5,418 research outputs found
Addressing the divine: the 'numinous' accompagnato in opera seria
No full textFew cases as blatantly override their contextual constraints as the ‘numinous’ accompagnato, i.e. a brand of recitative tagged by a homophonic texture for strings underscoring invocations, oracles, and divine utterances. Conceived in Italy in the 1680s, the topos would remain intact throughout the eighteenth century and beyond; yet its inscription in the discourse of early opera seria is surely at odds with the genre’s intellectual framework. Given its simultaneous presence in opera and oratorio, the numinous accompagnato was deployed to evoke Christian as well as pagan deities with the same degree of solemnity. Initially, the ‘college’ view on mythology (e.g. Bossuet, Gravina), which accepted pagan archetypes in terms of Christian allegories, may have offered a backdoor to escape censorial conflicts. However, rationalist doctrines espoused by Fontenelle and Muratori would rule out representations of ‘idolatry’ and ‘superstition.’ Not coincidentally, a growing number of libretti containing such ‘heathen fantasies’ were prefaced by disclaimers (proteste) that distanced them from the author’s ‘true’ beliefs. Equally hostile to the deus ex machina and ‘irrationality’ (alogon) as a whole, the implementation of neo-Aristotelian verisimilitude in opera was no less diametrically opposed to the scope of numinous accompagnati. Nonetheless, closer scrutiny of applications by Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Händel, and Jommelli reveals as to how accomplished composers have seized upon this particular topos to display harmonic extravagances, thus substituting the missing visual component with musical suggestions of the metaphysical that transgressed the logocentric borders of plot
Preface
No full textThroughout the Ancien Régime, mythology played a remarkably vital role in opera, defining such epoch-making works as Claudio Monteverdi’s La favola d’Orfeo (1607) and Christoph Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (1779). The operatic presence of the Greco-Roman gods and heroes was anything but unambiguous or unproblematic, however. (Dis)embodying Myths in Ancien Régime Opera highlights myth’s chameleonic life in the Italian dramma per musica and French tragédie en musique of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Written by eminent scholars in the fields of music, literature, theater, and cultural studies, the six essays in this book address important questions. Through what ideological lenses did the Ancien Régime perceive an ancient legacy that was fundamentally pagan and fictitious, as opposed to Christian and rationalistic? What dramaturgies did librettists and composers devise to adapt mythical topics to altering philosophical and esthetic doctrines? Were the ancients’ precepts obeyed or precisely overridden by the age of ‘classicism’? And how could myths be made to fit changing modes of spectatorship
The mechanics of magic (or vice versa): Sigrid T'Hooft and the historically informed performance of opera
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RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPERTOIRE: THE FORGOTTEN STAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE GRAND THEATRE DE GAND
No full textsponsorship: Bruno Forment holds degrees in music theory, musicology and theatre studies (Ph.D., University of Gent, 2007). Thanks to BAEF and Fulbright grants, he was a visiting fellow at the University of Southern California. He is the author and editor of (Dis)embodying Myths in Ancien Regime Opera (2012), Theatrical Heritage: Challenges and Opportunities (2015), and Swansong of an Illusion: The Historical Stage Sets of the Municipal Theater of Kortrijk (2016). He has also published essays in, among others, Cambridge Opera Journal, Eighteenth-Century Music, Staging Verdi and Wagner (Brepols, 2015), and Carmen Abroad (forthcoming). His work has been awarded by the Schweizerische Musikforschende Gesellschaft and the Province of Western Flanders (Heritage Prize for Research, 2017). He is currently a Research Fellow at the Orpheus Institute, where he investigates the artistic potential of libraries, while teaching at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent and the Catholic University of Leuven. An earlier version of this essay was read at the 20th Biennial International Conference on NineteenthCentury Music, Huddersfield, 3 July 2018. The author wishes to thank Bruce Alan Brown for his helpful comments, as well as Hendrik Defoort and the staff at the Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent for their always helpful assistance. Digitisation of the photograph collection discussed in this article was financed with a grant from the Research Fund Flanders (FWO). (BAEF, Fulbright grants, Schweizerische Musikforschende Gesellschaft, Province of Western Flanders, Research Fund Flanders (FWO))status: Publishe
Anne Barrère, L’éducation buissonnière, quand les adolescents se forment par eux-mêmes, Paris, Armand Colin, coll. Sociétales, 2011
No full textMichon Bruno. Anne Barrère, L’éducation buissonnière, quand les adolescents se forment par eux-mêmes, Paris, Armand Colin, coll. Sociétales, 2011. In: Revue des sciences sociales, N°48, 2012. Frontières. pp. 181-182
Brussels Trio Sonatas : Project Boussu
No full textCD recording of Brussels Trio Sonatas, played by Ann Cnop (violin), Shiho Ono (violin) and Mathilde Wolfs (cello), on replica instruments after B.J. Boussu, made by Geerten Verberkmoes. Released by Etcetera Records. CD contains 24-page booklet with two essays by Geerten Verberkmoes and Bruno Forment
Introducing “La fabrique du droit”. A Conversation with Bruno Latour
No full textBruno Latour talks with Paolo Landri about his book on the Conseil d'Etat (La Fabrique du droit). The conversation was held in 2006 at the time of the Italian translation of the book and illustrates the research project and the difficulties the author had in the field. At the same time, it clarifies the trajectories of Bruno Latour's work and theoretical framework of his program of study with respect to sociology, anthropology, and philosophy of law. The conversation helps to understand the open-ended character of Bruno Latour's research and reflection including STS as well as sociological, anthropological and philosophical themes
Music-making ghosts: eighteenth-century Rome as operatic memory machine
No full textAccording to Marvin Carlson (The haunted stage, 2001), one of the main tenets of theatrical activity lies in ghosting, being the presentation (and contemplation) of an “identical thing … encountered before, although now in a somewhat different context.” Eighteenth-century Rome was particularly prone to such re-presentations of the déjà-vu. During the papacy of Benedict XIV (1740-58), for instance, the Holy City witnessed such a burgeoning interest in its urban self-image that tourists traveled from afar to confirm empirically what was already familiar. This was of course largely due to the many fine artists who captured Roman monuments and ruins in scintillating vedute; yet, Rome’s retrospective façade was as fervently propped upped by the opera houses attracting hundreds of tourists every Carnival season. Drawing examples from the opere serie of Niccolò Jommelli (1714-74) and his contemporaries, I will explore a number of moments on which Rome haunted the operatic stage
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