«ZAZA» R. LEONCOVALLO IN THE ROOM OF TRADITION VERISTA MUSIC THEATER
Abstract
The purpose of the work is to identify the poetic and intonational features of R. Leoncavallo's opera «Zaza» in the context of the evolutionary paths of the composer's work and the Italian opera tradition of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.
The methodological basis of the work is the intonation concept of music in the perspective of intonation and stylistic analysis, inherited from B. Asafiev and his followers, as well as interdisciplinary and historical and cultural methods that theater and its influence on the work of R. Leoncovallo, including the intonation and dramatic specifics of the opera «Zaza».
The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the fact that it first considered and analyzed the genre-dramatic specifics of the opera «Zaza» by R. Leoncavallo, which is popular in vocal-performing practice, but has not yet become the subject of musicological and performing analysis.
Conclusions. Рoetics of the Italian Veristic Musical Theater, represented including in the works of R. Leoncavallo, is manifested in its plot-semantic specificity (departure from the heroic-romantic tradition, appeal to modern plots related to love and jealousy incompatible with the patriarchal traditions of the environment to which the main characters belong with simultaneous accentuation of moral and ethical (at the level of Christian humanism) motivations of their actions); in an emphasis on the usual, everyday atmosphere of the scene; in the use of prose text in the libretto instead of poetry; in the rapid change of events, which involves «personnel» editing of the film. The effectiveness of theatrical situations («interest, impress and touch» the listener as the basic laws of musical theater according to G. Puccini) generated an appeal to the affectation of human emotions, the intensity of climactic scenes («aesthetics of shouting», increased-expressive vocal style, which enriches the aryo-declamatory sphere of expression. R. Leoncavallo's «Zaza», corresponding to the typological qualities of this theater, arose at the intersection of the traditions of Italian veristic opera and the French lyrical opera close to it. The plot of the work demonstrates immersion in the «reality of life», which is embodied in the unadorned life of the Alcazar variety show in Saint-Etienne. On the other hand, the semantic subtext of this opera focuses both on the love drama of the main character and on her inner transformation, which allows her to make important life choices in favor of the priority of spiritual and patriarchal values. Such a semantic solution reveals not only the traditions of Leoncavallo's opera style (rapid development of the plot, features of the heroine's leitmotif characterization, «generalization through genre», etc.), but also his connection with the Verdi Musical Theater («La Traviata») and the spiritual guidelines of the opera genre as such.
