American landscapes in european opera, Guiseppe Verdi's Rigoletto paradigm

Dionysis Tzevelekos

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Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Musicology - Miscellaneous, grade: 7.81, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Sc...

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Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Musicology - Miscellaneous, grade: 7.81, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (School of English - Department of American Literature and Culture), language: English, abstract: The operatic genre is considered to be locked in a rigid itinerary, which cannot perform detours of any kind. Therefore, it is thought to be genre that is more revered than respected bearing, thus, a resemblance to religion rather than art. What this dissertation seeks to explore is a certain possibility in the form of a hypothesis. We will explore the "what-if" of unlocking this rigidity and attempting a sort of transfiguration. By painting the scenery, or rather the landscape of opera in colors of current American trends and traits. USA has always been a country which has had the privilege of nurturing opera fans by supporting the popularity of opera in a variety of ways. What will be examined are the ways that inspired directors Jonathan Miller and his 1975 "Mafia" production of Rigoletto for the ENO as well as James McDonald's 2002 "White House" production of the opera for the WNO, to present the opera in an American context. Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto along with its manifestations and interpretations by these two directors that design and paint an American landscape for European either by provoking the audience and in particular, opera-buffs and hardcore fans, or by triggering images known and popular to the wider audience bestowing upon opera a most welcome sense and nuance of familiarity and belongingness. Rigoletto offers and carries the powerful potential to function as a canvas for this venture to be formulated. The opera's characters, as viewed through the landscapes that these two directors have painted, invite the audience to familiarize themselves with figures that are flexible enough to unfold as space-less, deterritorialized images that have the ability to provoke and boast an Americaness which can be either welcome or cause a bit of an uncomfortable spine-tingling wonderment of political and cultural nature.