Curtain

Abstract

This chapter explores how the proscenium curtain, previously simply a spatial and temporal frame for the performance, increasingly mediated between sound and sight. In the late eighteenth century, Grétry and other composers had begun to align the curtain’s movements with both music and drama, and during the nineteenth century, the curtain became increasingly expressive. Thus, for example, an early opening curtain might allow for pantomimic scene-setting, while “delayed” curtains could mask diegetic sound. Rossini’s prematurely closing curtain conveyed continuing drama. Novel drop scenes masking mid-act transformations further expanded the curtain’s functions and shapes. In prescribing curtain tempi as atmospheric indictors, Wagner built on such practices, his heightened attention producing the flexible “Wagner curtain” at Bayreuth. Few composers subsequently omitted curtain directions, with Berg’s scores completing the curtain’s musicalization. It was consequential, then, that Brecht dismissed the full-length curtain in his battle against illusionist theater.

An Opera about the ‘Progress of Music’: Charles Burney, Domenico Corri'sThe Travellers(1806) and the Macartney Embassy to China 1792–1794

“…In her fascinating study of the gong, Gundula Kreutzer connects the British vogue for travel and seafaring with the preference for and availability of the gong in a theatrical context: 'Dramaturgically, this step was likely motivated by precisely the voyaging context in which the British had first encountered the gong.' 64 Kreutzer explains the result of this connection within the dramatic context of the opera: Its unlikely plot unabashedly cashed in on the contemporary vogue for exotic travels … In line with the spectacular sets and costumes for which the production became known, this narrative pretext allowed composer Domenico Corri to infuse his score with all manner of exotic musical referents, proudly identified in vocal score and first paraded in the overture. 65 Corri's 'exotic musical referents' stem from the knowledge supplied by Burney.…”

“…64 Kreutzer explains the result of this connection within the dramatic context of the opera: Its unlikely plot unabashedly cashed in on the contemporary vogue for exotic travels … In line with the spectacular sets and costumes for which the production became known, this narrative pretext allowed composer Domenico Corri to infuse his score with all manner of exotic musical referents, proudly identified in vocal score and first paraded in the overture. 65 Corri's 'exotic musical referents' stem from the knowledge supplied by Burney. The provenance of the pentatonic melody, labelled as a 'Chinese Hymn 2000 years old', is not identified by Corri, but its source can be traced to Burney's indispensable source for Chinese music, Amiot's Mémoire.…”

Composing the Crisis: From Mesmer's Harmonica to Charcot's Tam-tam

“…His hope that the gong would be helpful in both operatic and academic contexts proved prophetic.' 76 The tam-tam entered the Western orchestra during the throes of the French Revolution in François-Joseph Gossec's Marche lugubre, first performed on 20 September 1790 at the Champs de Mars during funeral ceremonies for Revolutionary 'soldier brothers who died for the maintaining of the law'. 77 As Raymond Monelle notes, there had been no 'funeral marches' as such in eighteenth-century military collections; this work by Gossec 'set the standard for future funeral marches'.…”