Hermeneutică muzicală

The first part of this study of musical hermeneutics starts from a critical remark that a famous opera singer made, while she was part of a M.A. in the USA, at Juilliard’s; she considered that Verdi did not observe the manual-classical chanting of words (vocables). The author shows that this so-called ‘mistake’ represents the actual contribution brought by Verdi to the evolution of the lyrical theatre (the opera), as compared to his predecessors – like Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, etc. In fact, he overcame the modality proposed by the baroque opera and the seria opera, that is, to treat feelings in general in a musical manner. As compared to his predecessors, Verdi considered that music should detect and render the feelings and frames of mind of his characters, in correlation with each of their personalities, but, especially, in correlation with the precise situation in the development of the dramatic conflict in which these characters are ‘caught’, and take part in. This was revolutionary. We do not have here a ‘mistake’, or a ‘slip’ of the composer Verdi – in the way some words are accentuated, but with a great innovation accomplished by Verdi the “playwright”, in his attempt to penetrate the inner lives of his characters from a psychological point of view. Consequently, this is not Verdi’s mistake (the singer’s exact words were: “his phrase is badly written”), but the insufficient attention (to say the least!) and concentration on the part of the famous singer. The second part of this study is dedicated by the author to the ‘minor’ and fundamentally erroneous and almost degrading manner in which some see the character Don Ottavio from the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart. The function that the great playwright Mozart gave to this character in the dramatic economy of the opera is completely overlooked; that is, in Mozart’s view, such artistic economy needed a presence whose ethic load should show the protagonist’s total lack of scruples in a real light; such need is felt not only from a musical point of view, but also from the perspective of that of the balance of the dramatic construction.