Vocal Apparitions: The Attraction of Cinema to Opera

201 Pages·2005·8.005 MB·English

by  Michal Grover-Friedlander

Vocal Apparitions
(cid:2)
PRINCETON STUDIES IN OPERA
Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker
SERIES EDITORS
Reading Opera, edited by Arthur Groos and Roger Parker
Puccini’sTurandot: The End of the Great Tradition
by William Ashbrook and Harold Powers
Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth
Centuryby Carolyn Abbate
Wagner Androgyne: A Study in Interpretationby Jean-Jacques
Nattiez, translated by Stewart Spencer
Music in the Theater: Essays on Verdi and Other Composersby
Pierluigi Petrobelli, translated by Roger Parker
Leonora’s Last Act: Essays in Verdian Discourseby Roger Parker
Richard Wagner, Fritz Lang, and the Nibelungen: The Dramaturgy of
Disavowalby David J. Levin
Monstrous Opera: Rameau and the Tragic Traditionby Charles Dill
The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart’s Vienna: A Poetics of
Entertainmentby Mary Hunter
Metaphysical Song: An Essay on Operaby Gary Tomlinson
Mad Loves: Women and Music in Offenbach’sLes Contes d’Hoffmann
by Heather Hadlock
Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera
by Mary Ann Smart, editor
Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle by Marian Smith
In Search of Operaby Carolyn Abbate
Vocal Apparitions: The Attraction of Cinema to Opera
by Michal Grover-Friedlander
Vocal Apparitions
THE ATTRACTION OF CINEMA TO OPERA
(cid:2)
Michal Grover-Friedlander
princeton university press
princeton and oxford
Copyright ©2005 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grover-Friedlander, Michal.
Vocal apparitions : the attraction of cinema to opera / Michal Grover-Friedlander.
p. cm. — (Princeton studies in opera)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-12008-0 (alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures and opera. 2. Voice in motion pictures. 3. Music—Philosophy and
aesthetics. I. Title. II. Series.
ML2100.G76 2005
791.43(cid:2)657—dc22 2004018107
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Galliard
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
With all my love
To Eli, Elam, and Omer all at once
(cid:2)

CONTENTS
(cid:2)
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
PART I SILENT VOICES
CHAPTER 1
The Phantom of the Opera:The Lost Voice of
Opera in Silent Film 19
CHAPTER 2
Brothers at the Opera 33
PART II VISIONS OF VOICES
CHAPTER 3
Otello’s One Voice 53
CHAPTER 4
Falstaff’s Free Voice 81
PART III REMAINS OF THE VOICE
CHAPTER 5
Opera on the Phone: The Call of the Human Voice 113
CHAPTER 6
Fellini’s Ashes 131
Notes 153
Index 183

ILLUSTRATIONS
(cid:2)
Figures
Figures 1.1–1.4. The Phantom of the Opera(1925) is saturated
with cries 26
Figure 1.1. Carlotta’s apparently glass-shattering cry 26
Figure 1.2. Christine’s cry on turning around and seeing the
Phantom’s masked face 26
Figures 1.3 and 1.4. Christine’s cries when she unmasks the
Phantom 27
Figure 2.1. The Marx Brothers’ Night at the Opera(1935).
Harpo silently sings to his reflection in the mirror. 37
Figures 2.2–2.4. The Marx Brothers’ Night at the Opera
(1935). A visualization of music. 40
Figure 2.2. Harpo sitting in the string section and playing the
trombone with a violin bow 40
Figure 2.3. The “wrong” instrument for Harpo 40
Figure 2.4. Chico’s piano performance 41
Figure 3.1. Luc Besson’s Fifth Element(1997) 55
Figure 3.2. Zeffirelli’s film of Verdi’s Otello(1986). An unheard
conversation between Desdemona and Cassio. 70
Figure 3.3. Otello is only to suspectthat he has seen Cassio
leaving Desdemona 72
Figure 3.4. Zeffirelli’s film of Verdi’s Otello(1986). The film
constructs a chimera in place of Iago’s vocal sorcery. 75
Figures 4.1–4.2. Friedrich’s film of Verdi’s Falstaff(1979).
Falstaff incorporates Alice and Meg within himself. 88
Figure 4.1. Falstaff’s belly pregnant with the premonition of
successful seductions 88
Figure 4.2. Falstaff voicing Meg 88
Figure 4.3. Friedrich’s film of Verdi’s Falstaff(1979). Stealing
the song from Fontana’s breathlessness. 90
Figure 4.4. Friedrich’s film of Verdi’s Falstaff(1979). The
origination of voice. 105
Figure 5.1. Rossellini’s Una voce umane(1948), with Anna
Magnani on the phone 125
Figure 6.1. Fellini’s E la nave va(1983). The diva’s voice is
heard accompanying the scattering of the pile of ashes. 137
Figure 6.2. Callas in Visconti’s Traviata 144