âEs klang so alt, und war doch so neuâ: Retro Forms in The Aspern Papers, Great Scott and The Ghosts of Versailles

Michael Halliwell

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Chapter 5 âEs klang so alt, und war doch so neuâ: Retro Forms in The Aspern Papers, Great Scott and The Ghosts of Versailles

In: 'Make It Old': Retro Forms and Styles in Literature and Music

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Michael Halliwell

Michael Halliwell
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 93â117

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004516472_006

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Abstract

This paper examines three American operas, Dominick Argentoâs The Aspern Papers (1987); Jake Heggieâs Great Scott (2015); and John Coriglianoâs The Ghosts of Versailles (1991), which all self-consciously incorporate older stylistic forms and idioms through the strategy of an opera-within-an-opera: a supremely metatheatrical device. Richard Straussâs Ariadne auf Naxos, with its mixture of opera buffa and opera seria characterised by its complexity of point of view and perspective, is an important influence. This investigation looks at how these three composers, in both musical and thematic terms, have integrated retro forms into new works. All three have complex dramaturgies and incorporate a variety of operatic idioms and structures into their works. The focus is primarily on the embedded opera elements. These operas engage with the concept of âretroâ in different ways. Heggie is the most direct in his presentation of the music of his embedded opera which is clearly demarcated from its surrounding discourse, even if his evocation of the past incorporates contemporary tropes. Argento follows a similar strategy initially, but then his contemporary idiom subsumes the 19th-century styles. Corigliano extends this strategy in a kaleidoscopic retro blend of pastiche, quotation and parody that is restless and unsettling, constantly shifting between musical idioms â perfectly in accordance with his subject matter. All three operas have significant postmodern elements evident in their fascination with the collision of the trivial and âhigh artâ. Argento, Heggie and Corigliano are steeped in, and deeply knowledgeable of, the art form of opera itself, and able effectively to employ a wide variety of retro elements which become subsumed into three vibrant, successful, and unmistakably contemporary operas.

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'Make It Old': Retro Forms and Styles in Literature and Music

Series:Â Word and Music Studies, Volume: 19Â andÂ Word and Music Studies Online, Volume: 19

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004516472

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Jun 2022

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Literary Relations

Front Matter

Part 1 âMake It Oldâ

Section 1 Historical Retro Forms and Styles

Section 2 Retro in Contemporary Opera

Section 3 Retro in Contemporary Popular Music

Part 2 Word and Music Studies: Surveying the Field

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Chapter 5 âEs klang so alt, und war doch so neuâ: Retro Forms in The Aspern Papers, Great Scott and The Ghosts of Versailles

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'Make It Old': Retro Forms and Styles in Literature and Music

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Chapter 5 âEs klang so alt, und war doch so neuâ: Retro Forms in The Aspern Papers, Great Scott and The Ghosts of Versailles