III)

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Hepokoski
Keyword(s):  
Important Work ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Standard Practice ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Italian Opera ◽  
Structural Types ◽  
Historical Progress ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
La Traviata

In the attempt to construct the ‘story’ of post-Rossinian Italian opera it has been standard practice to identify as the central plot the dissolution of traditional structural types and genres. The charting of those musical ‘facts’ that illustrate this dissolution is a familiar musicological endeavour, and there remains a persistent temptation not merely to notice the ever-weakening pull of convention but also to identify it with the notion of ‘historical progress’: a move towards the mature virtues of dramatic complexity, idiosyncrasy and flexibility. Considerations of established conventions and their modifications tend to encourage anti-generic evaluative positions, judgements which are then bolstered by appealing to influential aesthetic systems. Thus Benedetto Croce: ‘Every true work of art has violated some established kind and upset the ideas of the critics’. Or Theodor Adorno: ‘Actually, there may never have been an important work that corresponded to its genre in all respects’. Or Hans Robert Jauss: ‘The more stereotypically a text repeats the generic, the more inferior is its artistic character and its degree of historicity […]. A masterwork is definable in terms of an alteration of the horizon of the genre that is as unexpected as it is enriching’? So bewitching is this image of genre dissolution that artistic production is often assessed by the degree to which it rebels against the idées reçues of tradition or encourages the momentum of the ‘historically inevitable’.

Truffles and Radishes, Food and Wine at the Opera

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Plotkin
Keyword(s):  
Giuseppe Verdi ◽  
Italian Opera ◽  
Real Place ◽  
The World ◽  
La Traviata ◽  
Title Character

“It’s raining truffles, radishes and fennels,” says Sir John Falstaff, the richly humane and deeply funny title character of Giuseppe Verdi’s final masterpiece. While there are many ways that food, wine and other libations have been used in opera, somehow this line best captures both the grandeur and common touch that opera and gastronomy possess. For every rare and fragrant truffle, there are plenty of common but no less essential radishes and fennels, all of which have their metaphorical place in opera and real place in cookery. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was probably the most important Italian creative artist since the Renaissance. Not only was he the foremost composer of Italian opera and, for many, the greatest opera composer of all, but he was a knowledgeable gastronome and farmer as well. His most famous operas include tragedies and dramas such as Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Aïda and Otello, but it was in his last work, the human comedy Falstaff, that he achieved his fullest expression of a philosophy that believes ‘All the world is a joke and man is born a clown.’

Faktura

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Wünsche
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Pictorial Space ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Important Quality ◽  
Visual Demonstration ◽  
Viktor Shklovsky

Faktura, literally "texture," is related to the Russian avant-garde’s preoccupation with the fundamental principles of the creative process. The term, applied to a work of art, addresses the way in which materials are used, the processes, the surrounding environment, and the artistic devices; it characterizes the textural structure of a work of art and the manner by which it was constructed. As a creative principle, it rejects a pictorial space based on perspective and the illusion of three-dimensional space projected onto a flat canvas. The Russian formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky considered faktura to be the single most important quality of an object of art as a constructed object: it was the evidence of its having been made. He applied the term to poetic writing as well as the visual arts; in both cases faktura offered a visual demonstration of the properties inherent in a material or construction: "The whole effort of a poet and a painter is aimed first and foremost at creating a continuous and thoroughly palpable object, an object with a faktura." The term faktura remained a fluid concept during the 1910s, its essential qualities being further defined and developed by members of the avant-garde from 1913 well into the mid-1920s. While faktura, as initially used by members of the early Russian avant-garde, was characterized by the use of natural materials and a holistic–metaphysical approach to art, it was later adapted by the Constructivists to conform to a strictly materialist ideology and utilitarian orientation in artistic production.

Context as resource for constructing artistic value: cases of non-recognition

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lisa Tota
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Role ◽  
Reception Theory ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Underground Station ◽  
Talented Artist ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Aby Warburg

This article sets out to document the plausibility of adopting a contextual conception of a work of art. Underlining the eminently social nature of the formation processes of artistic value, it illustrates how a work of art is also created by the local contexts in which it is produced and, above all, by those in which it is consumed. The first part of the article questions those romantic conceptions, according to which artistic value is normally attributed to a work of art exclusively on the basis of the author's talent, and tries to document the existence of a series of social factors that play a decisive role in establishing that a given object belongs to the “art system”. Different conceptions of the work of art are classified according to the way in which they solve the problem of genesis. Three main perspectives are identified: authorial, reception and contextual theories. It is argued that neither the authorial nor the reception theory is able to explain, on a sociological level, the process of artistic production and reception. In the second part, the different approaches to the genesis problem are connected with different interpretations of cases of non-recognition, those cases in which a “true” work of art is not recognized, for example, because it has been placed outside its own traditional reception context. It is argued that explanation of these cases of “non-recognition” is linked to the implied conception of artistic production. Three examples are considered: (a) the young Mozart; (b) Botticelli, who, held to be a mediocre painter up to the middle of the 19th century, becomes a talented artist thanks to the studies of Herbert Horne and Aby Warburg; and (c) Sting, who, in the Ladbroke Grove underground station in London, performed as a street musician.

Verdian opera burlesqued: a glimpse into mid-Victorian theatrical culture

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-66
Author(s):  
ROBERTA MONTEMORRA MARVIN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Italian Opera ◽  
Cultural Milieu ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Art Form ◽  
La Traviata ◽  
Theatrical Culture

Through brief case studies of burlesques of Ernani, Il trovatore and La traviata written for nineteenth-century London, this essay makes a preliminary examination of the nature of Victorian operatic burlesques, why they existed, and how they functioned artistically and sociologically. My larger purpose is threefold: to investigate the manner in which burlesque interpreted the foreign art form of Italian opera in a culture self-consciously identified as English, to consider how these works traversed class differences in an evolving socio-cultural milieu, and to ask how we might understand the these works in relation to the cultural codes of Victorian London.

scholarly journals Libros de artista en la colección de la Universitat Politècnica de València / Art books in the collection of the Universitat Politècnica de València

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Alcaraz Mira
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
State University ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Exhibition Hall ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Arte Contemporáneo

Los principales museos y centros de arte contemporáneo han completado sus colecciones de arte con documentación y publicaciones de artista, no sólo debido a la relevancia que este material posee de cara a ofrecer una lectura completa del arte contemporáneo, sino también porque se trata de obras muy importantes en el conjunto de la producción artística de autores internacionalmente reconocidos, como Ruscha, Dieter Roth, Boltanski, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Joan Brossa, Antoni Muntadas, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina o Francesc Torres.El Ensayo pretende ofrecer información sobre los contenidos de la colección singular, incluida en el Fondo de Arte de una Universidad pública, utilizando como referencias las diferentes secciones de la exposición que se realizó en 2016 en la sala de exposiciones del edificio de Rectorado UPV, bajo el título Salt de PàginaArt books in the collection of the Universitat Politècnica de València. The main museums and contemporary art centers have completed their collections of art with documentation and artist publications, not only because of the relevance that this material possesses in order to offer a complete reading of contemporary art, but also because we are talking about very Important work in the artistic production of internationally recognized authors, such as Ruscha, Dieter Roth, Boltanski, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Joan Brossa, Antoni Muntadas, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina and Francesc Torres.The Essay aims to provide information on the contents of the singular collection, included in the Art Fund of a state University, using as reference the different sections of the exhibition that was held in 2016 in the exhibition hall of the Rectorado UPV building, under The title Salt de Pàgina.

scholarly journals O EMERGIR DA MÚSICA POPULAR E SUAS INTERFACES COM A INDÚSTRIA FONOGRÁFICA

Caderno CRH ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (87) ◽  
pp. 517
Author(s):  
Anderson Costa ◽  
Lucas Barreto Catalan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Mots Clés ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Mode Of Production

<p>O presente artigo tem como objetivo central compreender os processos de interferência da indústria fonográfica sobre a música popular. Diante da expansão da lógica formal capitalista no campo da arte, a relação entre objetividade e subjetividade será a mola propulsora que utilizaremos para analisar paradoxos no processo de reprodução da música popular moderna, tais como indústria cultural e a reprodutibilidade técnica. Assim, partindo da análise do reggae jamaicano, buscamos ampliar o postulado adorniano sobre massificação da música para uma análise na qual seja possível investigar a experiência de produção artística periférica, como a da música popular jamaicana. Essa problemática abriu espaço para a discussão acerca da possibilidade de a indústria fonográfica ter múltiplas formas de atuação, a partir das contingências geradas pela singularidade do funcionamento desigual das condições econômicas, políticas e culturais de cada região, não perdendo de<br />vista que as configurações locais são partes integrantes do modo de produção capitalista.</p><p> </p><p>THE EMERGENCE OF POPULAR MUSIC AND ITS INTERFACES WITH THE PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY</p><p>This article is about popular music, focusing in the relations built by music in face of capitalism’s expansion in the arts’ field. For this instance, the<br />relations between objectivity and subjectivity will be the plot from where we will analyze the paradoxes in the process of modern popular music reproduction, such as: culture industry and the work of art in the age of its technological reproduction. So, starting from the Jamaican reggae, we seek to wise Adorno’s perspective about music investigation to an analysis where is possible to<br />investigate the outlying artistic production, as the popular music that rises in Jamaica. This argument opened space to a discussion about the possibility of the phonographic industry have multiple actuation forms developed from its contingencies that are created by the singularities of its unequal way of work in face of different economic, political and cultural circumstances, keeping in sight that local realities are integrated to the capitalism mode of production.</p><p>Keywords: Popular music. Jamaican reggae. Culture industry. Phonographic industry. Aesthetics.</p><p> </p><p>L’EMERGENCE DE LA MUSIQUE POPULAIRE ET SES INTERFACES AVEC L’INDUSTRIE PHONOGRAPHIQUE</p><p>Le sujet de cet article c’est la musique populaire. On prend la question des rapports entre la musique et la logique de l’expansion capitaliste au domaine<br />de l’art. Pour cela, la relation entre l’objectivité et la subjectivité c’est la force motrice de notre analyse sur les paradoxes du procès de reproduction de la<br />musique populaire moderne, tels que : l’industrie culturelle et la reproductibilité technique. On part de la musique jamaïcaine pour faire la critique au postulat adornien de la négativité appliqué à la musique erudite, en visant comprendre avec lui, aussi, la musique populaire, particulièrement la musique pop des régions périphériques du monde. Cette voie des discussions nous ouvre des multiples possibilités des investigations sur l’industrie phonographique, issues des contingences générées par la singularité du fonctionnement inégal des conditions économiques, politiques et culturelles de chaque région, sans oublier que les configurations locales font partie intégrante de mode de production capitaliste.</p><p>Mots-clés: Musique populaire. Reggae jamaïcain. Industrie culturelle. Esthétique.</p><p> </p>

From Automaton to Autonomy

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Richard Begam
Keyword(s):  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Real ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Mechanical Reproduction ◽  
German Cinema ◽  
Siegfried Kracauer ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Aesthetic Autonomy

This essay considers Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) in relation to Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) and the writings of two other Frankfurt School critics—Theodor Adorno and Siegfried Kracauer. Anticipating the larger argument of Benjamin’s essay, the film situates its central conflict around the “auratic” (as represented by Maria’s Christianity) and the “mechanical” (as embodied by Joh Fredersen’s technology). This conflict is crystallized by the robotic Maria, who is an exact duplicate of the real Maria. The essay highlights Adorno’s correspondence with Benjamin, examining how Metropolis itself engages with the positions these critics take on mechanical reproduction in film. Especially relevant in this regard is Kracauer’s classic study of German cinema, From Caligari to Hitler (1947), a book that levels against Lang the charge that Marxism often levels against modernism: its formalism mystifies its politics. The essay concludes with an analysis of the flood scene from Metropolis, demonstrating that the film’s formalism is not merely “ornamental”—as Kracauer claimed—and that for Lang political autonomy is inextricably linked with aesthetic autonomy.

scholarly journals On Not Saying, Not Knowing and Thinking about Nothing: Adorno, Dionysius, Derrida and the Negation of Art

Paragraph ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-217
Author(s):  
Johanna Malt
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Negative Knowledge ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

This article examines accounts of negation or the apophatic in Pseudo-Dionysius, Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida alongside a contemporary work of art by London Fieldworks, Null Object: Gustav Metzger Thinks about Nothing (2011). By exploring models of negative knowledge offered in these works, it asks what happens to the work of art when it becomes preoccupied with negation and how a work of art might embody or manifest — without reproducing — philosophical discourses about negation.

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