SlideShare une entreprise Scribd logo
1  sur  18
Télécharger pour lire hors ligne
The Doleful Airs of Euripides: The Origins of Opera and the Spirit of Tragedy Reconsidered
Author(s): Blair Hoxby
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Nov., 2005), pp. 253-269
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3878297 .
Accessed: 23/09/2012 12:17

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.




                Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cambridge
                Opera Journal.




http://www.jstor.org
Cambridge OperaJournal,17, 3, 253-269   () 2005 CambridgeUniversity Press
doi:10.1017/S0954586706002035


  The doleful airs of Euripides:The origins of
  opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered
                                         BLAIR HOXBY

   Abstract:   Scholarly consensus denies a real connection between ancient tragedy and early
   opera because music historians have measured early operas against an idealised conception of
   Attic tragedy. However, the pioneers of opera were seeking to revive a Euripidean style of
   musical tragedy as it was performed in the 'decadent' theatres of the Hellenistic era. Euripides's
   tragedies established conventional relationships between musical expression and the represen-
   tation of the passions. Baroque opera is seen as a strongly complex reading of a set of
   Euripideantragediesthat enjoyed favour in the Hellenistic era but fell from criticalgrace in the
   nineteenth century. These plays hold the key to opera's tragic pretensions; the esteem they long
   enjoyed should prompt us to reconsider the spirit of tragedy and the nature of catharsis.

In their prefaces to Euridice(1600), the first surviving opera, the poet Ottavio
Rinuccini and composer Jacopo Peri appealed to the opinion 'of many' that the
ancient Greeks and Romans 'sang their tragedies throughout on the stage' and
explained why they thought the ancients must have sung their plays in a manner
something like Peri's stilerecitativo.1 if to announce the genre of their work, they
                                     As
chose Tragedyherself to sing the Prologue.2In a counterbidto claimpriorityfor the
invention of the 'new music', Giulio Caccinirecalledin his preface to a rival setting
of the libretto that the 'noble virtuosi' who gathered years earlier at Giovanni
Bardi's house had even then declared his style of singing 'to be that used by the
ancient Greeks when introducing songs into the presentationsof their tragedies'.3
Whether or not we accept Caccini's claim at face value, there can be little doubt
that Bardi's prote6ges Vincenzo Galilei and Giulio Caccini - and after them
Jacopo Corsi's protegees Rinuccini and Peri - were inspired to undertake their
practicalexperimentswith monodic songs and recitativeby two ideas that Girolamo
Mei circulatedamong the learnedelite of Florence:that ancient tragedieshad been
sung throughout and that ancient music had been so affecting because the Greeks
had not written polyphony but, relying on simple but expressive melodies, had
imitated the passions using modes whose pitch and rhythm produced a powerful
sympatheticresponse in the souls of their auditors.4
1 Ottavio Rinuccini, Dedication to Euridice(Florence, 1600), in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source
           in
  Readings MusicHisto7y:   From ClassicalAntiqui~y                    Era
                                                   through Romantic (New York, 1950),
                                                          the
  367-8. Jacopo Peri makes an almost identical statement in his Preface to Le musichesopra
  L'Euridice                                               Readings MusicHistory,rev. edn,
             (Florence, 1600), in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source       in
  gen. ed. Leo Treitler, 'The Baroque Era', ed. MargaretMurata (New York, 1998), 659-60.
2 On the use of prologues as generic signals, see BarbaraRussano Hanning, 'Apologia pro
  Ottavio Rinuccini',Journalof theAmerican              Society, (1973), 240-62.
                                            Musicological       26
3 Giulio Caccini, Dedication to L'Euridice composta musica stilerappresentativo
                                                    in       in                (Florence,
  1600), in Strunk/Murata,'The Baroque Era', 606.
4 See Claude V. Palisca, 'Girolamo Mei: Mentor to the Florentine Camerata',Musical  Quarterly,
  40 (1954), 1-20; Nino Pirrotta,'Temperaments and Tendencies in the Florentine Camerata',
                                                                               continued next
                                                                        footnote      on    page
254                                      Blair Hoxby

   Yet subsequent critics have denied a meaningful connection between the tragedy
of the ancients and the stile rappresentativo. Nietzsche found it incredible that 'this
thoroughly externalized operatic music ... could be received and cherished with
enthusiastic favour, as a rebirth, as it were, of all true music', and even scholars who
admire the music insist that because composers like Caccini and Peri could study
virtually no examples of ancient music, their style actually found its 'origins in the
musical practice of the fifteenth century' and developed in dialogue with contem-
porary madrigals, solo songs and theatrical music.5 Claudio Monteverdi added
weight to this view when he told Giovanni Battista Doni, the first historian of the
new music, that although he had valued seeing Galilei's transcriptions of ancient
musical examples twenty years before, he hadn't invested much time trying to
understand them because he knew that 'the ancient practical manner' was
'completely lost'.6 The texts of the ancient tragedies were not lost, of course, yet two
of the most influential historians of early opera, Claude Palisca and Nino Pirrotta,
concur in emphasising the contribution of contemporary theatrical forms, such as
masques, pastorals and comedies, to its dramatic form. What contemporary tastes
demanded, says Palisca, was 'not true tragedy but a mixed genre', and Rinuccini and
his circle, who were 'steeped in the classics', knew perfectly well that the
musico-dramatic form they created was not 'a rebirth of ancient tragedy'.7
   I believe that critics have underestimated and misconstrued opera's relationship
to ancient tragedy. Even Barbara Hanning, who defends Peri and Rinuccini's
interest in reviving the singing style and affective power of the ancient stage,
assumes too readily that when the Tragedy of Euridicepromises to sing 'not of blood
spilled from innocent veins, not of the lifeless brow of a tyrant', but 'of mournful
and tearful scenes', she is signalling a change of allegiance from classical tragedy to
contemporary tragicomedy.8 What lies behind such ready assumptions is an

 footnote continued prevous
                   from        page
  Musical            40
          Quarterly, (1954), 169-89;Girolamo                              and
                                                    Mei,Letters Ancient Modern
                                                                on                    Musicto
   Vincenzo Galilei Giovanni
                   and          Bardi, Palisca(Neuhausen-Stuttgart,
                                       ed.                               1977);Palisca, Humanism
  in Italian
           Renaissance  MusicalThought  (New Haven,1985), 408-33;Palisca, The ed.,     Florentine
  Camerata  (New Haven,1989).
s Friedrich Nietzsche,The   Birth Tragedy TheCase Wagner, Walter
                                  of         and          of       trans.        Kaufmann
                                                                       and
  (New York,1967), 114;Nino Pirrotta ElenaPovoledo,Music Theatre Poliziano
                                            and                                    from         to
              trans.
  Monteverdi, KarenEales (Cambridge,            1982), 201. For otheraccountsthatemphasise     the
  inter-relationship the stilerecitativo contemporary
                     of                  with                 musicalforms,see, for example,
  Nigel Fortune,   'ItalianSecularMonodyfrom 1600 to 1635:An Introductory          Survey',Musical
            39
  Quarterly, (1953), 171-95;Claude Palisca,
                                         V.          'VincenzoGalileiandSomeLinksbetween
                       and
  "Pseudo-Monody" Monody',            Musical Quarterly, (1960), 344-60; and GaryTomlinson,
                                                        46
  'Madrigal,  Monody,andMonteverdi's        "Vianaturale Imitatione"Journal the
                                                          alla           ',        of American
  Musicological 34 (1981), 60-108.
                Society,
6 Claudio  Monteverdi,   Letterto Giovanni    BattistaDoni (February  1634),in The   NewMonteverdi
  Companion, Denis ArnoldandNigel Fortune(London,1985), 86.
               ed.
7 I quotePalisca,   'The Alterati Florence,
                                 of            Pioneers the Theoryof Dramatic
                                                         in                          Music',in
  NewLooks Italian
               at       Opera: Essays Honor DonaldJ.Grout, William Austin(Ithaca,
                                      in       of                ed.          W.
  1968), 29, 36. Also see Pirrotta,                   and              188;
                                     'Temperaments Tendencies', Pirrotta,             'Tragidieet
  comediedansla camerata                   in
                              fiorentina', Musique    etpolsie XVIe siicle
                                                              au            (Paris,1954), 295;
  PirottaandPovoledo,Music Theatre Poliziano Monteverdi, and,for a summary
                                and         from          to           268;
  of similar views,see Hanning,   'Apologia',  241.
8 Hanning,   'Apologia', 245-6, 252.
The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered                        255

idealised conception of Attic tragedy that nineteenth-century German philologists
extracted from a few touch-stone plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles. For Nietzsche,
these two poets embodied the true spirit of tragedy, a spirit with which Euripides
fought 'a death struggle'.9 Some of the scholars who have done the most to shape
accepted opinion about ancient drama in this century have implicitly endorsed that
view by reclassifying many of Euripides's tragedies as romances, melodramas or
tragicomedies - this despite the fact that, as sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
readers never tired of repeating, Aristotle's Poeticsdeclared Euripides, not Aeschylus
or Sophocles, to be the most tragic of poets.10 I would agree that Peri, Rinuccini and
their immediate successors were not interested in staging the sort of bloody revenge
tragedy popular with Seneca's imitators. Nor did they desire to revive Nietzsche's
ideal of Attic tragedy. But these truths obscure a more important one: that Baroque
librettists, composers and scenographers did, to an extent not hitherto recognised,
seek to revive a Euripidean style of musical tragedy - especially as it was performed
in the 'decadent' theatres of Hellenistic Greece and Rome."1 Once we understand
the tragic ideal to which they aspired, we will be in a better position to see Baroque
opera (a new musico-dramatic form that took many names in its first decades) for
what it is: a strongly complex reading of the Euripidean tradition.12

                             Euripides's      musical dramaturgy
Whereas Aeschylus and Sophocles each left seven surviving plays, Euripides left
nineteen. The survival of Euripides's tragedies in such superior numbers is a tribute

 9 Nietzsche,Birth Tragedy,
                    of          76.
10 See Aristotle, Poetics1453a22-39; Greektext, a translation extensive
                                       the                           and             commentary
   maybe foundin Gerard Else,Aristotle's
                              F.                         The
                                                Poetics: Argument     (Cambridge,   Mass.,1967),
   399-406. H. D. F. Kitto (Greek            A
                                      Tragedy:Literary [Garden
                                                          Study        City,NY, 1954])devotes
             to
   chapters Euripides's     'tragicomedies' 'melodramas'. a reviewof the critical
                                            and                  For                           history
   of describing  Euripides's           as
                              tragedies melodramas,       whichappears commence 1905,see
                                                                        to              in
   Ann NorrisMichelini,    Euripides theTragic
                                     and           Tradition (Madison, 1987), 321-3.
11 RobertC. Ketterer    arguesthatLatinliterature the most important
                                                    was                        classicalsourcefor
   the operasof the seventeenth eighteenth
                                    and            centuries. his 'WhyEarlyOperais Roman
                                                               See
   andnot Greek',this            15
                        journal, (2003), 1-14. I wouldstressthat some of the central
   operatic  features Ketterer
                     that           tracesbackto Romancomedycan be tracedbackyet
   further, through  New Comedy, Euripidean
                                     to             tragedy. I haveno wish to denythe
                                                              But
   importance Ovid,Virgilor the performance
                of                                    practices the Romantheatre early
                                                                of                     to
   opera.
12 OttavioRinuccini's operas,Dafne Euridice, no genericsubtitle,
                        first               and           bear                      thoughTragedy
   singsthe prologue the latter.His Arianna labelled tragedia.
                       of                         is           a        Otherearlyoperasreceive
   subtitles such as Tragedia recitarsi musica,
                              da         in       tragedia musicale Opera
                                                                   and        tragicamusicale.The
   anonymous             of
                librettist Monteverdi's nozze
                                           Le       d'Enea  (1640) considered workto be a
                                                                                his
           a
   tragedialieto But manyoperaswerepublished
                 fine.                                    with moreneutral   genericdescriptors.
   Alessandro
           O1feoStriggiosimplycalledhis         afavola musica.
                                                         in        RomanandVenetian       librettos
   often used termssuch as dramma      musicale, musicale, in musica, di stilerecitativo,
                                               opera                           opera
                                 and                          azione
                       in musica opera The word 'melodramma' firstapplied ais               to
   operarappresentativa                    regia.
   librettoin 1647.For the sakeof convenience, will referto early'opera'even thoughthat
                                                    I
   termhad not yet assumed modernsignificance. the genericdescriptions
                                its                       On                           applied  to
   earlyoperas,see especially   Margaret  Murata, Operas thePapalCourt,
                                                          for                 1631-1668(Ann
   Arbor,1981), appendix EllenRosand,Opera Seventeenth-Century TheCreation a
                             2;                       in                  Venice:               of
   Genre (Berkeley,  1991), 34-45; Rosanna Giuseppe,
                                             di             'Opera: Tradizione unaparola',
                                                                                 di
   Drammaturgia,  3 (1996), 131-50.
256                                       Blair Hoxby

to the preference that Hellenistic and Roman audiences felt for them. Seneca, in
turn, placed his seal of approval on the popular judgement by basing the majority
of his surviving tragedies on Euripidean originals. Any sixteenth-century reader who
gave equal weight to all the surviving Attic tragedies - whether he was reading in the
original Greek or in translation - would therefore arrive at a conception of tragedy
that was biased towards Euripides's practice. But the scholarly interests of
humanists and the theatrical culture of Italy's princely courts in the sixteenth century
ensured that his dramaturgy would prove even more influential than the sheer
survival rate of his plays could warrant.
   Starting in 1550, the dissemination of a series of influential commentaries on
Aristotle's recently rediscovered Poeticsdiminished the authority of Plato's theatrical
and musical strictures, which required that music be used to soothe and moderate
the emotions.13 Aristotle offered a viable defence of extreme theatrical affect by
defining tragedy as an imitation that, 'by means of pity and fear, accomplishes the
catharsis of such emotions'.14 Even though commentators could not agree just what
he meant by that definition, the Politics'discussion of the psychic catharsis produced
by listening to the enthusiastic music of the aulos performed at sacred rites and
tragic festivals left no doubt that, in Aristotle's view, the state of passionate
excitement that such music induced was a 'harmless delight', not a danger to the
state. For participants were 'restored by the sacred tunes as though they had
received a cure and a catharsis'.15 Indeed, by praising Euripides as the most tragic
of poets, the Poeticsseemed to imply that the chief obligation of the tragic poet was
to stir audiences to extremes of pity and fear by representing those passions on stage
and thus 'leading' the psyches of the audience through an affective script.16

13 See especially  Bernard           A
                           Weinberg, History Literary
                                               of         Criticism theItalian
                                                                   in           Renaissance
   (Chicago,1961), chaps.9-13; andBaxterHathaway, Ageof Criticism: LateRenaissance
                                                          The                  The
   in Italy(Ithaca,1962),part3.
14 Aristotle, Poetics1449b27-28,in Else,Aristotle'sPoetics, HereI departfromElse's
                                                           221.
   controversial  translation          to
                             ('carrying completion,   througha courseof eventsinvolving        pity
   and fear,the purification those painfulor fatalactswhichhave thatquality'), favour
                              of                                                       in
   of a moretraditional  translation,whichis certainly truerto the common
   seventeenth-century  understanding the text.The meaning Aristotle's
                                       of                        of             notionof tragic
   catharsis remains  contested, the literature the subject extensive.
                                 and              on             is             Usefuldiscussions
   includeFranzSusemihl R. D. Hicks,The
                            and                  PoliticsofAristotle,      I-
                                                                     Books V (London,1894),
   641-56; Ingram    Bywater,         on Art
                              Aristotle the ofPoetry     (Oxford,1909), 152-61, 361-5; Else,
  Aristotle'sPoetics,224-32, 423-47;Aristotle's       A              and
                                              Poetics: Translation Commentary        for Studentsof
   Literature,trans.Leon Golden,comm.0. B. Hardison, (Tallahassee, 1981), 133ff.;
                                                           Jr.                Fla.,
   Leon Golden,Aristotle Tragic Comic
                           on      and      Mimesis   (Atlanta, 1992), 5-39; Elizabeth   S.
   Belfiore,Tragic  Pleasures:
                            Aristotle PlotandEmotion
                                    on                  (Princeton,  1992);Jonathan    Lear,
                in
   'Katharsis', Essays Aristotle's
                         on                 ed.
                                     'Poetics', Am6lieOksenberg       Rorty(Princeton,    1992),
   315-40; and Charles   Segal,'Catharsis,Audience, Closure', Tragedy theTragic:
                                                     and            in         and            Greek
   Theatre Beyond, M. S. Silk(Oxford,1996), 148-72.
           and         ed.
15 Aristotle, Politics
                     1342a.For the Greek,see Alois Dreizehnter,   Aristoteles' Politik,Studia et
   Testimonia   Antiqua (Munich,1970);for an Englishtranslation, The
                        VII                                               see              trans.
                                                                                   Politics,
   Carnes  Lord(Chicago,    1984),240. I havedeparted                             of
                                                        fromLord'stranslation this passage,
   whichreads,'but as a resultof the sacredtunes- when theyuse the tunesthatput the
   soul in a frenzy- we see themcalming    down as if obtaining cureand a purification'.
                                                                  a
16 On the use of the Greekwordpsuchagogia,leadingthe psyche,by ancientGreekcritics,
                                             or
   see W. B. Stanford,  Greek  Tragedy theEmotions: Introductory (London,1983), 5.
                                     and               An              Study
The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered                      257

Theorising about the passions burgeoned, not least in the academies and informal
salons that were frequented by such key pioneers and sponsors of the stile
               as
 rappresentativo Bardi, Galilei, Caccini, Peri and Rinuccini.
   Classical authors told many stories about the fabulous affective power of ancient
tragedy and music, but perhaps no tragedian attracted so many such stories as
Euripides. Plutarch recorded that an Athenian singing a chorus from Euripides's
Electra (a tragedy rediscovered by Mei) moved a conquering army to pity and thus
prevented Athens from being razed.17 Plutarch also recounted that the tyrant
Alexander of Pherae fled a performance of Euripides's TrojanWomen     because he was
ashamed that his citizens should see him, a ruler who never pitied anyone he
murdered, weep at the sorrows of Hecuba and Andromache.18 Lucian said that a
performance of Euripides's Andromedaduring the reign of Alexander the Great's
successor Lysimachus put the whole town of Abdera into a fever for tragedy, so that
they sang the roles of Perseus and Andromeda in the streets and dreamed feverishly
of Perseus holding Medusa's head.19 It is no accident that these stories pay tribute
to Euripides's music, for his popularity in Hellenistic Greece depended in part on
his early adoption of the new dithyrambic music of Timotheus.
   Although scholars like Mei and Francesco Patrizi believed that they found
evidence in Aristotle that ancient tragedies were sung through, Euripides's plays and
Aristophanes's parodies of them provided the clearest illustration that ancient
tragedians had not confined their musical expression to the chorus.20 The Aeschylus
of TheFrogscharges Euripides with having introduced Cretan monodies to the tragic
stage, and the evidence bears him out.21 The heroines of several of Euripides's
earliest surviving plays - Alcestis (438 BCE), Medea (431 BCE), and the Phaedra
of Hippo~ytus (428 BCE) - express their grief in sung monodies.22 In his subsequent
tragedies, Euripides drew on the new music of Timotheus, who abandoned restraint
in favour of an expanded tonal range, the flexible mixing of modes and structures,
tone painting, melismas and a determination to represent even the most extreme
experiences, like the birth pangs of Semele, in musical form.23 Not to be outdone,
Euripides represented the birth pangs of the incestuous Kanake in a monody. He


17
   Plutarch, Lysander in Plutarch's trans.Bernadotte
                    15,            Lives,               Perrin,Loeb ClassicalLibrary,
   11 vols. (London,1917), IV, 273.
18 Plutarch,
19           Pelopidas in Plutarch's V, 415.
                    29,            Lives,
   Lucian,  Howto WriteHistory in Lucian,
                             1,                           Loeb Classical
                                          trans.K. Kilburn,              Library, vols.
                                                                                8
   (Cambridge,  Mass.,1959),VI, 3, 5.
20 On Mei'sand Patrizi'sinferences fromAristotle, Palisca,
                                                 see        Humanism Italian
                                                                      in      Renaissance
   Thought, 412-26.
21 Aristophanes, Frogs
                 The     849-50, 944. Aristophanes'splaysarecitedby line number. All
   translations fromAristophanes, Benjamin
               are                 trans.         BickleyRogers,Loeb ClassicalLibrary,
   3 vols. (Cambridge,Mass.,1968).
22   For insightful discussions of music in Greek tragedyand close analyses of the metres used,
     see T. B. L. Webster,TheTragedies                                The
                                              (London,1967);andWebster, Greek
                                     ofEuripides
     Chorus (London,1970). See also MarioPintacuda, musica tragedia (Cefahi,
                                                  La     nella    greca
     1978).
23 Webster, Greek Chorus, 132, 153-4, 171; Lillian B. Lawler, The Dance of the Ancient Greek
     Theater
          (Iowa City,1964), 16-17.
258                                         Blair Hoxby

even wrote the messenger's speech in the Orestes an agitated monody in the new
                                                     as
style - sung by a Phrygian slave unmanned by fear.24
   Even though the pioneers of dramma musicacould not study Euripides's music,
                                         per
they  could learn a great deal from the texts of his tragedies. One of their chief goals
was to find a musical style that, by synthesising textual, musical and expressive
content, could speak a language of the passions.25 Euripides's restless metrical
experimentation showed that he was interested in the same problem, and nowhere
more so than in the laments of his characters. Starting with the lament of the dying
Hippolytus in the Hippolytus,he experimented with the use of an astrophic poetic
style whose metrical shifts and transitions from recitative to song could nimbly
follow the movement of his characters' thoughts and the agitation of their
passions.26 He left numerous examples of such astrophic laments, written with
varying degrees of structure, repetition and unexpected variation, including
Hermione's wish for death in Andromache,Cassandra's mad song in The Trojan
 Women,  Creusa's complaint to Apollo in the Ion, Antigone's lament for her dead kin
in ThePhoenicianWomen,Helen's long keen for her woes in the Helen, and Electra's
lament for the ruin of her house in Orestes.27
   Perhaps there is no more revealing guide to the procedures of the Euripidean
lament than the pastiche that the Aeschylus of The Frogs sings.28 Like most great
parodies, it hews close to its subject. The distressed maiden begins with an
apostrophe to Night, sings of an ominous dream, finds that Glyce has abandoned
her in the night, thinks of what will never be, bewails Glyce's flight again, then
appeals to the gods for assistance. Frequent grammatical and metrical shifts signal
her agitation as she descends into incoherent grief. Yet amid all this freedom there
is structure. Text repetitions give scope to her sorrow and permit her to defer
acceptance of her plight. And all the while lines in dochmaic metre, which tragedy
reserves for statements of great grief, recur with the regularity of an ostinato bass,
serving as a reservoir of accumulating pathos - or so they would if the song were
meant seriously.
   Laments like these assumed a special importance to Renaissance theorists of the
new monodic style of singing such as Mei, Galilei and Lorenzo Giacomini because
their emotional intensity was calculated to move an audience to pity - and therefore


24 Orestes
        1369-1502.Euripides's                          All          are
                            playsarecitedby line number. translations from
            trans.DavidKovacs,Loeb Classical
   Euripides,                                  Library, vols. to date (Cambridge,
                                                      5                          Mass.,
   1994-2002).
              'Girolamo
25 See Palisca,         Mei';Palisca, 'The Artusi-MonteverdiControversy', The
                                                                          in   New
   Monteverdi          ed.
             Companion, Arnoldand Fortune,147-8; and Palisca,     Florentine       57-61.
                                                                           Camerata,
   Giovanni Bardiparticularlyemphasised importance musicservingtext;see 'On How
                                        the            of
   Tragedy ShouldBe Performed', Palisca,
                                  in       Florentine
                                                    Camerata, 145.
26 Hippolytus1347ff.;
                    Webster, Greek        155.
                                    Chorus,
27 Andromache 825ff.;TheTrojan Women 308ff.;Ion859ff.,ThePhoenician Women 1485ff.;
                                                                                 Helen
   164ff.;and Orestes
                    982ff.A list of Greekmonodiesmaybe foundin W. Jens,ed., Die
   Bauformendergriechischen (Munich,1971),279ff.
                         Tragodie
28   Aristophanes, The Frogs 1329-63. For a commentary on this monody,    which poses various
     textual and metrical difficulties, see Aristophanes, Frogs,ed. Kenneth Dover (Oxford, 1993),
     358-63.
The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered                259

to accomplish tragedy's cathartic function.29 Euripides's laments, together with their
literary descendants in such works as Catullus 64 and the laments of Ovid's Heroides,
are the most important classical models for such highly expressive, irregular laments
as Rinuccini and Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna (1608) - with its naturalistic
declamatory style, its affective text repetitions, its choral responses, and its
appearance of freedom from superimposed formal structures.30 Perhaps no
musico-poetic form exercised a more formative influence on the early development
of opera than did the lament.31
    Important though the formal example of Euripides's laments was, the heightened
and specific meanings with which he invested the singing voice may have
constituted a yet more crucial dramatic legacy. Euripides greatly expanded the set of
established relationships between particular speech acts and forms of musical
expression that were available to a dramatist. It was presumably no feat for him to
present sacred songs or dirges for the dead on stage: their meaning was already laid
down by custom and dramatic convention. But there is nothing inevitable about a
grief-stricken woman complaining in private song or about spouses singing in
recognition of each other. What is required, if such scenes are to be naturalised, is
a musico-dramatic rhetoric of the passions. That is precisely what Euripides created
for himself and his successors.
   Rather than catalogue all the conventional relationships that Euripides established
between musical expression and particular speech acts, I will try to suggest how he
used dramatic context to establish such relationships. In Medea, the heroine's
anguish surfaces in a sung lament heard from behind the scene - 'Oh, what a wretch
am I, how miserable in my sorrows! Ah ah, how I wish I could die!' - while her
Nurse and Tutor, standing in front of her house, discuss her languishing condition.
Her suffering indecision, always expressed in song, punctuates the opening dialogue
like a refrain - 'Oh, what sufferings are mine, sufferings that call for loud

29
   EllenRosand,'Lamento',   Grove Music  Online, L. Macy(Accessed
                                               ed.                 July 14, 2004)
   <http://www.grovemusic.com>
30 Catullus whichis sometimes
            64,                    described an epyllion, diminutive
                                             as           or            epic,is the longest
   of Catullus'spoems.Its narration the marriage PeleusandThetisis interrupted a
                                    of              of                                by
   long ekphrastic            of
                  description a coverletdepicting   Theseus'sdesertion Ariadne; her
                                                                       of          for
   lengthylament,see Catullus, trans.Francis Warre Cornish, edn rev. G. P. Goold,Loeb
                                                           2nd
   ClassicalLibrary (Cambridge,  Mass.,1988), 64.132-201.In the Heroides, assumesthe
                                                                        Ovid
   voices of such Euripidean heroinesas Phaedra Medeaand of otherheroines
                                                  and                             who
   feature            in
          prominently seventeenth-century    monodiesand operas,such as Penelope,Dido,
   andAriadne; Heroides Amores,
                see         and         trans.GrantShowerman, edn rev. G. P. Goold,
                                                               2nd
   Loeb ClassicalLibrary (Cambridge,  Mass.,1986).The musicfor the choralresponsesof the
   Lamento d'Arianna not survive, the librettoclearly
                     does             but                          theirexistence;
                                                           indicates                see
   AngeloSolerti,Glialbori melodramma, (Milan,1903-4), II, 175-9. For an essay
                           del            3 vols.
   thatbrieflyremarks the important of monodiesin Euripidean
                      on                role                          tragedy, then focuses
   on the Latinsourcesof Ariadne's  lament,see Leofranc                   '
                                                        Holford-Strevens,"Her eyes
   becametwo spouts":   ClassicalAntecedents Renaissance
                                              of           Laments', Ear!y        27
                                                                            Music, (1999),
   379-405.
31 See EllenRosand,'The Descending     Tetrachord: Emblemof Lament',
                                                   An                     Musical Quarterly,
   65 (1979), 346-59;Tomlinson,   'Madrigal, Monody,andMonteverdi's  "Via"';Nigel
   Fortune, 'Monteverdi the seconda
                        and                     in
                                       prattica', NewMonteverdi Companion, Arnoldand
                                                                           ed.
   Fortune,192-7; and the specialissue on lamentsthat appeared Ear~y
                                                                in             27
                                                                        Music, (1999).
260                                    BlairHoxby

               -
lamentation!' until she emerges to present a calm exteriorand to speak,ratherthan
sing, to the Chorus.32 Hippolytus, the other hand, Phaedra'sstepson and his
                        In            on
chorus of servants enter singing to a dance rhythm, then pay homage to Artemis.
Their strength and chastity stand in marked contrast to Phaedra'swasted appear-
ance as she lies on a couch and sings languidlyand feverishlyof her desire to be in
the woods where Hippolytushunts. In their differentways, both scenes contrastthe
public and the private,the visible and the hidden.As they revealthe waveringof the
women's aims, they dilate time in order to give scope to the emotions and thus to
exploit fully the dramaticpotential of internal,as opposed to physical,pathos. And
they turn the singing voice into a privilegedmeans of expressing hidden passions.
   Scenes like these consolidated a conventional association between laments and
the feminine voice. Plato invoked that association by describing tragic laments as
womanly.33   When Lucianwas attendingtragediesin Rome, he found it tolerableto
hear Andromache and Hecuba 'melodising'their 'calamities'on stage, even though
he found it risible to hear Heracles burst into song.34Not coincidentally,the vast
majority of monodic laments published in the first decades of the seventeenth
centurywere written for female characters   portrayedby the sopranovoice.35But the
association of abandoned women with song is just one of many that Euripides
naturalisedthrough sheer repetition. Although he may not have been the first to
think of setting a recognitionscene as a sung duet (the uncertaindate of Sophocles's
Electra leaves the question open), there is no doubt that he left the most numerous
examples of such duets in his late tragedies.In the Ion,Iphigenia Tauris Helen,
                                                                   in      and
he showed how lyric dialogue could be turned into a theatrical expression of
intellectual discovery, spontaneous joy and mutual feeling as parent and child,
brother and sister, or husband and wife are reunited.36 example paved the way
                                                         His
for the sudden, expansive lyricism of Penelope when she at last recognises her
husband in Giacomo Badoaro and Monteverdi'sII ritorno       d'Ulisse(1637).
   The very priority that Euripides set on such musical set-pieces pushed him
towards a form of dramatic construction that differs, say, from Sophocles's.
Euripides often slows the dramaticaction in order to give scope to his characters'
passions in song, then uses those songs, in turn, to structurehis tragedies.The
climacticscene of Iphigenia Aulis shows him doing this on a smallscale:the hapless
                            in
girl sings a long lament prompted by the prospect of death, Clytemnestraand
Achilles consider how to save her life, then Iphigenia, whose mind has been
working silently to bring about the reversalof the play's action, sings a triumphal
song in which she expressesher determinationto die gloriouslyas a willingvictim.37
Hippolytus shows him working on a largerscale and using song to shift the pathetic
and dramatic focus from Phaedra, who at first complains of her love-pains, to

32 Euripides,Medea96-7, 111-13.
                605d-e, in TheCollected
3 Plato, Republic                     Dialogues Plato,ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington
                                              of
  Cairns(Princeton,
                  1961), 831.
34 Lucian, On Dance27-8, in Lucian,V, 40.
35 Rosand, 'Lamento'.
36 Ion 1437-1509, Iphigenia Tauris
                          in     827-99, and Helen 625-97.
           in
 7 Iphigenia Aulis 1278-1336,1338ff.,1371ff.
The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy
                                                         reconsidered                     261

Theseus, who mourns her death in dialogue with the chorus, to the wounded
Hippolytus, who dies singing an agonised lament near the end of the tragedy.In
both plays, these songs stand out from the surroundingaction like monuments to
particularpassions. This method of construction appealed even to the authors of
spoken tragediesin a centurywhen the abbe d'Aubignaccould maintainthat it was
the proper business of a tragedianto present a 'gallery'of passions, each developed
'to the point of fulness'.38 librettists,it provided a viable model for the dramatic
                           For
arrangementof action and reflection, speech and song, recitative and set-piece
laments and arias.


                       Euripides and the operatic repertory
The whole tenor of my argumentsuggests that Euripides'scontributionto Baroque
opera should not be measuredby the number of operas that are based directly on
his tragedies.An Ariadne or a Dido may lament like a Euripideanheroine, while,
conversely, an opera that is purportedlybased on one of his tragediesmay bear no
deep resemblanceto it. But it is nevertheless instructive to consider which of his
tragedies entered directly into the repertory before the end of the eighteenth
century.
   I would like to defer considerationof his extant tragedies,however, and begin
with one of his lost plays,Andromeda,    because I think its popularityreveals much
about what Baroque librettists found attractivein Euripides.This was the tragedy
that filled the Dionysus of The Frogs with 'a sudden pang of longing', a 'fierce desire'
that threatenedto consume him unless he could rescue Euripides from Hades.39
This was the play that Alexanderthe Great was said to have recited spontaneously
at his last banquet.40 Just enough was known about the contents of the play to be
suggestive.  It contained the strikingspectacle of the forlornAndromeda chained to
the rocks, her flesh as white as a statue's. She lamented to the Night but, until a
chorus of Ethiopian maidens arrivedto lament in lyric dialoguewith her, she was
answered only by the echo of her voice sung from off stage. She was eventually
rescued by Perseus, who made a memorable entrance.That was enough to inspire
numerous librettiststo write versions of the tale based on what was known of the
tragedy and on its retelling in the Metamorphoses. was staged in Bologna as a
                                                      It
'Tragedia   da recitarsiin Musica'(1610); in Mantua,with a lost score by Monteverdi
(1620); in Venice, where it was the first work to be staged in a public opera house
(1637); in Ferrara,where it gave Francesco Giutti an occasion to employ his
impressivestage machinery(1638); in Paris,where it provided the vehicle for Pierre
Corneille and Giacomo Torelli's first attempt to adapt Italian opera and Venetian
stage-craftto French tastes (1650); in Madrid,when the fourteen-year-oldInfanta
Maria Teresa, future wife of Louis XIV, commissioned Calder6n de la Barca to

38 Abb6 d'Aubignac,La Pratique theitre,
                             du       trans. anon. as The Whole of theStage(1684), III,
                                                              Art
   46.
39 Aristophanes, TheFrogs52-4, 58-9.
40 Athenaeus 537d-e; see Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae,
                                                  trans. CharlesBurton Gulick, Loeb
   ClassicalLibrary,7 vols. (Cambridge,Mass., 1927-41), V, 429.
262                                        Blair Hoxby

produce the first fully sung Spanish opera (1653); and in Paris, where Louis XIV
himself commended the subject to Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully
(1682).41 The fact that the original was lost may not have been the least of its
recommendations since that forestalled all direct comparisons. After the contro-
versy that erupted over their revision of an extant text, Alceste (1674), Quinault,
Lully, and Lully's occasional librettist Thomas Corneille discreetly opted to
reconstruct only lost Euripidean tragedies in Thisee(1675), Bellirophon (1678), Persie
(1682) and Pha'ton (1683).
   Of Euripides's surviving tragedies, seven entered the operatic repertory before
the close of the eighteenth century: Alcestis,Andromache, Electra, Hippolytus,Iphigenia
in Aulis, Iphigeniain Tauris and Medea.42They tended to make their entrance, or
receive their most famous treatment, at times when composers wanted to set their
mark on opera or to reform it. When Quinault and Lully wished to demonstrate that
their tragidiesen musiquehad 'no other models but the tragedies of Ancient Greece',
they did so with the controversial Alceste (1674).43 When Thomas Corneille and
Marc-Antoine Charpentier wished to show that a tragddie musiquecould succeed
                                                            en
without a lietof they produced Mde'e (1693). When Jean-Philippe Rameau wished
                ine,
to make an impressive debut in the form, he wrote HippolyteetAricie (1733), a work
so ambitious that his contemporary Andre Campra famously remarked that it
contained enough music for ten operas.44 It was again to Euripides that the
mid-eighteenth-century reformers of operaseria looked for inspiration. Thinking of
Niccolo Machiavelli's claim that republics must periodically reduce themselves to
first principles if they are to remain vigorous, the Venetian reformer Francesco
Algarotti urged that opera must do the same in order to 'keep alive' - and he
attached a prose libretto of Iphigeniain Aulis to emphasise what he meant.45 Denis
Diderot argued for the musical potential of Racine's version of the play at the same
time.46 Working in Vienna with the likes of the poet Ranieri Calzabigi and the

41
   On these operas,see Rosand,Opera Seventeenth-Centuy7 67-75; Margaret
                                     in                  Venice,                RichGreer,
   ThePlaj ofPower:  Mythological Dramas Calderon la Barca
                              Court         of        de        (Princeton,1991), 31-76;
   LouiseK. Stein,Songs Mortals,
                         of       Dialogues theGods:
                                           of        Music Theatre Seventeenth-Century
                                                           and       in
   Spain(Oxford,1993);and BufordNorman,Touched theGraces: Libretti Philppe
                                                    by           The       of
  Quinault theContext French
           in            of               (Birmingham, 2001), 237-58.
                                 Classicism            Ala.,
42 RuthZinar,'The Use of GreekTragedy the Historyof Opera',Current
                                          in                                       12
                                                                          Musicology,
   (1971), 80-94.
43 Anonymous                  1675.JeanDuronattributes to one of Lully's
                letter,February                          it                           or
                                                                            secretaries
   performers; see the CD bookletfor Lully's Ays, Les Arts Florissants, William
                                                                      dir.        Christie
   (Harmonia  Mundi401257.59,1987), 18-19. On the controversy Alceste, Buford
                                                                 over        see
   Norman,'Ancients Moderns,
                       and                  and
                                   Tragedy Opera:      The Quarrel  overAlceste' French
                                                                                in
   MusicalThought  1600-1800,ed. GeorgiaCowart(Ann Arbor,1989), 177-96.
44 Charles Dill, Monstrous     Rameau theTragic
                          Opera:      and          Tradition(Princeton,1998), 53.
45 Niccol6 Machiavelli,Discordsi la primadecadi TitoLivio,ed. Francesco Bausi, 2 vols.
                              sopra
     (Rome,2001), bk. 3, chap.1; Francesco        Saggio l'opera musica
                                         Algarotti,    sopra   in     (1763), ed.
            Bini (n.p., 1989), 21-2.
     Annalisa
46 Denis Diderot, 'Troisiame entretien sur le Fils naturel'(1757), in (Liuvrescompletes,
                                                                                      ed.
     JacquesChouillet Anne MarieChouillet
                    and                     (Paris,1980),X, 139-62. SeeJulienTiersot,
     'Gluckand the Encyclopedistes',
                                  trans.TheodoreBaker, Musical       , 16
                                                              Quartery (1930),
     336-57;DanielHeartz,'FromGarrick Gluck:
                                        to      The Reformof Theatre Operain the
                                                                       and
     Mid-EighteenthCentury',         ofthe
                           Proceedings Royal  MusicalAssociation, (1967-8), 111-27.
                                                               94
The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy
                                                          reconsidered                      263

choreographersGasparoAngiolini and George Noverre - all of whom professed to
be strivingto revive the true spirit of ancient theatre- Gluck produced an Italian
Alceste(1767) before makinghis debut in Pariswith Iphignie Aulide(1774), a work
                                                           en
that he followed with the French Alceste(1776) and Iphignieen Tauride   (1779 and
1781).47 Even Luigi Cherubinichose Ifigenia Aulide (1788) as the subject of his
                                              in
most distinguishedopera seriaand MIde as the subject of one of his most successful
and innovative operas (1797).


                         Euripides and the tragic experience
The tragediesthat entered the operatic repertorybefore 1800 reveal that librettists
and composers were attractedto a subset of plays that could be said to constitute
a strong reading not only of the Euripidean tradition but of tragic catharsis. In
         the
Medea, Nurse regretsthat 'no one has discoveredhow to put an end to mortals'
bitter griefs with music and song sung to the lyre. It is because of these griefs that
deaths and terrible disasters overthrow houses. It would have been a gain for
mortalsto cure these ills by song'.48 We are surelymeant to think that the Athenians
have met this need with theirtragedies.But in what sense can tragedybe said to cure
ills by song? Rene Girardand WalterBurkert,whose views on the subjecthave been
particularly  influentialin recent decades, argue that tragic representationsfunction
like blood sacrifices.49  The action of several of Euripides's plays, including the
Hecuba,            in Tauris
           Iphigenia        and Iphigenia Aulis, threatensto result in, or is actually
                                         in
consummatedby, a human sacrifice,and TheBacchae, tragedythat is conspicuous
                                                         a
by   its absence from the operatic repertorybefore the twentieth century,can easily
be read as an admission of the deep-seated connection between tragicjoy and the
sense of emotional liberationafforded by communal violence against a victim.
   But I would suggest that if we return to the deliberations of the Florentine
Alterati,we will get a better sense of what seventeenth-century   dramatistsvalued in
Euripides.Founded in 1569, the Alteratimet once or twice a week at the palace of
Giovanni Battista Strozzi the Younger to discuss subjects like Aristotle's Poetics,
Francesco Patrizi'snew commentaryon the Poetics, verse-forms appropriateto
                                                       the
tragedy,    how rhetoric and poetry moved the passions, and what tragic catharsis
meant. Its members included Giovanni Bardi; Ottavio Rinuccini, the librettist of
Dafne, Euridiceand Arianna;Jacopo Corsi, who contributed music to Peri and
Rinuccini's Dafne and sponsored their Euridice;    Prince Giovanni de' Medici, who
staged    Caccini'sRapimento Cefalo 1600; Girolomo Mei; and Giovanni Batttista
                             de       in
Doni, author of the Trattato musica
                               della      scenica
                                                (1638).50
47 For some of their theoretical statements, which are filled with appeals to the example of
   ancient tragedyand pantomime, see [RanieriCalzabigi],Lettresur le micanisme l'opiraitalien
                                                                                 de
   (1756), George Noverre, Lettres la danseet les ballets
                                    suzr                   (1760), Gasparo Angiolini,
   Dissertation les ballets
               sur          pantomimls anciens
                                      des      (1765), Christoph Gluck, 'Dedication' for
   Alceste(1769), in Strunk/Murata,Source Readings,'The Baroque Era', 933-4.
48 Euripides,Medea195-201.
49 Walter Burkert,HomoNecans,trans. P. Bing (Berkeley, 1983); Renb Girard, Violence theand
   Sacred(Baltimore, 1977).
50 Palisca, 'The Alterati'.
264                                         BlairHoxby

   In 1586, Lorenzo Giacomini delivered a discourse on tragic purgation to the
academy.51   According to Giacomini, we take four types of pleasurein tragedy.We
enjoy learningabout the events of the tragedyand marvel to see incredible things
actually happening. We appreciate the play as an imitation, with its beautiful
language,sweet music, festive dance, magnificentmachinery,sumptuous costumes
and artfullyarrangedplot, full of digressions,recognitions and reversalsof fortune.
We enjoy reflectingon both the compassion that we feel for the characterson stage
and our own freedom from their 'fearful adventures'.And we experience 'the
pleasures accessory to the cathartic process' itself.52 Giacomini pursues the
physiologicalimplicationsof Aristotle's claim that those who listen to enthusiastic
music during sacred rites and tragic festivals are 'restored ... as though they had
received a cure and catharsis'.53 arguesthat the passion of a hero representedon
                                 He
stage acts like a sympatheticmedicine, agitatingour own passions and drawingthem
away from us. When the soul is sad, our vital spiritsevaporateand rise to the head.
As they enter the anteriorpart of the head, they stimulatethe fancy, and as they
condense, they cause our face to contractuntil we relieve ourselves by lamentingor
weeping. Although Giacomini may seem to reduce catharsis from an abstract
concept of purification (or intellectual clarification) to having a good cry, the
numerous classicalsources that speak of the pleasureof feeling pity and weeping at
tragic spectacles lend some support to his interpretation.'This insatiabledelight of
lamenting, full of grief, sings the chorus of TheSuppliant Women,  'carriesme away,
just as spring-waterruns down the high-cliff, unceasing ever'.54
   At the end of his discourse,Giacomini singles out Iphigenia Tauris discussion
                                                               in      for
- a tellingchoice that to my knowledgehas escaped criticalcomment. Tragediesthat
proceed from misery to felicity can be purgative,he says, because the prospect of
an impendingevil can move us as powerfullyas a present one. Thus when Iphigenia
preparesto sacrificeher unrecognisedbrother Orestes in her role as a priestess in
Tauris, she elicits almost as much pity as she would if she actuallykilled him. For
'the layingout of the instrumentsof a miserabledeath that is impending'can move
our compassion as much as the sight of an actual death, which might 'appear so
terribleand so sorrowful,with such a withdrawalof the vital spirits to their origin
of being' that it would make pity and tears impossible, inducing a 'stupor and that
numbness of which Dante spoke: "I did not weep, I so turned to stone inside" '.ss
   For GiacominiIphigenia Tauris an exampleof what Aristotlemeant by the best
                            in      is
manner of tragicfable. He can presumablyjustifyhis choice because the Poetics    says
that Euripides is not to be faulted for focusing on heroes like Orestes who 'have
happened either to undergo or to do fearful things'. In fact, 'the artisticallyfinest

s1 Lorenzo Giacomini, Tebalducci Malespini, Orationi discorsi
                                                        e       (Florence, 1597), 29-52.
   Hathaway (TheAge of Criticism)  discusses the discourse in the context of rival explanations
   of catharsis (251-60), while Palisca, 'The Alterati',discusses its musical significance (24-9).
   Where possible, I follow Palisca's translations.
52 Giacomini, Orationi discorsi,
                         e      46-7.
53
   Aristotle, Politics1342a.
54 Euripides, The Suppliant Women79ff.
ss Giacomini,     e
            Orationidiscorsi
                          51-2.
The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered                  265

kind of tragedy ... is based upon this structure' and 'in our theatres and
competitions such plays appeal to the audience as most tragic, if they follow the
right principle, and Euripides, even though in other respects his construction is
faulty, nevertheless appeals to the audience as the most tragic, at least, of the
poets'.56 To be sure, some Renaissance commentators thought that Aristotle meant
only to defend Euripides's unhappy endings.57 But Giacomini seems to conclude
that the tragedian's essential duty is to move audiences to extremes of pity and fear
without letting them fall into a petrifaction of horror. If that purpose can be
accomplished by a plot that moves from misery to felicity, then the success justifies
the endeavour. Although Giacomini quotes Dante to describe the stupefaction that
might result if Orestes were actually killed in Iphigeniain Tauris, the words also
suggest the potency of a drama based on imagined evils. For what turns Ugolino to
stone is not the sight of a death but a premonition based on a dream: as he beholds
his innocent sons in the tower, he foreseestheir deaths by starvation and his own feast
on their flesh.58 From the standpoint of this essay what must be stressed is a simpler
point: with all Attic tragedy available to him, Giacomini selects Iphigeniain Tauris,a
play that many critics now prefer to characterise as a 'romantic melodrama', to show
what Aristotle meant by the 'best' (ottima) manner of tragic fable.59 In defence of
himself, Giacomini could point to a passage, which frankly puzzles most modern
commentators, in which Aristotle says that tragedies like Iphigenia Tauris,in which
                                                                       in
recognition   averts a violent deed, are the 'best' kind (kratiston).60
   Palisca describes Giacomini's discourse as 'a document of the prevailing taste'.
He suggests that this taste supported the strange compound of dramatic ingredients
that found their way into 'the Roman and Venetian operas of the seventeenth
century'. It was a taste, he says, that 'demanded of the stage not true tragedy but a
mixed genre that adds to the emotionally purgative experience a feast of the senses
and the mind'.61 But this formulation obscures the importance of Euripides as the

56 Poetics              in
          1453a21-31, Else,Aristotle's    Poetics, 399.
                                                  376,
57 LudovicoCastelvetro,    Poeticad'Aristotele          e sposta, Werther
                                                                ed.                   2
                                                                              Romani, vols.
   (RomeandBari,1979), I, 376. Severalvulgarizzata
                                            modernclassicists  haverejected notionthat
                                                                              the
   Aristotle meansonly to praiseEuripides's     unhappy endings; for example,
                                                                  see,             Aristotle,On
   Poetry Sole,trans.G. M. A. Grube(Indianapolis,
          and                                             1958), 25-6n.4;and Else,Aristotle's
   Poetics,400-6.
5s Dante,Inferno,  canto33.
59 In his influential                                        Kitto (Greek         calls
                      surveyof Greektragedy, example,
                                                for                       Tragedy) Iphigenia
   in Tauris turnsa 'tragi-comedy' a 'romantic
             by                        and              melodrama'   (327). Commenting   on
   Aristotle's praiseof Sophocles's  Oedipus andEuripides's
                                             Rex                          in
                                                                  Iphigenia Tauris,Else
   (Aristotle's
              Poetics)                           that               of
                       remarks, so happened the knife-edge his judgment square
                               'it                                                  hit
   on one masterpiece, Oedpus; the otherplayit hit upon,the Iphigenia,
                         the         but                                          cannot
   honestlybe calledmuchmorethana good melodrama'            (446). Else goes so faras to say
   thatAristotle's  selectionof these two playsas examples the best kindof tragedy
                                                             of                          is
               to
   'damaging Aristotle's     creditas a critic,no matterhow one looks at it' (446), thoughhe
   is disturbed muchby the exclusion playslike theAgamemnnon the Bacchae he is
                as                         of                           and             as
   by inclusionof the Iphigenia.
60 Aristotle, Poetics1454a2-9,in Else,Aristotle's Poetics, For an attemptto reconcileThe
                                                         421.
   Poetics'seemingly  contradictory praisefor Oedpus           and           in       see
                                                       Tyrannus Iphigenia Tauris, Stephen
   A. White,'Aristotle's   FavoriteTragedies', Essays Aristotle's
                                               in       on                    221-40.
                                                                      'Poetics',
61 Palisca, 'Alterati',28-9.
266                                        Blair Hoxby

classical model for the very genre that Palisca identifies. H. D. F. Kitto puts it in
these terms: by 'reducing the tragic to the pathetic' in plays like Alcestis,Electra,
Iphigenia Tauris Iphigenia Aulis, Euripides'madeit possible to combine
       in      and      in
harmoniouslyinto one theatricalwhole a wide range of emotional effects'.62The
appeal of that 'theatricalwhole' to opera composers need not be stressed: they
produced eighteen versions of Iphigenia Tauris seventeen versions of Iphigenia
                                          in       and
in Aulis before 1800.
   In the eyes of most seventeenth-centuryreaders, such a range of emotional
effects did not disqualify these plays as tragedies. A revolution of feelings was
considered essential to the tragic experience by such an influential critic as Rene
Rapin.The soul, he said, could be pleasurably   agitatedonly by a constant varietyof
objects set before it, such was the 'Immensity of its desires'.When Rapin praised
 Oedjpus in his commentaryon ThePoetics, was not for its beautiful simplicity
        Rex                                     it
but for its 'flux and reflux of indignation,and of pity', its 'revolutionof horror and
of tenderness', its capacity to generate such 'a universalemotion of the soul' by
'surprises,astonishments,admirations'.63    Tragediansas diverse as John Milton,Jean
Racine andJohn Dryden defined tragedynot in terms of the shape of its action but
in terms of the passions it representedand aroused.64
   No wonder, then, that an arbiterof taste like the abbe d'Aubignacappealed to
'the nineteen plays of Euripides's evidence that the catastrophesof tragediescould
                                   as
be either 'calamitous and bloody' or, as in the case of Alcestis,Electraand many
others, felicitous:'the Orestes,which begins with fury and rage, and runs upon such
strong Passions and Incidents, that they seem to promise nothing but a fatalbloody
Event, [is] nevertheless terminatedby the entire content and satisfactionof all the
Actors, Helenabeing plac'd among the Gods, and Apolloobliging Orestes Pylades
                                                                            and
62
     Kitto, GreekTragedy,
                       336-7.
63 Rene Rapin, Reflections Aristotle's
                        on                            trans. Thomas Rhymer,in The Whole
                                     Treatise 'Poesie',
                                            of
   CriticalWorks Monsieur
                  of          Rapin,2 vols. (London, 1716), II, 141, 208.
64 In the preface to Samson  Agonistes entitled 'Of That Sort of Dramatic Poem Which Is Called
   Tragedy',Milton entirely omits Aristotle's key contention that tragedyis a representationof
   an action and focuses instead on its imitation and manipulationof the passions: 'Tragedy,
   as it was ancient composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable
   of all other poems: therefore said by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and fear, or
   terror, to purge the mind of those and such-like passions, that is to temper and reduce
   them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those passions
   well imitated'. Racine also stresses the representationand stirringof the passions in his
   criticalwritings. In the preface to Berenice, instance, he insists that it is enough for a
                                                 for
   tragedy that 'its action should be great and its actors heroic, that passions should be
   aroused, and that everythingin it should breathe that majestic sadness in which all the
   pleasure of tragedyresides' ((Euvrescompletes, Raymond Picard [Paris,1950], I, 465). In
                                                    ed.
   his preface to Iphigenie, points to the tears of his own audience to confirm Aristotle's
                            he
   judgement that Euripides was the most tragic of poets, 'that is, he was wonderfully adept at
   arousing compassion and fear, which are the true effects of tragedy'(CEuvres, 465). The
                                                                                    I,
   representationof an action scarcely figures at all in the definition that Lisideius contributes
   to Dryden's Essay ofDramatick          -
                                    Poesie a definition widely quoted and accepted by
   subsequent authors:'A just and lively Image of Humane Nature, Representingits Passions
   and Humours, and the Changes of Fortune to which it is subject; for the Delight and
   Instruction of Mankind' (The WorksofJohnDryden, Edward Niles Hooker and H. T.
                                                        ed.
   Swedenberg,Jr., 20 vols. [Berkeley,1956-89], XVII, 15).
The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy
                                                            reconsidered                            267
to marryHermione Electra'.45 ending may have been one of the inspirations
                    and           This
for the apotheosis that concludes Striggio and Monteverdi'srevised Orfeo     (1609).
For the OrestesintroducesApollo from a machine to elevate Helen to the stars,thus
savingher from assassinscomparedto bacchants;while the Orfeo       introducesApollo
from a machine to sing his son up to the stars, thus saving Orpheus from the
impending threat of real bacchants.66Whether or not we wish to make such a
connection, I would maintain,more generally,that Pirrottahas committed a grave
oversight in claimingthat opera's 'propensity for the depiction of tender passions'
and its 'almost unbrokenrule of the happy ending'betrayits pastoralparentage,just
as Robert Kettererhas in saying that 'romanticlove' and 'the dramaticstructureit
begets' is almost nowhere present in Athenian tragedy and must be attributedto
Roman comedy.67     These formal characteristics opera might just as well be traced
                                                 of
to Euripides'stragedies,which devote tremendous energy to the representationof
passionate love, frequentlyend happily, and more often than not introduce a deux
ex machina engineer the felicitous catastrophe.It seems particularly
           to                                                          inappropriate
to attributethe 'love interest and the lieto                                    to
                                           fine'of Calzabigiand Gluck'sAlceste an
operaticconvention derived from Roman comedy (as Kettererdoes) when they are
present in the Euripideanoriginaland when even the ancientsrecognisedEuripides
as the ultimatesource of such 'comic', 'romantic'or 'melodramatic'conventions.68
As Satyrus remarks, 'peripeteiai, violations of maidens, substitution of children,
recognition by means of rings and necklaces, these are the elements of New
Comedy, and it was Euripideswho developed them'.69
   For many nineteenth- and twentieth-centurycritics, plays like Alcestis,Electra,
Orestes Iphigenia Tauris by definition untragic.These critics say that in lieu
        and          in       are
of the 'metaphysicalcomfort' that tragedy should provide, these plays offer an
'earthlyresolution of the tragicdissonance'and that in lieu of 'tragiccatharsis',they
offer a 'happy ending'.70 we know from Euripides'stexts that he was interested
                          Yet
in developing an 'art againstgrief, and at least one classicist has gone so far as to
anoint him the originatorof catharsisas a tragicideal, the practisingdramatistwho
showed Aristotle the way.71For our purposes, I think it is most useful to think of
his tragedies more simply as a series of provisional but coherent answers to the
question, What sorts of song cure ills?
   Although Euripidesshows a consistent taste for scenes of extreme pathos and is
inclined to elicit pity by staging or describing the suffering or death of helpless
victims like young virgins and children, he does not adhere to a particulartragic
pattern, and he seems to have been willing to entertain the possibility that, as
65 D'Aubignac, La Pratique thedatre, 140.
                          du     IV,
66 Euripides, Orestes
                    1492-3.
6 Pirrottaand Povoledo, Musicand Theatre
                                      from                 to Monteverdi, Ketterer, 'Why
                                                                        268;
   Early Opera is Roman and not Greek', 5, 12.   Poliziano
6 Ketterer, 'Why Early Opera is Roman and not Greek', 12.
69 Satyrus, Vita di Euripide39, col. 7; for the Greek text and an Italian translation,see Vita di
            ed.
     Euripide, Graziano        (Pisa,1964).
                      Arrighetti
70   Nietzsche, Birthof Tragedy, Kitto, GreekTragedy,
                                10;                     331.
'n   See C. Diano, 'Euripide auteur de la catharsistragique',Numen,8 (1961), 117-41; Pietro
     Pucci, The Violence Pity in Euripides'
                        of                'Medea' (Ithaca, 1980).
268                                      BlairHoxby

Giacomini said, an action that moves from miseryto felicitymight still be purgative
because the soul contemplatesan impending evil as if it were a present reality.72    In
most of the plays that Kitto labels 'melodramas', Euripides'leads the psyches' of his
audience by harrowingthem with prospects of evil and exposing them to passions
developed to the point of fullness before stupefying them with the marvellous
entranceof a god. His di ex machina not just a way to tie up his plots, or to pander
                                     are
to a taste for spectacle.They are a means, or so seventeenth-century     readerscould
reasonablyinterpret them,     of completing the affective script of his tragedies by
stirring the audience to intense wonder - a passion that, according to many
commentators,had its own purgativequalities.They are, in other words, an integral
part of his 'art againstgrief.
   This, at any rate, is the way many ItalianBaroque operas and French tragidies     en
musique interpretEuripideantragedy.Their moments of deepest fearand pity usually
fall well before the catastrophe.Think of Le Cerf de la Vieville's account of the
audience'sreactionto the end of Act II of Quinaultand Lully's    Armide(1686), when
they are ravishedby the mere spectre of an impending evil: 'When Armide nerves
herself to stab Renaud ... I have twenty times seen the entire audience in the grip
of fear, neither breathingnor moving, their whole attention in their ears and eyes,
until the instrumentalair which concludes the scene allowed them to draw breath
again,afterwhich they exhaledwith a murmurof pleasureand admiration'.73 the       If
purpose   of tragedyis simply to stir up and purge the passions, there is no reason
why it should not stage scenes like this, and there is every reason for it to introduce
a deusex machina the end to arouse a final sense of wonder. Such endings became
                  at
so conventional that Pierre-Jean-Baptiste    Nougaret could explain that, because 'a
machine nearlyalways ends serious operas in France, in imitation of Greek plays',
it 'can be said to fall within the rules' of dramaticpropriety.74
   I do not believe, any more than Palisca or Pirrottado, that seventeenth-century
tragedians or librettists were under the impression that their productions were
historicallyaccuratereconstructionsof ancient Greek tragedies.Nor do I wish to
deny that Latin literatureor pastoraldrama- which GiraldiCinthio traced back to
                                -
Euripides's late play Cyclops contributed to the development of opera.75The
pioneers   of opera read widely in classical sources from a variety of genres and
periods, consciously rejectingthe use of masks when they would interferewith the
expression of the passions, drawingfreely on accounts of Alexandrianand Roman
actors, dancersand machinists,and alwaysbearingin mind that the first duty of the
poet was to please his contemporary audience. A mournful sense of the gulf
dividing modern Europe from the ancient world, the contemporarystage from the

72   Giacomini,
              Orationidiscorsi,
                    e       51-2.
                                                            italienne de la musiquefranfoise,
73 Jean-LaurentLe Cerf de la Vieville, Comparaison la musique
                                                 de                 et
     trans. in French
                    Baroque    A
                          Opera: Reader, CarolineWood and Graham Sadler (Aldershot,
                                       ed.
     2000), 39.
74Pierre-Jean-BaptisteNougeret, De l'Art du thaitre, vols. (Paris, 1769), II, 211.
                                                   2
                       soprail comporre satireattealle scene
7 See Cinthio's Discorso              le                                               the
                                                           (1554). Cinthio cites Cyclops,
     only completesurvivingexample an ancientsatyrplay,as the modelof his Egl6,
                                  of                                          which
     has been variously
                      described a satyric
                              as              a
                                        drama, pastoraldrama a tragicomedy.
                                                              and
reconsidered
                 The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy                    269

ancienttheatre,runs through some of the very writingsin which they piece together
the fragmentaryevidence of the past. Indeed, it could be argued that it was their
very consciousness of belatedness that reinforced their taste for Euripides and for
the 'decadent' performers of Alexandria and Rome - who were themselves
confronted with the task of renewing a revered,yet increasinglyalien, literaryand
dramatictradition.But when scholarsdismiss the claims of earlyopera or tragidie   en
musique being 'true tragedy',they obscure both how open and contested were the
        to
generic boundariesof tragedyin the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how
avidly Baroque opera fed on a particularstyle of tragic dramaturgy. is time we
                                                                      It
recognised  that in imaginatively
                                responding   to Euripides'smusicaldramaturgy,  early
opera helped to disentanglehis tragic style from Seneca's sententious revision of it,
and, by so doing, to secure his position as the premier model of classicaltragedy,
spoken or sung, by the time the abbe d'Aubignac announced 'our Poets have
recovered the Way to Parnassus,  upon the Footsteps of Euripides'.76 its musical
                                                                   With
representationof the passions, its episodic plotting, its choral interludes and its
felicitous catastrophes,Baroque opera is a strong and coherent readingof a set of
Euripideantragediesthat were highly prized in Hellenistic Greece but that fell from
gracein the nineteenth century.Although the prevailingtheories about the meaning
of tragiccatharsisand the sources of tragicpleasurechanged severaltimes between
1550 and 1800, only the rise of German idealism in the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries displaced the passions from their central place in the critical
analysisof tragedy,thus deprivingEuripidesof his distinction as the most tragicof
the poets and transforminga revivalof ancient tragedyinto the birth of melodrama.




76
     D'Aubignac, La Pratique th'itre,I, 12.
                           du

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (19)

Mozart Powerpoint - pdf
Mozart Powerpoint - pdfMozart Powerpoint - pdf
Mozart Powerpoint - pdf
 
Mozart
MozartMozart
Mozart
 
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 
Western Classical Plays
Western Classical PlaysWestern Classical Plays
Western Classical Plays
 
Romantic period
Romantic periodRomantic period
Romantic period
 
Luciano Pavarotti Eng
Luciano Pavarotti EngLuciano Pavarotti Eng
Luciano Pavarotti Eng
 
Mozart's Life
Mozart's LifeMozart's Life
Mozart's Life
 
Recital 1.0 program booklet
Recital 1.0 program bookletRecital 1.0 program booklet
Recital 1.0 program booklet
 
Evolution of Opera & Western Vocal Music
Evolution of Opera & Western Vocal MusicEvolution of Opera & Western Vocal Music
Evolution of Opera & Western Vocal Music
 
The Romantic Era of Music
The Romantic Era of MusicThe Romantic Era of Music
The Romantic Era of Music
 
giliT
giliTgiliT
giliT
 
The Romantic Era Ft. Brahms
The Romantic Era Ft. BrahmsThe Romantic Era Ft. Brahms
The Romantic Era Ft. Brahms
 
Mozart
MozartMozart
Mozart
 
23 lesson 7
23 lesson 723 lesson 7
23 lesson 7
 
Versailles Opera Canada
Versailles Opera CanadaVersailles Opera Canada
Versailles Opera Canada
 
Mozart
MozartMozart
Mozart
 
History of music
History of musicHistory of music
History of music
 
The Modern Period of Musical History
The Modern Period of Musical HistoryThe Modern Period of Musical History
The Modern Period of Musical History
 
Giuseppe Verdi & The Romantic Era
Giuseppe Verdi & The Romantic Era Giuseppe Verdi & The Romantic Era
Giuseppe Verdi & The Romantic Era
 

En vedette

French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damenFrench scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damenMariane Farias
 
Sirris innovate 2012 3 e
Sirris innovate 2012   3 eSirris innovate 2012   3 e
Sirris innovate 2012 3 eSirris
 
Theatre group project #74
Theatre group project #74Theatre group project #74
Theatre group project #74Jayln Miracle
 
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardie
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardieThe poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardie
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardieMariane Farias
 
Grundtvig project istanbul
Grundtvig project istanbulGrundtvig project istanbul
Grundtvig project istanbulannamanspers
 
Urban Tree Forge
Urban Tree ForgeUrban Tree Forge
Urban Tree ForgeJoey Cordes
 
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelven
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelvenHeidegger and tragedy, by michael gelven
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelvenMariane Farias
 
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulsky
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulskyAristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulsky
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulskyMariane Farias
 
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donald
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donaldThe performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donald
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donaldMariane Farias
 
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. Freed
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. FreedRobert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. Freed
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. FreedMariane Farias
 
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphy
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphyPostdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphy
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphyMariane Farias
 
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. Braga
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. BragaMaxims in GSV, by Thomas J. Braga
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. BragaMariane Farias
 
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennett
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennettNietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennett
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennettMariane Farias
 
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnott
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnottThe lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnott
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnottMariane Farias
 
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company Profiles
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company ProfilesLinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company Profiles
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company ProfilesGilmore Global
 
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doering
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doeringHume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doering
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doeringMariane Farias
 
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbert
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbertAesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbert
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbertMariane Farias
 
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )acti
 

En vedette (20)

French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damenFrench scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
French scenes in greek tragedy, by mark damen
 
Sirris innovate 2012 3 e
Sirris innovate 2012   3 eSirris innovate 2012   3 e
Sirris innovate 2012 3 e
 
Theatre group project #74
Theatre group project #74Theatre group project #74
Theatre group project #74
 
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardie
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardieThe poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardie
The poetics of aristotle, by r. p hardie
 
Grundtvig project istanbul
Grundtvig project istanbulGrundtvig project istanbul
Grundtvig project istanbul
 
Urban Tree Forge
Urban Tree ForgeUrban Tree Forge
Urban Tree Forge
 
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelven
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelvenHeidegger and tragedy, by michael gelven
Heidegger and tragedy, by michael gelven
 
Bike Bag
Bike BagBike Bag
Bike Bag
 
Windows
WindowsWindows
Windows
 
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulsky
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulskyAristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulsky
Aristotles poetics revisited, by harold skulsky
 
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donald
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donaldThe performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donald
The performative basis of modern literary theory, by henry mc donald
 
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. Freed
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. FreedRobert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. Freed
Robert Musil's other postmodernism, by M. Freed
 
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphy
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphyPostdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphy
Postdeconstructive necrophilia, by floyd dunphy
 
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. Braga
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. BragaMaxims in GSV, by Thomas J. Braga
Maxims in GSV, by Thomas J. Braga
 
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennett
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennettNietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennett
Nietzsche's idea of myth, by benjamin bennett
 
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnott
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnottThe lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnott
The lost dimension of greek tragedy, by peter d. arnott
 
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company Profiles
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company ProfilesLinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company Profiles
LinkedIn Tips for Maximizing Employee Profiles Linking to Company Profiles
 
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doering
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doeringHume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doering
Hume and the theory of tragedy, by j. frederick doering
 
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbert
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbertAesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbert
Aesthetic imitation and imitators in aristotle, by katherine e. gilbert
 
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )
e-Reputation des elus et proximite citoyenne (conference acti )
 

Similaire à The doleful airs of euripides, by blair hoxby

The Lament Of The Queen Of Sweden
The Lament Of The Queen Of SwedenThe Lament Of The Queen Of Sweden
The Lament Of The Queen Of SwedenNicolle Dammann
 
Carlos Gesualdo Research Paper
Carlos Gesualdo Research PaperCarlos Gesualdo Research Paper
Carlos Gesualdo Research PaperKaren Harkavy
 
Describe The Story Of Nabucco
Describe The Story Of NabuccoDescribe The Story Of Nabucco
Describe The Story Of NabuccoAmber Wheeler
 
Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro ScarlattiAlessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro ScarlattiSara Harris
 
Romantic Music Research Paper
Romantic Music Research PaperRomantic Music Research Paper
Romantic Music Research PaperDenise Enriquez
 
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docx
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docxhou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docx
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docxwellesleyterresa
 
Wk 6 the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...
Wk 6   the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...Wk 6   the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...
Wk 6 the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...Alicia Wallace
 
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra pound
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra poundAn explication of canto lxxv by ezra pound
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra poundRafael Dos Prazeres
 
Italian Painting From The Baroque Era
Italian Painting From The Baroque EraItalian Painting From The Baroque Era
Italian Painting From The Baroque EraRaquel Livingston
 
Definition Of A Concerto
Definition Of A ConcertoDefinition Of A Concerto
Definition Of A ConcertoStacey Cruz
 
Mozart And Beethoven Comparison
Mozart And Beethoven ComparisonMozart And Beethoven Comparison
Mozart And Beethoven ComparisonMonica Ramos
 
Guido D Arezzo Influence
Guido D Arezzo InfluenceGuido D Arezzo Influence
Guido D Arezzo InfluenceRachel Johnston
 
The History Of Italian Opera Essay Example
The History Of Italian Opera Essay ExampleThe History Of Italian Opera Essay Example
The History Of Italian Opera Essay ExampleStephanie Williams
 
Machaut Secular Music
Machaut Secular MusicMachaut Secular Music
Machaut Secular MusicNichole Brown
 
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio Saunt
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio SauntAnalysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio Saunt
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio SauntJennifer Nulton
 
The Baroque Era Essay Examples
The Baroque Era Essay ExamplesThe Baroque Era Essay Examples
The Baroque Era Essay ExamplesValerie Mejia
 
Madame Butterfly Stereotypes
Madame Butterfly StereotypesMadame Butterfly Stereotypes
Madame Butterfly StereotypesAllyson Thompson
 
Music Concert Critique
Music Concert CritiqueMusic Concert Critique
Music Concert CritiqueJoanna Paulsen
 

Similaire à The doleful airs of euripides, by blair hoxby (20)

The Lament Of The Queen Of Sweden
The Lament Of The Queen Of SwedenThe Lament Of The Queen Of Sweden
The Lament Of The Queen Of Sweden
 
Carlos Gesualdo Research Paper
Carlos Gesualdo Research PaperCarlos Gesualdo Research Paper
Carlos Gesualdo Research Paper
 
Describe The Story Of Nabucco
Describe The Story Of NabuccoDescribe The Story Of Nabucco
Describe The Story Of Nabucco
 
Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro ScarlattiAlessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti
 
Romantic Music Research Paper
Romantic Music Research PaperRomantic Music Research Paper
Romantic Music Research Paper
 
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docx
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docxhou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docx
hou12Zhengke Hou (Olivia)Dr. Sarah Herbert
M.docx
 
Wk 6 the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...
Wk 6   the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...Wk 6   the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...
Wk 6 the long 17th c entury, vocal music of the early baroque, invention of...
 
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra pound
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra poundAn explication of canto lxxv by ezra pound
An explication of canto lxxv by ezra pound
 
Italian Painting From The Baroque Era
Italian Painting From The Baroque EraItalian Painting From The Baroque Era
Italian Painting From The Baroque Era
 
Definition Of A Concerto
Definition Of A ConcertoDefinition Of A Concerto
Definition Of A Concerto
 
Mozart And Beethoven Comparison
Mozart And Beethoven ComparisonMozart And Beethoven Comparison
Mozart And Beethoven Comparison
 
Guido D Arezzo Influence
Guido D Arezzo InfluenceGuido D Arezzo Influence
Guido D Arezzo Influence
 
Concerto Grosso Music
Concerto Grosso MusicConcerto Grosso Music
Concerto Grosso Music
 
The History Of Italian Opera Essay Example
The History Of Italian Opera Essay ExampleThe History Of Italian Opera Essay Example
The History Of Italian Opera Essay Example
 
Machaut Secular Music
Machaut Secular MusicMachaut Secular Music
Machaut Secular Music
 
The Musical Era
The Musical EraThe Musical Era
The Musical Era
 
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio Saunt
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio SauntAnalysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio Saunt
Analysis Of West Of The Revolution By Claudio Saunt
 
The Baroque Era Essay Examples
The Baroque Era Essay ExamplesThe Baroque Era Essay Examples
The Baroque Era Essay Examples
 
Madame Butterfly Stereotypes
Madame Butterfly StereotypesMadame Butterfly Stereotypes
Madame Butterfly Stereotypes
 
Music Concert Critique
Music Concert CritiqueMusic Concert Critique
Music Concert Critique
 

Plus de Mariane Farias

Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), Coetzee
Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), CoetzeeMecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), Coetzee
Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), CoetzeeMariane Farias
 
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich Schiller
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich SchillerA Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich Schiller
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich SchillerMariane Farias
 
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre Kojève
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre KojèveIntrodução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre Kojève
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre KojèveMariane Farias
 
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanal
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanalAristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanal
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanalMariane Farias
 
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaper
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaperAristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaper
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaperMariane Farias
 
Poetics as system, by claudio guillen
Poetics as system, by claudio guillenPoetics as system, by claudio guillen
Poetics as system, by claudio guillenMariane Farias
 
What is poetics, by stein haugom
What is poetics, by stein haugomWhat is poetics, by stein haugom
What is poetics, by stein haugomMariane Farias
 
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhu
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhuMyth and philosophy, by rui zhu
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhuMariane Farias
 
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstag
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstagTragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstag
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstagMariane Farias
 
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steiner
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steinerTragedy reconsidered, by george steiner
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steinerMariane Farias
 
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...Mariane Farias
 
Memory, mimeses, tragedy
Memory, mimeses, tragedyMemory, mimeses, tragedy
Memory, mimeses, tragedyMariane Farias
 
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderston
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderstonBorges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderston
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderstonMariane Farias
 
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzo
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzoAristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzo
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzoMariane Farias
 
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon golden
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon goldenAristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon golden
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon goldenMariane Farias
 
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirk
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirkTragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirk
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirkMariane Farias
 
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...Mariane Farias
 
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris Mariane Farias
 
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson Martins
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson MartinsTendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson Martins
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson MartinsMariane Farias
 

Plus de Mariane Farias (19)

Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), Coetzee
Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), CoetzeeMecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), Coetzee
Mecanismos internos (ensaios sobre literatura), Coetzee
 
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich Schiller
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich SchillerA Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich Schiller
A Educação Estética do Homem, Friedrich Schiller
 
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre Kojève
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre KojèveIntrodução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre Kojève
Introdução à leitura de Hegel, Alexandre Kojève
 
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanal
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanalAristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanal
Aristotle definition of poetry, by robert j. yanal
 
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaper
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaperAristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaper
Aristotles catharsis and aesthetic pleasure, by eva shaper
 
Poetics as system, by claudio guillen
Poetics as system, by claudio guillenPoetics as system, by claudio guillen
Poetics as system, by claudio guillen
 
What is poetics, by stein haugom
What is poetics, by stein haugomWhat is poetics, by stein haugom
What is poetics, by stein haugom
 
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhu
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhuMyth and philosophy, by rui zhu
Myth and philosophy, by rui zhu
 
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstag
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstagTragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstag
Tragedy, pessimism, nietzsche, by joshua foa dienstag
 
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steiner
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steinerTragedy reconsidered, by george steiner
Tragedy reconsidered, by george steiner
 
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...
Pity, fear, and catharsis in aristotles poetics, by charles b. daniels and sa...
 
Memory, mimeses, tragedy
Memory, mimeses, tragedyMemory, mimeses, tragedy
Memory, mimeses, tragedy
 
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderston
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderstonBorges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderston
Borges, averroes, aristotle, by daniel balderston
 
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzo
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzoAristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzo
Aristotles study of tragedy, by henry alonzo
 
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon golden
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon goldenAristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon golden
Aristotle, frye, and the theory of tragedy, by leon golden
 
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirk
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirkTragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirk
Tragedy and the moderns, by russell amos kirk
 
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...
De Hegel a Nietzsche, la quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento en el siglo X...
 
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris
Introduction to Walter Benjamin, by David S Ferris
 
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson Martins
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson MartinsTendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson Martins
Tendendências na literatura brasileira contemporânea, by Wilson Martins
 

Dernier

UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE
 
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICEQuality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICESayali Powar
 
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a Paragraph
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a ParagraphPresentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a Paragraph
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a ParagraphNetziValdelomar1
 
3.21.24 The Origins of Black Power.pptx
3.21.24  The Origins of Black Power.pptx3.21.24  The Origins of Black Power.pptx
3.21.24 The Origins of Black Power.pptxmary850239
 
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17Celine George
 
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17Celine George
 
How to Solve Singleton Error in the Odoo 17
How to Solve Singleton Error in the  Odoo 17How to Solve Singleton Error in the  Odoo 17
How to Solve Singleton Error in the Odoo 17Celine George
 
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?TechSoup
 
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptx
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptxThe basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptx
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptxheathfieldcps1
 
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...Nguyen Thanh Tu Collection
 
General views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepGeneral views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepobaje godwin sunday
 
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxIn - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxAditiChauhan701637
 
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxUltra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxDr. Asif Anas
 
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptx
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptxPractical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptx
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptxKatherine Villaluna
 
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapitolTechU
 
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdf
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdfHED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdf
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdfMohonDas
 
Clinical Pharmacy Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptx
Clinical Pharmacy  Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptxClinical Pharmacy  Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptx
Clinical Pharmacy Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptxraviapr7
 
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.raviapr7
 
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdf
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdfP4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdf
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdfYu Kanazawa / Osaka University
 

Dernier (20)

UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
UKCGE Parental Leave Discussion March 2024
 
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICEQuality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE
Quality Assurance_GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE
 
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a Paragraph
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a ParagraphPresentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a Paragraph
Presentation on the Basics of Writing. Writing a Paragraph
 
3.21.24 The Origins of Black Power.pptx
3.21.24  The Origins of Black Power.pptx3.21.24  The Origins of Black Power.pptx
3.21.24 The Origins of Black Power.pptx
 
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17
How to Add a New Field in Existing Kanban View in Odoo 17
 
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17
How to Make a Field read-only in Odoo 17
 
How to Solve Singleton Error in the Odoo 17
How to Solve Singleton Error in the  Odoo 17How to Solve Singleton Error in the  Odoo 17
How to Solve Singleton Error in the Odoo 17
 
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?
What is the Future of QuickBooks DeskTop?
 
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptx
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptxThe basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptx
The basics of sentences session 10pptx.pptx
 
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
CHUYÊN ĐỀ DẠY THÊM TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 - GLOBAL SUCCESS - NĂM HỌC 2023-2024 - HK...
 
General views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and stepGeneral views of Histopathology and step
General views of Histopathology and step
 
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptxIn - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
In - Vivo and In - Vitro Correlation.pptx
 
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptxUltra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
Ultra structure and life cycle of Plasmodium.pptx
 
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptx
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptxPractical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptx
Practical Research 1 Lesson 9 Scope and delimitation.pptx
 
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptxCapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
CapTechU Doctoral Presentation -March 2024 slides.pptx
 
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdf
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdfHED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdf
HED Office Sohayok Exam Question Solution 2023.pdf
 
Clinical Pharmacy Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptx
Clinical Pharmacy  Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptxClinical Pharmacy  Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptx
Clinical Pharmacy Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pptx
 
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.
Drug Information Services- DIC and Sources.
 
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdf
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdfP4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdf
P4C x ELT = P4ELT: Its Theoretical Background (Kanazawa, 2024 March).pdf
 
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdfPersonal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
Personal Resilience in Project Management 2 - TV Edit 1a.pdf
 

The doleful airs of euripides, by blair hoxby

  • 1. The Doleful Airs of Euripides: The Origins of Opera and the Spirit of Tragedy Reconsidered Author(s): Blair Hoxby Reviewed work(s): Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Nov., 2005), pp. 253-269 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3878297 . Accessed: 23/09/2012 12:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cambridge Opera Journal. http://www.jstor.org
  • 2. Cambridge OperaJournal,17, 3, 253-269 () 2005 CambridgeUniversity Press doi:10.1017/S0954586706002035 The doleful airs of Euripides:The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered BLAIR HOXBY Abstract: Scholarly consensus denies a real connection between ancient tragedy and early opera because music historians have measured early operas against an idealised conception of Attic tragedy. However, the pioneers of opera were seeking to revive a Euripidean style of musical tragedy as it was performed in the 'decadent' theatres of the Hellenistic era. Euripides's tragedies established conventional relationships between musical expression and the represen- tation of the passions. Baroque opera is seen as a strongly complex reading of a set of Euripideantragediesthat enjoyed favour in the Hellenistic era but fell from criticalgrace in the nineteenth century. These plays hold the key to opera's tragic pretensions; the esteem they long enjoyed should prompt us to reconsider the spirit of tragedy and the nature of catharsis. In their prefaces to Euridice(1600), the first surviving opera, the poet Ottavio Rinuccini and composer Jacopo Peri appealed to the opinion 'of many' that the ancient Greeks and Romans 'sang their tragedies throughout on the stage' and explained why they thought the ancients must have sung their plays in a manner something like Peri's stilerecitativo.1 if to announce the genre of their work, they As chose Tragedyherself to sing the Prologue.2In a counterbidto claimpriorityfor the invention of the 'new music', Giulio Caccinirecalledin his preface to a rival setting of the libretto that the 'noble virtuosi' who gathered years earlier at Giovanni Bardi's house had even then declared his style of singing 'to be that used by the ancient Greeks when introducing songs into the presentationsof their tragedies'.3 Whether or not we accept Caccini's claim at face value, there can be little doubt that Bardi's prote6ges Vincenzo Galilei and Giulio Caccini - and after them Jacopo Corsi's protegees Rinuccini and Peri - were inspired to undertake their practicalexperimentswith monodic songs and recitativeby two ideas that Girolamo Mei circulatedamong the learnedelite of Florence:that ancient tragedieshad been sung throughout and that ancient music had been so affecting because the Greeks had not written polyphony but, relying on simple but expressive melodies, had imitated the passions using modes whose pitch and rhythm produced a powerful sympatheticresponse in the souls of their auditors.4 1 Ottavio Rinuccini, Dedication to Euridice(Florence, 1600), in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source in Readings MusicHisto7y: From ClassicalAntiqui~y Era through Romantic (New York, 1950), the 367-8. Jacopo Peri makes an almost identical statement in his Preface to Le musichesopra L'Euridice Readings MusicHistory,rev. edn, (Florence, 1600), in Oliver Strunk, ed., Source in gen. ed. Leo Treitler, 'The Baroque Era', ed. MargaretMurata (New York, 1998), 659-60. 2 On the use of prologues as generic signals, see BarbaraRussano Hanning, 'Apologia pro Ottavio Rinuccini',Journalof theAmerican Society, (1973), 240-62. Musicological 26 3 Giulio Caccini, Dedication to L'Euridice composta musica stilerappresentativo in in (Florence, 1600), in Strunk/Murata,'The Baroque Era', 606. 4 See Claude V. Palisca, 'Girolamo Mei: Mentor to the Florentine Camerata',Musical Quarterly, 40 (1954), 1-20; Nino Pirrotta,'Temperaments and Tendencies in the Florentine Camerata', continued next footnote on page
  • 3. 254 Blair Hoxby Yet subsequent critics have denied a meaningful connection between the tragedy of the ancients and the stile rappresentativo. Nietzsche found it incredible that 'this thoroughly externalized operatic music ... could be received and cherished with enthusiastic favour, as a rebirth, as it were, of all true music', and even scholars who admire the music insist that because composers like Caccini and Peri could study virtually no examples of ancient music, their style actually found its 'origins in the musical practice of the fifteenth century' and developed in dialogue with contem- porary madrigals, solo songs and theatrical music.5 Claudio Monteverdi added weight to this view when he told Giovanni Battista Doni, the first historian of the new music, that although he had valued seeing Galilei's transcriptions of ancient musical examples twenty years before, he hadn't invested much time trying to understand them because he knew that 'the ancient practical manner' was 'completely lost'.6 The texts of the ancient tragedies were not lost, of course, yet two of the most influential historians of early opera, Claude Palisca and Nino Pirrotta, concur in emphasising the contribution of contemporary theatrical forms, such as masques, pastorals and comedies, to its dramatic form. What contemporary tastes demanded, says Palisca, was 'not true tragedy but a mixed genre', and Rinuccini and his circle, who were 'steeped in the classics', knew perfectly well that the musico-dramatic form they created was not 'a rebirth of ancient tragedy'.7 I believe that critics have underestimated and misconstrued opera's relationship to ancient tragedy. Even Barbara Hanning, who defends Peri and Rinuccini's interest in reviving the singing style and affective power of the ancient stage, assumes too readily that when the Tragedy of Euridicepromises to sing 'not of blood spilled from innocent veins, not of the lifeless brow of a tyrant', but 'of mournful and tearful scenes', she is signalling a change of allegiance from classical tragedy to contemporary tragicomedy.8 What lies behind such ready assumptions is an footnote continued prevous from page Musical 40 Quarterly, (1954), 169-89;Girolamo and Mei,Letters Ancient Modern on Musicto Vincenzo Galilei Giovanni and Bardi, Palisca(Neuhausen-Stuttgart, ed. 1977);Palisca, Humanism in Italian Renaissance MusicalThought (New Haven,1985), 408-33;Palisca, The ed., Florentine Camerata (New Haven,1989). s Friedrich Nietzsche,The Birth Tragedy TheCase Wagner, Walter of and of trans. Kaufmann and (New York,1967), 114;Nino Pirrotta ElenaPovoledo,Music Theatre Poliziano and from to trans. Monteverdi, KarenEales (Cambridge, 1982), 201. For otheraccountsthatemphasise the inter-relationship the stilerecitativo contemporary of with musicalforms,see, for example, Nigel Fortune, 'ItalianSecularMonodyfrom 1600 to 1635:An Introductory Survey',Musical 39 Quarterly, (1953), 171-95;Claude Palisca, V. 'VincenzoGalileiandSomeLinksbetween and "Pseudo-Monody" Monody', Musical Quarterly, (1960), 344-60; and GaryTomlinson, 46 'Madrigal, Monody,andMonteverdi's "Vianaturale Imitatione"Journal the alla ', of American Musicological 34 (1981), 60-108. Society, 6 Claudio Monteverdi, Letterto Giovanni BattistaDoni (February 1634),in The NewMonteverdi Companion, Denis ArnoldandNigel Fortune(London,1985), 86. ed. 7 I quotePalisca, 'The Alterati Florence, of Pioneers the Theoryof Dramatic in Music',in NewLooks Italian at Opera: Essays Honor DonaldJ.Grout, William Austin(Ithaca, in of ed. W. 1968), 29, 36. Also see Pirrotta, and 188; 'Temperaments Tendencies', Pirrotta, 'Tragidieet comediedansla camerata in fiorentina', Musique etpolsie XVIe siicle au (Paris,1954), 295; PirottaandPovoledo,Music Theatre Poliziano Monteverdi, and,for a summary and from to 268; of similar views,see Hanning, 'Apologia', 241. 8 Hanning, 'Apologia', 245-6, 252.
  • 4. The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered 255 idealised conception of Attic tragedy that nineteenth-century German philologists extracted from a few touch-stone plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles. For Nietzsche, these two poets embodied the true spirit of tragedy, a spirit with which Euripides fought 'a death struggle'.9 Some of the scholars who have done the most to shape accepted opinion about ancient drama in this century have implicitly endorsed that view by reclassifying many of Euripides's tragedies as romances, melodramas or tragicomedies - this despite the fact that, as sixteenth- and seventeenth-century readers never tired of repeating, Aristotle's Poeticsdeclared Euripides, not Aeschylus or Sophocles, to be the most tragic of poets.10 I would agree that Peri, Rinuccini and their immediate successors were not interested in staging the sort of bloody revenge tragedy popular with Seneca's imitators. Nor did they desire to revive Nietzsche's ideal of Attic tragedy. But these truths obscure a more important one: that Baroque librettists, composers and scenographers did, to an extent not hitherto recognised, seek to revive a Euripidean style of musical tragedy - especially as it was performed in the 'decadent' theatres of Hellenistic Greece and Rome."1 Once we understand the tragic ideal to which they aspired, we will be in a better position to see Baroque opera (a new musico-dramatic form that took many names in its first decades) for what it is: a strongly complex reading of the Euripidean tradition.12 Euripides's musical dramaturgy Whereas Aeschylus and Sophocles each left seven surviving plays, Euripides left nineteen. The survival of Euripides's tragedies in such superior numbers is a tribute 9 Nietzsche,Birth Tragedy, of 76. 10 See Aristotle, Poetics1453a22-39; Greektext, a translation extensive the and commentary maybe foundin Gerard Else,Aristotle's F. The Poetics: Argument (Cambridge, Mass.,1967), 399-406. H. D. F. Kitto (Greek A Tragedy:Literary [Garden Study City,NY, 1954])devotes to chapters Euripides's 'tragicomedies' 'melodramas'. a reviewof the critical and For history of describing Euripides's as tragedies melodramas, whichappears commence 1905,see to in Ann NorrisMichelini, Euripides theTragic and Tradition (Madison, 1987), 321-3. 11 RobertC. Ketterer arguesthatLatinliterature the most important was classicalsourcefor the operasof the seventeenth eighteenth and centuries. his 'WhyEarlyOperais Roman See andnot Greek',this 15 journal, (2003), 1-14. I wouldstressthat some of the central operatic features Ketterer that tracesbackto Romancomedycan be tracedbackyet further, through New Comedy, Euripidean to tragedy. I haveno wish to denythe But importance Ovid,Virgilor the performance of practices the Romantheatre early of to opera. 12 OttavioRinuccini's operas,Dafne Euridice, no genericsubtitle, first and bear thoughTragedy singsthe prologue the latter.His Arianna labelled tragedia. of is a Otherearlyoperasreceive subtitles such as Tragedia recitarsi musica, da in tragedia musicale Opera and tragicamusicale.The anonymous of librettist Monteverdi's nozze Le d'Enea (1640) considered workto be a his a tragedialieto But manyoperaswerepublished fine. with moreneutral genericdescriptors. Alessandro O1feoStriggiosimplycalledhis afavola musica. in RomanandVenetian librettos often used termssuch as dramma musicale, musicale, in musica, di stilerecitativo, opera opera and azione in musica opera The word 'melodramma' firstapplied ais to operarappresentativa regia. librettoin 1647.For the sakeof convenience, will referto early'opera'even thoughthat I termhad not yet assumed modernsignificance. the genericdescriptions its On applied to earlyoperas,see especially Margaret Murata, Operas thePapalCourt, for 1631-1668(Ann Arbor,1981), appendix EllenRosand,Opera Seventeenth-Century TheCreation a 2; in Venice: of Genre (Berkeley, 1991), 34-45; Rosanna Giuseppe, di 'Opera: Tradizione unaparola', di Drammaturgia, 3 (1996), 131-50.
  • 5. 256 Blair Hoxby to the preference that Hellenistic and Roman audiences felt for them. Seneca, in turn, placed his seal of approval on the popular judgement by basing the majority of his surviving tragedies on Euripidean originals. Any sixteenth-century reader who gave equal weight to all the surviving Attic tragedies - whether he was reading in the original Greek or in translation - would therefore arrive at a conception of tragedy that was biased towards Euripides's practice. But the scholarly interests of humanists and the theatrical culture of Italy's princely courts in the sixteenth century ensured that his dramaturgy would prove even more influential than the sheer survival rate of his plays could warrant. Starting in 1550, the dissemination of a series of influential commentaries on Aristotle's recently rediscovered Poeticsdiminished the authority of Plato's theatrical and musical strictures, which required that music be used to soothe and moderate the emotions.13 Aristotle offered a viable defence of extreme theatrical affect by defining tragedy as an imitation that, 'by means of pity and fear, accomplishes the catharsis of such emotions'.14 Even though commentators could not agree just what he meant by that definition, the Politics'discussion of the psychic catharsis produced by listening to the enthusiastic music of the aulos performed at sacred rites and tragic festivals left no doubt that, in Aristotle's view, the state of passionate excitement that such music induced was a 'harmless delight', not a danger to the state. For participants were 'restored by the sacred tunes as though they had received a cure and a catharsis'.15 Indeed, by praising Euripides as the most tragic of poets, the Poeticsseemed to imply that the chief obligation of the tragic poet was to stir audiences to extremes of pity and fear by representing those passions on stage and thus 'leading' the psyches of the audience through an affective script.16 13 See especially Bernard A Weinberg, History Literary of Criticism theItalian in Renaissance (Chicago,1961), chaps.9-13; andBaxterHathaway, Ageof Criticism: LateRenaissance The The in Italy(Ithaca,1962),part3. 14 Aristotle, Poetics1449b27-28,in Else,Aristotle'sPoetics, HereI departfromElse's 221. controversial translation to ('carrying completion, througha courseof eventsinvolving pity and fear,the purification those painfulor fatalactswhichhave thatquality'), favour of in of a moretraditional translation,whichis certainly truerto the common seventeenth-century understanding the text.The meaning Aristotle's of of notionof tragic catharsis remains contested, the literature the subject extensive. and on is Usefuldiscussions includeFranzSusemihl R. D. Hicks,The and PoliticsofAristotle, I- Books V (London,1894), 641-56; Ingram Bywater, on Art Aristotle the ofPoetry (Oxford,1909), 152-61, 361-5; Else, Aristotle'sPoetics,224-32, 423-47;Aristotle's A and Poetics: Translation Commentary for Studentsof Literature,trans.Leon Golden,comm.0. B. Hardison, (Tallahassee, 1981), 133ff.; Jr. Fla., Leon Golden,Aristotle Tragic Comic on and Mimesis (Atlanta, 1992), 5-39; Elizabeth S. Belfiore,Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle PlotandEmotion on (Princeton, 1992);Jonathan Lear, in 'Katharsis', Essays Aristotle's on ed. 'Poetics', Am6lieOksenberg Rorty(Princeton, 1992), 315-40; and Charles Segal,'Catharsis,Audience, Closure', Tragedy theTragic: and in and Greek Theatre Beyond, M. S. Silk(Oxford,1996), 148-72. and ed. 15 Aristotle, Politics 1342a.For the Greek,see Alois Dreizehnter, Aristoteles' Politik,Studia et Testimonia Antiqua (Munich,1970);for an Englishtranslation, The VII see trans. Politics, Carnes Lord(Chicago, 1984),240. I havedeparted of fromLord'stranslation this passage, whichreads,'but as a resultof the sacredtunes- when theyuse the tunesthatput the soul in a frenzy- we see themcalming down as if obtaining cureand a purification'. a 16 On the use of the Greekwordpsuchagogia,leadingthe psyche,by ancientGreekcritics, or see W. B. Stanford, Greek Tragedy theEmotions: Introductory (London,1983), 5. and An Study
  • 6. The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered 257 Theorising about the passions burgeoned, not least in the academies and informal salons that were frequented by such key pioneers and sponsors of the stile as rappresentativo Bardi, Galilei, Caccini, Peri and Rinuccini. Classical authors told many stories about the fabulous affective power of ancient tragedy and music, but perhaps no tragedian attracted so many such stories as Euripides. Plutarch recorded that an Athenian singing a chorus from Euripides's Electra (a tragedy rediscovered by Mei) moved a conquering army to pity and thus prevented Athens from being razed.17 Plutarch also recounted that the tyrant Alexander of Pherae fled a performance of Euripides's TrojanWomen because he was ashamed that his citizens should see him, a ruler who never pitied anyone he murdered, weep at the sorrows of Hecuba and Andromache.18 Lucian said that a performance of Euripides's Andromedaduring the reign of Alexander the Great's successor Lysimachus put the whole town of Abdera into a fever for tragedy, so that they sang the roles of Perseus and Andromeda in the streets and dreamed feverishly of Perseus holding Medusa's head.19 It is no accident that these stories pay tribute to Euripides's music, for his popularity in Hellenistic Greece depended in part on his early adoption of the new dithyrambic music of Timotheus. Although scholars like Mei and Francesco Patrizi believed that they found evidence in Aristotle that ancient tragedies were sung through, Euripides's plays and Aristophanes's parodies of them provided the clearest illustration that ancient tragedians had not confined their musical expression to the chorus.20 The Aeschylus of TheFrogscharges Euripides with having introduced Cretan monodies to the tragic stage, and the evidence bears him out.21 The heroines of several of Euripides's earliest surviving plays - Alcestis (438 BCE), Medea (431 BCE), and the Phaedra of Hippo~ytus (428 BCE) - express their grief in sung monodies.22 In his subsequent tragedies, Euripides drew on the new music of Timotheus, who abandoned restraint in favour of an expanded tonal range, the flexible mixing of modes and structures, tone painting, melismas and a determination to represent even the most extreme experiences, like the birth pangs of Semele, in musical form.23 Not to be outdone, Euripides represented the birth pangs of the incestuous Kanake in a monody. He 17 Plutarch, Lysander in Plutarch's trans.Bernadotte 15, Lives, Perrin,Loeb ClassicalLibrary, 11 vols. (London,1917), IV, 273. 18 Plutarch, 19 Pelopidas in Plutarch's V, 415. 29, Lives, Lucian, Howto WriteHistory in Lucian, 1, Loeb Classical trans.K. Kilburn, Library, vols. 8 (Cambridge, Mass.,1959),VI, 3, 5. 20 On Mei'sand Patrizi'sinferences fromAristotle, Palisca, see Humanism Italian in Renaissance Thought, 412-26. 21 Aristophanes, Frogs The 849-50, 944. Aristophanes'splaysarecitedby line number. All translations fromAristophanes, Benjamin are trans. BickleyRogers,Loeb ClassicalLibrary, 3 vols. (Cambridge,Mass.,1968). 22 For insightful discussions of music in Greek tragedyand close analyses of the metres used, see T. B. L. Webster,TheTragedies The (London,1967);andWebster, Greek ofEuripides Chorus (London,1970). See also MarioPintacuda, musica tragedia (Cefahi, La nella greca 1978). 23 Webster, Greek Chorus, 132, 153-4, 171; Lillian B. Lawler, The Dance of the Ancient Greek Theater (Iowa City,1964), 16-17.
  • 7. 258 Blair Hoxby even wrote the messenger's speech in the Orestes an agitated monody in the new as style - sung by a Phrygian slave unmanned by fear.24 Even though the pioneers of dramma musicacould not study Euripides's music, per they could learn a great deal from the texts of his tragedies. One of their chief goals was to find a musical style that, by synthesising textual, musical and expressive content, could speak a language of the passions.25 Euripides's restless metrical experimentation showed that he was interested in the same problem, and nowhere more so than in the laments of his characters. Starting with the lament of the dying Hippolytus in the Hippolytus,he experimented with the use of an astrophic poetic style whose metrical shifts and transitions from recitative to song could nimbly follow the movement of his characters' thoughts and the agitation of their passions.26 He left numerous examples of such astrophic laments, written with varying degrees of structure, repetition and unexpected variation, including Hermione's wish for death in Andromache,Cassandra's mad song in The Trojan Women, Creusa's complaint to Apollo in the Ion, Antigone's lament for her dead kin in ThePhoenicianWomen,Helen's long keen for her woes in the Helen, and Electra's lament for the ruin of her house in Orestes.27 Perhaps there is no more revealing guide to the procedures of the Euripidean lament than the pastiche that the Aeschylus of The Frogs sings.28 Like most great parodies, it hews close to its subject. The distressed maiden begins with an apostrophe to Night, sings of an ominous dream, finds that Glyce has abandoned her in the night, thinks of what will never be, bewails Glyce's flight again, then appeals to the gods for assistance. Frequent grammatical and metrical shifts signal her agitation as she descends into incoherent grief. Yet amid all this freedom there is structure. Text repetitions give scope to her sorrow and permit her to defer acceptance of her plight. And all the while lines in dochmaic metre, which tragedy reserves for statements of great grief, recur with the regularity of an ostinato bass, serving as a reservoir of accumulating pathos - or so they would if the song were meant seriously. Laments like these assumed a special importance to Renaissance theorists of the new monodic style of singing such as Mei, Galilei and Lorenzo Giacomini because their emotional intensity was calculated to move an audience to pity - and therefore 24 Orestes 1369-1502.Euripides's All are playsarecitedby line number. translations from trans.DavidKovacs,Loeb Classical Euripides, Library, vols. to date (Cambridge, 5 Mass., 1994-2002). 'Girolamo 25 See Palisca, Mei';Palisca, 'The Artusi-MonteverdiControversy', The in New Monteverdi ed. Companion, Arnoldand Fortune,147-8; and Palisca, Florentine 57-61. Camerata, Giovanni Bardiparticularlyemphasised importance musicservingtext;see 'On How the of Tragedy ShouldBe Performed', Palisca, in Florentine Camerata, 145. 26 Hippolytus1347ff.; Webster, Greek 155. Chorus, 27 Andromache 825ff.;TheTrojan Women 308ff.;Ion859ff.,ThePhoenician Women 1485ff.; Helen 164ff.;and Orestes 982ff.A list of Greekmonodiesmaybe foundin W. Jens,ed., Die Bauformendergriechischen (Munich,1971),279ff. Tragodie 28 Aristophanes, The Frogs 1329-63. For a commentary on this monody, which poses various textual and metrical difficulties, see Aristophanes, Frogs,ed. Kenneth Dover (Oxford, 1993), 358-63.
  • 8. The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered 259 to accomplish tragedy's cathartic function.29 Euripides's laments, together with their literary descendants in such works as Catullus 64 and the laments of Ovid's Heroides, are the most important classical models for such highly expressive, irregular laments as Rinuccini and Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna (1608) - with its naturalistic declamatory style, its affective text repetitions, its choral responses, and its appearance of freedom from superimposed formal structures.30 Perhaps no musico-poetic form exercised a more formative influence on the early development of opera than did the lament.31 Important though the formal example of Euripides's laments was, the heightened and specific meanings with which he invested the singing voice may have constituted a yet more crucial dramatic legacy. Euripides greatly expanded the set of established relationships between particular speech acts and forms of musical expression that were available to a dramatist. It was presumably no feat for him to present sacred songs or dirges for the dead on stage: their meaning was already laid down by custom and dramatic convention. But there is nothing inevitable about a grief-stricken woman complaining in private song or about spouses singing in recognition of each other. What is required, if such scenes are to be naturalised, is a musico-dramatic rhetoric of the passions. That is precisely what Euripides created for himself and his successors. Rather than catalogue all the conventional relationships that Euripides established between musical expression and particular speech acts, I will try to suggest how he used dramatic context to establish such relationships. In Medea, the heroine's anguish surfaces in a sung lament heard from behind the scene - 'Oh, what a wretch am I, how miserable in my sorrows! Ah ah, how I wish I could die!' - while her Nurse and Tutor, standing in front of her house, discuss her languishing condition. Her suffering indecision, always expressed in song, punctuates the opening dialogue like a refrain - 'Oh, what sufferings are mine, sufferings that call for loud 29 EllenRosand,'Lamento', Grove Music Online, L. Macy(Accessed ed. July 14, 2004) <http://www.grovemusic.com> 30 Catullus whichis sometimes 64, described an epyllion, diminutive as or epic,is the longest of Catullus'spoems.Its narration the marriage PeleusandThetisis interrupted a of of by long ekphrastic of description a coverletdepicting Theseus'sdesertion Ariadne; her of for lengthylament,see Catullus, trans.Francis Warre Cornish, edn rev. G. P. Goold,Loeb 2nd ClassicalLibrary (Cambridge, Mass.,1988), 64.132-201.In the Heroides, assumesthe Ovid voices of such Euripidean heroinesas Phaedra Medeaand of otherheroines and who feature in prominently seventeenth-century monodiesand operas,such as Penelope,Dido, andAriadne; Heroides Amores, see and trans.GrantShowerman, edn rev. G. P. Goold, 2nd Loeb ClassicalLibrary (Cambridge, Mass.,1986).The musicfor the choralresponsesof the Lamento d'Arianna not survive, the librettoclearly does but theirexistence; indicates see AngeloSolerti,Glialbori melodramma, (Milan,1903-4), II, 175-9. For an essay del 3 vols. thatbrieflyremarks the important of monodiesin Euripidean on role tragedy, then focuses on the Latinsourcesof Ariadne's lament,see Leofranc ' Holford-Strevens,"Her eyes becametwo spouts": ClassicalAntecedents Renaissance of Laments', Ear!y 27 Music, (1999), 379-405. 31 See EllenRosand,'The Descending Tetrachord: Emblemof Lament', An Musical Quarterly, 65 (1979), 346-59;Tomlinson, 'Madrigal, Monody,andMonteverdi's "Via"';Nigel Fortune, 'Monteverdi the seconda and in prattica', NewMonteverdi Companion, Arnoldand ed. Fortune,192-7; and the specialissue on lamentsthat appeared Ear~y in 27 Music, (1999).
  • 9. 260 BlairHoxby - lamentation!' until she emerges to present a calm exteriorand to speak,ratherthan sing, to the Chorus.32 Hippolytus, the other hand, Phaedra'sstepson and his In on chorus of servants enter singing to a dance rhythm, then pay homage to Artemis. Their strength and chastity stand in marked contrast to Phaedra'swasted appear- ance as she lies on a couch and sings languidlyand feverishlyof her desire to be in the woods where Hippolytushunts. In their differentways, both scenes contrastthe public and the private,the visible and the hidden.As they revealthe waveringof the women's aims, they dilate time in order to give scope to the emotions and thus to exploit fully the dramaticpotential of internal,as opposed to physical,pathos. And they turn the singing voice into a privilegedmeans of expressing hidden passions. Scenes like these consolidated a conventional association between laments and the feminine voice. Plato invoked that association by describing tragic laments as womanly.33 When Lucianwas attendingtragediesin Rome, he found it tolerableto hear Andromache and Hecuba 'melodising'their 'calamities'on stage, even though he found it risible to hear Heracles burst into song.34Not coincidentally,the vast majority of monodic laments published in the first decades of the seventeenth centurywere written for female characters portrayedby the sopranovoice.35But the association of abandoned women with song is just one of many that Euripides naturalisedthrough sheer repetition. Although he may not have been the first to think of setting a recognitionscene as a sung duet (the uncertaindate of Sophocles's Electra leaves the question open), there is no doubt that he left the most numerous examples of such duets in his late tragedies.In the Ion,Iphigenia Tauris Helen, in and he showed how lyric dialogue could be turned into a theatrical expression of intellectual discovery, spontaneous joy and mutual feeling as parent and child, brother and sister, or husband and wife are reunited.36 example paved the way His for the sudden, expansive lyricism of Penelope when she at last recognises her husband in Giacomo Badoaro and Monteverdi'sII ritorno d'Ulisse(1637). The very priority that Euripides set on such musical set-pieces pushed him towards a form of dramatic construction that differs, say, from Sophocles's. Euripides often slows the dramaticaction in order to give scope to his characters' passions in song, then uses those songs, in turn, to structurehis tragedies.The climacticscene of Iphigenia Aulis shows him doing this on a smallscale:the hapless in girl sings a long lament prompted by the prospect of death, Clytemnestraand Achilles consider how to save her life, then Iphigenia, whose mind has been working silently to bring about the reversalof the play's action, sings a triumphal song in which she expressesher determinationto die gloriouslyas a willingvictim.37 Hippolytus shows him working on a largerscale and using song to shift the pathetic and dramatic focus from Phaedra, who at first complains of her love-pains, to 32 Euripides,Medea96-7, 111-13. 605d-e, in TheCollected 3 Plato, Republic Dialogues Plato,ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington of Cairns(Princeton, 1961), 831. 34 Lucian, On Dance27-8, in Lucian,V, 40. 35 Rosand, 'Lamento'. 36 Ion 1437-1509, Iphigenia Tauris in 827-99, and Helen 625-97. in 7 Iphigenia Aulis 1278-1336,1338ff.,1371ff.
  • 10. The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy reconsidered 261 Theseus, who mourns her death in dialogue with the chorus, to the wounded Hippolytus, who dies singing an agonised lament near the end of the tragedy.In both plays, these songs stand out from the surroundingaction like monuments to particularpassions. This method of construction appealed even to the authors of spoken tragediesin a centurywhen the abbe d'Aubignaccould maintainthat it was the proper business of a tragedianto present a 'gallery'of passions, each developed 'to the point of fulness'.38 librettists,it provided a viable model for the dramatic For arrangementof action and reflection, speech and song, recitative and set-piece laments and arias. Euripides and the operatic repertory The whole tenor of my argumentsuggests that Euripides'scontributionto Baroque opera should not be measuredby the number of operas that are based directly on his tragedies.An Ariadne or a Dido may lament like a Euripideanheroine, while, conversely, an opera that is purportedlybased on one of his tragediesmay bear no deep resemblanceto it. But it is nevertheless instructive to consider which of his tragedies entered directly into the repertory before the end of the eighteenth century. I would like to defer considerationof his extant tragedies,however, and begin with one of his lost plays,Andromeda, because I think its popularityreveals much about what Baroque librettists found attractivein Euripides.This was the tragedy that filled the Dionysus of The Frogs with 'a sudden pang of longing', a 'fierce desire' that threatenedto consume him unless he could rescue Euripides from Hades.39 This was the play that Alexanderthe Great was said to have recited spontaneously at his last banquet.40 Just enough was known about the contents of the play to be suggestive. It contained the strikingspectacle of the forlornAndromeda chained to the rocks, her flesh as white as a statue's. She lamented to the Night but, until a chorus of Ethiopian maidens arrivedto lament in lyric dialoguewith her, she was answered only by the echo of her voice sung from off stage. She was eventually rescued by Perseus, who made a memorable entrance.That was enough to inspire numerous librettiststo write versions of the tale based on what was known of the tragedy and on its retelling in the Metamorphoses. was staged in Bologna as a It 'Tragedia da recitarsiin Musica'(1610); in Mantua,with a lost score by Monteverdi (1620); in Venice, where it was the first work to be staged in a public opera house (1637); in Ferrara,where it gave Francesco Giutti an occasion to employ his impressivestage machinery(1638); in Paris,where it provided the vehicle for Pierre Corneille and Giacomo Torelli's first attempt to adapt Italian opera and Venetian stage-craftto French tastes (1650); in Madrid,when the fourteen-year-oldInfanta Maria Teresa, future wife of Louis XIV, commissioned Calder6n de la Barca to 38 Abb6 d'Aubignac,La Pratique theitre, du trans. anon. as The Whole of theStage(1684), III, Art 46. 39 Aristophanes, TheFrogs52-4, 58-9. 40 Athenaeus 537d-e; see Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, trans. CharlesBurton Gulick, Loeb ClassicalLibrary,7 vols. (Cambridge,Mass., 1927-41), V, 429.
  • 11. 262 Blair Hoxby produce the first fully sung Spanish opera (1653); and in Paris, where Louis XIV himself commended the subject to Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully (1682).41 The fact that the original was lost may not have been the least of its recommendations since that forestalled all direct comparisons. After the contro- versy that erupted over their revision of an extant text, Alceste (1674), Quinault, Lully, and Lully's occasional librettist Thomas Corneille discreetly opted to reconstruct only lost Euripidean tragedies in Thisee(1675), Bellirophon (1678), Persie (1682) and Pha'ton (1683). Of Euripides's surviving tragedies, seven entered the operatic repertory before the close of the eighteenth century: Alcestis,Andromache, Electra, Hippolytus,Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigeniain Tauris and Medea.42They tended to make their entrance, or receive their most famous treatment, at times when composers wanted to set their mark on opera or to reform it. When Quinault and Lully wished to demonstrate that their tragidiesen musiquehad 'no other models but the tragedies of Ancient Greece', they did so with the controversial Alceste (1674).43 When Thomas Corneille and Marc-Antoine Charpentier wished to show that a tragddie musiquecould succeed en without a lietof they produced Mde'e (1693). When Jean-Philippe Rameau wished ine, to make an impressive debut in the form, he wrote HippolyteetAricie (1733), a work so ambitious that his contemporary Andre Campra famously remarked that it contained enough music for ten operas.44 It was again to Euripides that the mid-eighteenth-century reformers of operaseria looked for inspiration. Thinking of Niccolo Machiavelli's claim that republics must periodically reduce themselves to first principles if they are to remain vigorous, the Venetian reformer Francesco Algarotti urged that opera must do the same in order to 'keep alive' - and he attached a prose libretto of Iphigeniain Aulis to emphasise what he meant.45 Denis Diderot argued for the musical potential of Racine's version of the play at the same time.46 Working in Vienna with the likes of the poet Ranieri Calzabigi and the 41 On these operas,see Rosand,Opera Seventeenth-Centuy7 67-75; Margaret in Venice, RichGreer, ThePlaj ofPower: Mythological Dramas Calderon la Barca Court of de (Princeton,1991), 31-76; LouiseK. Stein,Songs Mortals, of Dialogues theGods: of Music Theatre Seventeenth-Century and in Spain(Oxford,1993);and BufordNorman,Touched theGraces: Libretti Philppe by The of Quinault theContext French in of (Birmingham, 2001), 237-58. Classicism Ala., 42 RuthZinar,'The Use of GreekTragedy the Historyof Opera',Current in 12 Musicology, (1971), 80-94. 43 Anonymous 1675.JeanDuronattributes to one of Lully's letter,February it or secretaries performers; see the CD bookletfor Lully's Ays, Les Arts Florissants, William dir. Christie (Harmonia Mundi401257.59,1987), 18-19. On the controversy Alceste, Buford over see Norman,'Ancients Moderns, and and Tragedy Opera: The Quarrel overAlceste' French in MusicalThought 1600-1800,ed. GeorgiaCowart(Ann Arbor,1989), 177-96. 44 Charles Dill, Monstrous Rameau theTragic Opera: and Tradition(Princeton,1998), 53. 45 Niccol6 Machiavelli,Discordsi la primadecadi TitoLivio,ed. Francesco Bausi, 2 vols. sopra (Rome,2001), bk. 3, chap.1; Francesco Saggio l'opera musica Algarotti, sopra in (1763), ed. Bini (n.p., 1989), 21-2. Annalisa 46 Denis Diderot, 'Troisiame entretien sur le Fils naturel'(1757), in (Liuvrescompletes, ed. JacquesChouillet Anne MarieChouillet and (Paris,1980),X, 139-62. SeeJulienTiersot, 'Gluckand the Encyclopedistes', trans.TheodoreBaker, Musical , 16 Quartery (1930), 336-57;DanielHeartz,'FromGarrick Gluck: to The Reformof Theatre Operain the and Mid-EighteenthCentury', ofthe Proceedings Royal MusicalAssociation, (1967-8), 111-27. 94
  • 12. The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy reconsidered 263 choreographersGasparoAngiolini and George Noverre - all of whom professed to be strivingto revive the true spirit of ancient theatre- Gluck produced an Italian Alceste(1767) before makinghis debut in Pariswith Iphignie Aulide(1774), a work en that he followed with the French Alceste(1776) and Iphignieen Tauride (1779 and 1781).47 Even Luigi Cherubinichose Ifigenia Aulide (1788) as the subject of his in most distinguishedopera seriaand MIde as the subject of one of his most successful and innovative operas (1797). Euripides and the tragic experience The tragediesthat entered the operatic repertorybefore 1800 reveal that librettists and composers were attractedto a subset of plays that could be said to constitute a strong reading not only of the Euripidean tradition but of tragic catharsis. In the Medea, Nurse regretsthat 'no one has discoveredhow to put an end to mortals' bitter griefs with music and song sung to the lyre. It is because of these griefs that deaths and terrible disasters overthrow houses. It would have been a gain for mortalsto cure these ills by song'.48 We are surelymeant to think that the Athenians have met this need with theirtragedies.But in what sense can tragedybe said to cure ills by song? Rene Girardand WalterBurkert,whose views on the subjecthave been particularly influentialin recent decades, argue that tragic representationsfunction like blood sacrifices.49 The action of several of Euripides's plays, including the Hecuba, in Tauris Iphigenia and Iphigenia Aulis, threatensto result in, or is actually in consummatedby, a human sacrifice,and TheBacchae, tragedythat is conspicuous a by its absence from the operatic repertorybefore the twentieth century,can easily be read as an admission of the deep-seated connection between tragicjoy and the sense of emotional liberationafforded by communal violence against a victim. But I would suggest that if we return to the deliberations of the Florentine Alterati,we will get a better sense of what seventeenth-century dramatistsvalued in Euripides.Founded in 1569, the Alteratimet once or twice a week at the palace of Giovanni Battista Strozzi the Younger to discuss subjects like Aristotle's Poetics, Francesco Patrizi'snew commentaryon the Poetics, verse-forms appropriateto the tragedy, how rhetoric and poetry moved the passions, and what tragic catharsis meant. Its members included Giovanni Bardi; Ottavio Rinuccini, the librettist of Dafne, Euridiceand Arianna;Jacopo Corsi, who contributed music to Peri and Rinuccini's Dafne and sponsored their Euridice; Prince Giovanni de' Medici, who staged Caccini'sRapimento Cefalo 1600; Girolomo Mei; and Giovanni Batttista de in Doni, author of the Trattato musica della scenica (1638).50 47 For some of their theoretical statements, which are filled with appeals to the example of ancient tragedyand pantomime, see [RanieriCalzabigi],Lettresur le micanisme l'opiraitalien de (1756), George Noverre, Lettres la danseet les ballets suzr (1760), Gasparo Angiolini, Dissertation les ballets sur pantomimls anciens des (1765), Christoph Gluck, 'Dedication' for Alceste(1769), in Strunk/Murata,Source Readings,'The Baroque Era', 933-4. 48 Euripides,Medea195-201. 49 Walter Burkert,HomoNecans,trans. P. Bing (Berkeley, 1983); Renb Girard, Violence theand Sacred(Baltimore, 1977). 50 Palisca, 'The Alterati'.
  • 13. 264 BlairHoxby In 1586, Lorenzo Giacomini delivered a discourse on tragic purgation to the academy.51 According to Giacomini, we take four types of pleasurein tragedy.We enjoy learningabout the events of the tragedyand marvel to see incredible things actually happening. We appreciate the play as an imitation, with its beautiful language,sweet music, festive dance, magnificentmachinery,sumptuous costumes and artfullyarrangedplot, full of digressions,recognitions and reversalsof fortune. We enjoy reflectingon both the compassion that we feel for the characterson stage and our own freedom from their 'fearful adventures'.And we experience 'the pleasures accessory to the cathartic process' itself.52 Giacomini pursues the physiologicalimplicationsof Aristotle's claim that those who listen to enthusiastic music during sacred rites and tragic festivals are 'restored ... as though they had received a cure and catharsis'.53 arguesthat the passion of a hero representedon He stage acts like a sympatheticmedicine, agitatingour own passions and drawingthem away from us. When the soul is sad, our vital spiritsevaporateand rise to the head. As they enter the anteriorpart of the head, they stimulatethe fancy, and as they condense, they cause our face to contractuntil we relieve ourselves by lamentingor weeping. Although Giacomini may seem to reduce catharsis from an abstract concept of purification (or intellectual clarification) to having a good cry, the numerous classicalsources that speak of the pleasureof feeling pity and weeping at tragic spectacles lend some support to his interpretation.'This insatiabledelight of lamenting, full of grief, sings the chorus of TheSuppliant Women, 'carriesme away, just as spring-waterruns down the high-cliff, unceasing ever'.54 At the end of his discourse,Giacomini singles out Iphigenia Tauris discussion in for - a tellingchoice that to my knowledgehas escaped criticalcomment. Tragediesthat proceed from misery to felicity can be purgative,he says, because the prospect of an impendingevil can move us as powerfullyas a present one. Thus when Iphigenia preparesto sacrificeher unrecognisedbrother Orestes in her role as a priestess in Tauris, she elicits almost as much pity as she would if she actuallykilled him. For 'the layingout of the instrumentsof a miserabledeath that is impending'can move our compassion as much as the sight of an actual death, which might 'appear so terribleand so sorrowful,with such a withdrawalof the vital spirits to their origin of being' that it would make pity and tears impossible, inducing a 'stupor and that numbness of which Dante spoke: "I did not weep, I so turned to stone inside" '.ss For GiacominiIphigenia Tauris an exampleof what Aristotlemeant by the best in is manner of tragicfable. He can presumablyjustifyhis choice because the Poetics says that Euripides is not to be faulted for focusing on heroes like Orestes who 'have happened either to undergo or to do fearful things'. In fact, 'the artisticallyfinest s1 Lorenzo Giacomini, Tebalducci Malespini, Orationi discorsi e (Florence, 1597), 29-52. Hathaway (TheAge of Criticism) discusses the discourse in the context of rival explanations of catharsis (251-60), while Palisca, 'The Alterati',discusses its musical significance (24-9). Where possible, I follow Palisca's translations. 52 Giacomini, Orationi discorsi, e 46-7. 53 Aristotle, Politics1342a. 54 Euripides, The Suppliant Women79ff. ss Giacomini, e Orationidiscorsi 51-2.
  • 14. The origins of opera and the spirit of tragedyreconsidered 265 kind of tragedy ... is based upon this structure' and 'in our theatres and competitions such plays appeal to the audience as most tragic, if they follow the right principle, and Euripides, even though in other respects his construction is faulty, nevertheless appeals to the audience as the most tragic, at least, of the poets'.56 To be sure, some Renaissance commentators thought that Aristotle meant only to defend Euripides's unhappy endings.57 But Giacomini seems to conclude that the tragedian's essential duty is to move audiences to extremes of pity and fear without letting them fall into a petrifaction of horror. If that purpose can be accomplished by a plot that moves from misery to felicity, then the success justifies the endeavour. Although Giacomini quotes Dante to describe the stupefaction that might result if Orestes were actually killed in Iphigeniain Tauris, the words also suggest the potency of a drama based on imagined evils. For what turns Ugolino to stone is not the sight of a death but a premonition based on a dream: as he beholds his innocent sons in the tower, he foreseestheir deaths by starvation and his own feast on their flesh.58 From the standpoint of this essay what must be stressed is a simpler point: with all Attic tragedy available to him, Giacomini selects Iphigeniain Tauris,a play that many critics now prefer to characterise as a 'romantic melodrama', to show what Aristotle meant by the 'best' (ottima) manner of tragic fable.59 In defence of himself, Giacomini could point to a passage, which frankly puzzles most modern commentators, in which Aristotle says that tragedies like Iphigenia Tauris,in which in recognition averts a violent deed, are the 'best' kind (kratiston).60 Palisca describes Giacomini's discourse as 'a document of the prevailing taste'. He suggests that this taste supported the strange compound of dramatic ingredients that found their way into 'the Roman and Venetian operas of the seventeenth century'. It was a taste, he says, that 'demanded of the stage not true tragedy but a mixed genre that adds to the emotionally purgative experience a feast of the senses and the mind'.61 But this formulation obscures the importance of Euripides as the 56 Poetics in 1453a21-31, Else,Aristotle's Poetics, 399. 376, 57 LudovicoCastelvetro, Poeticad'Aristotele e sposta, Werther ed. 2 Romani, vols. (RomeandBari,1979), I, 376. Severalvulgarizzata modernclassicists haverejected notionthat the Aristotle meansonly to praiseEuripides's unhappy endings; for example, see, Aristotle,On Poetry Sole,trans.G. M. A. Grube(Indianapolis, and 1958), 25-6n.4;and Else,Aristotle's Poetics,400-6. 5s Dante,Inferno, canto33. 59 In his influential Kitto (Greek calls surveyof Greektragedy, example, for Tragedy) Iphigenia in Tauris turnsa 'tragi-comedy' a 'romantic by and melodrama' (327). Commenting on Aristotle's praiseof Sophocles's Oedipus andEuripides's Rex in Iphigenia Tauris,Else (Aristotle's Poetics) that of remarks, so happened the knife-edge his judgment square 'it hit on one masterpiece, Oedpus; the otherplayit hit upon,the Iphigenia, the but cannot honestlybe calledmuchmorethana good melodrama' (446). Else goes so faras to say thatAristotle's selectionof these two playsas examples the best kindof tragedy of is to 'damaging Aristotle's creditas a critic,no matterhow one looks at it' (446), thoughhe is disturbed muchby the exclusion playslike theAgamemnnon the Bacchae he is as of and as by inclusionof the Iphigenia. 60 Aristotle, Poetics1454a2-9,in Else,Aristotle's Poetics, For an attemptto reconcileThe 421. Poetics'seemingly contradictory praisefor Oedpus and in see Tyrannus Iphigenia Tauris, Stephen A. White,'Aristotle's FavoriteTragedies', Essays Aristotle's in on 221-40. 'Poetics', 61 Palisca, 'Alterati',28-9.
  • 15. 266 Blair Hoxby classical model for the very genre that Palisca identifies. H. D. F. Kitto puts it in these terms: by 'reducing the tragic to the pathetic' in plays like Alcestis,Electra, Iphigenia Tauris Iphigenia Aulis, Euripides'madeit possible to combine in and in harmoniouslyinto one theatricalwhole a wide range of emotional effects'.62The appeal of that 'theatricalwhole' to opera composers need not be stressed: they produced eighteen versions of Iphigenia Tauris seventeen versions of Iphigenia in and in Aulis before 1800. In the eyes of most seventeenth-centuryreaders, such a range of emotional effects did not disqualify these plays as tragedies. A revolution of feelings was considered essential to the tragic experience by such an influential critic as Rene Rapin.The soul, he said, could be pleasurably agitatedonly by a constant varietyof objects set before it, such was the 'Immensity of its desires'.When Rapin praised Oedjpus in his commentaryon ThePoetics, was not for its beautiful simplicity Rex it but for its 'flux and reflux of indignation,and of pity', its 'revolutionof horror and of tenderness', its capacity to generate such 'a universalemotion of the soul' by 'surprises,astonishments,admirations'.63 Tragediansas diverse as John Milton,Jean Racine andJohn Dryden defined tragedynot in terms of the shape of its action but in terms of the passions it representedand aroused.64 No wonder, then, that an arbiterof taste like the abbe d'Aubignacappealed to 'the nineteen plays of Euripides's evidence that the catastrophesof tragediescould as be either 'calamitous and bloody' or, as in the case of Alcestis,Electraand many others, felicitous:'the Orestes,which begins with fury and rage, and runs upon such strong Passions and Incidents, that they seem to promise nothing but a fatalbloody Event, [is] nevertheless terminatedby the entire content and satisfactionof all the Actors, Helenabeing plac'd among the Gods, and Apolloobliging Orestes Pylades and 62 Kitto, GreekTragedy, 336-7. 63 Rene Rapin, Reflections Aristotle's on trans. Thomas Rhymer,in The Whole Treatise 'Poesie', of CriticalWorks Monsieur of Rapin,2 vols. (London, 1716), II, 141, 208. 64 In the preface to Samson Agonistes entitled 'Of That Sort of Dramatic Poem Which Is Called Tragedy',Milton entirely omits Aristotle's key contention that tragedyis a representationof an action and focuses instead on its imitation and manipulationof the passions: 'Tragedy, as it was ancient composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other poems: therefore said by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such-like passions, that is to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those passions well imitated'. Racine also stresses the representationand stirringof the passions in his criticalwritings. In the preface to Berenice, instance, he insists that it is enough for a for tragedy that 'its action should be great and its actors heroic, that passions should be aroused, and that everythingin it should breathe that majestic sadness in which all the pleasure of tragedyresides' ((Euvrescompletes, Raymond Picard [Paris,1950], I, 465). In ed. his preface to Iphigenie, points to the tears of his own audience to confirm Aristotle's he judgement that Euripides was the most tragic of poets, 'that is, he was wonderfully adept at arousing compassion and fear, which are the true effects of tragedy'(CEuvres, 465). The I, representationof an action scarcely figures at all in the definition that Lisideius contributes to Dryden's Essay ofDramatick - Poesie a definition widely quoted and accepted by subsequent authors:'A just and lively Image of Humane Nature, Representingits Passions and Humours, and the Changes of Fortune to which it is subject; for the Delight and Instruction of Mankind' (The WorksofJohnDryden, Edward Niles Hooker and H. T. ed. Swedenberg,Jr., 20 vols. [Berkeley,1956-89], XVII, 15).
  • 16. The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy reconsidered 267 to marryHermione Electra'.45 ending may have been one of the inspirations and This for the apotheosis that concludes Striggio and Monteverdi'srevised Orfeo (1609). For the OrestesintroducesApollo from a machine to elevate Helen to the stars,thus savingher from assassinscomparedto bacchants;while the Orfeo introducesApollo from a machine to sing his son up to the stars, thus saving Orpheus from the impending threat of real bacchants.66Whether or not we wish to make such a connection, I would maintain,more generally,that Pirrottahas committed a grave oversight in claimingthat opera's 'propensity for the depiction of tender passions' and its 'almost unbrokenrule of the happy ending'betrayits pastoralparentage,just as Robert Kettererhas in saying that 'romanticlove' and 'the dramaticstructureit begets' is almost nowhere present in Athenian tragedy and must be attributedto Roman comedy.67 These formal characteristics opera might just as well be traced of to Euripides'stragedies,which devote tremendous energy to the representationof passionate love, frequentlyend happily, and more often than not introduce a deux ex machina engineer the felicitous catastrophe.It seems particularly to inappropriate to attributethe 'love interest and the lieto to fine'of Calzabigiand Gluck'sAlceste an operaticconvention derived from Roman comedy (as Kettererdoes) when they are present in the Euripideanoriginaland when even the ancientsrecognisedEuripides as the ultimatesource of such 'comic', 'romantic'or 'melodramatic'conventions.68 As Satyrus remarks, 'peripeteiai, violations of maidens, substitution of children, recognition by means of rings and necklaces, these are the elements of New Comedy, and it was Euripideswho developed them'.69 For many nineteenth- and twentieth-centurycritics, plays like Alcestis,Electra, Orestes Iphigenia Tauris by definition untragic.These critics say that in lieu and in are of the 'metaphysicalcomfort' that tragedy should provide, these plays offer an 'earthlyresolution of the tragicdissonance'and that in lieu of 'tragiccatharsis',they offer a 'happy ending'.70 we know from Euripides'stexts that he was interested Yet in developing an 'art againstgrief, and at least one classicist has gone so far as to anoint him the originatorof catharsisas a tragicideal, the practisingdramatistwho showed Aristotle the way.71For our purposes, I think it is most useful to think of his tragedies more simply as a series of provisional but coherent answers to the question, What sorts of song cure ills? Although Euripidesshows a consistent taste for scenes of extreme pathos and is inclined to elicit pity by staging or describing the suffering or death of helpless victims like young virgins and children, he does not adhere to a particulartragic pattern, and he seems to have been willing to entertain the possibility that, as 65 D'Aubignac, La Pratique thedatre, 140. du IV, 66 Euripides, Orestes 1492-3. 6 Pirrottaand Povoledo, Musicand Theatre from to Monteverdi, Ketterer, 'Why 268; Early Opera is Roman and not Greek', 5, 12. Poliziano 6 Ketterer, 'Why Early Opera is Roman and not Greek', 12. 69 Satyrus, Vita di Euripide39, col. 7; for the Greek text and an Italian translation,see Vita di ed. Euripide, Graziano (Pisa,1964). Arrighetti 70 Nietzsche, Birthof Tragedy, Kitto, GreekTragedy, 10; 331. 'n See C. Diano, 'Euripide auteur de la catharsistragique',Numen,8 (1961), 117-41; Pietro Pucci, The Violence Pity in Euripides' of 'Medea' (Ithaca, 1980).
  • 17. 268 BlairHoxby Giacomini said, an action that moves from miseryto felicitymight still be purgative because the soul contemplatesan impending evil as if it were a present reality.72 In most of the plays that Kitto labels 'melodramas', Euripides'leads the psyches' of his audience by harrowingthem with prospects of evil and exposing them to passions developed to the point of fullness before stupefying them with the marvellous entranceof a god. His di ex machina not just a way to tie up his plots, or to pander are to a taste for spectacle.They are a means, or so seventeenth-century readerscould reasonablyinterpret them, of completing the affective script of his tragedies by stirring the audience to intense wonder - a passion that, according to many commentators,had its own purgativequalities.They are, in other words, an integral part of his 'art againstgrief. This, at any rate, is the way many ItalianBaroque operas and French tragidies en musique interpretEuripideantragedy.Their moments of deepest fearand pity usually fall well before the catastrophe.Think of Le Cerf de la Vieville's account of the audience'sreactionto the end of Act II of Quinaultand Lully's Armide(1686), when they are ravishedby the mere spectre of an impending evil: 'When Armide nerves herself to stab Renaud ... I have twenty times seen the entire audience in the grip of fear, neither breathingnor moving, their whole attention in their ears and eyes, until the instrumentalair which concludes the scene allowed them to draw breath again,afterwhich they exhaledwith a murmurof pleasureand admiration'.73 the If purpose of tragedyis simply to stir up and purge the passions, there is no reason why it should not stage scenes like this, and there is every reason for it to introduce a deusex machina the end to arouse a final sense of wonder. Such endings became at so conventional that Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Nougaret could explain that, because 'a machine nearlyalways ends serious operas in France, in imitation of Greek plays', it 'can be said to fall within the rules' of dramaticpropriety.74 I do not believe, any more than Palisca or Pirrottado, that seventeenth-century tragedians or librettists were under the impression that their productions were historicallyaccuratereconstructionsof ancient Greek tragedies.Nor do I wish to deny that Latin literatureor pastoraldrama- which GiraldiCinthio traced back to - Euripides's late play Cyclops contributed to the development of opera.75The pioneers of opera read widely in classical sources from a variety of genres and periods, consciously rejectingthe use of masks when they would interferewith the expression of the passions, drawingfreely on accounts of Alexandrianand Roman actors, dancersand machinists,and alwaysbearingin mind that the first duty of the poet was to please his contemporary audience. A mournful sense of the gulf dividing modern Europe from the ancient world, the contemporarystage from the 72 Giacomini, Orationidiscorsi, e 51-2. italienne de la musiquefranfoise, 73 Jean-LaurentLe Cerf de la Vieville, Comparaison la musique de et trans. in French Baroque A Opera: Reader, CarolineWood and Graham Sadler (Aldershot, ed. 2000), 39. 74Pierre-Jean-BaptisteNougeret, De l'Art du thaitre, vols. (Paris, 1769), II, 211. 2 soprail comporre satireattealle scene 7 See Cinthio's Discorso le the (1554). Cinthio cites Cyclops, only completesurvivingexample an ancientsatyrplay,as the modelof his Egl6, of which has been variously described a satyric as a drama, pastoraldrama a tragicomedy. and
  • 18. reconsidered The originsof operaand the spiritof tragedy 269 ancienttheatre,runs through some of the very writingsin which they piece together the fragmentaryevidence of the past. Indeed, it could be argued that it was their very consciousness of belatedness that reinforced their taste for Euripides and for the 'decadent' performers of Alexandria and Rome - who were themselves confronted with the task of renewing a revered,yet increasinglyalien, literaryand dramatictradition.But when scholarsdismiss the claims of earlyopera or tragidie en musique being 'true tragedy',they obscure both how open and contested were the to generic boundariesof tragedyin the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how avidly Baroque opera fed on a particularstyle of tragic dramaturgy. is time we It recognised that in imaginatively responding to Euripides'smusicaldramaturgy, early opera helped to disentanglehis tragic style from Seneca's sententious revision of it, and, by so doing, to secure his position as the premier model of classicaltragedy, spoken or sung, by the time the abbe d'Aubignac announced 'our Poets have recovered the Way to Parnassus, upon the Footsteps of Euripides'.76 its musical With representationof the passions, its episodic plotting, its choral interludes and its felicitous catastrophes,Baroque opera is a strong and coherent readingof a set of Euripideantragediesthat were highly prized in Hellenistic Greece but that fell from gracein the nineteenth century.Although the prevailingtheories about the meaning of tragiccatharsisand the sources of tragicpleasurechanged severaltimes between 1550 and 1800, only the rise of German idealism in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries displaced the passions from their central place in the critical analysisof tragedy,thus deprivingEuripidesof his distinction as the most tragicof the poets and transforminga revivalof ancient tragedyinto the birth of melodrama. 76 D'Aubignac, La Pratique th'itre,I, 12. du