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      Indiana University Press

      Office of Scholarly Publishing

      Herman B Wells Library 350

      1320 East 10th Street

      Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

       iupress.org

      © 2020 by Nina Penner

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      No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Penner, Nina, author.

      Title: Storytelling in opera and musical theater / Nina Penner.

      Other titles: Musical meaning and interpretation.

      Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2020. | Series: Musical meaning and interpretation | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2020010918 (print) | LCCN 2020010919 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253049971 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253049964 (hardback) | ISBN 9780253049988 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Opera. | Musical theater. | Storytelling.

      Classification: LCC ML1700 .P426 2020 (print) | LCC ML1700 (ebook) | DDC 782.1—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010918

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010919

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       For Kevin

       CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Overture

1What Is a Narrative?

2Telling, Operatically

       3Character-Narrators

       4Orchestral Narration and Authorial Commentary

       5Character-Focused Narration

       6Works and Performances

       7Performances of Works

       8Performances as Works

       Finale

       Bibliography

       Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I AM MUCH BETTER SUITED TO TALKING ABOUT narratives than telling them. Nevertheless, the only orderly way I can conceive of recognizing the many individuals who have shaped the ideas in this book and have made its publication possible is as a story. It begins with a clarinetist in the pit of the MacMillan Theatre at the University of Toronto. As my husband is fond of relating, he could always pick me out as the one whose head was firmly turned toward the stage whenever I was not required to play. When I decided that I needed to see more of that world, I discovered that the University of Toronto was also home to a large and lively community of opera scholars. The courses I took in my first term of graduate studies in musicology—Linda Hutcheon and Caryl Clark’s interdisciplinary opera class and Sherry Lee’s aesthetics seminar—anticipate many of the aims and preoccupations of this book. Linda, Caryl, Sherry, and the other members of the Operatics working group provided me with a model of collaborative, interdisciplinary scholarship.

      In Trevor Ponech’s cinematic narrative seminar at McGill University, I discovered that many of the questions philosophers were asking of cinema had not been given serious attention in opera studies. More than providing me with the topic and methodology for this book, Trevor’s class opened up an entire branch of scholarship that was virtually unknown in musicology. There I found my scholarly calling to make work in analytic philosophy better known in my field. I am grateful for Trevor’s unwavering belief in my work and continual encouragement to think bigger in terms of its import. In revising my early work on this book, his advice—“be shorter, sharper, and more shocking”—has served me well.

      These ideas may never have reached a musicological audience without the mentorship of Lloyd Whitesell. Even when he was less than convinced by some of them, he helped me make the best possible case for their utility to the musicological reader. There have been many times that I have submitted something to him, believing that to be my final version, only to be told that I could do better. Although I can’t say that I always appreciated this advice at the time, those extra rounds of revision have often made the difference between a verdict of “revise and resubmit” and an outright rejection.

      Edmund Goehring is another scholar who has helped me find a place in musicology. Ed assured me that the discipline could benefit from what I had to say and that there were kindred spirits who would listen. He has been one of my most important interlocutors and incisive critics. His good influence has encouraged me to read more widely, think more broadly, and heed that old narratological adage to “show,” whenever possible, rather than “tell.”

      McGill proved to be an equally fertile intellectual and creative environment in which to develop the ideas for this study. I benefitted from countless conversations with and suggestions from Lloyd Whitesell, Trevor Ponech, Steven Huebner, David Davies, Lars Lih, and Allan Hepburn. David Davies suggested that the ingredients model may have more applicability to opera performance than I had initially assumed, a suggestion that led me to rethink the theoretical foundations of the latter portion of this book.

      My tremendously talented peers at McGill and elsewhere provided invaluable intellectual and moral support. Zoey M. Cochran has taught me a tremendous amount about Italian opera and also how to become my own refuge from life’s disappointments. The singer-cum-director Russell Wustenberg’s belief that these ideas would be of interest to performers has encouraged me to expand my coverage of performance in this book. I am grateful to Harry Thorrington for improving my taste in literature and for sharing his insatiable appetite for life; Alyssa Michaud for discussions about opera and new media and for Sunday Star Trek, a highlight of my week; Kristin Franseen for conversations about British literature and queer culture over beers at Benelux; Kyle Kaplan for being a lively interlocutor on any subject; and Margaret Frainier for being the first scholar to apply the ideas in this book and, in so doing, expanding my knowledge of Russian opera. My regular Skype chats with Amanda Hsieh, no matter where in the world we happen to be, have kept me feeling connected and supported.

      I finished drafting this book

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