MUSICAL MEANING AND INTERPRETATION
Robert S. Hatten, editor
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
© 2020 by Nina Penner
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Penner, Nina, author.
Title: Storytelling in opera and musical theater / Nina Penner.
Other titles: Musical meaning and interpretation.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2020. | Series: Musical meaning and interpretation | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020010918 (print) | LCCN 2020010919 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253049971 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253049964 (hardback) | ISBN 9780253049988 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Opera. | Musical theater. | Storytelling.
Classification: LCC ML1700 .P426 2020 (print) | LCC ML1700 (ebook) | DDC 782.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010918
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010919
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For Kevin
CONTENTS
4Orchestral Narration and Authorial Commentary
5Character-Focused Narration
6Works and Performances
7Performances of Works
8Performances as Works
Finale
Bibliography
Index
I AM MUCH BETTER SUITED TO TALKING ABOUT narratives than telling them. Nevertheless, the only orderly way I can conceive of recognizing the many individuals who have shaped the ideas in this book and have made its publication possible is as a story. It begins with a clarinetist in the pit of the MacMillan Theatre at the University of Toronto. As my husband is fond of relating, he could always pick me out as the one whose head was firmly turned toward the stage whenever I was not required to play. When I decided that I needed to see more of that world, I discovered that the University of Toronto was also home to a large and lively community of opera scholars. The courses I took in my first term of graduate studies in musicology—Linda Hutcheon and Caryl Clark’s interdisciplinary opera class and Sherry Lee’s aesthetics seminar—anticipate many of the aims and preoccupations of this book. Linda, Caryl, Sherry, and the other members of the Operatics working group provided me with a model of collaborative, interdisciplinary scholarship.
In Trevor Ponech’s cinematic narrative seminar at McGill University, I discovered that many of the questions philosophers were asking of cinema had not been given serious attention in opera studies. More than providing me with the topic and methodology for this book, Trevor’s class opened up an entire branch of scholarship that was virtually unknown in musicology. There I found my scholarly calling to make work in analytic philosophy better known in my field. I am grateful for Trevor’s unwavering belief in my work and continual encouragement to think bigger in terms of its import. In revising my early work on this book, his advice—“be shorter, sharper, and more shocking”—has served me well.
These ideas may never have reached a musicological audience without the mentorship of Lloyd Whitesell. Even when he was less than convinced by some of them, he helped me make the best possible case for their utility to the musicological reader. There have been many times that I have submitted something to him, believing that to be my final version, only to be told that I could do better. Although I can’t say that I always appreciated this advice at the time, those extra rounds of revision have often made the difference between a verdict of “revise and resubmit” and an outright rejection.
Edmund Goehring is another scholar who has helped me find a place in musicology. Ed assured me that the discipline could benefit from what I had to say and that there were kindred spirits who would listen. He has been one of my most important interlocutors and incisive critics. His good influence has encouraged me to read more widely, think more broadly, and heed that old narratological adage to “show,” whenever possible, rather than “tell.”
McGill proved to be an equally fertile intellectual and creative environment in which to develop the ideas for this study. I benefitted from countless conversations with and suggestions from Lloyd Whitesell, Trevor Ponech, Steven Huebner, David Davies, Lars Lih, and Allan Hepburn. David Davies suggested that the ingredients model may have more applicability to opera performance than I had initially assumed, a suggestion that led me to rethink the theoretical foundations of the latter portion of this book.
My tremendously talented peers at McGill and elsewhere provided invaluable intellectual and moral support. Zoey M. Cochran has taught me a tremendous amount
