Operas - or other works - with embedded narratives

[Dave2002]

I'm trying to think of musical pieces which contain some other element - probably known to the audience, and which may be in a different style to the containing work.

Shakespeare's Hamlet contains a play within a play.

Verdi's Aida and Berg's Wozzeck both have marching bands [ either very grand or oomp-pah - depending on the whim of the director ...]

Mozart's Don Giovanni contains IIRC self reference in the final act, with a band playing music from the Marriage of Figaro.

Mascagni's Cavaleria Rusticana has a church scene, as does Tosca.

Also, of course operas like La Traviata have a ballet scene in which participants - supposedly street gypsy dancers - are brought into the salon.

Can anyone think of others?

Are there any operas which feature night club music, or rock bands, for example? The point being that by setting such features into a larger work it is possible to explore a range of different musical, dancing and acting styles.

[mikealdren]

Ariadne auf Naxos, a play within an opera and the party scene in Fledermaus has been used as a concert to show singers' party pieces (see Karajan and others)

[LHC]

I Pagliacci has a play within a play, with the murder of Nedda happening 'on stage' in the opera.

Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur is at least partially set backstage at the Comedie-Francaise, and includes a ballet in Act 3 of the Judgement of Paris which is provided as an entertainment during a party.

Similarly, the masked ball scene in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades includes an interlude, The Faithful Shepherdess, put on for guests at the party.

Many operas include ballet scenes, especially those premiered in Paris, where it was considered a necessity to include a ballet in Act 3 so that members of the Jockey Club attending the opera could ogle the ballerinas. Indeed, the initial failure of the 'Paris' version of Tannhauser is often ascribed to Wagner's decision to place the ballet in Act 1, immediately after the overture, as this meant that the Jockey Club members would have to attend from the beginning of the opera if they wanted to see the ballerinas. They objected vociferously to this as it would disrupt their normal dining schedule (they usually only attended for the later acts, having first had dinner at their club), and the opera was considered a failure (at least in Paris).

In addition to the ballets in La Traviata and Aida which are still routinely performed as part of the operas, Verdi's Macbeth, I Vespri Siciliani, Don Carlo and Otello all include extended ballets, although these are usually cut nowadays.

The recent production of Macbeth at La Scala reinstated the ballet, much to Anna Netrebko's delight, who was required to dance alongside La Scala's ballet company.

Peter Konwitschny's controversial production of the complete Act 5 Don Carlo in French for Vienna reinstated the ballet, but staged this as 'Eboli's Dream',- in which Eboli, Carlos, Philippe and Elisabeth are relocated to a sitcom-style dinner party in a US living room in the 1950s. A pregnant Eboli burns the dinner, but is rescued when Posa turns up as Pizza delivery boy (labelled 'Posa's Pizza'). They all get drunk, and much merriment ensues. You can find the ballet scene on Youtube.

Turnage's opera, Anna Nicole, includes parts for a three-piece jazz band as well as more conventional scoring for orchestra. The jazz band also appear on stage in one scene. When it was performed at Covent Garden, the jazz band consisted of Peter Erskine, John Paul Jones and John Parricelli, although I doubt most opera houses could attract such a high profile trio. John Paul Jones' presence on stage and in the orchestra also led to a rather bizarre moment for me, when I found myself at the bar in the Floral Hall, standing next to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Jones' former bandmates in Led Zeppelin.

[french frank]

In Korngold's Die Tote Stadt after the events of the first act most of the rest is Paul's dream or vision. I can't remember whether the audience realises it's a dream until the story picks up the thread of the first act at the end of the opera.

And … it had all been a dream! I'm not sure that I realised

[Dave2002]

Ariadne auf Naxos, a play within an opera and the party scene in Fledermaus has been used as a concert to show singers' party pieces (see Karajan and others)

Doesn't Capriccio also have a similar concept? Thanks for the mention of Die Fledermaus.

You could perhaps also consider Die Meistersinger - with the singing contest.

[Dave2002]

LHC : Great comments and stories - thanks! The I Pagliacci one is really clever - put that way - with intertwined reality and "theatre".

[Serial_Apologist]

Zimmerman's Die Soldaten probably pushes the envelope as far as it can go in terms of multiple events, genres and mixed media, sometimes happening simultaneously.

[Mandryka]

Berg’s Lulu contains a film

[Dave2002]

Thanks for the Zemlinsky and Lulu suggestions. I don't know either of those works - at all, though I once went to a performance of Lulu which I didn't like, so did something I hardly ever do, and left at the interval.
I think some of the other audience members thought they were going to see a pop star!

[Quarky]

Stockhausen - Mittwoch aus Licht. Includes the Helicopter String Quartet.

If that's within range?

[AuntDaisy]

In Janáček's "The Makropulos Case", would the ~100 year Gregor v. Prus legal case count?
The dry legalities are in stark contrast to the glorious music.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Let’s make an Opera/The Little Sweep.

[duncan]

Di rigori armato il seno from Act 1 of Rosenkavalier. A wonderful pastiche 19th century Italian aria, or rather the first verse as it is never finished amongst the chaos. Just the kind of piece Caruso might have recorded and indeed many of his successors have done.

[bluestateprommer]

Perhaps more in the self-reflexive meta-vein is Janáček's Osud, of which the recent National Theatre Brno video stream reminded me:

https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/operas/destiny-national-theatre-brno

This is available for just about 2 more weeks if you want to watch it.

[kernelbogey]

Both Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and Britten's opera have the rude mechanicals' play within.