Musical Realism in Puccini S La Boheme

By Luca Andrea Giordano

For a long time opera was dominated by larger-than-life characters: kings and queens, gods and goddesses, mythic figures with power over life and death. However, as opera became a more and more popular form of entertainment, the perspective changed. The challenge for composers and librettists was to give these legendary characters common feelings - to put little sorrow in great souls - so that ordinary people could easily identify with on stage dramas. Composers turned to stories about simpler, more realistic characters, creating a whole new set of challenges in the process. Nobody knew that better than Giacomo Puccini whose operas tell us that at some point in their lives, people everywhere, in all walks of life, endure the same trials: love and envy, loss and heartbreak. This is especially true in La Bohème, a drama of everyday events and common people, a story set among struggling artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Certain critics have analyzed his music and his stories and concluded that his operas are too easily enjoyable, and maybe not intellectual enough, to justify Puccini's great success. It would be easy to argue that other composers produced operas far more complex and innovative than Puccini's, but that conclusion may also be too simple. Regardless of his methods, Puccini mastered the unique and mystifying synthesis of music, drama and stagecraft that only opera can deliver, and with powerful results. His enduring, popular dramas are graced by appealing and believable characters whose feelings are portrayed so deeply and so vividly that, as we look on, their emotions soon become ours as well, and their heartbreaks seem as wrenching as our own. Luca Andrea Giordano lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He dedicates his time equally as a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian Music Conservatories in English and French, and as author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition for important publishing houses. He has been associated with the Opera House "Giuseppe Verdi" in Salerno, as chorus member, since 1999. He also performs frequently as classical singer and oboist at national and international levels.

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