Wort oder Ton: the great question at the center of Strauss’ last opera “Capriccio” beckons us to consider which is of greater importance in an opera – the words or the music. Even when not directly attempting to answer this question, opera singers confront it in their interpretations for the stage. Should the demands of the score take precedence over those of the script? Some of my favorite singers have weighed in on this question.
My portrayals are based entirely on the musical score. I cannot go beyond, or outside, what the composer has written because I feel a character right from the opening orchestral bars…[the music] immediately suggest[s] what lines your interpretation should take. – Nicolai Ghiaurov, in Helena Matheopoulos Divo: great tenors, baritones, and basses discuss their roles.
Ghiaurov hailed from Bulgaria, as do so many other fantastic opera stars, and his voice is my #1 favorite of all basses (Rene Pape is my favorite living bass). His philosophy of acting is drawn organically from the score, painting his character with the colors of the instrumental and vocal writing provided by the composer. Ghiaurov sang most of the great bass roles and is best known for Mephistopheles (Gounod), Boris (Mussorgsky), and Filippo (Verdi). http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/opera/OFB/stars/ghi01.htm This site has several samplings of his long career – check out the Rachmaninov excerpt from 1956!
What [Tullio Serafin] said that impressed me was: "When one wants to find a gesture, when you want to find how to act on stage, all you have to do is listen to the music. The composer has already seen to that. " If you take the trouble to really listen with your soul and with your ears — and I say soul and ears because the mind must work, but not too much also — you will find every gesture there. And it is all true, you know. – Maria Callas, BBC (April 1968) on Maria Callas : The Callas Conversations
Callas is of course renowned for her acting as much as for her voice. Her philosophy agrees with that of Ghiaurov, basing the interpretation of a role on the expressive content of the music. She stands in great contrast to other sopranos who shared her repertoire of bel canto music, who allowed the “beautiful” part of bel canto to carry the interpretation of roles such as Lucia or Anna Bolena. Callas knew the dramatic power of these operas could be tapped through a close look at the music and that a great opera singer is more than a songbird.
There are other theories of opera acting which rely more on the physicality of the actor than on the music. I personally agree with Ghiaurov and Callas, because their approach can be extended past vocal music into the instrumental repertoire. Not every composer has coded a dramatic interpretation into his or her non-vocal music, but observing what clues the composer leaves us and remaining faithful to them is a good philosophy for pianists and singers alike.
