We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
MUSICAL FORMS 277
tongs, sing about their mutual hatred for half an hour, that is bearable only on the operatic stage, where an ancient and noble cultural tradition protects them from ridicule. And after all it is the singing that is the most valuable in the scene just mentioned. But it does not follow from this that such a scene must absolutely be photographed in a setting of painted scenery. After all, operas are often performed in open-air theatres, in a natural setting. But even if the setting is natural, it must nevertheless be scenery and the public must know that it is scenery and that it is watching an operatic performance, even if the performance is staged in a real wood. If this is done, the outdated stylization of the action and acting (which cannot be avoided because the music requires it) will not be out of keeping with the natural environment.
By this device operas can be shown in the film with far greater decorative freedom than on the best of operatic stages. In the open-air theatre all of nature can be used for scenery.
However, in the operatic film the question of natural and unnatural presentation is not only a question of setting and scenery, but of direction and acting as well. Little can be changed in a dialogue inlaid with classical music. However ornate and long-winded it may appear to our taste, neither single sentences nor the whole dialogue can be cut without damaging the classical music. In a film depicting real life, such a dialogue would be impossible. In a film depicting scenes from an opera, it is natural.
Another problem which must be solved is the grimacing of singers. Those who sing consider in the first place the ears of the public, not their eyes. The talkie already posed a difficult problem when it compelled the actor to speak in a way intelligible to the ear, not the eye. The movement of a singer's mouth in close-up is a problem even more difficult of solution. The accurate forming of vowels and consonants made the movements of the lips empty and grotesque. How much more does this apply to singing! All this is less objectionable from the distance of the stage, but the nearness of the close-up can make it very unpleasant. This difficulty may be at least partially overcome by using the technique of the 'play-back', i.e.
18*