A mad scene (French: Scène de folie; German: Wahnsinnsszene; Italian: Scena della pazzia) is an enactment of insanity in an opera, play,[1] or the like. It may be well contained in a number, appear during or recur throughout a more through-composed work, be deployed in a finale, form the underlying basis of the work, or constitute the entire work. They are often very dramatic, representing virtuoso pieces for singers. Some were written for specific singer, usually of a soprano Fach.
The mad scene first appeared in seventeenth-century Venetian operas, especially those of Francesco Cavalli, most notably in L'Egisto (for a male inamorata). More notable examples were composed for opere serie or semiserie, as in those of Georg Frideric Handel (e.g., Orlando, farcically in Imeneo). They were a popular convention of French and especially Italian opera in the early nineteenth century, becoming a bel canto staple. Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor is the most famous example; it was likely modeled on Vincenzo Bellini's earlier example in I puritani. Gilbert and Sullivan satirized this convention via Mad Meg in Ruddigore. As composers sought more realism (verismo), they adapted the scene, better integrating it into the opera. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky often deployed these scenes as finales.[citation needed]
The modern musical theatre was also influenced by the operatic mad scene, as in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard or Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. Some ballets contain similar scenes, most notably Adolphe Adam's Giselle.[1]
Anderson, James (1993) The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta, New York
Arias, Enrique. 1999. "Reflections from a Cracked Mirror: Madness in Music and Theory of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries—An Overview". In A Compendium of American Musicology: Essays in Honor of John F. Ohl, eds. Enrique Arias, Susan M. Filler, William V. Porter, and Jeffrey Wasson, 133–154. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. ISBN978-0-8101-1536-1 (hbk).
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Любимов, Д. В. Уберто и Мельник: безумные отцы в оперном театре XIX века // Опера в музыкальном театре: история и современность. Тезисы VI Международной научной конференции, 11–15 марта 2024 г. / ред.-сост. Н.В. Пилипенко, под ред. И.П. Сусидко, Н.В. Пилипенко, А.И. Масловой / Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных. — М.: Издательство «Российская академия музыки имени Гнесиных», 2024. - С. 120-121. URL: https://gnesin-academy.ru/upload/iblock/8c7/45titr0z13o7jvzvuuwjnvtpr2gm2xcp/AbstractsBook_Conf_Opera_2024.pdf
Любимов Д. В. Сцена безумия Мелинды из оперы Ф. Эркеля «Банк Бан»: преломление европейских и национальных традиций // Музыка в системе культуры: Научный вестник Уральской консерватории.–2024.– Вып. 37.– С. 6–14.
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