I. Il Trovatore by Verdi
In Il Trovatore, Asucena ultimately avenges the death of her mother through the execution of Manrico, but this is complicated in several ways. She raises Manrico as her own, and it appears that they have a loving familial bond (i.e. she is not just raising him as a mechanism for revenge). After all, he comes to her aid when she needs him, and he calls out to her just prior to his execution. However, there is a gap about Manrico’s upbringing, and viewers have limited access to Asucena’s thoughts of Manrico. At one point, she tries to tell him that he is not her son, but retracts it (13). Further, Asucena is overcome by Manrico’s execution. Count di Luna, reneging on his promise to spare Manrico, unknowingly executes his own brother. Count di Luna is the active agent here, so the situation/execution of Manrico seems to implicate the Count more than Asucena. What do you make of it?
a. Do you think the opera highlights the cruelty of the ruling class? What about its representation of “gipsies”?
b. Does this opera become a commentary on how an established power (in this case, nobility) imposes itself upon a smaller group (“gipsies”)?
c. What do you make of the depiction of Asucena? Is she vilified? Consider her act of infanticide.
d. Some argue that Il Travotore teeters on a fine line between tragedy and melodrama. Where would you place it?
II. The Bohemian Girl by Balfe and The Merry Zingara by W.S. Gilbert
Balfe’s and Gilbert’s operas (the latter a parody of the former) take a lighter tone.
a. What do you make of the deus ex machina twist that Thaddeus is nobility and acceptable to be married to Arline? How does this link to Nord’s discussion of the marriage plot (14)?
b. What to you make of the fact that Thaddeus is an adult/soldier when he first meets the six-year-old Arline, and that a love affair ultimately springs from their relationship? More specifically, do you sense a high “ick” factor?
c. What is the purpose of Gilbert’s parody? Does the parody work to act as a correction of The Bohemian Girl? How are “gipsies” depicted in both operas?
III. Closing thought
Il Trovatore is taken from a drama by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, the plot of The Bohemian Girl is borrowed from Cervantes’s “Precioso,” and The Merry Zingara is a parody of The Bohemian Girl. What do you make of this constant making and re-making?
I saw the representations of the Gypsies in these works as somewhat confused. Juliette, you discuss an interesting example with Asucena and the vengeance plot. Could Asucena possibly take any satisfaction in what happens to Manrico? If so, is it a matter of grasping for something to take from her tragedy? You also ascribe agency to the Count, which makes sense. Asucena had agency earlier, when she threw the infant in the fire—which did not accomplish her intention. That seems the most horrific act in the story. So might sympathize with her at the start for the loss of her mother, but how do we feel about her infant’s death at her own hands? The “Anvil Chorus” implies both vengeance and mourning. It’s a complex portrait, but mostly a negative one. Asucena’s most redeeming quality may be that Manrico continues to love her after he learns of her actions in the past.
ReplyDeleteThe first Gypsy who enters the stage in The Bohemian Girl, act I, scene I, goes by the incredible name Devilshoof. That seems straightforward enough. The chorus in that scene claims the Gypsy’s life “The life that all would like to lead” (vi). Sounds less enticing “With but little to love,” though not so bad with “still less to fear.” (vi). But Devilshoof in duet with Thaddeus seems to color in the real portrait, singing of “a throat to cut” and “We have nothing to buy,” clear references to a life of murder and theft. Or is that just Devilsfoot? Thaddeus joins the Gypsy tribe to make his escape, yet is content to remain with them for another twelve years. The Queen is at odds with Devilsfoot. If Gypsies are thieves, why does she command the return of all the spoils gained from Florestein? Of course, the good guys (Thaddeus and Arline) aren’t really Gypsies, and apparently not tainted from twelve years of living with the tribe. Presumably, their inherent, unstoppable decency (after all, they’re nobles) hasn’t worn off on the Gypsies either. On the other hand, Devilsfoot—of all people—saves Thaddeus and destroys the (evil) Queen in the process.
I found it interesting that The Bohemian Girl switches the gender of the stolen child as well as the love triangles In Il Trovatore, the Count and Manrico are rivals for Leonora; in The Bohemian Girl, the Queen and Arline are rivals for Thaddeus. I’m not sure what to make of that, if anything.
(I’m also intrigued that Il Trovatore becomes the background for the final act of the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera [1935] and that The Bohemian Girl would be hammered into a Laurel and Hardy vehicle in 1936. But I digress . . .)
Gilbert doesn’t seem to know what to do with the Gypsies beyond their essential inclusion as a plot point, as he keeps busy lampooning the aristocracy and Balfe. The deus ex machina is partly borrowed from Balfe, but embellished; that sort of twist in the finale was more or less a signature of Gilbert’s comic libretti.