Finale (opera)

Finale denotes a concluding section of the dramaturgy of a music-theatrical work. In the configuration of the “numbers” within a music-dramatic work, the finale has a special position: As a rule, it does not begin without preconditions, as is often the case with other “open” forms in the music-dramatic genre, such as an introduction or an ensemble piece in the middle of an act. Rather, it can usually be assumed that after a peripetia in the plot, the finale begins with a scandal that is motivated by an extraordinarily conflicting person or plot constellation. This situation can already have been brought about beforehand and in the "final" section of an act or an entire work it can only be brought to a provisional end or conclusion of whatever kind.

Two types of final ensemble are possible in the opera and also appear in the so-called "great" opera of the late 18th to 19th centuries: the finale of an act with which the opera does not close, and the work finale. Although each of these types of finals can still open up prospects for the future, the dramaturgical situation in both cases differs considerably from one another. In the initial situation, however, the preliminary finale hardly differs from the final one, the only question is whether the dramatic situation still contains enough explosive to motivate further "actions".

A frequently chosen and often effective dramaturgical constellation consists in the fact that the protagonists' private conflicts , which are already simmering in the exposition and the further course of the plot, are suddenly dragged onto the stage public in the finale. This then also offers the possibility of repeating what has already been negotiated in duets or other “small” ensemble forms in a larger framework coram publico in an increased form, thus also to shed light on it again completely.

As a rule, one can assume that the finals are multi-part "numbers" in which the protagonists and their confidants or choirs are confronted with and one after the other in several different situations, and that ideally the plot changes due to surprising Effects and news unexpectedly developed. A special musical form, on the other hand, is the so-called “chain finale” developed by the composers of the Opera buffa . As in a rondo , individual musical themes are lined up alternately, but sometimes individual themes also return immediately or after a certain time interval.

In some operas, especially the “magic operas” in the style of the Magic Flute , the musical sections of a finale are strongly separated from one another; there are even multiple changes of scenery here.

There is no uniform form for final numbers, and yet in almost all operas of the late 18th and 19th centuries there are musical-dramatic (large) sections that are referred to as finals.

literature

Gerd Rienäcker : Finals in operas by ETA Hoffmann , Louis Spohr , Heinrich Marschner and Carl Maria von Weber . Thoughts on the theory and history of the opera finale . Habilitation thesis Humboldt University Berlin 1984.
Paul Joseph Horsley: Dittersdorf and the finale in late-eighteenth-century German comic opera . Diss. Cornell University 1988.
Till Gerrit Waidelich: "Wrong" position? Comments on finals and final-like scenes in Schubert's operas , in: “Dialekt ohne Erde”. Franz Schubert and the 20th Century (= Studies on Valuation Research, Vol. 34, ed. Otto Kolleritsch ), Vienna – Graz 1998, pp. 187–199.
Claire Badiou: Carl Dahlhaus and the temporal discontinuity of the opera. Some reflections on time structures in the finale of “ Le nozze di Figaro ” . In: Hermann Danuser , Peter Gülke and Norbert Miller in connection with Tobias Plebuch (ed.): Carl Dahlhaus and musicology. Work, effect, topicality . Ed. Argus, Schliengen 2011, ISBN 3-931264-76-9 , ISBN 978-3-931264-76-5 , pp. 125-131.