Giasone - Musicological Issues

Musicological Issues

Ellen Rosand remarks that by the mid-seventeenth-century Venetian public opera had several conventions, several of which Giasone exhibits. For example: the three-act format, with the first act being the longest; dances conclude the first two acts; the Faustini lieto fine (happy ending) with concluding love duet; and an emotional climax with a lament. She notes that several aria and scene types had also been conventionalized by this point, and she notes that Giasone provides a model for several of them.

For example, Delfa’s short aria “E follia” is a part of a comic scene (III.12). The same could be said for Demo’s aria "Son gobbo, son Demo" (I.6).

Two trumpet arias with military connotations – based on Monteverdi’s stile concitato – are found in II.11: Alinda’s “Quanti Soldati” and Besso and Alinda’s “Non piu guerra”. The same scene has a conventional gratuitous reference to music which has not importance to the plot: Alinda and Besso’s “Ma quento piu” and a love duet: Alinda and Besso’s “Non piu guerra” (a mixed genre, it is also a trumpet aria).

Two sleep scenes are also included. Sleep scenes can serve important dramatic functions. For example, in act 3, 2-4 Medea and Giasone sing “Dormi, dormi” and then fall asleep in each other's arms. Isifile arrives and wakes Giasone and begin a conversation. Here, sleep allows characters to reveal or gain information. For example, Besso reveals his innermost thoughts in secret nearby the couple and by feigning continued sleep, Medea is able to secretly listen to the discussion to gain information. In the second sleep scene (act 3, 16-17), Giasone has fainted and becomes vulnerable to attack.

Medea’s “Dell'antro Magico” (act 1, 14) is an example of an invocation or ombra scene in which magic is used. Such scenes use a special kind of poetic meter called “sdrucciolo” which places an awkward accent on the antepenultimate syllable. Such scenes also feature a chorus as the Chorus of Spirits that follows Medea’s chant.

II.14 is mad scene (“Indietro rio canaglia”) in which Isifile has lost her sanity. Mad scenes can be traced to the character Licori in Giulio Strozzi's libretto La finta pazza Licori. Such scenes are characterized by a character's drastic emotional changes. Mad characters are "freed from the decorum of normal behavior." This particular scene is perhaps not the typical mad scene, for here Giasone portrays Isifile as insane to Medea in order to cover for his own actions. When Isifile appears, only Medea believes that she is mad. By the time the scene is over, Isifile does indeed become angry at Giasone and Medea.

Finally, there are three laments in the opera. Isifile also has two laments: "Lassa, che far degg'io?" (aria/recitative, I.13) and “Infelice ch’ascolto” (recitative, III.21). Isifile’s lament (act 3-21) is of the type based on the Monteverdi’s Arianna (1608) model, in which several sections express various emotions. Towards the end, the lamenter typically curses the lover who has abandoned her (or him), only to repent and beg forgiveness.

In addition to Isifile's laments, Egeo also laments that Medea has left him in I.4 with the recitative "Si parte, mi deride?" Susan McClary suggests that because the expression of emotion was more acceptable for seventeenth-century women than men, that lamentation was more acceptable for women than men. Moreover, a male character that laments has somehow been musically emasculated.

Giasone's mythological characters and plots are typical of early Venetian opera. Such subject matter could be used for political purpose by the creators of libretti, many of whom were members of Academia degli Incogniti (“Academy of the Unknown”), a group of libertine, skeptical, and often pessimistic thinkers in Venice at the time when Giasone was produced. Often, these plots were modifies to reinforce inequitable gender roles or question authorities, most notably the Catholic Church and especially the Incogniti’s ultimate rivals, the Jesuits.

The character Giasone was originally cast for a castrato. Susan McClary notes that, in this particular opera, this choice raises some gender issues. She argues that the singer type (e.g. bass, tenor, castrato, alto and soprano) each had certain associations. For example, a bass voice was generally used for an authoritarian or powerfully masculine figure. For example, a character such as Ercole who has as sense of responsibility and obligation to duty would be cast as a bass role. By contrast, Giasone is a youthful, attractive character more concerned with the sensual pleasures of love than any sort of duty, whether it be questing for the Golden Fleece or duties as husband and father. Such a character who shirks responsibility would be considered “effeminate” by seventeenth-century Venetian standards. Because castrati have a youthful appearance due to lack of secondary sexual characteristics, they could easily slip into such a role. Thus, they could play characters with erotic appeal and it would have been acceptable to the seventeenth-century Venetian audience for such characters to have irresponsible sexual relations during the course of the drama. McClary notes that Giasone sings the aria “Delizie contenti” upon entering in II.2, thus declaring he is a character of this “effeminate” type: youthful, attractive, androgynous, pleasure-seeking, and lacking a sense of duty. She stresses that such a character would not have been considered a good role model for masculine behavior at the time and place of the opera’s first performance.