Reading in Music
Silent reading, reading out loud, animated reading, dangerous reading. How does reading sound when translated into music? Playlist curated by Christoph Vratz.
Read more…One of the most well-known examples of fictional characters reading appears in Dante’s immense poem ‘Divine Comedy’, composed of 14,233 lines, which forms the basis of ‘Francesca da Rimini’. Paolo and Francesca secretly read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere together, which presents the opportunity for them to gaze into each other’s eyes and which ultimately leads to tragic consequences. “The book, and he who wrote it, had been our matchmaker. That day we read no farther”: a phrase which has become one of the most famous quotes in world literature. Francesca da Rimini would be perfect opera material, yet the best known work based on this text is an orchestral piece by Tchaikovsky. This scene also appears in the second part of Liszt’s ‘Après une lecture du Dante’.
In Donizetti’s opera ‘L’elisir d’amore’ it is once again a medieval romance that drives the action, namely ‘Tristan und Isolde’: Nemorino, a shy young peasant, loves the beautiful, rich and indifferent Adina. He watches entranced as Adina reads from ‘Tristan und Isolde’ to her captive audience of harvesters: Tristan, sick with longing for the indifferent Isolde, obtains a magic love potion from a miracle man whose magic overcomes Isolde’s cruel heart. Everyone longs for such a drink, not the least Nemorino. In this instance the reading becomes a catalyst for further action: Nemorino buys a love potion (in reality an ordinary bottle of Bordeaux) with which to win his ladylove. Unlike with Francesca and Paolo, this time the reading is a public affair.
Readings can also serve to accelerate the plot, as is the case in Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’. If not for his love of chivalric novels, Don Quixote would never have set off on his adventures. “Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.” The sheer quantity of novels caused this bibliophile to lose his sanity and create the Don Quixote persona, who, spurred on by the heroic figures in his head, embarked on many an ill-advised and ill-fated quest.
In Paul Hindemith’s ‘Mathis der Mahler’, the townsfolk, who are protesting against a book burning, are subdued by the public reading of a letter from Martin Luther.
A book that is often featured in novels and also on the opera stage is, of course, the Bible. In Alban Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’, Maria reads by candlelight from the New Testament - significantly, the story of Mary Magdalene - praying for forgiveness after her breach of fidelity with the Drum Major. Unlike in ‘Don Quixote’, where the protagonist reads for pure pleasure, or the somewhat sinful nature of the reading in Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’, the act of reading in ‘Wozzeck’ is a sign of repentance.
Nobody knows the dangers of combining love and literature better than Werther. He becomes seduced by the overheated fantasies of Ossian’s poetry, and with this intoxicating reading he plunges himself into his would-be love affair with Charlotte, thereby unintentionally thwarting the chance of happiness for both himself and Charlotte. Love as conceptualised in the ‘Sturm und Drang’ movement gives way in Massenet’s opera to the ‘amour fou’ of the 19th Century.