The Evolution of Opera Performance from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the Nineteenth Century

"The presentation of the book The Evolution of Opera Performance, from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the 19th Century, offers a synthesis of our work as a musical theatre director. Our aim is to stimulate the public’s interest in the opera genre and opera staging, by revealing aspects in the history of opera performance(s), as they have been shaped, century after century, by following the gradual effort and the tireless passion of its creators. Our aims are also to illustrate the original charm and the infinite resources of this genre, which continues to delight the public at large and the knowledgeable even today. Keywords: opera performance, opera staging, liturgical drama, vernacular drama, secular drama, dramatic madrigal, intermedi, the Florentine Camerata, Claudio Monteverdi, comédies-ballets, tragédie en musique, semi-opera, opera seria, the comic opera, opera buffa, ópera comique, ballad opera, Singspiel, tonadilla, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "

Easter Trope Quem queritis in the Lead-up to the Liturgical Drama

При изучении средневековой культуры бывает довольно сложно провести четкие границы между понятиями, категориями, поскольку многие из них либо сформировались позже, либо со временем наполнились другими смыслами. К таковым относятся драма и богослужение, на стыке которых возникло то, что в XIX веке получило название «литургическая драма». Вместо того чтобы прочертить между ними границу и исследовать изолированно, мы попробовали устремить взгляд на пограничные зоны: пространственные (взаимодействие песнопений внутри богослужения, их перемещение, поведение монахов в храме) и временные (этапы возникновения, становления и трансформации). В статье рассматриваются вопросы возникновения внутри пасхального богослужения драматического элемента - тропа-диалога Quem queritis («Что ищете»), его предполагаемых текстовых и интонационных литургических истоков, а также обратного воздействия тропа на канонические песнопения, благодаря которому стало возможным формирование литургической драмы как цельного, сюжетно и музыкально выстроенного эпизода внутри службы. It is quite difficult sometimes to draw a strict line between some concepts and categories while analyzing the medieval culture. The reasons are either these categories, which researchers are trying to define, appeared much later, or the meaning behind them was being changed through the centuries. One of the problematic areas is the concepts of drama and liturgy. Right on the border between them, there have appeared something that have received a name “liturgical drama” in the 19 century. Instead of trying to split these phenomena apart and study them separately, we have decided to switch our attention to the borders itself, both spatial (the chant interaction inside the liturgy, their replacement, the monks' behavior in the cathedral's space) and temporal (stages of origin, becoming and transformation). In this article, the attention is focused on the two main subjects. The first one is the genesis of the dialogue trope Quem queritis (“Whom do you seek”), which was the first dramatic element within the Easter liturgy. The second one is the reverse impact of the trope to the traditional liturgical chants, which made possible the appearance of the liturgical drama as a solid, all-in-one episode with the fine and logical textual and musical subject.

Dance of the Hours

This chapter demonstrates the formative role dance played in the Christianization of the liturgy and the sacralization of time. Using evidence from liturgical manuals, musical notation, and rituals, it traces how devotional choreography recuperated pagan motifs, impressed itself onto the regular rhythms of the liturgical calendar, and partook in the dance of the cosmos. In church dramas, dance exerted a didactic function, reinforcing the theme of Christian salvation alongside anti-Judaic rhetoric. The first section traces the authorization of liturgical dance in the Western Middle Ages. Through its ritualization of dance, the Western Church reinvented ancient rites within the discipline of the Latin liturgy. The second section illuminates the use of dance in liturgical drama. On the liturgical stage, the reenactment of Christian history offered a space for the ambivalence of dance to be worked out and re-signified. The third section offers a close reading of one specific liturgical dance ritual in Auxerre. This rite reconciled a pre-Christian myth with medieval eschatology and the Christian ordo.

„Übersetzungsverfahren“. Zum Verhältnis von Ereignis und liturgischer Performanz

“Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22, 19). Christ ‘translated’ the gift of his whole life into a ritual program (“do this”) which he asked his disciples to enact. As early as 1925, Romano Guardini (1885–1968) understood the ritual form of the Eucharist as a ritual transposition of the form of Christ’s life. He foresaw, limited as he was as a pioneer nonetheless, a dimension of the liturgy that liturgical studies would subsequently investigate using categories such as performance, Inszenierung or mise en scène. In this sense, the liturgical drama has an illocutionary and performative quality both in continuity and in discontinuity with other religious performances.

Danielis ludus: Transforming Clerics in the Twelfth Century

A twelfth-century so-called liturgical drama (preserved in a unique copy of the thirteenth century, preserved in British Library, London), the Danielis ludus (Play of Daniel), based mainly on chapters 5 and 6 from the Book of Daniel has been much discussed in scholarship. It has been seen by scholars, not least Margot Fassler, as a (music) drama intended to establish a role model for young clerics in connection with ecclesiastical attempts at reforming the celebrations for New Year's in Beauvais, the so-called Feast of Fools. In this article, with consideration also of a recent discussion of the New Year's liturgy, I suggest to understand the Danielis ludus as a liturgical ritual transforming the (corporate) identity of the young clerics who were, undoubtedly, involved in its performance. Keywords: liturgy, drama, the sacred, medieval clerics. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Vom Adamsspiel zur Adamsoper

The thesis of the birth of opera as a result of late humanistic reception of anti­quity at the turn of the 17th century has been a commonplace idea within the discussion of dramatic genres. Yet the dominant narrative of change or renewal tends to obscure phenomena of continuity and anachronism which are nonetheless relevant for the tradition of premodern theatre. Those residues of an outlasting dramatic tradition are the focus of this paper which is especially concerned with the transitions between the broad stream of medieval liturgical drama and early modern opera. It is to be shown how close the ties in particular are between the new genre of music theatre and the older theatrical models and their continuities. At the same time the specific achievements and innovations of the younger operatic genre can be accentuated even more distinctly. This paper will concentrate on a paradigmatic case from the early times of German music theatre, the Hamburg inaugural opera Adam from 1678, to demonstrate the characteristic links as well as transformations between the traditions of the medieval liturgical and early modern protestant drama and the operatic genre of the 17th century.

When sounds, colors, and shapes meet: Investigating children’s audiovisual art in response to classical music

This study was designed to investigate children’s audiovisual art, following intuitive listening to complete classical works from different historical periods. The study aimed to examine the effect of different musical stimuli on children’s audiovisual output. Two related questions were asked: (1) How do children visually and verbally represent music from different historical periods? (2) What musical and extra-musical elements are represented? Participants were 181 second graders (age 7.0–8.5). Three compositions were presented: a 12th-century anonymous choral from the liturgical drama “ Danielis Ludus,” Chopin’s prelude op. 28 no. 10, and Bartók’s “ Melody in the Mist” Vol. 4 no. 107, from “ Mikrokosmos.” Each composition is based on distinct musical parameters: vocal timbre, melodic contour, and texture alternations, respectively. Data consisted of 495 audio-graphic productions and related accounts. Analysis progressed in three stages abbreviated MSC: Morphological dimensions, focusing on type of symbols employed; Structural dimensions, focusing on the overall graphical design; and Conceptual dimensions focusing on the generic meanings of the productions. Results indicated significant differences in children’s reactions to each of the three compositions, showing that MSC dimensions are influenced by the type of music presented and that differences in MSC dimensions are statistically significant. Experiencing “audiovisuology” in school is one way of promoting art integration.

The Musical Enactment of Drama in Sarum Plainsong

In the tenth century, a sung dialogue, the 'Quem queritis' trope, appeared as a ceremonial addition to the paschal vigil and morning liturgy of Easter Sunday. It is often appraised as the bridge between liturgical chant and the later full-cast liturgical dramas of the Middle Ages, but what has generally not been considered, is that Franco-Romano (Gregorian) chant, compiled at least a century earlier, already contained the seeds of liturgical drama from which this dialogue naturally grew. This paper shows that some ideomelic chants from the twelfth-century 'Graduale Sarisburiense' from England, a minor variant of earlier graduals from the Continent, enact a vocal drama utilising the words of the biblical personages found in the chant text. Specifically, two types of dramatic representations are examined: the monologue and the dialogue. In the former, the text is spoken by one biblical figure whose ethos is expressed musically. In the latter, more than one voice conveys the words of the biblical text, and these are delineated musically. Employing examples for each type, I discuss the different ways that chant melody makes representational drama possible. Monologues studied are the introits 'Resurrexi, Ad te levavi, Gaudete', and the offertories 'Dextera Domini and Ave Maria'. Of the dialogues studied are the communions, 'Dominus Jesus, Fili, quid fecisti, Dicit Dominus: Implete, and the offertory Precatus est Moyses' which is examined in greater detail.