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16
Section 3. Music
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-20-3-19-22
Аrutyunyan Gayane Hachikovna, teacher of department of solo singing, Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music, Ukraine
E-mail: hayuhi19830909@gmail.com
STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF THE MUSICAL AND ARTISTIC MEANING OF THE OPERA CHARACTER
Abstract. The article defines the structural and functional levels of the opera character in the aspect of the content and specifics of the opera genre. As such levels, the verbal, intonational-melodic and plastic levels are distinguished, which are considered from the standpoint of the main factors of the logic of the performing interpretation of the opera character. Also discussed the national-style aspect of each of the specified systemic levels of the opera character, which is associated with the specificity of the artistic embodiment of the types of linguistic and musical intonation, emotional reactions and behavioral manifestation characteristics of a representative of a particular national culture.
Keywords: opera; opera character; musical image; opera character semantics; vocal intonation; plastic complex; national context.
The operatic character is the main semantic component of the opera, which determines its artistic integrity and aesthetic aspect. It can also be regarded as the basic element, the artistic and motivational "heart" of the opera singer's performance, the highest idea of which is connected with his universal influence on the listener. That is why the category of opera character is a rich source of research interest, both musicological and performing: understanding its essential aspects is relevant for any historical time, any generation of performers, historians and theorists of musical art. Given the small number of studies on this issue in Ukrainian musicology, the appeal to it seems timely and has both theoretical and practical value for modern opera performance.
Questions of the specifics and functions of the artistic character in the art of music are tradition-
ally considered in musicological research, which in one way or another touches on the problem of musical content (works by A. Mazel, V. Kholopova, E. Nazaykinsky, L. Kazantseva, N. Ocheretovskaya, O. Samoilenko and etc.). The variety of musicological concepts is reduced to understanding the musical character as the main element of musical sense, which in intonational form embodies individual-composer ideas about the reality of life, which indicates the principle of dialectical unity of musical character as a unit of musical sense (subjective-objective).
The purpose of the article is to determine the structural and functional specificity of the opera character as a systemic phenomenon.
In the musical art, the concept of "character" has a multipurpose function: it is the factor that determines the composer's idea, it often becomes a tool
to achieve the fullness of artistic meaning in the performance of a musical work, which is used with equal success by pedagogues and performers. This concept is all the more relevant for the art of musical theater, in which the musical character takes a visible, visible form that lives in the space of stage action. Accordingly, we are talking about the category of musical art, which is inseparable from the understanding of musical content and meaning, which determines its communicative function. As a specific form of musical image, the opera character, due to its synthetic nature, combines different levels of embodiment of artistic content and, accordingly, determines the complex principle of its performance. Traditional musicologi-cal understanding of the musical character is based on the dialectical unity of objective and subjective factors in the formation of musical content, which is determined by the essence of creative activity as such. Therefore, V. Kholopova, for example, considers the musical-artistic image as "a holistic representation of the subject of the idea and intonation-sound structure of the musical work" [8, 24].
In the projection on opera art, the problem of musical character acquires additional meaning, because due to its synthetic nature, opera puts forward a slightly different form of musical character, due to its complex nature, in which the sound and visual factors are equal in their functional meanings. This is due to the structure of the operatic character: it is essential elements of verbal and musical-intonational (vocal and instrumental) elements, as well as plasticity, facial expressions, and outward look. Together, these components form a stage image of the character, his visible level. Each of these elements complies its function in the formation of musical sense and requires the performer to have a clear idea of the expressive potential of verbal-linguistic, vocal-intonation and plastic aspects of the opera character and conscious work with them as a "tool" of artistic reality.
The operatic image always has a high degree of representativeness in relation to the cultural space that have spawned it. Wang Te's dissertation "The
Phenomenon of National Style in the Context of Opera Musical Poetics" points out the importance of the national-style indicator of the opera genre for an adequate understanding of its artistic meaning, and this indicator is directly related to the functional meanings of the opera character. The author of the dissertation states that "opera, as a versatile and integrating different genre and style intentions of music synthetic art form is a kind of mirror of semantic attitudes of culture, so one way or another always solves the problem of national choice as a common and unique for this historical type of culture" [3, 47]. Therefore, in order to determine the national and stylistic indicators of an opera image, there is a need to turn to the essence of the concept of a character or "image", without which the art of opera in general is impossible, because "image - the heart of art, and art itself is way of thinking with artistic images [5, 34]. As Dong Xinyuan notes in his dissertation, "opera heroes enter the memory of culture as carriers of the necessary positive qualities and attitudes, and their characters are perceived as models of human communication, historical and timeless at the same time, therefore both sensory and ideal-spiritual" [2, 15].
Image and character are two main concepts that are involved in the analysis of a piece of art, including music. Scientific understanding of these two concepts developed mainly in psychological science, as well as in aesthetics and literary criticism, the theoretical generalizations of which are very significant and useful for musicological understanding of musical imagery. Artistic image or character in the classical literary definition is "... a category of aesthetics that characterizes the result of understanding the author (artist) of any phenomenon or process by means that are inherent in a particular art form, which is objectified in the form of a work as a whole or its individual fragments, parts" [6, 363]. In the same way unfolds and musicological ideas about the musical image (character), which is recorded in the theory of musical content and semantics: "Since the sound image corresponds to the nature of mu-
sic, it is natural to call a musical image an artistic representation that is embodied ("materialized") in the musical sound",- notes L. Kazantseva [4, 136]. G. Hegel, in whose aesthetics the creative nature of art is especially deeply revealed, noted that the image (character) is a unity of the general and the concrete, the singular. According to his system, "... art comes from the very absolute idea ..., and its purpose is the sensual image of the absolute" [1, 118]. It follows that "... the content of art is an idea, and its form is a sensual, figurative embodiment" [1, 32]. Hegel emphasized that a work of art "... should not represent the meaning in its generality, taken as such, but should individualize this generality, give it a sensually singular character" [1, 30].
The proposition that the artistic character is the unity of the general and the singular constituted the classical representation of aesthetic thought. It is usually noted that, unlike the scientist, the artist conveys the general not through abstractions, but in a concrete-sensual form of a single phenomenon. It is emphasized that the artist takes from life the individual features of the character and conceives and synthesizes them into a holistic image: images "... are created with the active participation of imagination: they not only reproduce single facts, but condense, concentrate important for the author aspects of life..." [7, 144]. Based on his individual idea oflife, on the understanding of its internal logic, its laws, the artist with the help of fantasy creates vital artistic characters. Therefore, the artistic character, being a form of cognition of life, at the same time reflects not only the real reality of any phenomenon or process reflected, but also the artist's idea of it, depending on his worldview and aesthetic views, which are largely formed under the influence of national and cultural traditions. The originality of artistic characters is directly correlated with the method of reflecting reality, chosen by the artist, who by definition is the carrier of a national culture with a certain system of ideas about the world and emotional and mental reactions to reality, a specific mental complex.
We can talk about the national-cultural certainty of what otherwise forms the opera hero, which is an artistic reproduction of national culture in its individualized form. The influence of the environment, according to the fair remark of A. Nikolaev, ultimately determines the fate of man, forms his model of behavior. "The unity of social laws, according to which society lives, and the power of which affects each of its representatives, determines the general features of this unique personality" [5, 37]. In this context, the opinion of Dong Xinyuan is extremely relevant, who, exploring the semantics of the opera character, states the following: "The main characteristics of people's creative experience can be reflected, concentrated in the content of the opera, acquiring the qualities of both canon and exemplary, becoming necessary musical and figurative psychosemantic artifacts" [2, 15]. Such psychosemantic artifacts include the main components of the opera character, which were mentioned above: verbal-linguistic and vocal-intonation elements (sound complex) and plastic-scenographic elements (visual complex). Each of these components can act as a carrier of national-stylistic quality, the artistic equivalent of the content and sense of the national picture of the world.
Thus, verbal language, which forms the basis of the opera libretto, serves as the main "engine" of dramatic development, the source of stage action and the substantive main expression of the opera hero. But at the same time, the verbal language of the opera hero captures a specific type of "speech" intonation that is characteristic of a national language and, ultimately, determines the image ofvocal intonation that voices the verbal text, as well as the general level ofits expression.
The vocal intonation of the opera character, which is the main expressive element of his image, is also indicative in terms of national style, as it is a direct reflection of the national performing tradition and thus remembers the musical-intonational profile of national culture. In this regard, Wang Te notes that the national specification of the opera form begins with the separation of the singing style
as determined by the national character - typical for this national culture emotional and psychological guidelines, including attitudes to the personality of the artist-musician [3].
As for the visual complex in the structure of the opera image, it is about the level of artistic meaning and "content" of the opera role, which is not always fixed in the opera score and becomes the prerogative of creative thinking of the performer, who in accordance with the composer stage image all the fullness and depth of the individuality of the opera hero with the help of plastic, facial expressions, costume, etc. This level is also quite defined in its national quality, as it has the ability in the stage gesture to reflect a specific type of character and temperament, the type of emotional reactions to events and a particular situational context. The image of the opera hero consists ofbehavioral nuances, which together form a holistic plastic form that translates the higher ideological content and determines the logic of the performer's interpretation.
Conclusions. Summarizing the considerations for the study of structural and functional levels of the opera image, it can be argued that this issue is extremely relevant for both musicologists and opera performers, as it touches on the most important and paramount problem of compliance with the performance interpretation of the opera character to its stylistic specificity. The outlined structural and functional elements of the opera character - verbal series, vocal intonation, plastic complex - have the potential of artistic reflection of the system of ideas about the world and person, types of speech and musical intonation, emotional reactions and behavioral manifestations of a national culture. Being the bearers of the national context of the opera, these elements in the artistic integrity of the opera character transform the generalized typological features of national consciousness into an individualized form of personality of the opera hero, personified in the means of musical expression and create semantic capacity of the opera character.
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