Zugl.: München, Univ., Diss., 2008

This thesis aims to provide an analytical study of the Giuseppe Verdi's last dramatic opera, Otello. We have tried to condense the most prominent contributions in the academic world in relation to this opera with two purposes: on the one hand to offer them for the first time in Spanish language and on the other hand to use them as a basis for our own study. Once we followed the steps Verdi's Otello run from the original idea to its crystallization, and once we examined the content of composer and librettist correspondence, we were able to provide three different nature analysis. The first one focuses on the comparison between the opera's text and the Shakespearian drama in the François Victor Hugo version -on which Boito based his adaptation- in order to elucidate which content from the original work remains in the one of the librettist. We concentrated then our study in the strictly musical subject, by clearing up which is the language employed by the composer in order to develop the work, and the resources he uses in order to build his music. Finally, we offer an integrated analysis focused on the relationship between music and text that establishes which are the dynamics employed to connect and supply dimension to the drammaturgy of the work. This thesis demonstrates that Verdi uses a new style when composing this opera, underlying a desire to break with the Ottocento traditional musical form, without sacrificing his irrefutable hallmark. / Esta tesis pretende realizar un estudio analítico de la última ópera dramática de Giuseppe Verdi, Otello. En ella se han tratado de condensar las aportaciones más notables en el mundo académico respecto a esta ópera con dos fines: por un lado, ofrecerlas por primera vez en lengua española, y por otro, como base para nuestro propio estudio. Después de seguir los pasos que recorrió el Otello de Verdi desde el nacimiento de la idea hasta la cristalización de la misma y de examinar el contenido de la correspondencia entre el compositor y su libretista, se proporcionan tres análisis de diferente naturaleza. El primero de ellos se centra en la comparación entre el texto de la ópera y el drama shakespeariano en la versión de François Victor Hugo -sobre la cual Arrigo Boito basó su adaptación-, para dilucidar qué es lo que queda del drama original en el libreto. A continuación focalizamos nuestro estudio en la parte estrictamente musical, precisando cuál es el lenguaje que emplea el compositor para desarrollar la obra y qué recursos utiliza para construir su música. Finalmente, ofrecemos un análisis integrado que atiende a la relación entre música y texto, para establecer las funciones que desempeñan ambos elementos y extraer cuáles son las dinámicas utilizadas para conectar y dimensionar la dramaturgia de la obra. La tesis demuestra que Verdi utiliza un lenguaje novedoso en la composición de esta ópera, reflejándose en la búsqueda latente de romper con las formas tradicionales del Ottocento, sin renunciar a su sello irrefutable. / Aquesta tesi pretén realitzar un estudi analític de l'última òpera dramàtica de Giuseppe Verdi, Otello. Hem tractat de condensar les aportacions més notables del món acadèmic respecte d'aquesta òpera amb dues finalitats: d'una banda, oferir-les per primera vegada en llengua espanyola, i d'altra, com a base per al nostre propi estudi. Després de seguir els passos que va recórrer l'Otello de Verdi des del naixement de la idea fins a la seua cristal·lització i d'examinar el contingut de la correspondència entre el compositor i el seu llibretista, es proporcionen tres anàlisis de diferent natura. La primera d'elles se centra en la comparació entre el text de l'obra i el del drama shakespearià en la versió de François Victor Hugo -sobre la qual Arrigo Boito va basar la seua adaptació-, per tal de dilucidar què queda del drama original en el treball de Boito. A continuació, hem focalitzat el nostre estudi en la part estrictament musical i hem descobert quin llenguatge utilitza el compositor per a construir la seua música. Per a finalitzar, proposem una anàlisi integrada, centrada en la relació entre música i text, per tal d'establir les funcions que exerceixen ambdós elements i extraure les dinàmiques utilitzades per a connectar i dimensionar la dramatúrgia de l'obra. Aquesta tesi demostra que Verdi utilitza un llenguatge innovador en la composició d'aquesta òpera, que es reflecteix en la cerca latent del trencament amb les formes tradicionals de l'Ottocento, tot i que sense renunciar al seu segell irrefutable. / Ferrando Montalvá, M. (2017). OTELLO: ESTUDIO ANALÍTICO DE LA ÚLTIMA ÓPERA TRÁGICA DE VERDI EN SU CONTEXTO [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/90494

Cette thèse de doctorat étudie l’image de Venise dans les œuvres d’écrivains vénitiens ou liés à Venise entre 1866 et la Première Guerre mondiale, époque où Venise occupait une place fondamentale dans la littérature mondiale, notamment à travers la littérature de voyage. À partir du constat de la méconnaissance dont pâtissent à l’inverse les auteurs vénitiens de l’époque, on analyse la représentation de Venise chez Camillo Boito (1836-1914), Enrico Castelnuovo (1839-1915), Giacinto Gallina (1852-1897) et Gerolamo Rovetta (1851-1910). Ces auteurs permettent d’engager une réflexion sur la littérature mineure. La première partie livre les jalons nécessaires pour cerner l’objet d’étude. Après avoir traité la question de l’existence d’un mythe littéraire de Venise au XIXe siècle, elle montre la marginalité du point de vue italien sur Venise dans les études consacrées aux représentations littéraires de la ville et dresse un tableau détaillé de sa situation économique et politique. La seconde partie est consacrée à l’analyse du corpus. Quatre chapitres présentent les lignes de force de la représentation que chacun des auteurs fait de Venise en mettant en évidence leur traitement des topoï littéraires vénitiens de l’époque. La troisième partie dresse certaines conclusions : Boito, Castelnuovo, Rovetta et Gallina mettent le mythe littéraire de Venise à distance, en même temps qu’ils illustrent les mutations qui affectent la société vénitienne de leur temps. Elle avance enfin l’hypothèse que leur vision de Venise, qui n’est pas fondée sur la singularité de la ville, permet d’appréhender une forme de modernité vénitienne, rarement mise en avant jusque-là. / This doctoral thesis provides an analysis of the image of Venice in the works of four writers, either born in Venice or strongly attached to the city, between 1866 and World War One, a time when Venice featured prominently in European literature. After having analysed the limited fame of Venetian writers in a literary context focusing on masterpieces which were mainly the results of their writers’ travels to Venice, this works analyses the Venetian works of Camillo Boito (1836-1914), Enrico Castelnuovo (1839-1915), Giacinto Gallina (1852-1897) and Gerolamo Rovetta (1851-1910) and focuses on the question of minor literature. The first part provides a series of benchmarks. It studies the possibility of a Venetian literary myth and details the economic and political history of Venice at the time. It also focuses on the challenges of minor literature when related to cultural history. The four chapters of the second part analyse the four writers’ works, emphasizing the way they deal with the Venetian stereotypes of the time. The third part draws some conclusions: Boito, Castelnuovo, Rovetta and Gallina distance themselves from the Venetian literary myth and their works show the deep changes that affected the Venetian society at the time. It offers the hypothesis that their works may have remained unknown because they didn’t dwell on the Venetian singularity. At the same time, they enable their readers to discover a modern Venice, an aspect rarely taken into consideration in the studies dedicated to Nineteenth Century literary Venice.

In the 1860s, the Italian Scapigliati (literally ‘the dishevelled ones’) promoted a systematic refusal of traditional literary and artistic values, coupled with a nonconformist and rebellious lifestyle. The Scapigliatura movement is still understudied, particularly outside Italy, but it plays a pivotal role in the transition from Italian Romanticism to Decadentism. One of the authors most frequently associated with Scapigliatura in terms of literary influence as well as eccentric Bohemianism is the French poet Charles Baudelaire, certainly amongst the most innovative and pioneering figures of nineteenth-century European poetry. Studies on the relationship between Baudelaire and Scapigliatura have commonly taken into account only the most explicit and superficial Baudelairian aspects of Scapigliatura’s poetry, such as the notion of aesthetic revolt against a conventional idea of beauty, which led the Scapigliati to introduce into their poetry morally shocking and unconventional subjects. Furthermore, these studies have not focused on drawing a detailed and systematic picture that portrays the connections not only between Baudelaire and the poets of Scapigliatura, but also among the Scapigliati themselves. As a result, the true extent of Baudelaire’s influence has not been acknowledged. This study strives to fill the gaps in the existing scholarship. My thesis posits that Baudelaire’s influence on the poetry of Scapigliatura, almost exclusively related to the first two editions of the verse collection Les Fleurs du Mal, is more profound and substantial than scholarship has heretofore recognised. The thesis consists of three chapters, each dedicated to one of the three most important poets of Scapigliatura, namely Arrigo Boito, Emilio Praga, and Giovanni Camerana. The investigation of Baudelaire’s influence on the Scapigliati is conducted both individually, searching for Baudelairian features in their work, and comparatively, contrasting differences and aiming to locate similarities. The main focus is on the major poetic works that are strictly related to the phases in these poets’ careers when they were associated with Scapigliatura: Boito’s Il libro dei versi and Re Orso; Praga’s Tavolozza and Penombre; and Camerana’s poems written between 1863 and 1869. My aim is to establish if there was what can be called a ‘Baudelairian school’ within Scapigliatura. Ultimately, I argue that the relationship between Baudelaire and the poetry of Scapigliatura is more complex than has previously been understood. I demonstrate a vast and wide-ranging influence – on a conceptual, lexical, and stylistic level – on the three poets discussed in this work, which can be traced back to the very beginning of their careers in the early 1860s. Far from being simply an element of aesthetic and moral rebellion in order to épater le bourgeois, the Baudelairism of Boito, Praga, and Camerana in their Scapigliatura years accomplished two ends: on the one hand, it preserved some of the more traditional aspects of Baudelaire’s poetry, which have been largely overlooked by Italian literary scholarship on Scapigliatura; on the other hand, it introduced a thematic and formal modernity into Italian poetry, paving the way for the Decadent movement as well as the twentieth-century avant-gardes.