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A cinematic opera

Publicated to:JOURNAL OF SOUND, SILENCE, IMAGE AND TECHNOLOGY. (1): 7 - 16 - 2018-01-01 (1), DOI:

Authors: Juan Francisco de Dios Hernández; Mª Ángeles Ferrer Forés

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Abstract

The twentieth century was the backdrop to a sociological and aesthetic process in which the invention of film firmly established itself as an art form. It was not until the second wave of the avant-garde burst onto the creative scene during the 1920s that the aesthetic importance and transcendence of film began to be reconsidered. Few creative genres were impervious to its influence, but opera was and is one of them. This research reflects on how an opera, Charlot, by Bacarisse and Gómez de la Serna, used film as a valid aesthetic element for the first time; an action which enabled film to be seen as a transcendent event within the bounds of high European culture. In 1932, the aesthetic communion between Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Salvador Bacarisse resulted in an opera with not only a filmic plot line, but whose dramaturgy even dictated that projected scenes had to be employed. As part of the transition from silent to talking films, the opera Charlot is a work of vital importance when attempting to follow an unbroken line of research on the aesthetic interaction between film and music. The opera by Bacarisse expertly unfolds using a bold and contemporary neoclassical and polytonal language. Gómez de la Serna focused his plot on a conflict of aesthetic weight involving Charlie Chaplin the filmmaker, his character, and the issue of the disappearance of silent film. Analysing the aesthetic aspects of Charlot and its intense relationship with film in depth is essential for film musicology as the two genres exist in a shared space that is as important as it is rare, and which therefore must be broached.

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