Mad scene

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A mad scene is an enactment of insanity in an opera or play.[1] Many are very dramatic, representing a virtuoso piece for singers; some were written with a specific singer in mind. Most have been composed for soprano voice, but other examples exist.

Many notable examples were composed for either opere serie or semiserie, as in those of Handel.

They were a popular convention of French and especially Italian opera in the early decades of the nineteenth century, becoming a bel canto staple. Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor is the most famous example. The convention of writing mad scenes waned or was transformed as composers sought to inject more realism into their operas.

Later composers revived and transformed the convention in expressionist operas and similar genres (e.g., melodramas, monodramas), paralleling the rise of psychology and exploiting dissonant idioms, most notably Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, and Berg. Berg's (for Wozzeck and Dr. Schön) and one of Britten's (for Peter Grimes) were for male roles.

The modern musical theatre was also influenced by the operatic mad scene, as in Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard or Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

Some ballets contain similar scenes, most notably Adam's Giselle.[1]

Notable examples[edit]

Francesco Cavalli

Jean-Baptiste Lully

  • Roland, Act 4, Scene 5, "Je suis trahi! Ciel!"

George Frideric Handel

  • Orlando, "Ah! stigie larve... Vaghe pupille"
  • Hercules, "Where shall I fly?"

Johann Adolph Hasse

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gioachino Rossini

Gaetano Donizetti

Vincenzo Bellini

  • I puritani, "O rendetemi... Qui la voce sua soave... Vien, diletto, e in ciel la luna"
  • Il pirata, "Col sorriso d'innocenza... Oh, Sole! ti vela di tenebra fonda"
  • La sonnambula, "Oh! se una volta sola... Ah! non credea mirarti... Ah! non giunge uman pensiero"

Giuseppe Verdi

Richard Wagner

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Ferenc Erkel

Ambroise Thomas

  • Hamlet, "Partagez-vous mes fleurs"

Modest Mussorgsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Richard Strauss

Arnold Schoenberg

Max von Schillings

Alban Berg

  • Wozzeck, Act 1, Scene 2, "Du [Andres], der Platz ist verflucht!"[a]
  • Wozzeck, Act 3, Scene 4, "Das Messer! Wo ist das Messer?"[b]
  • Lulu, Act 2, Scene 1, "Du Kreatur, die mich durch den Strassenkot zum Martertode schleift!" (Dr. Schön's five-strophe aria)

Sergei Prokofiev

Benjamin Britten

Igor Stravinsky

Hans Werner Henze

Peter Maxwell Davies

Leonard Bernstein

  • Mass, XVI. Fraction: "Things get broken"

Dominick Argento

John Corigliano

André Previn

Daniel Catán

Comparable examples[edit]

Francesco Sacrati

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Giuseppe Verdi

Arnold Schoenberg

Giacomo Puccini

Luciano Berio

Olga Neuwirth

Michael Finnissy

Parodies[edit]

Jacques Offenbach

  • Le pont des soupirs, "Ah! le Doge, ah! Les plombs, le canal Orfano l'Adriatique, c'est fini je suis folle"

Gilbert & Sullivan

Benjamin Britten

Leonard Bernstein

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "You [Andres], this place is cursed!"
  2. ^ "The knife! Where is the knife?"

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b McCarren, Felicia M. (1998). Dance Pathologies: Performance, Poetics, Medicine. Stanford University Press. pp. 106–107. ISBN 978-0-8047-3524-7.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Anderson, James (1993) The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta, New York
  • Arias, Enrique. 1999. "Reflections from a Cracked Mirror: Madness in Music and Theory of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries—An Overview". In A Compendium of American Musicology: Essays in Honor of John F. Ohl, eds. Enrique Arias, Susan M. Filler, William V. Porter, and Jeffrey Wasson, 133–154. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-1536-1 (hbk).
  • Ewen, David (1963) Encyclopedia of the Opera, New York
  • The Top 10 Mad Scenes in Opera WQXR Operavore retrieved 13-08-13
  • Любимов, Д.В. Осторожно, сумасшествие! // Оpera musicologica. 2021. Т. 13. № 4. С. 172–178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26156/OM.2021.13.4.008.
  • Любимов, Д.В., Кром, А.Е. «Сцена безумия» в опере: проблемы дефиниции // Музыкальный журнал Европейского Севера. 2022. № 2 (30). С. 60–74. URL: http://muznord.ru/images/issue/30/30_Lubimov_Krom.pdf
  • Любимов, Д.В. Лючия и Марфа: безумные невесты в оперном театре XIX века // Opera musicologica. 2022. Т. 14, № 3. С. 30–45. DOI 10.26156/OM.2022.14.3.002.
  • Любимов, Д.В. Феномен безумия в европейской опере и его научное осмысление: к проблеме периодизации // Музыкальная академия. 2022. № 4. С. 180–195. DOI: 10.34690/278.
  • Любимов, Д.В.Лючия и Жизель: безумные героини в музыкальном театре XIX века. DOI 10.24412/2658-7858-2023-33-61-69 // Музыка в системе культуры: Научный вестник Уральской консерватории.–2023.–Вып. 33.–С. 61–69.
  • Любимов, Д.В. Сюжетный мотив безумия в театральном творчестве А.Е.Варламова // Вестник Саратовской консерватории. Вопросы искусствознания. 2023. №4 (22). С. 65-72. URL: https://sarcons.ru/image/publikacii/vestnik_sgk/%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%D0%A1%D0%93%D0%9A.2023%20%E2%84%964(22).pdf
  • Любимов, Д. В. Уберто и Мельник: безумные отцы в оперном театре XIX века // Опера в музыкальном театре: история и современность. Тезисы VI Международной научной конференции, 11–15 марта 2024 г. / ред.-сост. Н.В. Пилипенко, под ред. И.П. Сусидко, Н.В. Пилипенко, А.И. Масловой / Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных. — М.: Издательство «Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных», 2024. - С. 120-121. URL: https://gnesin-academy.ru/upload/iblock/8c7/45titr0z13o7jvzvuuwjnvtpr2gm2xcp/AbstractsBook_Conf_Opera_2024.pdf