Abstract for a paper given at a joint meeting of the American Institute for Verdi Studies and the Greater New York chapter of the American Musicological Society, Feb. 4, 1989

Hepokoski, James

English

University of Richmond

Verdi ForumNumber 19 Article 41-1-1991Abstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits:Reflections on the Structure of Verdi's OtelloJames HepokoskiUniversity of MinnesotaFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vfPart of the Musicology CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Verdi Forum by anauthorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact scholarshiprepository@richmond.edu.Recommended CitationHepokoski, James (1991) "Abstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits: Reflections on the Structure of Verdi's Otello," Verdi Forum: No.19, Article 4.Available at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss19/4Abstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits: Reflections on the Structure ofVerdi's OtelloAbstractAbstract for a paper given at a joint meeting of the American Institute for Verdi Studies and the Greater NewYork chapter of the American Musicological Society, Feb. 4, 1989.KeywordsAbstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and ExitsThis article is available in Verdi Forum: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss19/439 Abstract*: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits: Reflections on the Structure of Verdi's Otello James A Hepokoski, University of Minnesota One of the problems raised by Otelia (1887) concerns the difficulty of establishing a set of historically sensitive structural procedures by which we might understand its Jong- and short-range archi-tecture. The principal issue -- to what extent are the traditional operatic genres still in force here? -- has been much discussed recently from a variety of stand-points. The view presented in this paper is that Otelia marks the moment when generic concerns may be considered to have yielded to more individualized, ad hoc procedures -- when the analytical appeal to the primacy of the primo ottocento conventions can no longer be counted on to provide the most crucial information on which to ground an operatic her-meneutics. This conclusion receives at least partial support from critics of the late 1880's, who nearly unanimously saw along with the final dissolution of the conventions a new type of opera emerging in Otelia, a type associated with its new generic designation, dramma lirico. While certain fragmentary contours of the old structures may certainly be found in Otelia (that is, certain generic aspects do linger as memories, but usually as memories of things irretrievably lost), their claim to centricity is overturned in favor of what often seems to be a radically more flexible, less prescriptive, three-phase (or three-zone) model: a set-piece core surrounded on the one side by a freely composed entrance and on the other by a freely com-posed exit. The model proposed here is both heuris-tically effective and historically derivable from certain deformations of the conventions found in Verdi's preceding operas. Otelia may be considered a chain of such three-zone units. Two portions of the score are analyzed in relation to the model: the post-Duel exit and subsequent entrance to the Love Duet in Act I; and the exit from the Act III Desdemona/Otello Duet and the entire subsequent unit, including Otello's "Dio! mi potevi scagliar." 

Abstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits: Reflections on the Structure of Verdi\u27s Otello

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Abstract: Entrances, Set Pieces, and Exits: Reflections on the Structure of Verdi\u27s Otello

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