Viva La Liberta Essay, Research Paper
Politics in Opera Imprint
Information Viva la Liberta! – Politics in Opera by Anthony
Arblaster is published by Verso in 1992 in London, Great
Britain. It was the book’s first edition and publication. The
book contains 340 pages of text, no illustrations, and
includes a tables of contents, nine main chapters, conclusion,
notes and and an index. The chapters start with the period of
modern politics, the French Revolution in 1789 and with
"Mozart: Class Conflict and Enlightenment" from that period
till modern opera / musicals in "Democratic Opera: Victims
as Heroes". All nine chapters are written by the same author,
Anthony Arblaster. Each chapter tries to concentrate on one
to a few composers from the same period who share similar
political views and actions. Each chapter can be viewed as
an individual work / essay. The nine chapters follow the time
frame sequentially and are respectively: Ch.1 Mozart: Class
Conflict and Enlightenment, Ch.2 Opera and Revolution,
Ch.3 Patria Oppressa: Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and
Risorgimento (Nationalism I), Ch.4 Verdi: the Liberal
Patriot, Ch.5 Wagner: from Revolution to Racism, Ch.6
Russia, Czechoslovakia and a Footnote on England
(Nationalism II), Ch.7 Women in Opera, Ch.8 Interlude -
Opera without Politics: Puccini and Strauss and Ch.9
Democratic Opera: Victims as Heroes. The introduction and
conclusion helps in giving coherence to the vast time frame
of two hundread years and the different emphasis on political
of composers in their works. The detailed index is also
helpful in the cross referencing a particular work or
composer which might be mentioned in different chapters for
comparisons. The notes offer a detailed bibliography with
chance for further reference material on the issue of politics
in opera. General Summary Although the book does not
formally state the meaning of "politics", the definition used
throughout the book is the "beliefs about how a country
ought to be governed" instead of politics as in political
power and actions or activities. The book also presents the
argument of social context at the particular period and place
as "politics" and that if opera lacks the political element
(social context), it lacks a convincing element in which
communication and mutual consensus among composer and
audience would be neglected, that opera cannot be ‘pure’
music. Music and especially opera has to be out of
’something’, a ’something’ that lies outside and beyond the
music itself and in many instances, political beliefs play are a
major part in it. The book’s intend is not to illustrate politics
as the major cause or result of opera but that the influence
exist and to refute the common downplay and negligence of
politics in opera from critics. In all chapters, the author
follows a similar pattern in presenting his arguments. First,
the history and beliefs of the composer in various stages of
his life is discussed. Letters and books (in case of Wagner)
of the composer are presented as evidence. The viewpoint
of the composer in that should opera include politics is also
discussed. Individual operas are then discussed, citing
particular portions of the libretto as reference and evidence.
The story lines for the operas are also discussed in detail.
The audience’s reaction and the popularity at the time of the
initial performance is presented. Critics of different periods
for the interpretation of the work is also quoted to give a
more subjective point of view on the issue. Finally, for each
chapter, a brief conclusion on the period or the composer is
given and the central themes are reiterated. Chapter
Summeries Although Mozart by no means was a political
person, his works were cited as the dawn of modern opera
with its certain political meaning in chapter one. In his
operas, there were the ideas of class and sex conflicts and
war. Class conflicts involved the abuse of aristocratic
position and rise of the common people in both Le nozze di
Figaro and Don Giovanni. The sex war occures in Le nozze
di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte where women should be treated
with respect, rather than assuming in age old chauvinist way
that is the women rather than men who are to be mistrusted
in matters of love and sex. In Die Zauberflote, the moment
of hope and optimism after the French Revolution can easily
be seen where light and wisdom triumph over the Queen of
the Night and superstition. Arblaster in chapter three and six
argues that music, and therefore opera played a central role
in creating a sense of national identity and rallying people to
the national cause in the various European countries. Often
opera provided a forum for the expression of subversive
political sentiments disguised to get around census in
patriotic arias or choruses. In Italy’s case, the most explicit
of all for the independence of Italy came from Rossini’s
Guillaume Tell. Arblaster also states that all three operas of
Rossini: Mose in Egitto, Maometto Secondo and Guillaume
Tell are about national oppression and use of chorus in
which arias are not for individuals but of whole nations. All
three depicted the idea of militant liberal nationalism. Other
composers of opera of Italy and other countries spread
similar ideas of nationalism in which helped to lead to the rise
of the independent nations. However, the most important
emphasis of the book is placed on two composers: Verdi
and Wagner. Arblaster uses one-third of the book to
portray Verdi as the liberal patriot with his heart for the
Republic and Wagner as the German with strong nationalist,
racist and anti-Semitic views. It is also in Chapter 5 devoted
to Wagner that the author changes the format to a more
argumentative fashion. Other critic’s arguments are put forth
followed by his own rebuttal and presentation of evidence.
Verdi was one of the composers with the strongest political
convictions and at one time even actually ran and succeeded
in entering the national parliament. However, the most
important aspect is that he allowed himself and his
personality to be in his music and his operas, and lacks the
feeling of distance between creator and creation that we find
in Mozart or Rossini. One of his great display of nationalism
was stated in Nabucco with the High Priest, Zaccaria which
famous chorus ‘Va pernsiero’ was spontaneously sung at
Verdi’s funeral, sixty years after its initial performance. In the
1840s, Verdi’s operas could be roughly divided into
primarily dramas for individuals which would include Ernani,
I due Foscari, Il corsaro, I masnadieri and Luisa Miller with
Alzira and Macbeth as borderline cases. The second
category, which are primarily political, public and patriotic
include Attila, Giovanna d’ Arco and La battaglia di
Legnano. Issues such as conflict between patriotic duty and
personal emotions in Giovanna d’Arco and Aida are
discussed. Italian patriots, against barbarian invaders as in
Attila are also portrayed. After the defeat of the Italian
upraise and fall of the Roman republic in 1849, Verdi
switches to more personal dilemmas and social matters.
Rigoletto and Boccanegra were both about class conflict
and La traviata about social issues. Near the end of his
career, Don Carlos was targeted at the Catholic Church
indicating that is more powerful and more ruthless than the
state. Aida, ended Verdi’s line of political or party political
operas with anti-clericalism sentiments. Although Wagner’s
works were adopted as cultural symbols by Hitler and the
Third Reich and Wagner shared many of the anti-Semitic
and racist views of the Nazis, Arblaster stressed that that
does not indicate that Wagner would approve the actions of
the Nazis. He simply states that the racist and nationalistic
views of Wagner in his operas, or music-dramas cannot be
ignored. Rienzi, was against aristocratic rule and carried a
strong suggestion of fascism which many say turned Hitler’s
ambitions away from art towards politics after seeing the first
performance. The Ring, which spanned twenty-six years
carried different political meaning during various stages of
the opera corresponding to Wagner’s beliefs in life. In Die
Walkure, there was incest which in a way signified ‘pure
blood’ and ‘pure race’. In Siegfried, there was thinly
disguised racism with Siegfried’s treatment of Mime.
Siegfried, arrogant, aggressive and above all mindless
Nordic hero was supposed to be the ‘most perfect human
being’. In Das Rheigold, Wagner’s obsession with the
‘fire-cure’ to cleanse the world was indicated by the doom of
the gods even with the return of the gold. With Chapter 7,
Arblaster discusses the social role of women in opera and
that they are almost always the victims but are given more
weight and sympathy in opera than in the real world. Puccini
and Strauss in Chapter 8 are shown as composers who try
to compose non-political operas in an increasing political
world and how this affects the coherence and validity of their
operas. Finally in Chapter 9, modern day opera to
Broadway musicals are included stating that opera is no
longer about the elite or privileged but about common
people as heroes. Critique Arblaster in both the introduction
and conclusion emphasized that music was the basic and the
most important element of opera. However, throughout the
book, his discussions were around the libretto giving little
reference to the music and how they express political,
nationalistic or patriotic feelings. He had no detailed analysis
of the orchestra or the score. At best, he indicated the
instruments in a particular section. This might be due to the
strong history but weak music background of the author.
Arblaster sometimes also use the original versions of operas
rather than the revised or the version that we can obtain.
This might provide limited benefit to our studies and practical
use. The author also stretches the definition of politics to the
social context in the opera, especially in the chapters of
Mozart and women in opera. The social context might just
be a background in which an action takes place instead of
the beliefs of the composer in which he would want to
spread to increase awareness. For example, in Le nozze di
Figaro, there is class and sex conflict. However, theses are
ideas which were rising at the time but not politics which are
beliefs which would help govern the country. Opera in many
cases spread ideals and visions but that does not equal to
spreading ideas of politics. Opera carries more meaning than
sheer entertainment but not necessarily politics. This also
give rises to the pinpointing of certain parts of the libretto to
establish the political element of the opera. The opera might
to a great extent non-political and trying to express other
ideas but by extracting and emphasizing these elements, the
reader might get a wrong intention of what the opera is
about. For example, although in the conclusion the author
stressed Wagner’s musical achievements are not impacted
by his racist views, the reader would concentrate too much
on these controversial and politically non-correct libretto of
the composer while neglecting the music and the other
meanings to the great work such as The Ring. To conclude,
Anthony Arblaster might have tried too hard in that instead
of looking for a line that would connect all the operas, he
searched too deep for individual evidence for each opera for
the composers he discussed. The content does not
correspond accurately with the title Viva la Liberta –
Politics in Opera.