The present conference aims to study the creative trajectory of the Brazilian contemporary opera confection and also how the creation networks of opera work, within a communicational and semiotical approach.
It also aims to explore the indissociability of the many artistic languages other than the music that coexist in opera. We are considering here the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art” or “universal artwork”) used by German philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff and German composer Richard Wagner.
Starting there, this research seeks an analytical proposal in the complexity of the archives. This proposal is mostly based on the process criticism theory developed by Brazilian author Cecilia Almeida Salles.
Salles regards what we call in Portuguese “tramas do pensamento”, or “the thought’s weft” (trama in Portuguese means both woof/weft or plot). Therefore, the creative environment is thought as an interconnected and interactive network. Salles is interested, also, in the consequences of this network: how does it generate new possibilities? The researcher is, thus, contrary to an idea of the creativity being something isolated and at rest.
This research presents an interdisciplinary perspective of the multidimensionality in the music analysis field. It can be, therefore, a contribution to the Tracking the Creative Process In Music congress, as it brings some Brazilian points of view about the subject.
This investigation displays the necessity of analyzing the composers’ works from the perspective of opera being a sign system (or sign network) in process, and not merely a product. It relies on the semiotics theory of Charles Sanders Peirce dialoguing with theoreticians of the complexity path, such as Edgar Morin; musicologists who study genetic criticism in music, such as Nicolas Donin; theorizers of the network concept, such as André Parente and Brazilian opera theorizers, such as Sérgio Casoy and Lauro Machado Coelho. Recent publication made by specialized critics and journalists concerning the music of the 21st century will also be considered, such as Alex Ross and João Luiz Sampaio.
The concept of this study began with an opportunity to observing closely the process of composing and rehearsing the opera O Menino e a Liberdade (2013), from Brazilian composer (resident in Sao Paulo) Ronaldo Miranda. The author also made some documents available for the researcher, which will be crucial for a creative process analysis.
O Menino e a Liberdade’s music was based on Brazilian writer Paulo Bomfim’s chronicle of the same name, and libretto by writer, professor and researcher Joge Coli. The opera was included in the 2013 Theatro São Pedro season and was conducted by maestro Roberto Duarte (premiere: november 2013).
This opera is a secluded sample of a contemporary Brazilian opera that was actually staged. Presentations with these characteristics are very rare in Brazil, since the opera theaters in the county prefer to privilege overpast compositions - hoping they will attract audiences more easily than newer compositions.
During the period I was watching O Menino e a Liberdade’s rehearsals, I was able to collect important data that will eventually help to understand this piece, this genre and will also be helpful in mapping expression layers of the creative process, such as: 1) the production context; 2) procedures of creation; 3) multiple interactions; 4) the part each subject takes in a collective process; 5) what part does the manager institution of an opera theater plays.
The latter topic is essential to understand how the opera seasons are set in Brazil and why is it so difficult to perform new compositions here. The lack of a cultural public policy associated with deficient investments of the private sector in classical music, and also the absence of articulation between new composers make it difficult to premiere contemporary work in Brazil.
In addition to the five items cited previously, this research will also discuss specific mode of action within Ronaldo Miranda’s project, specific matters of opera and general creation issues.
This analysis does not consider only musical elements, but seeks to incorporate all the aspects cited. It may lead to a broader discussion about opera, that goes beyond a merely musicological analysis.
It is not my objective, however, to exhaust every analytical and interpretative possibility when reading a creative process. It is, otherwise, a possible glance from a general theory that carefully ponders about communication objects.
The results of this research may indicate new forms of approaching the genre opera (and, also, the classical music) from a semiotic askance within the theory of creative process in networks.