Characterization is the musical creation of fictional characters, and it is particularly important for creating multi-dimensional, nuanced characters in opera. However, how do composers characterize roles if the opera does not feature a traditionally linear plot or story? Does opera need a narrative to create characterization? Some may view narrative simply as telling a story, but scholars disagree over what narrative is and its applications to opera. Jean-Jacques Nattiez cites one view of narrative as, “stories [can] only exist where both events and existents occur.” In Nina Penner’s Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater, she claims while other vocal genres, such as oratorio and art song do not need narrative, opera requires it. She is surprisingly dismissive of operas without a traditional dramatic narrative when she writes, “There are non-narrative operas, such as Einstein on the Beach (1976), but these are few and far between, and they remain on the periphery of the opera canon.” I disagree with Penner’s claim. I will demonstrate how operas with nonlinear narratives still can tell stories and how their composers characterize their characters, focusing on David Lang’s the difficulty of crossing a field, Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar, and my own opera, I DID, DID I?.

Last modified

• 05/24/2023

Creator

• Liza Sobel Crane

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-hyc1-3h98

Subject

• Music

Language

• English

Keyword

• music
• narrative
• opera
• composition
• characterization
• chamber opera

Date created

• 2023-05-23

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted