True Confessions: Opera, Literature, History

CARYL CLARK AND ALLAN HEPBURN True Confessions: Opera, Literature, History In conclusion she sang 'Casta diva': his transports, the thoughts that flashed like lightning through his head, the cold shiver that ran through his body - all this crushed him; he felt completely shattered. - Igor Gonchorov, Oblomov (1859) I have always gone to the opera. Even though I am a pianist and have no inclination to sing or act, I go to the opera to hear and to be crushed. It is true that I have witnessed terrible instances of singer anxiety and unworkable scenery. I have even sympathized with a Constanze who probably wished she could have been liberated from the seraglio long before the end of the opera. I have suffered through an execrable performance of a Vivaldi pastiche in Nice; the production was so pitiable, I have even forgotten the name of the work. On the other hand, I have exulted in performances of Dido and Aeneas in Toronto, Tosca at the Met in New York, and Der Rosenkavalier at the Staatsoper in Vienna. Like Oblomov, the protagonist in Gonchorov's novel who cannot get the aria 'Casta diva' out of his mind, I can be 'shattered' by a phrase from Mozart, Donizetti, or Puccini. Oblomov falls in love with Olga because she sings 'Casta diva.' I spend days letting phrases from Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, or Eugene Onegin drift through my mind like a private soundtrack. I have learned from Oblomov that a single aria can give access to love. This is a productive fantasy for Oblomov, for it rouses him from lethargy. It is a productive fantasy for many opera lovers. The first opera I ever saw was La Traviata. As Violetta triumphed in her cabaletta, 'Sempre libera,' I revelled in her mastery. As she coughed through her last act, I conceived a violent desire to be just like her: a fabulous courtesan who renounces the man she loves. rhave not assuaged that desire entirely, but I have come to understand it somewhat better. I take narratives personally. When Oblomov suffers, I am hurt. When Violetta dies, I cry. Novels are at-home operas. They are the equivalent of broadcasts for shut-ins, for those fans who can't make it to Lincoln Center. When Emma Bovary, the prototype of novelistic ermui, goes to a performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with her husband Charles, she fixates on the second-rate tenor, Lagardy, as well as the soprano singing the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, VOLUME 67, NUMBER 4, FALL 1998 740 CARYL CLARK AND ALLAN HEPBURN role of Lucia: 'The voice of the eOllSClen,ce, and the discriminate among sensations. When Enuna swoons are led to believe that she lacks taste. the transaction between ,,;..ol""~~'" to Emma's whereas Leon restricts cenees. No matter how bad he makes her believe in the !-,V,.::I"'..LVJ.J.,H. eas,ngate Emma for never retrieve their voices. pa:SSCltgg;lOJ a wide vibrato? Did sound of a voice I will donna castrato make or break and aCC:OrI1Pl:LShments TRUE CONFESSIONS: OPERA, LITERATURE, HISTORY 741 Created and catapulted to stardom by male composers, librettists, and impresarios, the nineteenth-century prima donna was manipulated on and off the stage. I lament for her: for the crass material trappings she clung to, for the love she lost. Diva worship glorifies the voice at the expense of the woman. I mourn for these things. Opera is integral to the experience of emotion. As in Madame Bovary and other canonical and popular novels, such as The Red and the Black, Daniel Deranda, Trilby, The Song of the Lark, Ulysses, or Fall on Your Knees, opera opens a floodgate. In James Joyce's modernist vision, opera appears in mixed company, as a form ofpersonalized pleasure. In the phantasmagoric 'Circe' episode of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom imagines a wagon containing the muses of 'Commerce, Operatic Music, Amor, Publicity, Manufacture, Liberty of Speech, Plural Voting, Gastronomy, Private Hygiene, Seaside Concert Entertainments, Painless Obstetrics and Astronomy for the People.' This is a far cry - or maybe a reverberant shriek - from Emma Bovary's romantic version of theatricalized feeling. Opera shares a capitaJistic impulse with...