베리즈모 오페라 ≪I Pagliacci≫에 관한 고찰

Abstract

This thesis studied the opera Pagliacci to look into Ruggero Leoncavallo’s musical purpose and techniques. Realism sprang along with the 19thcentury socio-economic developments of scientific way of thinking, which was influence by Positivism and Materialism philosophies that were the trends of thought apparent in 1800’s art and literature. Realism in operas was prevalent before the peak of Verismo operas of Mascagni and Pagliacci, and for ten years since the start and end of Verismo operas from 1880 to 1890, many works have been composed.Verismo composers tried to reform Verdi operas with the influence of Wagner operas and attempted a new apparition of Verismo operas. Verismo operas brought a change of subjects from Romantic operasthe characters are not heroic nor mythical, rather they are common and even shallow to advent realistic subjects into operas, and they changed scripts from existing poetic ‘verse’ to musical ‘prose’. Rather than emphasizing on superb musical performance like the bel canto, Verismo operas used colloquial and recital styles and frequently collaborated exclamations to express immediate presentation. Another characteristic of Verismo operas is that they preferred epic tones of lyric soprano·tenors and put relative importance on baritones for dramatic description. Furthermore by using Wagner’s inducing motivation they raised practicalityof the drama and incorporated perfect cadence for unity. Also by adding local color and folk music they attempted to restrict detachment between the composer and the audience. Pagliacci by Leoncavallo applied the traits of Verismo operas mentioned above and chose real situations of the lives of lower classes for his main theme. Compositional techniques showed boundless melodies to connect each acts, repentance of theme melody for unity and sense of reality. Also by using conversational words to the song it added tothe reality of the drama. Besides Mascagni and Leoncavallo, the most noted composer after Verdi in Italia, Puccini also shows hints of Verismo operas and this spread quickly all over Europe to composers like Chilea, Wolf-Ferrari, Massenet, Charpentier, and d’Albert. Though Verismo operas lasted for only a decade and was not given recognition as a main stream music genre, it’s important in the history of Italian operas since its musical characteristics became the stepping stones to connect Italian Romantic operas and contemporary operas. With the understanding of the upright trend of ‘Realism’, Verismo operas allows to experience the transition coming into the 20th century having a distinct differentiation of musical performance of Romanic operas. Lastly, before the accompanimenta full knowledge of the orchestra will: make it able to express the required musical techniques of the tone of the instruments, allow the change of sounds according to the instrumental organization, and present an efficient performance for each act which is a necessary process for all musicians.