Table Of Content

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