Italian Music in Dakota: The Function of European Musical Theater in U.S. Culture

251 Pages·2017·2.321 MB·English

by  Andrea Mariani

Passages – Transitions – Intersections
Volume2
General Editors:
Paola Partenza (Universityof Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
Andrea Mariani (Universityof Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
Advisory Board:
Gianfranca Balestra (Universityof Siena, Italy)
Barbara M. Benedict (Trinity College Connecticut, USA)
Gert Buelens (University of Ghent, Belgium)
Jennifer Kilgore-Caradec (University of Caen, and ICP, France)
Esra Melikoglu (Universityof Istanbul, Turkey)
Michal Peprn&k (Universityof Olomouc, Czech Republic)
John Paul Russo (Universityof Miami, USA)
Andrea Mariani
Italian Music in Dakota
The Function of European Musical Theater in
U.S. Culture
V&R unipress
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ISSN2365-9173
ISBN978-3-8470-0655-8
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
ChapterOne:R.W.EmersonandE.A.Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.R.W.Emerson:themusicofthespheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.Contrastiveanalyses:TheAeolianharp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.AcousticstrategiesinE.A.Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.Therhetoricofarabesque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.Operaticexperimentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.Themelodramaticimagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
ChapterTwo:H.D.ThoreauandHermanMelville . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1.Thoreau’svisualandacousticekphrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.Amusicofthoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.HermanMelville:theaterplusmusic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.ThePiazzaTales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.GeorgeTempletonStrongandopera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
ChapterThree:WaltWhitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Partone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
1.MusicaltheaterinWhitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.ProudMusicoftheStorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Parttwo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.ItalianMusicinDakota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.TheChicagoAuditorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
ChapterFour:EmilyDickinson,SidneyLanier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
1.Theoldtranscendentalistdebate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
2.Closeandimaginaryencounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.TheSelfasmusician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.SidneyLanier:poetryandmusic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6 Contents
5.OdestoWagnerandBeethoven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
ChapterFive:HenryJames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
1.Europeanoperaandrealisticfiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
2.HenryJames’sacousticsensitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
3.IsabelArcher’s“transition”fromoperahousetosculpturegallery . 155
ChapterSix:Wharton,Cather,Santayana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
1.EdithWharton:theexperienceofoperainTheAgeofInnocence . . 169
2.WillaCather:larksandgayhearts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
3.GeorgeSantayana’s“epiphonic”moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
ChapterSeven:Thetwentiethcentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
1.WilliamDembyandVincentSheean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
2.JohnBerryman:music,poetry,syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
3.MusicinJamesMerrill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
4.Merrillandopera.Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
IndexofNames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Introduction
Did I do wrong in going [to the opera]? There are those who regard a theatrical
representationaswrong,perseandonprinciple,butthatviewIhavealwaysthought
quiteunreasonable[…]Ihavefoundmyselftodaynonethelessabletocontrolmy
thoughts and feelings at Church or at home for having heard Weber’s magnificent
musiclastnight.
(GeorgeTempletonStrong,1845)
ThetitleofthebookisanexplicittributetoWaltWhitman,who,asitwillappear
evidentinChapterthree,isthecentralfigureinthisvolume.Hisextraordinary
–andundervalued–poem“ItalianMusicinDakota”1waspublishedinthe1881
edition of Leaves of Grass. At first, the title sounds (and sounded to a large
majorityofreadersinthe1880s)paradoxical,provocative,almostoxymoronic:
whatdidtheideaof“Italian”opera,asopposedtooperagenerally,havetodo
withtheculturalwilderness andthe onehundredpercent“Americanness” of
sucharemoteterritoryasDakota,whichwasnotyetastate,andnotyetdivided
into North and South? The success of the text lies, instead, precisely in the
apparentlystrikingjuxtapositionofthetwoterms.Iwilllaterdiscussindetailits
interpretation, because its lines deal withthe poet’s passion for opera (Italian
operainparticular),butalsouseoperaasastructuralprinciple,andasarep-
ertoireofacousticimagesthatgreatlyenrichthepoem’slanguageandtheechoes
withwhich it resounds inthe reader’s consciousness. The effectiveness of the
textis,infact,multiple:itisappropriatefromthepointofviewofthecontent
(themessageitintendstoconveyanditsideologicalbackground),thelinguistic
1 The poem was written between 1879 and 1881, after Whitman’s trip to the West which,
strangelyenough,didnotincludeDakota.Itwouldbeinterestingtoseewhy,amongother
equally“wild”placesthatWhitmandidvisitonthatoccasion,hedecidedtomentionacorner
oftheplainshedidnotvisit.Thenameoftheterritoryisofnativeoriginandreferstothename
oftheSioux(LakotaorDakota)nation,thatwasintroducedtotheawarenessoftheaverage
AmericanoftheEastCoastasearlyasthe1830sthroughthepaintingsofGeorgeCatlin.The
strikingjuxtapositionofthetwoterms(ItalianvsDakota)evidentlysoundedtoWhitman
effectiveandparadigmatic.Andsoitdoesnowadays.
8 Introduction
strategiesandsophisticatedrhetoricaldevicesitoffersus,theculturalcontextit
represents, and the author’s capacity to control an intense network of trans-
atlantic themes. It demonstrates, in my opinion, how those who insist that
Whitman’s best lyrical production must be found inthe limited span of time
between 1855 (first edition of Leaves of Grass) and 1865 (“Drum-taps”) are
incorrect. It also demonstrates the coherence and consistency of Whitman’s
taste,hisdevotiontosomebasicissues,aswellashisprogresstowardsadeeper
and deeper awareness of some basic experiences and ideas, aroundwhich his
imaginationandhisproduction(bothinverseandinprose)unflinchingly re-
volved.
Asfarashis“sympathy”for–andexpertiseof–operaisconcerned,awealth
ofliterarycriticismhasshownthatitdatedbacktohisfirstyearsofjournalismin
NewYork,aperiodofintensetheatergoing,ofreviewingperformancesofdif-
ferent intellectual significance, that he, however, regularly considered worth
commenting,andthatneverceasedtofascinatehim.Whitman’slife,poetry,and
richandintriguingmemoirsinprosealsotestifythatopera,alreadyinthe1840s,
and of course much more so in the following decades, was not a marginal
phenomenoninthecultureoftheUnitedStates.Farfrombeingconsideredan
importedgood,whichcouldbeofsomerelevanceonly tothecommunitiesof
recentimmigrationfromEurope,andfarfrombeinglimitedtotheatersofmajor
citiesalongtheEastCoast(plusNewOrleans),ithadacquiredastatusandvast
geographicdiffusion(fromNewYork,throughPhiladelphia,toCharleston,from
Chicago, through St. Louis, to San Francisco, spreading, finally, even in the
cultural“wilderness”ofKansasCity,DallasandDenver)andawidepopularity
amongallsocialclasses.Thisfactcouldindeedastonish(andpreoccupy)only
members of what was rapidly becoming a minority, that is, the heirs of the
PuritansinNewEngland.
ThehistoryofoperainAmerica(boththeinfluenceofEuropeanoperaand
the slow, contradictory growth of a thoroughly American opera) has already
been told and recent criticism has investigated almost all its aspects.2 In this
book, as a European scholar of North American literature, I propose to con-
centrateontheintersectionbetweenEuropeanoperaandsomemajorfiguresin
theliteratureoftheUnitedStates–howitwasreceived,whatitmeant,howitwas
textually“exploited”–inotherwords,itsliteraryfunctionandtheroleitplayed
inhelpingsomegreatmastersofthecanonto expressthemselves,theirideas,
theirfeelings,andtheirWeltanschauung.Iwill,inaddition,trytoidentifyand
explorethereasonswhysuchdiversewritersasPoe,Melville,Whitman,Dick-
inson,Lanier,James,Wharton,Santayana(aswellasanumberof20thcentury
poetsandprosewriters)occasionally,orregularly,foundapricelessinstrument
2 JohnDizikes,OperainAmerica:ACulturalHistory,NewHaven,CT,YaleU.P.,1993.
Introduction 9
inoperathat,preciselybecauseitbelongedtoadifferentepistemologicalfield
and used different codes of expression, enabled them to say things that their
languageandtheworldofwordsalonewouldnotallowthemtosay.Thisbook
willtherefore contribute to re-affirm Jakobson’s theory not onlyof the possi-
bility,butoftheextraordinaryuseofintersemiotictranslation.
On a socio-historical plane, I will deal with other, equally fascinating,
transculturalthemes,suchastheparadoxicalphenomenonaccordingtowhich
notonly thelowmiddleclassesandthenon-waspsectionofAmericansociety
but also the upper middle classes and members of the establishment often
assimilated the heritage of Elizabethan theater and of British, German and
FrenchRomanticismgoingtotheoperahouseforproductionsofRossini’sLa
donna del lago, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, von Weber’s Oberon,
Meyerbeer’sLesHuguenotsandRobertlediable,Bellini’sIPuritani,Auber’sFra
Diavolo, Verdi’s Ernani and Macbeth, Gounod’s Faust, Boito’s Mefistofele,
Thomas’ Hamlet,rather than getting intouchwiththe original sources of the
“stories”, that is to say Sir Walter Scott’s novels, Goethe’s poem, or Shake-
speare’s,VictorHugo’sandSchiller’splays.
Thesubjectofthebookislimitedinscopebutveryampleinchronological
termsandwillthereforeallowthesurveyofalongperiodinthehistoryofAnglo-
Americanculture,byscrutinizingitsdifferentphases,currents,ideologicalat-
titudes and moods according to an unusual perspective. The complex phe-
nomenologyofitsmanifestations–thediscoursesitgaveorigintoatdifferent
periods in time – can, in fact, be described and understood not only by un-
derlyingthemajorforces,themostevidentdialectics,thepatentrecurringde-
batesandthebasicdocumentsthatpunctuatethecontextbutalsobyadopting
an“eccentric”viewpoint,insearchofwhatCarolynDenard3calls“whatmovesat
themargin”inhereditionofToniMorrison’s“non-fiction”.These“moves”are
leitmotifsthatdonotnecessarilycometotheforegroundbutsurfacenowand
then, under givencircumstances, intheworks ofmen ofletters andtextsofa
“secondary”, minoritycanon, or in less closely examined corners of the great
textsofthecanon.Inthissense,thereaderofthisbookshouldnotbesurprisedif
he/she finds out that, after dealing with major poets or novelists and their
masterpieces,Iincludeinmy“scenario”namesofwriterswhohavelongbeen
“reshuffled” and no more occupy the position of center stage. Or if I re-visit
some neglectedpages of their works with almost monomaniac attention(and
intention) – trying not to lose, inthe meantime, the sense of perspective. Re-
shufflingthecanonhasbeenafavoritepastimeinrecentdecades;whyshouldn’t
wefeelauthorizedtoreshuffleproportionswithinasingletext(ormacrotext),a
3 ToniMorrison,WhatMovesattheMargin:SelectedNon-Fiction,ed.byCarolynC.Denard,
Jackson,UniversityofMississippiP.,2008.