| Sumario: | In this article, I explore the relationship between repetitive music and meaning in the postdramatic context of two operas by Serbian women composers—Abraham in Flames (2019) by Aleksandra Vrebalov and Deca, opera u 17 pesama [Children, Opera in 17 Songs] (2022) by Irena Popović. I discuss the role of repetition in constructing operatic meanings in three steps. First, I examine how these two composers reinterpret the correlation between music and drama from the perspective of postdramatic theatre. Thereafter, employing the distinction between musematic and discursive repetitions, and traditional and recombinant teleologies of repetitive music, I analyse the meaning of repetition in the two pieces. I show how the higher-order repetitive segments of Vrebalov's work correlate with the leading female character's transformation on her journey to discovering her authentic self. Finally, I explore how, in Popović's opera, repetitive techniques interact to create a moving musical image of a woman's life.
|
|---|