AMS-NE: New England Chapter of the AMS

AMS-NE Chapter Meeting Saturday, May 3, 2014 Providence College (RI) Ji Yeon Lee, “Tristan und Isolde and Francesca da Rimini: An Intertextual Reading” Wagner’s· Tristan und Isolde ·(1865) and Zandonai’s· Francesca da Rimini ·(1914) share important musical and dramatic similarities. Wagner and Zandonai’s compositional languages are both characterized by chromatic harmony and goal-driven mobility, although the latter’s approach is naturally more radical. Both plots portray illegitimate romance and uncontrollable passion leading the protagonists to fatal ends; furthermore,·Francesca’s narrative—drawn from “Inferno” of Dante’s La Divina Commedia—invokes·Tristan at key points. In Act 1, a minstrel recounts the Tristan story; “Isolde” is mentioned during the ladies-in-waiting scene in Act 3, as an analogy for Francesca; in the same act, Paolo’s “Daylight is my enemy, the night is my friend” recalls phrases from the Act 2 love duet of Tristan . · Beyond surface similarities,...