Abstract
We begin with the portrayal of the elderly in European opera. Five case studies are examined, each of which raises first a conflict between an older generation and a younger, and second a pattern of political and moral commentary more subtle and varied than we might have expected. Our first example, Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea (1642/1931) explores the conflict between the philosopher, Seneca, and his protégé, the Roman Emperor, Nero. Seneca is executed for defending reason and republicanism, by a wilful tyrant who indulges his personal and idiosyncratic whims. Four other examples from the history of opera display the great range of moral and political conflicts that can be discovered in such works of theatre. Musical subtleties are shown to play important and revealing roles in the different stories, but all of the plots also highlight the generational confrontations that are revealed by asking the title question: how is old age treated on the opera stage?
Translated by Steven Burns.
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Notes
- 1.
There are popular psalm compositions to this text by Seth Calvisius, Heinrich Schütz and many others.
- 2.
[The Danse Macabre, in which Death embraces the young as well as the old.] (Footnotes or inserts in square brackets have been added by the translator).
- 3.
[Neidhart von Riuwenthal (or Reuental) was a famous minnesinger in Bavaria and Austria who flourished in the early thirteenth century.]
- 4.
Neidhart von Riuwenthal, L 15–16.
- 5.
Woe, where have all my years disappeared? Have I only dreamt my life or was it reality? This that I always believed was reality, is this a Nothing? Was I just asleep and knew it not?
- 6.
As such they are the laughingstocks of the scene; they were drawn by Hogarth, to give the foremost example among many in the eighteenth century, who illustrated with them a discourse both topical at the time, and fiercely socially critical.
- 7.
The nature of the sources of this opera is very complex. There are two distinct versions (I–Vc, Nc), but the original has not survived. There are speculations about multiple authorship of the opera. The standard monograph for this theme is Osthoff (1960). Lorenzo Bianconi was able to track down Ferrarri’s authorship of the concluding duet, recently there is a detailed analysis of the writing hands by Hendrik Schulze (Monteverdi 1642/2017).
- 8.
This dialogue seems to be a reduction of a few theses of De Vita Beata, by Seneca.
- 9.
“Emotion is an evil counsellor that abhors laws and disdains reason.”
- 10.
Nero:
The law is for those who serve. If I wish I can abolish the old and make new ones. The empire is divided, Jupiter reigns in heaven, but in this earthly world the sceptre is mine.
Seneca:
Intemperate will is no will, but (permit me to say) it is madness.
Nero:
Reason is a strict measure for those who obey, not for those who command.
Seneca:
On the contrary, unreasoned rule destroys obedience.
Nero:
Stop the lectures, I want it my way.
Seneca:
Do not provoke the people and the senate.
Nero:
For the senate and the people I care not.
Seneca:
Care at least for yourself and your reputation.
Nero:
I shall pull out the tongue of anyone who censures me.
Seneca:
The more tongues you cut out, the more they will talk.
Nero:
Octavia is frigid and barren.
Seneca:
Who has no reason seeks excuses.
Nero:
He who can get what he wants lacks not reason.
Seneca:
There is no safety in unjust deeds.
Nero:
The most just will always be the one who is most powerful.
Seneca:
But he who knows not how to rule will always grow weaker.
Nero:
Strength and law in peace and the sword in war, …
Seneca:
Force enkindles hatred and stirs up the blood.
Nero:
… and there is no need for reason.
Seneca:
Reason rules both men and gods.
Nero:
You make me angry; in despite of you, and of the people and the senate, and Octavia, and heaven and the abyss, by my wish, just or unjust, today, today Poppea will be my wife!
[…]
Seneca:
The worse part always wins, when force contradicts reason.
(Yeld 2010, and the last verse by the author).
- 11.
There exist two versions of the conclusion of Monteverdi’s Orfeo libretto, by Alessandro Striggio: one without lieto fine (a happy ending), in which Orfeo is torn away from the Bacchanalian orgy, and one with lieto fine, as Monteverdi composed it, and as it stands in the printed score. Nevertheless, this opera was composed as a favola in musica (fable in music), taking into account all the theatrical and performance practicalities, first of all for performance in the intimate setting of the Accademia degli Invaghiti (Academy of the Enamored) in Mantua. It came to a “public” performance because it had obviously aroused great enthusiasm, in which the “happy ending”, which foresees the possibility of Orfeo’s immortality, no doubt played a role.
- 12.
“Why do you give yourself up to scorn and grief, oh my son? No, no it is not wise for a generous heart to become a slave of his own passions…. Too much did you enjoy your good fortune, now too much do you bewail your hard and bitter fate. Do you still not know that earthly delights have no lasting?” (Rogers 1984).
- 13.
On this point, see (Geyer 2001).
- 14.
- 15.
[Mozart apparently cut this scene after the first performance, but it is now commonly reinserted.]
- 16.
See n. 15.
- 17.
[Demofoonte is a libretto by Metastasio that was very popular in the eighteenth century; it was set to music more than seventy times.]
- 18.
On this point, see Bach (2016).
- 19.
On this point see also Siegert (2008), especially pp. 342 ff.
- 20.
On this point see Bach (2016).
- 21.
On this point see also Siegert (2008), especially pp. 342 ff.
- 22.
- 23.
“But now to a glorious Volsung I bequeath my inheritance.”
- 24.
“Why are you laughing at me, inquisitive old chap? Just stop it; don’t keep me chatting here. If you can point the way out to me, well speak: if you can’t, then hold your tongue.”
- 25.
“Patience, my lad. If I look old to you, then you should treat me with respect.”
- 26.
“That’s a good one! All my life an old fellow’s been getting permanently in my way: now I’ve got rid of him. If you go on standing right in my light there, I tell you, watch out that you don’t go the way of Mime.”
- 27.
“Do not rouse my anger today; it could ruin yourself and me.”
- 28.
“Are you keeping mum, you aggravating fellow? Move out of the way, for I know that direction leads to the sleeping woman.”
- 29.
“Now his spear is shattered, the coward’s run off, has he?”
- 30.
On the meaning of the Polonaise and other allusions that are connected with the original classification of Siegfried as a “heroic comedy”, see Geyer-Kiefl 1987, 203 ff.
- 31.
“But now to a glorious Volsung I bequeath my inheritance. Though he was chosen by me, he still does not know me; the brave lad, unaided by advice from me….”.
- 32.
I do not discuss any questions of gender or sexual orientation here, because this might obscure the central point I want to make.
- 33.
The reference is to the first production of Billy Budd, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1 December 1951.
- 34.
- 35.
I am very obliged to Steven Burns for the English version of this paper, and for his helpful comments and discussion.
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Geyer, H. (2020). Aspects of Period-Turns. In: Campbell, M., Reid, L. (eds) Ethics, Society and Politics: Themes from the Philosophy of Peter Winch. Nordic Wittgenstein Studies, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40742-1_8
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