The article “Verismo” Essay Example for Free

The article â€Å"Verismo† Essay The article â€Å"Verismo† discusses the beginning of movement in Italian literature and opera, as well as provides in-depth overview of Verismo as literature style, musical style and as essential component of Italian theatre. Verismo is defined as movement in Italian literature which caused emergence of new theatrical and operatic genres. Actually, verismo became so-called innovatory drive originated from the French naturalism. The most brilliant representatives of verismo were Giovanni Verga and Luigi Capuana, and the theorist Federico de Roberto. Verismo is said to share some characteristics with naturalism. For example, both styles promote impersonal style of narration and they authors were deeply interested in the lower social strata. In other words, they tended to incorporate a true-to-life approach when illustrating contemporary reality. Furthermore, veristi, the writes of this genre, developed their own character in their literary works. For example, they assessed the relations between science and art from new perspective. It is known that verismo has strongly influenced the development of Italian theatre as the genre introduced regional milieux which combined lower-class idioms and local customs. Verismo enriched theatrical repertoire offering extraordinary blend of romantic style with bourgeoisie comedy. Verismo provided new acting style to illustrate unsophisticated characters on the scene. Verismo has also affected opera. Two famous operas of this style were â€Å"Mala Vita† and â€Å"Pagliacci†. â€Å"Mala Vita† was launched by Umberto Giordano as a brand of operatic verismo. â€Å"Pagliacci† was launched by Leoncavallo and was considered rather complex work. Leoncavallo was both the author of music and libretto. It is argued that in the opera â€Å"the explicit violence of the double murder committed by the white-faced clown is usually seen as the dramatization of an actual incident remembered from the composer’s childhood†. Verismo is also defined as musical style of Giovane Scuola. In music this style was strongly influenced by the works of Massenet and Wagner due to their emotional rhetoric. Verismo in music was very passionate with sentimental languor. The style tended to combine delicacy with explicit violence, in particular, in the vocal lines. Moreover, it tended to change solo piece by ensembles as it ensured better cohesion of sound and vocal. Orchestral motifs were often referred to. Nevertheless, verismo denied bel canto coloratura. It is argued that only in the 19th century opera had reached its dramatic continuity, in which spoken drama was combined with canons of musical one. Puccini was the first to achieve in his opera â€Å"Manon Lescaut† the most satisfactory blend of spoken and sung words. Reflective Commentary It is a matter of fact that verismo strongly influenced not only literature works, but also theatrical and musical world as verismo was something people hadn’t been yet acquainted with. Everything new was practically always valued and appreciated in art world and, therefore, verismo has played important role in development of Italian theatre and opera. However, all the mentioned trends should be viewed in the context of the century to get the whole picture of style development. Nevertheless, the style is rather complex as it combined delicacy and violence, rudeness and kindness, etc. Verismo was creator of new reality, in which sensationalism and triviality came together in â€Å"Iris† and â€Å"Tosca†. It is necessary to add that verismo defined new kind of musical dramaturgy which was so needed after the decline of Romantic melodrama. I see Verismo combined together expressionism, symbolism and exoticism. Verismo tended to create reality through truth as ‘vero’ means ‘truth’ in Italian. The genre couldn’t betray its original meaning. However, in contrast to naturalism, verismo rejected the scientific nature and social usefulness. Frankly saying, I think that some veristi were likely to be pessimists who based their works on the premise of impersonality. Failure to impose personal meaning shows desire to escape from reality they tended to reflect.