Steven Huebner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189544
- eISBN:
- 9780199868476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189544.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on Saint-SaËns's opera, Samson et Dalila. Relatively early on the composer had a premonition that this opera would be his finest accomplishment in the theatre. Like Massenet, he ...
More
This chapter focuses on Saint-SaËns's opera, Samson et Dalila. Relatively early on the composer had a premonition that this opera would be his finest accomplishment in the theatre. Like Massenet, he sought to achieve musical and dramatic continuity across operatic acts, as well as a marriage between developmental techniques and number opera with voice-dominated, cantabile phrases. In this respect, the second act is a remarkable achievement: the imbrication of the symphonic-developmental and number-operatic is particularly tight and worked out with cogent dramatic effect. It is among the most successful examples of this synthesis in the fin-de-siècle repertory, all the more striking because of its early date of composition and a relatively limited use of leitmotifs in the opera as a whole.Less
This chapter focuses on Saint-SaËns's opera, Samson et Dalila. Relatively early on the composer had a premonition that this opera would be his finest accomplishment in the theatre. Like Massenet, he sought to achieve musical and dramatic continuity across operatic acts, as well as a marriage between developmental techniques and number opera with voice-dominated, cantabile phrases. In this respect, the second act is a remarkable achievement: the imbrication of the symphonic-developmental and number-operatic is particularly tight and worked out with cogent dramatic effect. It is among the most successful examples of this synthesis in the fin-de-siècle repertory, all the more striking because of its early date of composition and a relatively limited use of leitmotifs in the opera as a whole.
Roger Nichols (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320169
- eISBN:
- 9780199852086
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320169.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen ...
More
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint–Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint–Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siecle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint–Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist. Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint–Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was “not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues” that distinguishes the good composer. Saint–Saëns’ writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siecle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.Less
Camille Saint–Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint–Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint–Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siecle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint–Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist. Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint–Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was “not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues” that distinguishes the good composer. Saint–Saëns’ writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siecle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.
Vincent Giroud
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300117653
- eISBN:
- 9780300168211
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300117653.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
French opera is second only to Italian opera in the length, breadth, and diversity of its history. Yet most people, if asked to come up with titles, could mention only a handful—Carmen, Faust, ...
More
French opera is second only to Italian opera in the length, breadth, and diversity of its history. Yet most people, if asked to come up with titles, could mention only a handful—Carmen, Faust, Pelleas et Melisande, Samson et Dalila—a small list for an operatic tradition that began in the seventeenth century and is still very much alive. This book provides a full, single-volume account of opera in France from its origins to the present day. It looks at the leading composers, from Lully to Messiaen and beyond; at the development of French operatic form and style; at performance, performers, and audience; and at the impact of French opera beyond France's borders.Less
French opera is second only to Italian opera in the length, breadth, and diversity of its history. Yet most people, if asked to come up with titles, could mention only a handful—Carmen, Faust, Pelleas et Melisande, Samson et Dalila—a small list for an operatic tradition that began in the seventeenth century and is still very much alive. This book provides a full, single-volume account of opera in France from its origins to the present day. It looks at the leading composers, from Lully to Messiaen and beyond; at the development of French operatic form and style; at performance, performers, and audience; and at the impact of French opera beyond France's borders.
