Fraser, Fiona Averil
Description
Capital is a two act opera which incorporates a range of
different stylistic elements as a means of communicating with a
broad audience and promoting discourse about the future of the
city of Canberra. This dissertation encompasses a detailed
exegesis of my research as well as the final score of the opera.
Together they are designed to support the proposition that opera
can retain a socially relevant role today.
Such a proposition sits in stark contrast to...[Show more] statistics that
demonstrate a serious decline in interest in all classical music
genres in the last few decades. Opera has been reinvigorated at
different historical points by embracing heterogeneous elements,
engaging interactively with audiences, and addressing socially
relevant concerns. Many commentators, particularly Theodor
Adorno, have looked to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute as the
ideal model for an opera that both entertains and edifies the
audience. This thesis examines the strategies Mozart employed in
his iconic opera. It also explores different compositional
approaches taken by composers such as Kurt Weill, Leonard
Bernstein, Larry Sitsky, John Adams, and Louis Andriessen,
designed to achieve similar ends.
The defining feature of such works is a willingness to
incorporate culturally meaningful musical allusions that
represent different perspectives and, through a process of
recontextualisation, invite a reappraisal, revealing previously
hidden facets of the original material. This approach is
consistent with the practice of parody, as described by literary
scholar, Linda Hutcheon. Parody was a common feature of the
traditional opera buffa genre. It harks back to an earlier era,
when music was valued for its functional utility rather than its
structural unity or commercial success. Such operas have
historically come to be overshadowed by a Wagnerian quest for an
organically unified form of art, which, in accord with
nineteenth-century aesthetic standards, should ideally eliminate
all extraneous material and aspire to express a transcendent
spiritual aura. In response to this, many twentieth- and
twenty-first-century composers have been seeking to find an
alternate role for opera by reclaiming it as an essentially
heterogeneous art form that excels at parody.
Capital is an opera that sits firmly within the parodic
tradition. Like other works examined in this thesis, it embraces
opera as a heterogeneous mix of art forms ultimately grounded in
the hopes and aspirations of contemporary life. It is a work that
favours diversity and debate rather than conformity and unity. It
challenges the long- standing paradigm that separates classical
and popular music on a hierarchical basis, accepting that both
might be legitimate sources for music which seeks to play a
functional role in contemporary discourses. By engaging with
local issues, and incorporating a unique mix of heterogeneous
elements, Capital makes an original contribution to opera in
Australia.
Items in Open Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.