‘Bella morte’ e ‘giustizia poetica’ nell’opera romantica (e oltre)
Giorgio Pagannone
Abstract
The concept of “poetic justice”, dear above all to Anglo-Saxon literary criticism and dramaturgy, has not been investigated much in opera studies. It indicates a superior moral category, and more precisely that unwritten but powerful law that requires that with the catastrophe, at the end of the action, injustice be revealed, innocence be finally recognized, and the wicked be punished. The concept is highlighted, for obvious reasons, in comedies and operas with a happy ending, where Good triumphs over Evil. But it also applies to tragedy, where there is «a logical and motivated catastrophe satisfying the tragic necessity of catharsis despite the death of the sympathetic central figure or figures» (W. Parker Bowman – R. Hamilton Ball, Theatre Language. A Dictionary of Terms in English of the Drama and Stage from Medieval to Modern Times, New York, 1961, p. 268). In the opera, the tragic “cathartic” ending (or «consolatory death scene», according to David Rosen’s definition) has the possibility of being magnified by singing and music, and therefore of making more evident the “poetic justice”, the compensation or moral redemption of the dying character or characters, more evident: think for example of the endings of Norma, Traviata, Simon Boccanegra. The vision of an afterlife, of an Elsewhere where happiness denied on earth is granted, often accompanies the “beautiful deaths” in melodrama, sublimated by music, and can also be considered a form of “poetic justice”: think of the finale of Aida, where Aida and Radamès can intertwine a very tender love duet in extremis, after having experienced every kind of obstacle to their earthly love.The aim of the essay is to illustrate the concept of “poetic justice” in its various forms and scenic realizations, especially in the tragic subjects of nineteenth-century opera, through the analysis of emblematic, or even prob¬lematic and controversial cases, with particular attention to the various operas on the subject of Romeo and Juliet (starting with Romani and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi), and their respective endings.
Keywords
Giustizia poetica – Finale tragico – Bella morte – Drammaturgia – Romeo e Giulietta
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