Child characters in Giacomo Puccini’s operas: legacy and innovation in dramaturgical development
Abstract
The research aims to identify the role of children’s parts and characters in the dramaturgical development of Giacomo Puccini’s operas, considered as a continuation and development of traditions established by foreign composers of previous eras. The article focuses on defining the role of the child’s voice and the child’s image in the operas of the Italian composer G. Puccini (“Tosca”, “Turandot”, “Madama Butterfly”, “Suor Angelica”). The article analyzes how G. Puccini, inspired by the tradition of using children’s timbres in Western European music, integrates this technique into his operas. The specificity of musical dramaturgy is conceptualized, based on drawing the listener’s attention to adult characters through solo and choral vocal parts created specifically for children’s voices. Attention is paid to children’s choirs of religious content (“Angel Choirs”) as a symbolic element of the composition, emphasizing the metaphorical nature and spirituality of the plot. Areas of influence on G. Puccini’s “children’s” music by composers such as R. Wagner, L. Delibes, P. Mascagni, and C. Debussy are identified. The research is novel in that it is the first one to analyze the composer’s possible sources of inspiration in connection with the work of his Western European predecessors and contemporaries. The paper establishes that G. Puccini’s operas, characterized by the brightness of thematic material and dramaturgical integrity, filled with deep dramatic experiences, reveal problems of an ethical and social nature, not least through the composer’s introduction of child imagery, which is an important part of the author’s concept.
Research materials
- Либретто Л. Иллики и Дж. Джакозы к опере «Тоска» Дж. Пуччини. https://libretto-oper.ru/puccini/tosca
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Author information
About this article
Publication history
- Received: July 9, 2025.
- Published: July 31, 2025.
Keywords
- детские образы в операх
- детский хор
- Дж. Пуччини
- Р. Вагнер
- музыкальная драматургия
- сhild characters
- children’s choir
- G. Puccini
- R. Wagner
- musical dramaturgy
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
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