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Postopera: Reinventing the

Voice-Body

Jelena Novak
New University of Lisbon, Portugal
© Jelena Novak 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Jelena Novak has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.

Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street
Union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7PT USA
England

www.ashgate.com

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data


A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:


Novak, Jelena, 1974-
Postopera : reinventing the voice-body / by Jelena Novak.
pages cm.—(Ashgate interdisciplinary studies in opera)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-4103-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4724-4104-1 (ebook)
—ISBN 978-1-4724-4105-8 (epub) 1. Operas—21st century—Philosophy and aesthetics.
2. Operas—20th century—Philosophy and aesthetics. 3. Opera—21st century.
4. Opera—20th century. I. Title.
ML3858.N93 2015
782.109’05--dc23
 2014042884

ISBN: 9781472441034 (hbk)


ISBN: 9781472441041 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN: 9781472441058 (ebk – ePUB)

Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,


at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
Chapter 5
Operatizing the Film: Body Without Voice
and Voice Without Body

La Belle et la Bête was composed for his

which itself is based upon Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s eighteenth-


century fairy tale.1

procedures on which La Belle et la Bête


relationship. This will be followed by a discussion of synchronization in relation

La Belle et la
Bête

despite all the efforts to synchronize image and sound the gap between the body

La Belle et la Bête Music,


Sound and Moving Image
1
La Belle et la Bête is the second part of the operatic trilogy that Glass made using

Orphée
Les Enfants Terribles
Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

La Belle et la Bête

of representation.

Glass’s music is attached to Cocteau’s

The Open.
The Voice in Cinema Audio-Vision.
Operatizing the Film 81

Operatizing the Film

Some famous examples are Mozart’s Magic Flute


Carmen
Otello Cavalleria rusticana

are synchronized to
La Belle et la
Bête

that La Belle is the piece of music theatre:


Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

performer and image is wonderful.5

La Belle et la Bête

Glass synchronized the sung text to the unchanged original dialogues (in

After

be crucial for successful operatizing in the manner that Glass deployed: dialogue

Cocteau’s dialogue is stylized rather than naturalistic without much simultaneous

5
Interview with Philip Glass

Brothers’ A Night at the Opera A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of


Opera

8
La
Belle et la Bête Between Opera and Cinema
Operatizing the Film

La Belle et la Bête

which can often be the case in opera.

on stage the score is simultaneously performed by the singers and the ensemble.

The postopera La Belle et la Bête

is the method of synchronization. This second modality of the work functions also

The situation created by Glass in La Belle et la Bête produces an unusual


acousmêtre.

11

La Belle et la Bête

acousmêtre
The Voice in Cinema
11

A Voice and Nothing More


Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

Although
the process of synchronization is stressed in La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête

Synchronization, Dubbing, and Playback

La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête

La Belle
et la Bête

The Voice in Cinema


Operatizing the Film 85

Chion points to the core of its function in terms of representational procedure:

La Belle et la Bête

norms of mainstream cinema.15 The same could be said of Glass’s approach in this

La Belle et la Bête loose synchronization challenges the norms of

both the tradition of dubbing and the tradition of playback. Chion highlights the

marshals the image in the effort to embody.

The procedure used in La Belle et la Bête

this procedure in Glass’ opera sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. The time

La Belle et la Bête.
Comprehending La Belle et la Bête

15
An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal

La Belle et la Bête

The Voice in Cinema


Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

La Belle et la Bête
the effect of loose synchronization since it is impossible to perfectly synchronize

The process of synchronization that constantly happens between bodies and

The Knot of Tight Synchronization: The Roaring Voice Between Man


and Animal

The looseness of synchronization that appears to be at the core of assembling

18
and also

Only few minutes later is the spectator allowed to see the image of the

The relationship between man and animal in La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête

musical materials.

homo sapiens

18

The Open
Operatizing the Film

La Belle et la Bête written and directed by

within the human rather than outside.

The La Belle et la Bête

profoundly scared by the Beast’s enchanted world when she gets there. She does

The mechanism of recognition in La Belle et la


Bête
88 Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

La Belle et la Bête written

Beast will recognize himself as a man only when someone else recognizes him
as such. The humanization of animal and animalization of man about which

only at the end as a kind of super-human) are played by the same actor. The same

The Beast’s castle shows relations between animals and humans that are

human domain. Those anthrophomorphic creatures demonstrate synchronization

demonstrates this too. Agamben argues that language is often offered as the locus

language. The Beast’s domain is represented by chromaticism and the whole-


Operatizing the Film

The intriguing moment in relation to the man-animal construct arises through

with diegetic noises while diegetic noises are almost entirely excluded in the scenes
at the Beast’s domain.

When the

La Belle et la Bête.

Audio-Vision
,
,
Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

Postopera as Ventriloquism

La Belle et la Bête

own ends.

of La Belle et la Bête

conducts in La Belle et la Bête.

La Belle et la Bête displays

And that allegiance seems

La Belle et la Bête
Operatizing the Film

La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête’s tendency to attach

La Belle et la Bête
Postopera: Reinventing the Voice-Body

Glass’s piece: it is precisely this impossibility of synchronization between body


La Belle et la Bête. The relationship between

in La Belle et la Bête

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