The third voice : anima as drama in Mozart's operas

Abstract

This thesis investigates the processes through which the characters and their relationship, and the drama take shape in Mozart’s operas. In his mature operas, there are moments when music seems to say something that is not in harmony with what the words express. This discrepancy suggests that Mozart tells us, through music (vocal or instrumental), the characters’ most private thoughts that are not revealed in the text alone. I call this innermost part of the psyche that is in contact with the unconscious ‘anima’, a concept borrowed from Jungian psychology. Through anima, Mozart narrates his version of drama that is distinct from the librettist’s or the literary source on which his opera is based. That is, the drama Mozart creates and recounts is in the music.

The present thesis proposes music analysis as a way into reading the characters’ anima. I analyse select scenes from Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), Così fan tutte (1790), and La clemenza di Tito (1791), and examine four ways in which anima is manifested in musico-dramatic elements. I start with the most natural elements in which anima may be found in opera, asides and soliloquies, and explore musical manifestations of these silent voices. I also redefine ‘tempo’ in specifically operatic ways and show how the timing and pacing of musical elements evoke dramatic meaning. I then consider the connections between anima and Schenkerian idea of background as a way of understanding the relationship of the couples in Mozart’s operas. Finally, I demonstrate how ‘form’ in opera takes life of its own and defines the drama as musical expectations are fulfilled or frustrated. I conclude by discussing the implications of anima in opera studies, suggesting that it allows us to hear the innermost voice of Mozart’s characters spoken through music—the third voice.