In the image of the main characters of the opera "Artist's Career", why is the musical characteristics of the duet genre particularly prominent and important?
The duet occupies a considerable proportion in the opera, and the various characters, voices, tenors, sopranos, baritones and other important characters in the play are almost all involved in the duet, and many singing passages are particularly prominent and important in the image of the main characters.
Today, Xiao Zhang will tell you why the musical characteristics of the duet genre are particularly prominent and important in the image of the main characters of the opera "Artist's Career"?
The first is the love duet "Ah, My Lovely Girl", which appears at the end of the first act, which brings the plot of this scene to a climax.
This is a lyrical duet, musically it is an extension of "People Call Me Mimi", the whole piece is a non-reproducible two-part style, and the key is based on A major.
Superb orchestration, with a large number of melodic overtones, flute and harp account for a lot of weight in it, the style color of the whole orchestration is very warm, in this duet, the two say affection to each other, make a vow of love, and decide to be together.
Part I: The first phrase is when Rudolf praises Mimi's beauty, showing his strong affection for Mimi.
The second phrase is the intertwined part of the two vocals, this part is based on Rudolph, after the "love theme" melody comes out, Rudolph and Mimi's melody is the same, and the two sing each other's hearts together.
And the tone is high, showing that the two are full of expectation and yearning for love, full of beautiful longing for life, this is where the climax of the relationship breaks out, and the tonality transitions from the main tone to the subordinate tone, showing their attachment to this love.
From the second part, the melody is basically close to the declarative tone, like two people talking normally, until the end of the melody, so that this opera embodies the typical creative characteristics of Puccini - beautiful melody and smooth lines.
At the same time, the unique performance of music creation according to the storyline requires the natural interweaving and integration of the two opera tunes of aria and narrative to form a unique style of narrative.
The second part of the theme opens with the tone of the heroine Mimi, jumping an octave on the genitive tone in A major, showing her inner shyness and reserve.
When Rudolph sings "I love you", it is a fairly stable chord on the genus seventh chord, expressing his steadfastness in this love, and then the two men alternate semitones in the melody of ascending, Mimi: "Your friend is waiting for you." ”
The harmonic accompaniment is a small seventh chord in the main key, showing that Mimi wants to express her love for Rudolph, but her shy personality makes her always unable to speak, in fact, she wants to go to the party with Rudolph but is ashamed to express.
After this, the quartet ——— parted with the quartet "Wait until the spring blossoms and I will break up", this quartet is one of the masterpieces of the quartet in the history of opera, which appears at the end of the third act, and the tone appears strong and extremely dissonant.
On the one hand, Mimi and Rudolph are reluctant to say goodbye to the painful struggle in their hearts; On the other hand, there is the chattering quarrel between Marcello and Musetta, who have completely different personalities, Mimi is gentle and restrained, sentimental, and Musetta is hot, lively and enthusiastic.
This quartet interweaves the music of two different personalities, with Mimi's voice being a steady three-note progression and Museta's voice being frequent big jumps, contrasting Mimi's conservatism and tenderness with Museta's variability and spiciness.
The quartet is a trilogy using the middle of the interlude, the first part: is a contrasting two-part style, the key is based on the G-flat key, the first two phrases show that the two are actually very painful, but forced by the pressure of reality, can only endure the pain of cutting love.
The melody of this part is full of strong lyrical colors, first of all, the continuous progress of the fifth vibrato over the cello and the parallel fifth degree of the flute and recorder immediately render a strong cold and sad atmosphere.
The last two phrases are more emotional than the first two, and the melody rises to B-flat, which is the tragic scene of Rudolph and Mimi's breakup, so Puccini positioned his tone in a sad and feminine style, trying to create a tragic atmosphere.
The second part is the essence of the duet, where the music of Mimi and Rudolf contrasts with that of Macello and Museta.
The former melody is an eighth note, the latter is a sixteenth note; The former is a widened slow tone, the latter is a radical big jump, fully reflecting the different scenes when the two lovers break up.
There is no trace of stiffness in the music, the transition is natural, and the transformation of harmony and accompaniment quickly introduces people into the plot of contrasting themes, and the music is full of drama.
This part of Marcello's melody follows a sixteenth note, pressing step by step, expressing his inner dissatisfaction, and he is both jealous and angry at Museta's behavior, just as people speak very quickly when angry.
So it is not difficult to see that Puccini's musical language is very close to real life, and Musetta's melody is a sixteenth note with three upward jumps, and even an octave jump. Marcello's voice was full of anger and accusations, while Musseta disdained to retort.
At this time, the voices of Mimi and Rudolph serve as a foil, a sad sigh, a melancholy full of nostalgia, and the voices of the four people are superimposed together, pushing the plot to a climax.
The interweaving of the voices of the characters in the play, such as soprano, tenor, and baritone, coupled with the accompaniment of orchestral music, brings the beautiful musical melody to the extreme.
The content of the plot runs through the development of the storyline, in order to highlight the distinct personality of the characters, the climax of the plot development and the strong dramatic conflict throughout the play, he uses the form of duet to express.
Music and theatre have the same character, a feature that Puccini better interprets in The Artist's Career with the creative means of duets.
The conflict of the drama needs to promote the further development of the storyline through the form of re-singing, and the drama plot interweaves the melody of the accent to highlight the different personalities, emotions and psychological characteristics of each character.
Through the performance of music, each character is described and portrayed in detail, highlighting the distinctive characteristics and importance of the duet in this work.
