S. Scharrino’s «Luci mie traditrici»: the musical text of the Renaissance in the modern opera

Objectives. This paper is concerned with the creativity of contemporary Italian composer S. Sciarrino, who is primarily famous as the author of numerous operas. Among the variety of issues, which deal with the studying of this topic, one of the most important is the interaction of the author’s text and quotations from the compositions, which was created during previous eras. A similar creative approach connected with citation is the distinctive feature of S. Sciarrino’s composer style. The goal of this paper is to reveal the specifics of S. Sciarrino’s quotation method. Methods. Research methodology is based on the unity of style, genre, intonation and system types of analysis. Furthermore, to reveal the specifics of Sciarrino’s quotations method, we involved the concept of «deconstruction», which means understanding the musical text through destruction of stereotype or inclusion it in a new context. Results. Оne of the most vivid examples of S. Sciarrino’s quotations method is the opera “Luci mie traditrici” (“My Treacherous Eyes”), which is dedicated to the tragic life story of the Italian Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo di Venoza, the author of famous chromatic madrigals. Nowadays the story of Gesualdo’s life is well known as a fascinating legend of beautiful, but tragic passion, adultery, betrayal and revenge. Avoiding the quotation of the C. Gesualdo’s madrigal, S. Sсiarrino does not refuse of the idea of including the example of Renaissance music to the text of the opera at all. Composer chooses Elegy “Qu’est devenu ce bel oeil” (“What has become of those lovely eyes”), created for three voices by C. Le Jeune, French composer of XVI century. In Sciarrino’s opera the Elegy is perceived as a symbol of lost love, and, at the same time, as an identifier of the historical epoch shown in the opera. In the S. Sciarrino’s opera “Luci mie traditrici” C. Le Jeune’s Elegy appears in the Prologue and in three instrumental Intermezzo, four times in total, gaining new qualities for each time. The fragments of the ancient chromatic tetrachord, on which the Elegy is based, are the basis of the intonation vocabulary of all vocal parts of the opera. In Prologue, the Elegy is represented only by the single monodic upper voice, which is performed by non-personalized soprano behind the forestage. In the First intermezzo, following the scene of declaration of love between the main characters, the Duke and the Duchess, the Elegy sounds already in the original three-voice texture, but in instrumental transcription. The Second intermezzo, following the scene of repentance of the Duchess, the Elegy is perceived as a projection of the reflective consciousness of the Duke, who is tragically undergoing the betrayal of his beloved wife. The structure of the stanzas of the elegy gradually begins to disintegrate. The sound is constantly interrupted by pauses in all voices that can be interpreted as the embodiment of the painfully excited consciousness of the Duke. In the Third Intermezzo, preceding the final scene of the Catastrophe, the melodic lines of C. Le Jeune’s Elegy are completely preserved, but the recognition of this theme is reduced to a minimum. The melody is dispersed among the parties of various instruments and consists of separate «isolated sounds», which, by the definition of M. Cesari, is the smallest structural element of the musical vocabulary of S. Sciarrino. Overall conclusions. C. Le Jeune’s Elegy in S. Scarrino’s opera “Luci mie traditrici” is an example of a consistent “deconstruction” of someone else’s text, which leads to its new understanding, its inclusion in the new context, the expansion of new semantic and intonation space. By using the series of “dispersed variations” the composer models the dramatic line of the work with the multidimensionality of meanings and their projections, which is characteristic of post-avanguard art. As a result, the musical text of the Renaissance ceases to be a representative of the “Renaissance myth” and is perceived by the modern listener as the personification of the eternal human tragedy embodied in S. Sciarrino’s opera.