Sacral chronotope of “Le nozze di Figaro” by W. A. Mozart

Section 1. Modern Revisions of Musical and Historical Heritage

Abstract

Statement of the problem. Despite the prevailing confidence that the content of W. A. Mozart’s opera “Le nozze di Figaro” is revealed through thrilling twists and turns, the article argues that commedia per musica possesses meanings, whose recognition requires an understanding of the layers hidden beneath the surface of burlesque and humor. The relevance of the study is due to the need for a modern revision of the interpretation of the opera’s content as profane and unproblematic, and the disclosure of the sacred and mythological content encrypted in it. Objectives, methods and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of the sacral chronotope in W. A. Mozart’s opera “Le nozze di Figaro”. The scientific novelty of the study lies in establishing the features of sacral chronotope and opera myth in the comic opera of the musical genius, which opens up the possibility of understanding it as the embodiment of Umberto Eco’s concept of interpreting a work of art as ‘opera aperta’. The study uses such methods of myth-operology as extra-mythological, onomatological, mythological-symbolic, as well as the method of deconstruction.

Research results. The signs of solar, lunar, twin myths, the myth of the providential child, and the mythologems of God’s judgment and miracle allow one to interpret W. A. Mozart’s commedia per musica as an operatic myth. The embodiment of the paired roles of the married couple, determine the appropriateness of interpreting Mozart’s commedia per musica as a carnivalized sacral chronotope. The extension of myth-making component to comic opera leads to the conclusion that myth-making acquires significance of the genre nature of ‘opera scenica’. Beginning with “Le nozze di Figaro”, in Mozart’s comic operas the sacral component is heightened transforming them into operatic myths. Interpreting comic opera as an operatic myth expands the boundaries of myth operology.

Conclusion. The spreading the myth-making nature of opera to its comic embodiment determines transformation of the ideas about its exclusively “profane” meaning. Everydayness is the reverse side of the sacral chronotope of Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”, which is manifested through the principle of metamorphosis. The conclusion regarding the understanding myth-making as the genre nature of opera is supported by the fact that Mozart’s later operas, which have a comic component, emerge as an expression of the operatic myth.