16
PARTISAN REVIEW
as the dramatist must, about probability. A credible situation in
opera means a situation in which it is credible that someone should
sing. A good libretto plot is a melodrama in both the strict and the
conventional sense of the word; it offers as many opportunities as
possible for the characters to be swept off their feet by placing them
in situations which are too tragic or too fantastic for 'words.' No
good opera plot can be sensible for people do not sing when they
are feeling sensible.
The theory of "Music-drama" presupposes a libretto in which
there is not one sensible moment or one sensible remark: this is not
only very difficult to manage, though Wagner managed it, but also ex–
tremely exhausting on both the singers and the audience, neither of
whom may relax for an instant.
In a libretto where there are any sensible passages, i.e. con–
versation not song, the theory becomes absurd.
If,
for furthering
the action, it becomes necessary for one character to say to another
"Run upstairs and fetch me a handkershief," then there is nothing in
the words, apart from their rhythm, to make one musical setting more
apt than another. Wherever the choice of notes
is
arbitrary, the only
solution is a convention, e.g.
recitativo secco.
•
In opera the orchestra
is
addressed to the singers, not to the
audience. An opera-lover will put up with and even enjoy an
orchestral interlude on condition that he knows the singers cannot
sing just now because they are tired or the scene-shifters are at work,
but any use of the orchestra by itself which is not filling in time is,
for
him,
wasting it. Leonora III is a fine piece to listen to in the
concert hall, but in the opera house, where it is played between
scenes one and two of the second act of
Fidelio,
it becomes twelve
minutes of acute boredom.
•
In opera the Heard and the Seen are like Reality and Appear–
ance in philosophy; hence the more frankly theatrical and sham the
sets the better. Good taste is not in order. A realistic painted backdrop
which wobbles is more satisfactory than any conscientiously three–
dimensional furniture or suggestive non-representational objects. Only
one thing is essential, namely, that everything be a little over life
