Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2000

’Quels accents ! quel langage !’ : examen du traitement de l’alexandrin dans Les vêpres siciliennes

Résumé

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.
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Dates et versions

hal-04882569 , version 1 (30-01-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04882569 , version 1

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Damien Colas Gallet. ’Quels accents ! quel langage !’ : examen du traitement de l’alexandrin dans Les vêpres siciliennes. L'Opéra en France et en Italie (1791-1925). Une scène privilégiée d'échanges littéraires et musicaux, 1999, Villecroze, France. ⟨hal-04882569⟩
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