Abstract
Opera frequently contains highly emotional scenes in which the characters sing about their unfulfilled dreams. Such “windows to the counterfactual,” as I refer to this kind of scene, tend to be musical showcases for singers that suspend the flow of the story as a form of fleeting resistance to the predetermined plot. The dramatic irony of the scenes reflects the ambivalent truth revealed by the myth of Orpheus. Influential in the origin of opera, this myth underscores the ephemerality of miracles produced by the singing voice. I argue that storytelling in “windows to the counterfactual” displays the working of the characters’ imagination while denying its capacity to pin down reality. Such ironic storytelling occurs on stage when the singer takes advantage of the power of the singing voice and imposes another face, or persona, upon it, distinct from the narrative itself. Many stage directors also eagerly open up a new “window to the counterfactual” in each performance by reinterpreting the opera and its characters. There are two types of this “counterfactual opera staging.” In the dream-over-dream type, the whole story is a dream. In the daydreaming type, parts of the story are a dream. This essay concludes by discussing how a partially dreamed story sometimes turns out to be a problematic never-ending daydreaming type because it rewrites the ending of the original narrative.
