’Quels accents ! quel langage !’ : examen du traitement de l’alexandrin dans Les vêpres siciliennes
Abstract
The anapest rhythm is used throughout Les vêpres
siciliennes, from the overture to the end of the opera, and
regularly appears in the crucial scenes of the work. If such
rhythm has a meaning, then it could be seen as something
comparable to a leitmotif. Frits Noske suggested in his
1980 study that the anapest motive is associated with
death, basing his analysis on an Italian tradition present in
many contemporary operas, including La traviata. Yet the
examination of the relationships between French
versification and melodic units leads to a different
interpretation. The abundance of anapest rhythms in Les
vêpres siciliennes is due to a typically Italian approach to
the French alexandrine, with which Verdi was confronted
for the first time directly, and not through a translation
from Italian. The repeated anapests derive in fact from the
prosodic rhythm of the verses of the Act II finale, which
Verdi puts to music in a strictly isometric way, whereas
Meyerbeer treated very similar verses in Les Huguenots
(1836) in a very different way. If this melodic cell has a
meaning, it is, therefore, of the emotions of humiliation and
thirst for vengeance.
Domains
Musicology and performing artsOrigin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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