The Time-Space Dimension in mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut” by G. Puccini

Recent years have seen a resurgence of researchers’ interest in theatricality in opera of XX century. In this case, by theatricality we mean not the staging of the operatic work, spectacle, but the mechanisms of the musical dramaturgy allowing achieve more active development of plot events and dynamicity of their embodiment. The similar tendencies one can find in works by Giacomo Puccini, a composer belonging to the period known as fin de siècle, the period when the continuation of Romantic tradition was synchronized in time with the growth of artistic innovations that have defined the ways of thinking in the new musical and historical era. The material of this research is presented by mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut”, which is the third, early opera work by the composer. Nevertheless, this work distinctly reveals characteristic features of Puccini’s opera style, thus defining individuality of his musical theatre. The research approach to the same type of scenes in S. Prokofiev’s “War and Peace”, used by E. Ruchyevskaya (2010) in her treatise, is held up as analytical model for this article. The observations found in her book became for the author of the current article a confirmation of foresightedness of G. Puccini, who had already in 1892 explored artistic possibilities of theatricality as a way of embodiment of reality. The main research results. Montage, defining a structure of compositional and dramaturgical units both in horizontal and vertical dimensions, becomes a main principle of organisation of mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut”. In the First act of the opera it unites the whole plot, transforming this Act into a broad and integrated picture consisting of multiple elements. Here montage occurs by linking episodes of different size, including traditional opera forms such as solo, ensemble and choir without their detachment as finite structures. In the temporal, horizontal, projection a functional logic of succession of stages of plot is kept rather strictly: exposition, outset, development, climax and dénouement. The montage constructive principle effectuates two types of dialogue, differing with regard to their given dramaturgical goals. For example, flirtation of students and young women, involving separates personas (Edmondo and des Grieux), results into the dialog-communication, a type of dialogue when every remark of the choir group or character causes reaction of another ones. The brevity of sayings and rapidity of their succession causes the activity of rhythm of musical and theatrical development, even though the situation lacks clearly expressed plot intrigue. After this expositional scene, in the phase of outset, another type of a dialogue appears – the dialogue of parallel remarks, in which separate remarks of characters intrude each other without direct logic continuous communication of them, and, as a result, the next replicas can be perceived as simultaneous. In the Third Act it is possible to consider from the chosen standpoint the only such scene of it, marked by the presence of the choir differentiated into the separate choir groups and a group of characters, whose multiplicity causes the scene to possess features of multifigure one. The combination of the named above types of dialogues happening there, causes a high degree of dramatic tension, largely amplified by extreme compression of musical and theatrical time. Every coordinate of the artistic whole presented in the regarded scenes receives its characteristic. So, the Time is embodied in the subsequence, co ordination of the events, in the speed of their change and pulse. In the Space coordinate it is possible to distinguish real and illusionary mode. The first one is defined by a state of dramaturgical levels in any given moment; in music, the Space is embodied by the manipulation of different acoustic masses: the musical texture becoming more or less thick and compressed that has a meaning of form-shaping factor. The second, illusionary, mode of the Space is an impression of simultaneousness appearing despite separate events happening consequently. One can observe this phenomenon in its clearest form in the dialogues of second type. Ultimately, it is possible to regard mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut” as an example of unification of the dimensions of the Time and the Space, a unification creating double optics of illumination of plot and musical events, pictured on stage and allowing to reflect the realm of life in the most authentic way. Moreover, the Time and the Space are in a constant state of transfiguration of one into another, that results in the verticalization of the Time, similarly to the way it is happening in the example taken by the author of this article from the novel “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert. In the conclusions the results of analysis are generalized and innovations made by Puccini in the field of opera dramaturgy are listed: the montage principle of organization of compositional and dramaturgical process, realized both in vertical and horizontal projections; two types of dialogues; the means connected with interaction of the Time and Space causing musical and theatrical event to happen more dynamically. The montage principle, which is the basis of both types of dialogue and scene construction as a whole, ultimately, determines the ratio of the Space and the Time, which are constantly in a state of mutual transitions. This also applies to the combination of different dramatic plans of the content, which in some cases form a deep perspective of the musical and theatrical scene. The perspectives of the further research are defined by the actuality of regarding of dramaturgical principles and devices revealed by the analysis of mass and multifigure scenes of “Manon Lescaut” in the historical context, that is in the preceding and the following stages of development of musical art.