Dom Casmurro

Francisco Machado de Assis

IX - An Opera

He no longer had a voice, but he insisted that he had it. "The disuse is what makes me
bad," he added. Whenever a new company arrived from Europe, it went to the
impresario and exposed him to all the injustices of the earth and the sky; the
businessman committed another, and he went out to cry out against iniquity. He still had
the mustaches on his papers. When he walked, he looked like an old man, he seemed to
woo a Babylonian princess. Sometimes he would hum, without opening the mouth,
some part even more so than he or so; Voices thus muffled are always possible. I came
here for dinner with me a few times. One night, after much Chianti, he repeated to me
the definition of custom, and as I told him that life could be such an opera, as a sea
voyage or a battle, he shook his head and replied,

"Life is an opera and a great opera. The tenor and the barytono fight for the soprano, in
the presence of the bass and the comprimarios, when they are not the soprano and the
contralto that fight by the tenor, in presence of the same bass and the same
comprimarios. Ha are numerous, many ballets, and the orchestration is excellent ...

"But, my dear Marcolini ..."

-What...?

And after sipping a drink of liquor, he put down the calix, and exposed the history of
creation, with words that I shall sum up.

God is the poet. The music is of Satanaz, young maestro of much future, that
apprendido in the conservatory of the sky. Rival de Miguel, Raphael and Gabriel, did
not tolerate the precedence that they had in the distribution of the prizes. It could also be
that the music in too sweet and mystical of those other condiscipulos was abhorrent to
its essentially tragic genius. He struck a rebellion that was discovered in time, and he
was expelled from the conservatory. Everything would have passed without anything
else, if God had not written a libretto of opera, which he had given up, to understand
that such a genre of recreation was improper of its eternity. Satan took the manuscript
with him to hell. In order to show that he was worth more than the others, -and perhaps
to reconcile himself with the composer- the score, and as soon as it was finished, he was
taken to the Eternal Father.

"Sir, I have not unpaid the licenses received," he said. Here you have the score, listen to
it, amend it, make it perform, and if you find it worthy of the heights, I allowed myself
with it at your feet ...

"No," replied the Lord, "I do not want to hear anything.

"But, Lord ..."

-Anything! anything!

Satan supplicated, without better fortune, until God, weary and full of mercy, consented
that the opera be performed, but it was from heaven. He created a special theatro, this
planet, and invented an entire company, with all parts, primaries and comprimarias,
comedians and dancers.

"I've heard a few rehearsals!"

"No, I do not want to know about rehearsals. It is enough for me to have composed the
libretto; I'm ready to share the copyright with you.

It was perhaps an evil this refusal; This led to some disconcerts which the prior
audience and friendly collaboration would have avoided. As a matter of fact, there is a
place where the verse goes to the right and the song to the left. There is no shortage of
people who say that in this very thing is the beauty of the composition, fleeing
monotony, and so explain the Tettotus of Eden, the aria of Abel, the courts of the
guillotine and slavery. It is not uncommon for the same bids to reproduce without
sufficient reason. Certain motives abound with the force of repetition. There are also
obscurities; the maestro abuses the weeping masses, often masking the meaning in a
confused way. The orchestra parts are treated with great skill. Such is the opinion of the
impartials.

The master's friends want it so difficult to find such a well-finished work. One or the
other admits certain rudeness and such or such gaps, but with the gait of the opera it is
probable that these are fulfilled or explained, and those disappear entirely, not refusing
the master to amend the work where he thinks he does not respond at all to the thought
sublime of the poet. Friends of this one no longer say the same. They swear that the
libretto was sacrificed, that the score corrupted the meaning of the letter, and, since it is
beautiful in some places, and worked with art in others, it is absolutely different and
even contrary to the drama. The grotesque, for example, is not in the poet's text; is an
excrescence to imitate the Merry Wives of Windsor. This point is disputed by Satanists
with some apparent reason. They are told that, at the time when young Satan composed
the great opera, neither this fake nor Shakespeare were born. They even affirm that the
English poet had no other genius than to transcribe the letter of the opera with such art
and fidelity that he seems to himself the author of the composition; but of course he is a
plagiarist.

This piece," concluded the old tenor, "will last as long as the theater lasts, and it will not
be possible to calculate at what time it will be demolished by astronomical utility.
Success is increasing. Poet and musician receive their authoritative rights punctually,
which are not the same, because the rule of division is that of the Scripture: "Many are
called, few chosen." God receives in gold, Satanaz in paper.

-It's funny...
-Grace? he cried with fury; but he quieted at once, and replied, "Dear James, I am not
amused; I am a horror of grace. What I say is pure and ultimate truth. One day, when all
the books are burned for unfaithfulness, there must be someone, maybe tenor, and
perhaps Italian, who teaches this truth to men. Everything is music, my friend. In the
beginning it was the do, and the do was made back, etc.

This calix (and filled it again) this calix is a brief refrain. Do not you hear? Also you can
not hear the stick or the stone, but everything fits in the same opera ...

Tarea

Escríban un pequeño ensayo de 1 o 2 cuartillas (en español) sobre esta

disertación de la vida como una ópera compuesta por Satanás y por Dios. Incluyan citas
del texto que les mandé (traducido por uds y con el original en una nota al pie.)

Ejemplo (de mi tesis)

Es posible, como han señalado algunos autores, que Shakespeare “invoca los
estereotipos negativos isabelinos solo para desacreditarlos”1 (Berry 44), puesto que “la
obra los enfoca e identifica con Yago”2 (Hunter, citado por Berry, ídem).

1
Original: invokes the negative Elizabethan stereotypes of Africans only to discredit them .
2
Original: the play brings them into focus and identifies them with Iago