October 12, 2015

  • Mascagni's Only Film Score

    A variation on the Faust myth, Rapsodia Satanica is often considered the birth of the art film.  The last film directed by Nino Oxilia and shown in 1917, it was one of the last of the D’Annunzian aesthetic expressions with settings of the upper middle class salons and villas.  It is also notable for its early use of close-up techniques that, coupled with its focus on specific actors and actresses, would emphasize their physical presence and star power.  The 45-minute film featured a score by the Italian opera composer Pietro Mascagni (Cavalleria rusticana).

     

    Mascagni won the commission to compose the work and the result was a large symphonic piece that followed the ebb and flow of the film.  It is believed that the composer even had some influence over the editing and shooting of certain sequences.  Though he lived until 1945, he would not return to cinematic scoring.  The music at times has an Italianate folk feel, but the general style falls in line with the impressionistic and post-romantic styles popular at the time in concert music.  Sometimes the music flirts between a Wagnerian and Puccini-esque romanticism.  Thematic continuity and variation is used to help pull the score together.

     

    The opening “Prologue” presents us with the Countess Alba d’Oltrevita who desires to return to her youth.  Mephisto appears and is willing to grant her this wish as long as she forsakes love and hands over her soul to him.  In the first art of the film, the countess, now a sirenic femme fatale, is pursued by two brothers, Sergio and Tristano.  The seductive musical material is also offset by a nervous idea representing the one brother’s pacing and impatience.  While Tristano succeeds in cornering the countess the other determinedly sets off to commit suicide.  The second half takes place after the suicide and her continued affair with Tristano who heads to her castle.  There is a wonderful waltz-like moment two-thirds in to the music before things begin to change.  Soon the pact she made with Mephisto is broken and as her beauty fades the film concludes as she walks towards Tristano and her own death.  Though mostly an original work, there are some additional brief quotations from classical repertoire woven into the score in a few spots.

     

    At its heart, Rapsodia Satanica was a project that was the culmination of Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk melding music, poetry, drama, and cinematography into a total work of film art.  When the film was shown, it was announced as a “concerto sinfonico” and the program a “poema sinfonico.”  The audience likely perceived this more as a symphonic work with a film accompaniment making this an overall unique historical moment in film history.  The film can be caught on YouTube today.

     

    To fill out the disc, conductor Frank Strobel has included five selections from Rota’s 1963 score for Il Gattopardo.  These are part of the suite arranged by Riccardo Muti which appeared on his Rota compilation for Sony in 1998.  This recording includes the title music, finale, scenes with “Angelica and Tancredi’ (nos. 6, 19, and 11).  The style of the music works well as a companion for the Mascagni.

     

    It is not clear if this Capriccio disc is a re-issue or if this 2005 recording just took a long time to make it to disc.  Regardless, this is a lush and wonderful performance of this important early film work.  Strobel’s direction helps lend the proper dramatic shape and the German Rhineland orchestra are captured in excellent sound.  This is an important release for fans of classic early silent film music.