Creative Figure of F. Cilea: Between Romanticism and Verism

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to highlight the main stages of F. Cilea’s creative biography and the genre-style guidelines of his legacy, focused on the synthesis of romantic and verist spiritual and aesthetic searches of the musical theatre of his time. The methodology of the work is based on a combination of the principles of genre-style, historical-culturological, and analytical-musicological approaches. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian musicology it presents analytical generalisations regarding the creative figure of F. Cilea and his genre-style preferences, focused on the intersection of romantic and verist stylistics. Conclusions. The outstanding Italian composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, F. Cilea, entered the history of opera not only as the author of one of its best examples, represented by ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’, but also as an outstanding teacher. The poetic and intonation specificity of his operatic heritage testifies to the presence of various genre and style intersections in it, which organically combine, on the one hand, the traditions of late romanticism, and on the other – bear the imprint of verist musical theatre. At the same time, F. Cilea’s operatic work demonstrates an original symbiosis of Italian vocal and singing practice and French musical and theatrical tradition, which is manifested in the synthesis of the principles of the bel canto school and the expressiveness of French declamation.