Please join the Theater and Performance Studies Workshop for:

Anne Monique Pace

PhD Student, Music | University of Chicago

Who will Present:

Pagliacci and the Performance of Life

 

Respondent: Rocco Rubini, Associate Professor in Romance Languages and Literatures/TAPS, University of Chicago

Tuesday, November 9,

4:30 – 6:00 PM CT

Logan Center Room 028 and over Zoom

Please register for the workshop HERE. Anne Monique will read her paper at the workshop.

We are committed to making our workshop fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Please direct any questions or concerns to the workshop coordinators, Michael Stablein (mstableinjr@uchicago.edu) and Catrin Dowd (catrindowd@uchicago.edu).

ABSTRACT:  In this paper, I will interrogate the connection between emotion and action in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892), focusing on the exaggerated way the central characters; Nedda, Canio, and Tonio; experience their emotions in the language and gestures of the stage–as external, material, and performative. I believe Leoncavallo’s use of commedia dell’arte stock figures, known for their physicality and gestural comic performances, specifically contributes to the opera’s exploration of the boundary between art and life. Commedia dell’arte is a tradition that emphasizes physical action alongside masks and makeup in order to simplify and project exaggerated emotions for audiences. Comic violence is a pervasive aspect. In this section of the paper, I will draw upon the work of Antonio Fava, a living practitioner of the artform and his philosophy on the role of action in performance. I will also be referencing Tomer Zvulun’s production for the Atlanta Opera in November 2020, available through the company’s streaming service, which ran as part of the Molly Blank Big Tent Series in the midst of COVID19, and features a number of aesthetically remarkable safety measures. Rather than treat the circumstances of its creation as an impediment, the production uses the COVID19 pandemic as inspiration. The production happens within a big top circus tent, contributing to an uncanny overlap between the theater space and the setting of the opera. Singers perform either from within separate plastic cubicles or while wearing masks. Given the circumstances of the production, I believe it is an excellent example of how physical touch can be an especially fraught gesture.