The Operatics of Detachment - 'Tosca' in The James Bond Film 'Quantum of Solace'

The Operatics of Detachment: Tosca in the James Bond Film Quantum of Solace
Author(s): Marcia J. Citron

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring 2011), pp. 316-340
Published by: University of California Press
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The Operatics of Detachment:

Tosca in the James Bond Film
Quantum of Solace
MARCIA J. CITRON
Over its long history cinema has been attracted

to the opera visit. Many classic scenes come to
mind. In the early sound film A Night at the
Opera (1935), the Marx Brothers mount a hilarious send-up of opera in an unforgettable
performance of Il Trovatore.1 Werner Herzogs
Fitzcarraldo (1982) stages Ernani in Manaus
around 1900 to launch the saga of an obsessed
fan who tries to build a theater in the jungle.2
I wish to thank Berthold Hoeckner for valuable suggestions that helped to make this a better article.
1
Perceptive studies include Lawrence Kramer, Glottis

Envy: The Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera, in idem,
Musical Meaning: Toward a Critical History (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002), pp. 13344; and
Michal Grover-Friedlander, Brothers at the Opera, Vocal Apparitions: The Attraction of Cinema to Opera
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), pp. 3350.
2
Richard Leppert offers a stimulating cultural interpretation in Opera, Aesthetic Violence, and the Imposition of
Modernity: Fitzcarraldo, in Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, ed. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2007), pp. 99119.
316
In recent popular fare, the romantic comedy

Pretty Woman (1990) includes a visit to La
Traviata as a parallel to its plot of the goodhearted call girl. As these examples suggest,
the opera visit has become a common gambit
of mainstream film.3 Part of the appeal for cinema is the visits ability to forge interesting
relationships with narrative. In A Night at the
Opera, for instance, the long Trovatore scene
at the end forms the climax where all is resolved, leaving the lovers and comic enablers
to live happily ever after. Or take Moonstruck
(1987), another romantic comedy, whose engagement with opera is more complex. Here
the visit to the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of La Bohme consummates the operatic elements that permeate story, soundtrack,
and tone and provides the transformative mo-
I use this as a general term for movies that are not operafilms (full-length operas on film); it is not meant to indicate popularity or position within cinematic traditions.
19th-Century Music, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 31640. ISSN: 0148-2076, electronic ISSN 1533-8606. 2011 by the Regents of
the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article
content through the University of California Presss Rights and Permissions Web site, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/
reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2011.34.3.316.

ment for the female lead.4 In other films the

opera visit has a narrower role. In Milk (2008),
for example, which is based on the life of gay
activist Harvey Milk, the protagonists fear as
he watches the violent ending of Tosca foreshadows his own murder the next day.
The recent James Bond movie Quantum of
Solace (2008) also contains a memorable opera
visit.5 The only installment in the fifty-yearold series to include an opera scene, Quantum
brings Bond, played by Daniel Craig, to the
Bregenz Opera Festival in Austria for a performance of Tosca.6 What makes this special is
that the sequence marks a changed conception
of the opera visit in film. In the typical filmic
opera visit, opera appears in an idealized light.
It stands for high art, possesses transformative
powers, and serves as an uplifting experience
that embodies the best of Western culture. This
is true even in a parody such as A Night at the
Opera, which depends on operas elevated status for its mockery. In contrast, the opera visit
in Quantum presents a completely unidealized
view of opera.
Indeed, Quantums opera visit, which may
be a first in an action film, signifies detachment.7 While this attitude resonates with the
Discussed in Citron, An Honest Contrivance: Opera

and Desire in Moonstruck, in When Opera Meets Film
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 173
211.
5
The title comes from a short story by Ian Fleming, the
British writer who created James Bond spy novels and stories. Published in 1960 alongside other stories by Fleming,
the original Quantum features a plot quite different from
that of the film. Bond, for instance, is married and bored.
He is sent to the West Indies to intercept a shipment of
arms to Castros Cuba. For an overview, see Jeremy Black,
The Politics of James Bond: From Flemings Novels to the
Big Screen (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001), pp. 4044.
6
Quantum of Solace was directed by Marc Forster, in his
first Bond venture. Some of the production team worked
on other Bond movies, including composer David Arnold
and screenwriting team Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, and
Paul Haggis. A two-disc special edition DVD of Quantum
is MGM DVD, ASIN B001PPLIEQ, 2009. A mass-market
book on the film that consists mostly of glossy publicity
stills is Greg Williams, Bond on Set: Filming Quantum of
Solace (London: DK Publishing, 2008); it typifies the fandriven culture behind the series. With respect to director,
the franchise has avoided long-term ties with any figure,
although a few did several Bond films, such as Terence
Young and Guy Hamilton in the early years.
7
The genre of the Bond films is complicated. While action
film may be the single best designation for the recent
movies, other genres figure in the series. According to
hollow protagonists in many action movies, it

strikingly encapsulates the isolation of this particular incarnation of Bond. Reviews of Quantum noted the change in the character, and
most lamented the emotional emptiness of this
Bourne-like figure.8 Not only did Quantum lack
the wit of the early years of the franchise, but it
also represented a comedown from its predecessor, Casino Royale (2006), which introduced
Craig as Bond.9 To be sure, Quantum has close
ties to Casino Royale: it begins approximately
fifteen minutes later, features a revenge plot
driven by the murder of Bonds girlfriend Vesper in Casino, and retains some of the charac-
James Chapman, these include the British imperialist spy

thriller, the cliff-hanger adventure serial, and the modern
Hollywood action movie. He also recognizes the sui generis
profile of the Bond films and proposes a fourth category,
the Bondian. See Chapman, Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films (2nd edn. London: I.
B. Taurus, 2007), pp. 1519.
8
See, for instance, A. O. Scott, 007 is Back, and Hes
Brooding, New York Times, 14 November 2008, http://
movies.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/movies14quan.
html?scp=1&sq=quantum%20of%20solace%20
movie%20review&st=cse; Roger Ebert, Quantum of Solace: A Q Only in Quantum, Chicago Sun-Times, 12 November 2008, http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081111/REVIEWS/
811129989/1023; Peter Travers, Quantum of Solace, Rolling Stone, 27 November 2008, http://www.rollingstone.
com/reviews/movie/20877366/review/24199268/
quantum_of_solace; and Kim Newman, Quantum of Solace, Sight and Sound 18/12 (December 2008), 72. One of
the few positive reviews is Anthony Lane, Soul Survivor:
Quantum of Solace, New Yorker, 17 November 2008,
11415. Lane considers the opera scene the best thing in
the film (115), and so does Tom Charity, Quantum of
Solace Coldly Efficient, CNN.com, 15 November 2008,
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/14/
review.bond/index.html?iref=allsearch. For a journalistic
look at the opera scene, see Anne Midgette, Spy vs. Spy
on an Operatic Scale, Washington Post, 14 November
2008, C1. Apropos the Bourne films, a plausible theory is
that the creative team of Quantum wanted to emulate the
box-office success of that series (2002, 2004, 2007), whose
third installment, The Bourne Ultimatum, appeared only
a year before Quantum was released. And so they fashioned Quantum as an action film, with highly questionable results.
9
Flemings first novel about the British super-spy, Casino
Royale (1953), has received several visual treatments. Besides the 2006 version with Craig, a spoof of the Connery
films entitled Casino Royale appeared in 1967 (with David
Niven and Peter Sellers), and a one-hour version of
Flemings novel was aired on CBS television in 1954.
Chapman sees the turn to Flemings first novel for the
2006 film as a strategy to reboot the series, which had
declined in the Brosnan era, 19952002 (Chapman, Licence
to Thrill, pp. 24142).
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ters and actors from Casino.10 But Bonds detachment in the sequel is appreciably intensifieda quantum leap into the void of postmillennial malaise, where cynicism precludes
affect and leads to a broken moral compass.
A brief look at yet anothericonicopera
visit helps to highlight what is so different
about Quantum.11 At the end of The Godfather
Part III (1990), a performance of Cavalleria
rusticana foregrounds operas warmth, nobility, and idealizing powers. The moving scene
caps Coppolas nine-hour epic of the moral
struggles of an immigrant family attempting to
make it in America. Above all, it showcases
the sagas themes of family, nostalgia, and Old
World Culture and uses operas sentiment and
grandeur to bring them to a remarkable climax.
The sequence stresses the gestural essence of
opera. The pacing is spacious: events are deliberate and expansive and time is allotted for the
signifying markers to be digested and celebrated.
Audience and performers partake of a shared
ritual as Sicilian culture and the Corleones come
together at the Teatro Massimo, Palermos venerable opera house. We see many signs of opera
as performance. Several numbers are presented
and the camera captures them at length. The
lead role of Turiddu is played by Michael
Corleones son, who emotes in classic tenor
style, sometimes in stirring close-up. As audience members, the family react with pleasure
in their opera box. In its glorification of operas
ritual, emotion, uplifting character, and ability
to communicate at a deep level, the scene
evinces what one might call an operatic subjectivity. Although it (and the saga) will end in
tragedy, opera represents engagement and provides access to the highest ideals of Western
culture.
10
An earlier Bond film also involved single-minded revenge:

Licence to Kill (1989), whose lead, Timothy Dalton, was
described as intense and brooding, a characterization applied to Craig in Quantum and to a lesser extent in Casino Royale. For a stimulating look at Licence to Kill, see
Chapman, Licence to Thrill, pp. 197209.
11
For a fuller exploration of The Godfather Part III, see
Citron, Operatic Style in Coppolas Godfather Trilogy,
in When Opera Meets Film, especially pp. 4357; and Lars
Franke, The Godfather Part III: Film, Opera, and the
Generation of Meaning, in Changing Tunes: The Use of
Pre-Existing Music in Film, ed. Phil Powrie and Robynn
Stilwell (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 3145.
In what follows I will show how the opera

visit in Quantum signifies detachment and
reconceptualizes the function and meaning of
the opera visit in film. After a brief review of
Bondian filmic conventions, the opera Tosca,
and its relationship to Quantum, the heart of
my article will be devoted to a detailed discussion of the opera sequence. The venue plays a
major role in the creation of detachmentTosca
is performed on the (literally) floating stage of
the Bregenz Festival, on the Bodensee (Lake
Constance) in Austria (see plate 1). The voyeuristic production, organized around an enormous
eye, is crucial in creating the experience of
distance, expressing a coldness that is reinforced
by the stark palette of the theaters spaces.
These visual elements contribute to a sense of
techno-opera and heighten the feeling of a
detached operatic subjectivity. This is promoted
by the frenetic montage in much of the scene.
Operatically the choice of Tosca is telling, and
the work has much in common with Bond and
the films story. A close reading of the selected
music and its relationship with image and the
broader sound environment will show how the
sequence stands apart from the rest of the film
and renders opera an isolating phenomenon.
We will also see how narrative agency resides
in imaginative places and shapes the subjective
framework that spells detachment. In this process, Puccinis cinematic tendencies come to
the fore as opera adapts to the needs of the
film. Although Quantums visit is cynical toward opera culture, it serves two important
functions. First, it reflects a late-stage fatigue
in the long-running Bond series. And second, it
functions as the high point of a film that critics
and fans found disappointing. Paradoxically,
even as opera appears to redeem the films
larger narrative, the protagonist and arguably
his brand remain aloof from operas transformative qualities.
Plot and Genre
Quantum of Solace offers a great deal of surface action, but, like most action films, little in
the way of plot. The structure involves highenergy set pieces separated by transitional
scenes with the necessary, if minimal, plot development and scant dialogue. Opening with a
318

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Plate 1: Live production of Tosca on the floating stage of the Bregenz Festival.
high-speed chase in Italy, the film shows Bond
on a mission of revenge as he hunts for the
killer of Vesper. Along the way he disobeys M,
his boss (Judi Dench); goes it alone after she
cancels his credentials; and hardly utters a word.
In true Bondian form he rushes from one place
to another: from Siena to London and on to
Haiti; then Bregenz and Talamone Island, Italy;
then La Paz, Bolivia; and finally Kazan, Russia.
During his mission he encounters archenemy
Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Unlike
earlier foes such as Goldfinger, who aimed for
world dominion by blowing up the West, Greene
is a typical postCold-War villain in his scheme
to rule through geoeconomic means, as he tries
to corner the water supply in Bolivia. He is
joined by an international band of conspirators.
At Tosca the group comes together and Bond
confronts them. Dressed in tuxedos, the conspirators plot strategy as they sit scattered
among the audience while the opera is performed. After Bond commandeers one of the
earpieces they use to communicate, he utters a
rare witticism when he makes his presence
known: Can I offer an opinion? [Pause] I really
think you people should find a better place to
meet! The bad guys head for the exits, the
chase is on, and Bond embarks on a shootout

whose montage is so fast it is barely intelligible. This ensemble piece at the opera, which
closes the first half of the film, is a major moment in the narrative and emotional arc of the
movie.12 After a brief respite the action sequences return. By the end Bond finds Vespers
killer but resists the urge to kill him (to M a
sign of Bonds moral growth). There is no upbeat ending, no sardonic punch line, and no
Bond girl to hook up with. He is empty, without solace, and we feel the same.
While Quantum marks an obvious change
from earlier Bond films, it retains basic features of the franchise, although they may serve
different ends. I will explore a few elements
that stamp the work as Bondian yet enable a
separation from that tradition, especially in the
12
This sort of confrontation is also meaningful in other

Bond films and in Flemings novels. Black calls them high
points of Bond works: They are important both to the
plot and to the atmosphere, and they are crucial to the
theatricality of the stories. Crucial to the action and explanation of the plots, the meetings also provided an opportunity for expressing values and establishing the moral
status of the central characters (Black, The Politics of
James Bond, 210).
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direction of detachment.13 For one thing, the

series has continually sought out exotic and
exorbitant locationsplaces that are remote or
unusual, or have never appeared in a previous
Bond film. The desire to astonish anew is part
of the genres emphasis on escapist spectacle.
While Quantums geographical mix fits the pattern, its operatic venue may be the most exotic locale in the movie. Not only is it the
first appearance of an opera house in a Bond
film, but it also happens to be a real theater
with a real production, not one invented for the
film. This choice matches the series attraction
to real places. In addition, as a named venue,
the Bregenz Festival stirs pleasurable associations with cultural monuments in other films,
such as Santa Sofia in Goldfinger (1964) or the
United Nations Building and Mount Rushmore
in Hitchcocks North by Northwest (1959), a
film often cited as a prototype for the Bond
series.14
Nonetheless, the Bregenz Festival asserts distance in Quantum. Besides the floating stage,
which is literally separated from the audience
by water, Bregenz itself is somewhat removed
from traditional opera by virtue of its status as
an unusual venue in the summer festival circuit. Although it offers high-concept spectacle,
its singers do not belong to the top tier, and its
13
I am indebted here to recent scholarship on the Bond

films. Although the writings predate Quantum, they form
a critical foundation for this study. See especially Black,
The Politics of James Bond; Chapman, Licence to Thrill;
and The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader, ed.
Christoph Lindner (2nd edn. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009). As Chapman points out (Introduction: Taking Bond Seriously, pp. 121), before the late
1990s, film studies ignored Bond movies because they were
considered frivolous entertainment and undeserving of critical attention. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the research displays a British perspective, and some discussions
reject an American influence in the series (e.g., Chapman,
A Licence to Thrill, The James Bond Phenomenon, pp.
11415). On the other hand, the writings recognize the
films international scope and how their emphasis on spectacle has led to global success.
14
Chapman, Licence to Thrill, pp. 4648, discusses differences as well as similarities between Hitchcocks American thriller about an unsuspecting ad executive thrown
into the political fray and the British super-spy following
orders from official channels. What they share is the ambiguity of Cold War politics, a witty male lead that enchants
viewers as well as fictional characters, and a travelogue
mentality that has them hopping from one glamorous or
striking place to another.
productions rely on Broadway-style sound systems that separate it from the operatic mainstream. Even among opera fans, Bregenz takes
on an exotic aura, and as such it fits nicely into
the Bondian mold of coupling the unusual and
unknown with social distinction.
Another theme of the Bond films is jet-set
culture, creating what Jeremy Black terms a
wealth fantasy.15 A few scenes in Quantum
show a high-end lifestyle, but none has the
extravagance of the opera visit, where the patrons appear in formal attire and arrive by limousine, boat, and private jet. As they sip champagne and engage in tastefully subdued conversation, the ultra-modern dcor devoid of color
and ornament heightens the emotional containment of classy chic and implies that there
is some opera that remains detached from mainstream society. While this wealth fantasy serves
the narrative and generic agenda of the Bond
film and adds to viewers enjoyment, it differs
from the actual situation at the Bregenz Festival. On its website, Bregenz promotes itself as
a populist venue where all comers can enjoy
themselves on the Bodensee.16 Quantum transforms the identity of the Festival, or at the
least emphasizes an exclusivity found only at
premieres.
Technology is also key to the series. According to James Chapman, the films themselves
have always kept slightly ahead of the times
through their displays of futuristic technology.17 One is reminded of the gadgetry of Bonds
15
Black, The Politics of James Bond, p. 211.

See the official video promoting the 2008 Festival: http:/
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMyk67l5ico&NR=1. The
head of the Festival, David Pountney, in casual dress, says
that opera at Bregenz is for everybody. Over peppy music
that approaches kitsch, a narrator encourages people to
make a day of it on the Bodensee and cap it with a performance. The other memorable message is that the outdoor
performances create glitzy spectacle that will appeal to
everyone. This is reminiscent of high-concept Broadway
musicals such as Phantom of the Opera, although the
oversized dimensions of the Bregenz stage dwarf anything
indoors. One thing they share is a Broadway-style amplification system, a feature criticized in Heinz W. Kochs
review of this production of Tosca, Blick ins Innere:
Bregenzer Festival, Opernwelt 48 (Sept./Oct. 2007), 38.
17
Chapman, Licence to Thrill, p. 20. For technology in
some of the films, see Martin Willis, Hard-Wear: The
Millennium, Technology, and Brosnans Bond, The James
Bond Phenomenon, pp. 16983.
16
320

Aston Martin or the laser beam that nearly

neuters him in Goldfinger. Recent Bond films
face a challenge, however. Real-life technology
has closed the gap with anything film might
show us, and movies sport a new look through
CGI, 3-D, and other digital techniques. Quantums gadgets, such as they are, look familiar
and fail to amaze.18 The surveillance devices,
which consist of cell phones and consoles with
instant data recognition, are only faint extensions of current technology. The film compensates in a couple of ways. One is to express the
coldness of technology through sleek design.
The other involves the opera scene. The Bregenz
production injects a strong techno-look into
the film and may be its main weapon against
technological obsolescence. Together with super-fast montage, it suggests a fracturing of the
analog world and any sustained gaze directed at
opera. The sets huge eye, 164 feet wide by 66
feet high, stands for a new way of arranging
image and viewing opera in film. For Quantum, all this provides a response to the challenge of technological change.
Finally, the Bond films resist a firm location
in time. Black points to their abandonment of a
past and how this differs from Flemings novels, which planted Bond firmly in the Cold
War.19 Just as in action films, Bond movies lack
tense as they unfold in a perpetual present.
In Quantum, Bond has no future, and the past
is reduced to a few lines about Vespers death.
Of course, the series depends on an openendedness that allows the producers to recycle
the aging heromost evident in the change of
leading actors who have become iconic. Nevertheless, Bonds Cold War characteristics and
the accumulated history of global conflicts
hover over new installments, palpable especially for viewers who grew up with the series.
Quantum seems to deal with these tensions by
giving itself over to temporal detachment. At
the same time, the turn to opera, a relic of the
past, may be an attempt to restore history, something the film also proposes in an early scene
set in Siena that depicts a traditional pageant
from the Middle Ages. While the scene has
18
See Scott, 007 is Back.

Black, The Politics of James Bond, pp. 21314.
19
some success in this regard, the opera scene

resists pastness and history. Put another way,
filmic pressures on the opera scene strip opera
of some of its signs, so that it gets detached
from itself. Key elements of operatic subjectivity, involving narrative, performativity, and
spectatorship, are subverted in this unusual rendition of an opera visit.
TOSCA
The Bregenz Tosca floatsnot only on water,
but also temporally. Characters appear in generic modern dress with no particular period
discernible. Like many a modern production,
this differs from the circumstances of Puccinis
opera, which is grounded in a specific historical context. Adapted from Sardous play of 1887,
Tosca is set in Rome in 1800 and draws on the
political turbulence of repressive Italian regimes, especially the Papal States, who were
exacting revenge on French-led liberal factions.
When Tosca opened in Rome in 1900, politics
inflected the works reception in light of
postunification tensions between the Church
and democratic groups. Historian John Anthony
Davis suggests that Toscas anticlerical theme
would have resonated strongly with Italian audiences of the time.20 Nevertheless, the political nature of the opera itself is not a straightforward matter. Anthony Arblaster persuasively
argues that Tosca empties out the political
content from Sardous strongly political play.21
We know that Giuseppe Giacosa, one of the
librettists, complained that the level of detail
in Sardous work posed a challenge for operatic
adaptation, and he feared that Puccinis fondness for love and sentiment would be problem-
20
Anthony Davis, The Political and Cultural Worlds of

Puccinis Tosca: Anticlericalism in Italy at the Turn of the
Century, in Toscas Prism: Three Moments of Western
Cultural History, ed. Deborah Burton, Susan Vandiver
Nicassio, and Agostino Ziino (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004), p. 135. For connections between the
politics surrounding Tosca and nascent Fascism, see Jeremy Tambling, Puccini and the Swish of Toscas Skirts,
in Opera and the Culture of Fascism (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1996), pp. 11335.
21
Anthony Arblaster, InterludeOpera Without Politics:
Puccini and Strauss, in Viva la libert! Politics in Opera
(London: Verso, 1992), pp. 24561.
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atic.22 Indeed, Puccini generally avoided politics. As Helen Greenwald puts it, politics functions as an accessory in his operas.23 The
composer focused on his musical strengths, had
a feel for what would work in the theater, and
shaped the material accordingly.24
While Quantums opera sequence moves further from Toscas historical roots, it retains the
theme of political repression. The filmic Tosca
uses the Big Eye of the Bregenz production to
symbolize surveillance and the Big-Brother
state: what might be called a pop version of
Jeremy Benthams ominous panopticon (made
familiar by Michel Foucault), an eighteenthcentury model for total surveillance in prisons.25 Bonds gaze figures prominently at the
opera, and the interplay between his look, the
omniscient eye, and the stare of his enemies
adds a lively layer to the visual texture. Another political connection comes by way of an
intertextual reference. One of the two operatic
excerpts in the visit is drawn from act II, just
after the torture scene. Although Bond is not
tortured in Quantum, he underwent a horrific
bout of it in Casino Royale. This stays in viewers memory during Quantum because of the
films close connection, and Quantums surrounding violence may be enough to link the
events.
Beyond the level of such detail, Toscas concern with political conflict has obvious resonance for a Bond film. Even in Quantum, where
personal revenge drives Bond, the battle between heroes and villains plays out in the in-
ternational arena and involves huge political

stakes. Arguably, the heightened political realism over earlier Bond films, with their fanciful
plots and gadgets, resonates to some degree
with the verismo aesthetic of Tosca. One has
to tread lightly, however, for verismo entails
melodrama as much as it does realism,26 and
the stylized exaggeration of melodrama does
not readily mesh with Quantum, even as the
films hyperrealism is itself a mixture of the
realistic and the fantastic. Indeed, as I will discuss later, the foregrounding of melodrama in
part of the opera scene creates a remarkable gap
between the opera sequence and the rest of the
film.
Verismos place at the end of an era in European culture suggests other ties between Tosca
and Quantum. Alexandra Wilson notes that
[Tosca] certainly merited the label of the ultimate fin-de-sicle opera, containing as it did all
the hallmarks of turn-of-the-century decadence:
fragmentation, falsification, immorality and a
nexus of pleasure and pain.27 Quantum also
shows the strains of a turn-of-the-century work,
or rather a postmillennial malaise.28 Bond is
cynical, burned out, and disengaged from normal human interaction. Just as Tosca comes
near the end of the great tradition of Italian
Romantic opera, so Quantum emerges in a late
stage of the Bond franchise and shows signs of
decline. Critics charged Tosca with falseness,
and a similar complaint was directed at Quan-
26
22
As mentioned, for example, in Roger Parker, Tosca,

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, vol. 4, ed. Stanley
Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1992), pp. 76566.
23
Helen M. Greenwald, Verdis Patriarch and Puccinis
Matriarch: Through the Looking-Glass and What Puccini
Found There, this journal 17 (1994), 222.
24
Parker ascribes some of the tensions Puccini faced in
connection with music and text to conventions associated
with the libretto, in Analysis: Act I in Perspective, chap.
10 of Mosco Carner, Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 11922.
25
The panopticon occupies a lengthy chapter in Foucault,
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan
Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), pp. 195230.
The device was proposed by Jeremy Bentham, the utilitarian philosopher, at the end of the eighteenth century. My
thanks to philosopher Mark A. Kulstad for the dual reference.
For the complex web of meanings surrounding verismo,

see Arman Schwartz, Rough Music: Tosca and Verismo
Reconsidered, this journal 31 (2008), 22844; and also
Sieghart Dhring, Musikalischer Realismus in Puccinis
Tosca, Analecta musicologica 22 (1984), 24996. Grard
Loubinoux explores the role of melodrama in Sardous and
Puccinis Tosca, in Les avatars de Tosca entre France et
Italie, in LOpra en France et en Italie (17911925): Une
scne privilgie dchanges littraires et musicaux, ed.
Herv Lacombe (Paris: Socit Franaise de Musicologie,
2000), pp. 14159.
27
Alexandra Wilson, Tosca: Truth and Lies, in The
Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 96.
28
Robert Wilonsky speaks of the haggard, self-parodic
James Bond franchise in his review; see Marc Forster
Has a License to Confuse and Bore in Quantum of Solace:
Neither Shaken Nor Stirred, Village Voice, 12 November
2008, http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-11-12/film/marcforster-has-a-license-to-confuse-and-bore-in-quantum-ofsolace/.
322

tum. In both works, emotions seem insincere

and viewers have difficulty accepting the story
and the characters. Another common element
is violence. When Tosca appeared critics balked
at its excessive violence, especially the gruesome theatrics of the torture scene and the
murder of Scarpia.29 Similarly, Quantum drew
negative reaction to its continual violence
through the demented energy of its nonstop
action sequences.30 Reviewers also had a hard
time with Bonds coldness, and some called
him an anti-hero.31 A similar barb was tossed at
Tosca when critics accused it of lacking a hero
altogethera view Wilson connects to the
periods anxiety over its absence of heroes.32
Finally, Tosca and Quantum share the dubious distinction of being associated with maligned genres or composers. The opera is a melodrama, which was considered a lowbrow genre
in the nineteenth century.33 In a similar way,
Puccini has been disparaged as a composer of
popular operatic fare. Part of his mass appeal
has rested on an accessible style that Peter
Franklin characterizes as proto-cinematic.
Franklin goes even further with Tosca, calling
it a prototypical mass entertainment movie in
all but medium. Erich Korngold reportedly
told fellow film composer Hugo Friedhofer that
Tosca is the best film score ever written.34
All this is to say that Tosca makes a natural fit
with film,35 and that Puccinis affinity for a

cinematic style contributed to his denigration
by high-minded critics. Similarly, until recently
cinema studies maligned the Bond films as formulaic mass entertainment and ignored them.
In this light, some might consider the present
study a bit unusual: the expending of critical
energies on a Bond film, and a weak one at
that. But just as the cultural significance of the
Bond movies is acknowledged by Chapman and
other scholars, so the aesthetic value of the
opera visit in Quantum is readily apparent.
This is why it has a lot to tell us about the
workings of the opera/film encounter.
At the Opera
This production of Tosca opened at the Bregenz
Festival in July 2007. Directed by Philipp
Himmelmann and designed by Johannes
Leiacker, it was the featured work that season
and returned the following year. The version
crafted for the movie, which draws on a very
small portion of the opera, was filmed separately and involved some rearranging of the
cast.36 The filmic opera sequence lasts almost
seven-and-a-half minutes in real time. Table 1
shows the basic organization, which consists
35
29
Wilson, The Puccini Problem, pp. 6980. Joseph Kermans

legendary epithetTosca as a shabby little shocker
relates at least in part to its violence; see his Opera as
Drama (New York: Vintage Books, 1956), p. 254.
30
Geoffrey McNab coins the phrase in his review in the
Independent, 18 October 2008.
31
See Charity, Quantum of Solace Coldly Efficient; and
Kenneth Turan, After the Strong Casino Royale, Bond
Gets Chilly Under Director Marc Forster in the Emotionless, Bang-Bang Quantum of Solace, Los Angeles Times,
13 November 2008, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-solace13-2008nov13,0,2968836.story.
32
Wilson, The Puccini Problem, pp. 8081.
33
Loubinoux, Les avatars de Tosca entre France et Italie.
34
Peter Franklin, Movies as Opera (Behind the Great Divide), in A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations
of Opera, ed. Jeremy Tambling (London: John Libbey, 1994),
especially pp. 83108. The Korngold statement, cited by
Franklin, appears in Tony Thomas, Music for the Movies,
2nd edn. (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1997), pp. 174
75. Thomas writes that Korngold pointed to the second
act of Tosca as the best bit of opera he knew (Thomass
paraphrase).
Among the myriad films that use Tosca are Hoodlum

(1997), the black mob film, which has E lucevan le stelle
on the soundtrack nondiegetically and then diegetically
from a phonograph; and Milk, mentioned above. Although
opera-film lies beyond this study, Benot Jacquots movie
Tosca (2001) deserves mention because of its imaginative
treatment of music and image that affirms Puccinis affinity for film. As a gauge of current interest in Puccini and
film, Wilson ends her book by suggesting film-music models as a fruitful path for studying Puccinis music (The
Puccini Problem, pp. 22526).
36
Scarpia and Tosca, the only major characters in the sequence, were culled from an extended roster of singers.
Sebastian Soules portrays Scarpia in the film, but sang
Angelotti in the regular performances. In the role of Tosca,
who is mute in Quantum, we see Karine Babajanyan, a
singer from a secondary cast. A few minor details were
changed for the film, for example, Toscas gown in act II is
white instead of orange. The Bregenz production appears
on DVD, with Nadja Michael (Tosca), Zoran Todorovich
(Cavaradossi), and Gidon Saks (Scarpia): Phoenix Edition
801, 2008. Reviews of the stage production include Manuel
Brug, Oper: keine Zrtlichkeit bei Tosca in Bregenz,
Die Welt, 20 July 2007; and Koch, Blick ins Innere:
Bregenzer Festival, pp. 3839. In addition, Gerhard Persch
offers insightful commentary in Der bannende Blick,
the liner notes that accompany the DVD.
323

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Table 1: Layout of the Opera Scene

References to the music pertain to the full score, Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, ed. Mario Parenti (Milan: Universal
Music Publishing Ricordi S.r.l. 1999). The first is the page number; the second the measure number. If three
numbers appear, the second is the system and the third the measure within.
Section
DVD Timing
Music
Action
Audio-Visual Design
Sect. I: Part 1
38:3938:59
David Arnolds
music
Bonds driving
in Bregenz
Music dominant in soundscape; dry

sound environment
Sect. I: Part 2
39:0041:30
Continuation of
Arnolds music
Intrigues in
backstage &
lobby areas of
Bregenz opera
house
Music dominant in soundscape,

but dialogue & effects in background
Sect. II
41:3144:34
Te Deum from
Tosca
(act I finale)
Performance in
opera hall as
conspirators
hold meeting
Fast montage; intercutting between

opera and plot strands; music still
mostly dominant in soundscape,
but dialogue often dominant
over music
Sect. III: Part 1 44:3545:09
F minor
instrumental
passage from
act II of
Tosca, first
five measures
(352/1353/1)
Violent action
chase through
restaurant and
kitchen, with
flashes of
performed
opera
Frenetic montage; music dominant in

soundscape, but are also fleeting
effects; dry sound environment
Sect. III: Part 2 45:1045:55
Continuation of
instrumental
passage from
act II of Tosca
(353/2354/1/4)
Bond confronts
foe on outside
ledge and has
him drop over
the side
One location; return to normal

montage and soundscape
of three large sections. The first serves as a

prelude to the main action and shows introductory events: the patrons arriving, Bond sneaking into the backstage area, the villains chatting in the lobby, and Bond hijacking an earpiece. This section uses music by David Arnold,
who wrote the score for the film. The second
and third sections involve Tosca and unfold in
the hall and nearby spaces. Section 2 is built on
the majestic Te Deum, the concerted number
that closes act I of the opera. Section 3 jumps
ahead and gives us the melodramatic instrumental passage that follows Toscas murder of
Scarpia in act II.37 Here it begins immediately
after the Te Deum. As the sequence proceeds
37
In the opera a similar passage also appears before Toscas

death; see n. 53 below.
the pacing accelerates, and the effect is most

pronounced in the montage.
For the first and only time in Quantum,
music functions as the dominant element in
the sound design.38 The arrangement applies to
most of the scene and involves both Arnolds
38
Attention to elements of sound is relatively new in film

scholarship. Rick Altman has argued for its importance to
the interpretation of moviesnot just the contribution of
music, which has matured as an area of study, but music
as one component of a larger soundscape that also includes sound effects, dialogue, and the sonic environment.
These make up what he terms the mise-en-bande of a
film, which he considers as significant as the mise-enscne, the visual aspects, which have dominated cinema
studies. See Altman (with McGraw Jones and Sonia Tatroe),
Inventing the Cinema Soundtrack: Hollywoods Multiplane Sound System, in Music and Cinema, ed. James
Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer (Hannover, N.H.:
Wesleyan University Press, 2000), pp. 33959.
324

underscoring and Puccinis source music. Such

primacy in the soundscape represents a major
departure from the usual practices of action
films, where music often struggles for attention.39 Typically, action films emphasize loud,
sharp sound effects and relegate music and dialogue to the background; many sequences dispense with speaking altogether. Whatever music is present tends to merge with the sound
effects. In David Neumeyer and James Buhlers
characterization: It has become standard practice to commingle effects and music in action
films and model the music to emphasize its
sound, its texture and timbres, rather than melodies.40 In Quantum the action sequences adhere to this approach. Blips of blaring effects
dominate the soundtrack, and music merges
with them to the point where music as music
can barely be identified. Formulaic and repetitive, these set pieces form the core of the film.
But the opera sequence is also a set piece, albeit
of a different sort. Because of this narrative
relationship, the scenes approach to sound design becomes significant for the film as a whole.
Its elevation of music to prominence in the
soundscape is one way the opera scene stands
apart from the rest.
The first section of the opera visit opens
with Bond slowly cruising through nighttime
Bregenz as he tracks Greenes path to the theater on a cell phone. Here Bond enters a soundscape of detachment. It lacks speech and sound
effects, and ambient noise is almost nil. What
remains is Arnolds music. More textural than
melodic, it pulls Bond inward and isolates him.
This occurs because of an affective dissonance
between the music and its sonic context. On
the one hand, the acoustic quality of the heard
music is rich and resonant and creates a warm
sound environment. On the other, the ambient
sound space is conspicuously dry, and this qual39
James Buhler, David Neumeyer, and Rob Deemer, Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 222. This does
not mean that action films dispense with source music
altogether, even as they feature frantic montages that preclude sustained music.
40
David Neumeyer and James Buhler, The Soundtrack:
Music in the Evolving Soundtrack, in Sound and Music
in Film and Visual Media: A Critical Overview, ed. Harper
Graeme, Ruth Doughty, and Jochen Eisentraut (New York:
Continuum, 2009), p. 44.
ity thwarts emotional connection with the luxuriant sound. Bond is cut off from his surroundings as music overwhelms reality and implies a
location inside his head. It almost feels like a
dream. In this regard, Arnolds comments in a
DVD feature are instructive. The composer sees
a lot of internal energy in the film because of
its emotional ambiguity and believes that a
certain amount of what he wrote became
designing sounds which felt like they were coming from somewhere sort of deep inside.41 At
this point in the film, the effect of the music is
so powerful that it functions as the principal
narrative agent. Even the speech and noise in
the lobby and backstage stay muted and yield
to the force of the music. The arrangement
establishes a trope of distance between Bond
and his environment that will continue through
the opera sequence and become one of its defining elements.
Arnolds circular music is built on a repetitive two-note ground. Example 1 shows the
basic pattern. This is the most fully formed
scored music in the film, and it actualizes the
potential of the fragmented underscoring found
elsewhere.42 Here, the stable stream of music
undergoes permutations that fill out the first
section of the scene. Repeating statements add
upper lines and varied timbres, manipulate time
through augmentation and diminution, and lead
to larger units with their own patterns. The
ability to add and subtract elements allows the
music to respond to filmic events. For example,
when Greene and then Bond enter the building
the texture builds in volume and complexity.
Nonetheless, the inexorability of the ground
imposes limits, while its repetitive nature instills a low-level anxiety that suggests an impending explosion.
The underscoring also signals what sort of
music will be used at the performance. In addition to the repeating ground, Arnolds music
has a slow harmonic rhythm. These features
impose stability and provide a firm base. In a
similar fashion, the Te Deum and passage from
act II of Tosca are stable and firmly grounded:
41
From the featurette The Music in the two-disk special

edition DVD.
42
Not coincidentally, it serves as the DVDs signature music when it plays continuously over the main menu.
325

MARCIA J.
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6

8
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6
8
etc.

Example 1: Basic pattern of David Arnolds theme.
the first with a grand bass ostinato, the second

through an expansive harmonic pace that anchors its weighty sound. Just as the first section is an effective entre to the sections in the
hall, so Arnolds music successfully sets the
stage for the opera music to follow. Though
hardly traditional dramatic operatic music
it is too minimalist and layered, with palpable
hints of Philip Glasss scoring style43it aligns
itself extremely well with the compositional
devices Puccini uses in the numbers that are
chosen for inclusion.
Te Deum Section. As Arnolds music comes to
a halt, a new soundscape is ushered in with a
wry stinger: Bond loudly removing the door
handle of a WC in which a foe is stashed.44 The
intrusion serves as the transition to the operaa sort of auditory pick-up to the start of
the diegetic music. The Te Deum section that
follows unfolds in a public arena. Although not
much of the performance of Tosca is seen, all
the action revolves around it. After a brief view
of Scarpia we get the main establishing shot of
Tosca: the huge eye at the center, opening to
reveal a space that will be filled by a choir of
prelates (see plate 2). At once bizarre and thrilling, the effect makes for exotic spectacle that
lives up to the expectations of the Bond brand.
The film plot involves Bond ascending to the
top of the set and scanning the audience, the
bad guys plotting strategy in snippets of dialogue over earpieces, Bond revealing his pres-
43
For Glass as a film composer, see Scott Hickss documentary, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007);
DVD ASIN B001PCNZGI, 2009.
44
The stinger is a sharp or sudden loud sound with a
major impact in a film, as defined in Hearing the Movies,
pp. 16, 8788.
ence, then everyone scattering. The ultimate

confrontation comes when Bond and Greene
meet face to face in an interior corridor.
The montage throughout is fast, and it seems
especially fragmented because the shots jump
from place to place, making us unsure of what
we are seeing. Is it the stage, the backstairs, the
hall, or somewhere else? Moreover, the partialness of some shots adds to the confusion. These
visual challenges disperse narrative agency and
act to subvert an operatic gaze. The specular
dynamics inside the film affirm this, for neither Bond nor his enemies appears to be looking at the stage. There are two interesting exceptions, however. At one point Greenes henchmen cast a questioning look at the Eye. It is
hard to know what to make of this, as it passes
quickly and the men say nothing. Although the
look could signal fear as they connect the Eye
with Greenes power, I suspect it was retained
as filler to match the running time of the music. The other place makes an important contribution. A Mr. White, who escaped from Bond
at the start of Quantum, is watching the performance and offers a choice operatic comment
when fellow conspirators bolt: I guess Tosca
isnt for everyone! (a female companion nods
sympathetically). In connection with the prevailing absence of gazes at the opera, it is worth
noting that hearing assumes an important place
in the hall by way of the earpiece. This private
auditory mode trumps public hearing. The effect interrupts the communal basis of performed
opera and suggests the kind of individual listening that comes with devices such as the
iPod. With the subjective relationship between
audience and spectacle undermined, the opera
visit loses a vital defining element.
And yet, the opera remains audibly present
for the spectator. A substantial chunk of the Te
Deum is used in the scene. It starts eighteen
326

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Plate 2: The Big Eye opening near the start of the Te Deum.
measures into the number at 175/4,45 runs to

the end of the act, but omits a few passages and
rearranges the texture as needed. The piece is
scored for large forces and includes organ, cannon, and chimes as well as full orchestra and
chorus.46 Its grandeur suits the high-stakes confrontation in the hall. Its majesty also comes
from the broad pedal point in the bass. The
pitches B and F occur over and over, without
change, until the final measures. Each note fills
a measure, creating a slow harmonic rhythm.
When composing the number, Puccini wanted
it to sound like liturgical music from the time
of the story, and we know that he did research
into contemporary church style.47 The piece is
striking in its unyielding formal framework and
its reference to ecclesiastical authority.
It is also notable because the anchor provided by the pedal exists in fascinating tension
with the floating tonal structure above it. Basically, the strong push to B by way of the F to B
45
These refer to the full score of the opera: Giacomo
Puccini: Tosca, ed. Mario Parenti (Milan: Universal Music
Publishing Ricordi S.r.l., 1999). The first is the page number, the second the measure number. If three numbers
appear, the second is the system and the third the measure
within.
46
I can discern no female choral voices on the soundtrack.
Given that the writing is doubled in octaves, perhaps the
producers decided to economize by omitting the womens
parts.
47
Carner, Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, pp. 1819.
bass pattern is offset by the frequent use of A

above it.48 Although the composer notated a
key signature of three flats, this tonality is not
defined until the end, where a strong cadence
confirms an E tonic that concludes the act. But
its shadow hovers over the rest because of melodic and harmonic material that contains A .
As a result, two tonal areas vie for attention
and create ambiguity. The overlay of this tension above the static pedal creates an undulating structure that pits Scarpias evil against the
dogma of the Churchin Arman Schwartzs
formulation, an instance of good and evil
marching together, united behind an irrational,
archaic force.49 Irony abounds and is absorbed
into the floating edifice that ends act I.
48
For the tonal tensions in the Te Deum, see the perceptive studies of Allan Atlas, Puccinis Tosca: A New Point
of View, in The Creative Process, vol. 3 of Studies in the
History of Music (New York: Broude Brothers, 1992), pp.
24774; and Antonino Titone, Vissi darte: Puccini e il
disfacimento del melodramma (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1972),
pp. 3235.
49
Arman Schwartz, Rough Music, p. 240. The interpretive lens on the contradiction has changed over time. Mosco
Carners 1985 book does not recognize the irony when it
criticizes Puccinis juxtaposition of good and evil in the
number; see Carner, Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, pp. 10809.
Later treatments view the contradiction as irony, reflecting the influence of postmodernism. See, for instance,
Tambling, Opera and the Culture of Fascism, p. 124; and
Peter Conrad, A Song of Love and Death: The Meaning of
Opera (St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 1996), p. 74. For other
perspectives on the Te Deum, see Susan Vandiver Nicassio,
327

19 TH
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The floating quality of the Te Deum is obviously significant for Quantum. Besides its parallelism with the venue, it implies a lack of
moral clarity that resonates with the film.
Scarpias engagement with the liturgical style
hints at the prospect that evil may prevail. At
this point a similar uncertainty hangs over Bond,
and the tension of the Te Deum propels the
scene into the violence to come. It also expresses the narrative uncertainties with respect
to operas appearance in the film. The camera
is watching opera, at least some of the time,
but the filmic participants are not. The tonal
tensions of the massive musical structure reflect the suspended state of these agents and
blunt subjective clarity.
The opening of the Te Deum scene is particularly impressive. As Scarpia melodramatically intones Va Tosca, the second of the three
iterations in Puccinis score, a massive organ
enters for the first time (see ex. 2). The extended
vocal line, the longest vocal solo in the scene,
effectively establishes the presence of opera.
What grabs our attention, as shown in ex. 3, are
the lurid parallel augmented triads expressing
Scarpias twisted intentions as they stir against
the tonal background (Its Scarpia that sets
loose the soaring falcon of your jealousy).50
Meanwhile, we see Bond bolting up the stairs
and hear the cannon that is notated in the score
but may be a vague blast of violence that could
be happening anywhere. The aural confusion
creates narrative confusion; the diegetic/operatic source of the cannon-blast is thrown into
question as we infer a filmic source. This is a
place where Puccinis music behaves cinematically and confuses the very genre it belongs to.
In contrast, Bonds visual status is clearly articulated when he assumes dominance atop the
set.
In the second part of the Te Deum sequence
Toscas Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp.
15568; Dhring, Musikalischer Realismus in Puccinis
Tosca, pp. 27073; and especially Franklin, Movies as
Opera, pp. 8788, which considers the Te Deum diegetic
music in the opera.
50
Loubinoux discusses Peter Brookss identification of selfnaming in Tosca, including this passage involving Scarpia,
as a characteristic speech act of the melodrama; see
Loubinoux, Les avatars de Tosca entre France et Italie,
p. 150.
(from 178/3 to the end of 182 in Ricordis full

score), filmic dialogue supplants opera as the
focus. Bits of conversation occupy the foreground, and the camera flits from speaker to
speaker and to Bond as he observes them. Meanwhile, the main musical line, which belongs to
Scarpia, is omitted. We are left with the instrumental music at a reduced level and a faint
version of one of the choral chants. Although
these changes might be disconcerting for the
opera fan, they conform to sound practices in
film. As Rick Altman observes, cinema has
been adjusting the relationship among dialogue,
music, and sound effects since the start of the
sound era.51 Essentially, music and noise are
reduced when dialogue is the main element.
This balancing act shapes Quantums opera
scene; the sound team adjusted the music when
the villains plot strategy. At the same time, the
elimination of the main vocal line has the effect of tamping down opera as opera. For instance, the vocal line for the melody beginning
A doppia mira tendo il voler is missing. What
remains approaches incidental underscoring,
that is, background music with few markers of
musical independence, and becomes another
reminder of Puccinis cinematic bent. With the
reduced volume and visual diversions, the operatic gap goes unnoticed.
Opera is restored in part 3. After harmonic
departures in part 2 that flirt with other keys
(18082), the music moves toward a strong cadence in B . When the harmony settles on a
forceful cadential I64 chord (downbeat of 183),
Bond concludes his witty comment and the
operatic voice returns to the foreground of the
soundscape (see ex. 4). Soon the chorus enters
with the Te Deum text and supplants Scarpia
in our vocal attention. Visually, the montage
intercuts the conspirators leaving the hall, Bond
taking their picture and fighting off a foe,
onstage prisoners pushed into a dungeon, White
uttering the remark, and Bond crossing to the
arena as he looks to leave (see plate 3). In coordinating these events with the music, the film
omits passages from the score. Most of the
51
Altman, Inventing the Cinema Soundtrack. See also

Buhler, Neumeyer, and Deemer, Hearing the Movies, pp.
39 and 49.
328

Fl.
C. Ingl.
in Si
Cl.

in Si
Cl. b
in Si

Hn.
in Fa
Trb.
III
Harp

Vc.
Cb.

pi

cuor
san - ni
da
Scar - pia.
pizz.

(esceil corteggio che accompagna

il Cardinale allaltare maggiore: (ironico)

MARCIA J.
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Operatics of
Detachment
Scar.
Vla.
pi

II
81

Campane
Vn.

I, II

in Fa

C. Bsn.

Bsn.
Org.

Va,
To - sca!

Example 2: Va Tosca in the Te Deum (175/16).

329

19 TH
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MUSIC
Ob.
C. Ingl.

legato

Cl. b
in Si

Bsn.

C. Bsn.
Hn. I, II
in Fa
Tpt. in Fa

Vn.
II

Cb.

Vla.
Vc.

Scar pia che

strisciando

co

scio glie a vol - oil - fal

i soldati svizzeri fanno far largo alla folla, che si dispone su due ali)

a2
Scar.

con sordina

Colpo di Cannone da lontano
Campane

82
Cann.

Trb.
Harp

del - la tua ge
lo

-
si
a.

legato
pizz.

legato
arco

pizz.
div.

Example 3: Augmented triads at the end of Va Tosca in the Te Deum (176/15).

cuts, such as the two-measure excision at 184/
45, are brief. One extends over six measures
(186/6188/1) and eliminates Scarpias melodramatic line, Tosca! You make me forget
God! (Tosca! mi fai dimenticare Iddio!). Beyond temporal considerations, the phrase may
have been cut so as to keep the choral spectacle
dominant and avoid interruption by the oper-
330

Sostenendo, ritornando al I. tempo
I, II

Fl.
III
Ob.
a2

C. Ingl.
Cl. in Si

Bass Cl.

a2

a2
Bsn.
C. Bsn.
in Fa
Hn.

in Fa
Trb.
B. Trb.

a2
Cann.
Campane
Org.
(con passione erotica)

Scar.
II

il

"

"
unite

"
arco
uniti

arco

gui - dir
tremolo stretto
tremolo stretto
Cb.
lan
"
tremolo stretto

"
Vla.
Vc.

!

!
!

con
Harp
Vn.
MARCIA J.
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Operatics of
Detachment
"

con
spa
"
"
"
"
"
"
"

"

"

-
si
"

mo
"

"

"

"
"
"
"
"

da
"
"
Example 4: Return of the vocal line in the Te Deum (183/13).

331

19 TH
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Plate 3: Bond crossing from the stage to the seating area.

atic subjectivity embodied in Scarpias soloistic
line, which is marked con forza and written
in a high tessitura. Instead, the block of choral
sound that began on 185 and continues through
186 is sutured to the final choral statement
(starting 188/1/4) that provides the long-awaited
E resolution for the number. In the grandiose
instrumental coda, which brings back the sensationalistic Scarpia chords that open Tosca,
the full climax of the filmic Te Deum is realized. Bond and Greene pause and eye each other
across a hallway (see plate 4). The scene ends
with a stinger as the final E chord punctuates
the noiseless shooting of a prisoner.
This concluding act clinches the impression
of the opera hall as a site of nefarious activity.
Not only does Scarpia intone his malevolent
lust for Tosca, but the Bregenz production also
adds political prisoners who are paraded in front
of the clergy and shot as they look on. This
highlights the hypocrisy of the Church and intensifies the clash between the liturgical music
and the evil plotting. A sharper parallel emerges
between the opera and the surrounding Bond
filmboth are steeped in harsh political environments that trade in violence, repression, and
death. For the film, the event enacts the sort of
political tyranny that is missing from the sequence because act IIs torture scene is not
staged. More directly, the onstage killings pave
the way for the offstage gunplay moments later.
It also blurs the borders between the opera scene
and the films other set pieces, action sequences

that fetishize violence. As for the filmic opera,
the fascist-style executions quash any idealism
that might inhere in the crevices of the
numbers ironythe places where religion
might have a chance to express itself in the
liturgical framework. This ensures that cynicism and detachment are not compromised.
The Big Eye participates in this political coupde-thtre. It opens to reveal the clergy, and
this suggests its complicity in the hypocrisy.
Gazing out at the repression, the ocular chamber may be the pivotal narrative agent in the
drama played out on stage. Yet in the filmic
space the camera is the master controller as it
fixates on the eye and selects what we see. In
film theory, the notion of the camera as an
independent narrative agent is controversial.
Applied unreflectively, it can confine film analysis to the work of director, cinematographer,
and film editor and minimize the role of looking by both characters and spectators.52 Here,
however, where a seeing presence is foregrounded, consideration of the camera as a major interpretive agent is justified. During the Te
Deum, the camera and the big Eye engage in a
52
On the camera as a subjective element, see James Monaco, How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, Multimedia
(3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 211.
332

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Plate 4: Bond (rear) eyeing Greene (right foreground) across a hallway.

lively counterpoint of mutual seeing. The Eye
tends to grab filmic and critical attention, but
in reality it is shown very few times. Of course,
our lingering impression of the image invests it
with huge semiotic weight, and it is probably
what we remember most from this part of the
opera visit.
The Eye is also memorable because it assumes a fascinating role with respect to opera.
As we have seen, the main film characters avoid
opera by not looking at the stage and focusing
on private hearing. But although Bond never
glances at the stage, he enters into an unusual
relationship with it. His perch atop the gigantic backdrop allows him to take on the functional role of the Eye. Both he and the Eye gaze
at the audience, and both become key agents in
the new operatic contract that is thus established. Instead of the audience looking at the
opera and objectifying the work as the focus of
their gaze, now it is the stage, as embodied in
the Eye and in Bond, that objectifies the audience. The extended point-of-view shots from
Bonds vantage point seal the new relationship,
which is given material form through his cellphone photos of audience members. Although
this might imply that opera has assumed greater
significance than ever, I take it to mean that
opera in the traditional sense is lessened by its
somewhat dangerous taking over of the spectral dynamic between viewer and workthe
fantasy of opera as a force that watches rather
than as a spectacle that is watched. Opera and

its appearance in the filmic opera visit are being detached from their usual subjective framework, and in the process are extending their
reach to new aesthetic terrain.
Third Section. The third, and most unusual,
section is very short, less than a minute-and-ahalf in real time. It consists of two approximately equal parts that are built on the melodramatic instrumental music that follows
Scarpias murder in act II (352/1354/1/4).53 The
first part is the most memorable: a violent action chase through the restaurant and kitchen
intercut with fleeting views of the opera (see
plates 5 and 6). The frenetic pace of the images
challenges comprehensibility beyond the fast
montage of the Te Deum. Now it is almost
impossible to determine place, people, and logic,
at least for first-time viewers. Not surprisingly,
this brand of breakneck speed, which appears
53
In varied form the passage also appears before the killing

(341/1/1342/2/4). The two instances share the same key
(F minor), melody, and texture, but they differ in orchestration, dynamics, and mood. The first also has a brief
vocal exchange that adds two measures. These differences
make for a very different affect in the two places. I have
found little critical commentary on either place. Carner
praises the beauty and expression of the first iteration, but
believes it doesnt quite fit the melodic style of Tosca
and suggests an earlier provenance as the reason. See
Carner, Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, p. 114.
333

19 TH
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Plate 5: Bond (right) in the chase through the restaurant.
Plate 6: Tosca exultant after killing Scarpia.

in other parts of the film, was criticized as an
affront to Bondian tradition.54 Yet this is an
imaginative reconfiguration of the opera visit
in film, one that separates the opera from its
music and articulates the distance between the
operatic music and the filmic image. Operatic
subjectivity is blocked as Bond and everyone
54
In his twice-stated charge that James Bond is not an

action hero, Ebert criticizes Quantums breakneck speed
for distorting the basic nature of the Bond series; in Ebert,
Quantum of Solace: A Q Only in Quantum.
else have essentially nothing to do with what

happens onstage; they are not even in the hall.
Only twelve measures in length, the passage
proceeds at a slow tempo and is deeply expressive. Example 5 shows the first phrase, which
appears in the film without the overlapped ending of Toscas line. An intense sviolinata reinforcement of the melodic line is readily apparent: violins, violas, English horn, and clarinets
play the melody at pitch, while cellos, bass
clarinet, and first bassoon double an octave
lower. Lower brass and oboes add intermittent
334

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24

pizz.
Example 5: Start of the instrumental passage in act II (352/14).

chord tones, but they yield to the highly
overdetermined melody. This piling-on of orchestral forces, a characteristic feature of
Puccinis scores, sets the stage for emotional
exaggeration. The tessitura of the main melody
is very low, and the string texture at the heart
of the sound is rich and deep at that register.

The narrow range of the writing adds to the
intensity. The result is a lurid quality that fits
the operas onstage melodrama, as Tosca kills
Scarpia and reacts emotionally to what she has
done.
335

MARCIA J.
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Another look at ex. 5 discloses that the

musics basic two-line texture is actually quite
traditional; it stresses stepwise motion, good
voice-leading, and a strong bass line that resembles a basso continuo. These old-fashioned
elements seem to inject a sense of pastness and
history into the film. But this effect is overcome by the melodrama of the exaggerated orchestration and the overpowering of the bass
by the overscored melody. If the music is invoking history, it is in part the sense of fin-desicle expressive excesswhich Puccini, of
course, helped to createthat has influenced
the music of countless films.
This segment of the scene opens with an F
in the bass that enters early and is held a few
seconds. With this transitional gesture the
diegetic sound world turns dry, almost dead.
The effect is stark and gripping. As the frantic
montage gears up we almost feel as if we are
watching a silent movie. The figures appear to
be enacting mime inside their hushed sound
envelope, hermetically sealed from reality. We
hear that silence against the rich resonance of
Puccinis music, and the contrast makes the
filmic world seem more detached. Visually the
images come fast and furious. The bad guys
pursue Bond headlong into the opera restaurant, which is full of diners. We hear scattered
screams and assorted sound effects that include
gunshots and tables toppling. The violence continues in the kitchen with clanking pots, more
close calls, and a stovetop blaze. Meanwhile
the chase is intercut with fleeting views of
Tosca and wayward screams are heard as well.
We are unsure where the sounds come from
the stage? the audience in the hall (whom we
dont see)? the bystanders in the restaurant?
some added agent? This sort of separation occurs routinely in action-film sequences, where
narrative and visual confusion create a grabbag of detached sounds that lack defined
sources. Here there are only isolated blips, not
the full complement typical of action films.
The sound effects are subordinated to the music, not the other way around, as Puccinis music fills the foreground with coherent sound.
Still, the influence of the films genre is evident in the unmoored sounds.
The situation changes completely in the
second half of this striking segment. While
Puccinis music continues, the filmic stylization ends. The diegetic sound quality normalizes, the montage ceases its frantic speed, no
intercutting occurs with the opera, and the narrative assumes a normal pace as Bond speaks
with a captured foe (see plate 7). The setting is
a rooftop ledge aside the tall opera building. As
Bond applies a karate chop the man falls over
the side and lands with a thud on a cara
move that might allude to Toscas leap from
Castel SanAngelo at the end of the opera.
The car belongs to Greene, who has the man
killed because he is not one of their own and
shouldnt be looking at me. As Puccinis
music approaches its quiet close, murmurs of
scored music provide a seamless transition to
the next scene, where M speaks with Bond by
phone.
Time is ambiguous in this third section.
When does this take place? We see patrons in a
restaurant, and that suggests intermission. But
how can act II be onstage at the same time? In
turn, if the fight takes place during the performance of act II, why are the diners missing it?
Could the flashes of act II be a fantasy of what
is to come in the opera? Although this may
seem implausible at first blush, Quantums
treatment of the opera in act II makes it a
possibility. During the F -minor music introduced by the ominous bass note the film gives
us images from other places in the score. When
this music sounds in Puccinis opera, Tosca
has already killed Scarpia, and she is searching
for the safe-conduct he has promised, prying it
loose from his hand. In the film, however, we
see earlier events. First there is Scarpia menacing Tosca, then making a sexual advance. This
is followed by Tosca approaching him with a
knife (which looks like a gun), then stabbing
him, and finally looking exultant with a bloody
knife in her hand. While the arrangement is
ostensibly a mismatch, there is something else
going on. Quantum performs a temporal compression of the opera, a montage of fragmentary
flashbacks. The arrangement is consistent with
the fragmented style of montage that involves
Bond, where events are suggested rather than
fully shown. In a similar way, the idea of timeshifted opera images helps to explain the temporal conflict surrounding the restaurant. In
both situations time is handled freely and could
336

MARCIA J.
CITRON
Operatics of
Detachment
Plate 7: Bond and his captive outside the opera house.

signal fantasy or anticipation. Thus, the disconnect between the images and the correct
music signifies a broader detachment at work
in this section.
The opera images we see serve other purposes. Besides providing a parallel between the
onstage and filmic violence, the movie suggests that Tosca killing her tormentor might
justify the revenge for Vespers death at the
hands of her tormentor in Casino Royale. The
point behind Quantum of Solace is that Bond
will carry out the revenge himself. In the event,
he desists; instead, a woman accomplishes a
bloody deed onstage, and the gendered connection adds an interesting dimension to the film.
It implies that Bond is still dependent on
womenhe cannot escape from Vesper and the
feminizing orbit of M, and he is not as macho as he seems to be and actually was in
earlier films.55 More directly, it strengthens the
intertextual link with the previous film and
integrates the opera a bit more into the Bondian
sphere.
55
Several essays in Lindners James Bond Phenomenon explore Bond with respect to gender, sexuality, and women.
See Colleen M. Tremonte and Linda Racioppi, Body Politics and Casino Royale: Gender and (Inter)national Security, pp. 184201; Tara Brabazon, Britains Last Line of
Defence: Miss Moneypenny and the Desperations of Filmic
Feminism, pp. 23851; and Toby Miller, James Bonds
Penis, pp. 285300.
Meanwhile, Toscas act is accompanied by

quick views of the Big Eye in various guises:
projected on the floor, pulsating on the backdrop, and circling around the pupil. These
flashes contrast with the stability of the Eye in
the Te Deum and its role as a key agent in that
segment. Here its appearances are incidental,
and agency is transferred to the sonic power of
the music. While a female may not be the cause
of the fractured role of the Eyeshe is only one
element in the intricate dynamics of the scene
she is nonetheless associated with the changed
status of the icon. In this way gender intersects
with narrative functioning as the prominent
agent from the Te Deum is destabilized and
subordinated to music.
The use of instrumental music for such a
major portion of the opera sequence is noteworthy. The absence of singing acts to separate
the passage from the opera, and the effect is
heightened by the temporal mismatch between
music and image. This functional independence
nudges the passage toward the filmic sphere,
and to all intents and purposes the music operates as underscore. We should recall that in
Puccinis opera this section already has close
ties to stage action. In the score the composer
provides detailed instructions for Toscas movements at specific places (see ex. 5). This means
the passage was already conceived as descriptive accompaniment to visual events, and from
here it is but a short step to using it the same
337

19 TH
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MUSIC
way in a film. Another filmic aspect of its appearance in Quantum involves its volume,
which remains constant in the scene. If the
passage were confined within the opera, its volume would be louder when the camera is inside the hall and softer when outside: standard
cinematic practice for diegetic music and space.
Otherwise, viewers will infer some extradiegetic
or imprecise source for the music. And that is
exactly what happens in the astonishing instrumental passage in Quantum.
The Opera VisitRevisited
Quantums functional shift from opera to film
can also be described in terms of intermediality,
a semiotic system that categorizes the contribution of individual media when they combine. Werner Wolf divides intermedial encounters into two categories, overt and covert; the
difference involves the relative strength of the
signifiers of the constituent media.56 In the third
section of the opera visit in Quantum, the instrumental music constitutes covert intermedialitya situation where only one of the two
media retains its defining signifiers. Opera lacks
some of its key signs in the music presented,
while film is buttressed by the fact that the
music operates like a film score. While the intermedial label does not provide the full picture, it acknowledges that a major function of
this music is to accommodate the needs of the
film.
56
Werner Wolf, The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in

the Theory and History of Intermediality (Amsterdam:
Rodopi, 1999), especially pp. 3750. Other formulations
appear in Irina O. Rajewsky, Intermedialitt (Tbingen:
Francke, 2002), and in later writings of Wolf: Intermedialitt: Ein weites Feld und eine Herausforderung fr
die Literaturwissenschaft, in Literaturwissenschaft:
Intermedial-Interdiszipinr, ed. Herbert Foltinek and
Christoph Leitgeb (Vienna: sterreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 2002), pp. 16392; and Intermediality Revisited: Reflections on Word and Music Relations in the
Context of a General Typology of Intermediality, in Word
and Music Studies: Essays in Honor of Steven Paul Scher
and on Cultural Identity and the Musical Stage, ed.
Suzanne M. Lodato, Suzanne Aspden, and Walter Bernhart
(Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002), pp. 1334. For application to
the opera/film encounter, see Citron, When Opera Meets
Film, where intermediality is a major theme; and Bernhard
Kuhn, Die Oper im italienischen Film (Essen: Die Blaue
Eule, 2005), a study by a scholar of Italian literature.
One of the main ways the music fulfills this

role is by providing a firm anchor against the
frenetic montage, especially in the first segment. The slow-moving music that figures
alongside the visual speed creates a kind of
contrary motion in the aesthetic texture. The
result is an expansion of time, confirming the
proliferation of temporal schemes in the narrative, and helping to explain why this short section feels much longer in psychological time.
The effect might suggest what Michel Chion
has called an anempathetic relationship between the music and image, especially when
the music is out of sync with what is going
on in the film.57 (Hearing the Movies defines
the anempathetic as sounds or music that are
emotionally distanced . . . , or not in empathy
with the image track.58) In this portion of
Quantum, the anempathetic distance between
the music and images must be seen within the
movies prevailing tone of detachment. Here
Puccinis emotional music functions as much
to express Bonds stepping outside of himself as
to make a distant commentary on the calamities of violent crimes.
Indeed, the strong affect of the instrumental
music may also be empathetic in a conventional sense. Could this music be located inside Bonds head, a sort of private music, especially given the dry sound environment that
separates him from his surroundings? The sense
of interiority recalls the first section of the
opera sequence, where Arnolds resonant music meanders through Bonds mind against
muted sounds from the environment. Similarly,
Puccinis rich envelope appears to remove Bond
from the violence happening around him, turning his fight into a dreamlike fantasy. In light
of his emptiness throughout the film, such a
fantasy could symbolize a potential engagement
with things that involve emotion, especially
opera. But because he is driven to avoid such
encounters, he becomes distanced from the
deeply emotional music, only vaguely imagining how he would engage with the opera. In-
57
See Michel Chion, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, ed.

and trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 89.
58
Buhler, Neumeyer, and Deemer, Hearing the Movies, p.
107.
338

stead, Puccinis music engulfs him as it comments on his emptiness. In this dance of attraction and resistance, Bond is not given any appreciable solace. The brevity of the music and
his return to real time and place mean that
emotional sustenance is only superficial.
Although Bond is denied catharsis, the music may represent a cathartic release from his
emptiness at this late stage of the series. Yet as
in the film, the music does not close the gap
between feeling and isolation, but only underscores (pun intended) the distance between them
and the subjective dilemma facing the postmillennial hero. This is quite different from
its effect in Puccinis opera, where the music is
a huge, almost orgasmic release for Tosca after
she murders Scarpia. The difference articulates
the historical distance between the connectedness of post-Romanticism and the fragmentation of postmodernism.
The various layers of disconnection in Quantum make for a fascinating game of alienation.
As early-twenty-first-century audiences, we are
not alienated from the spectacle, but we witness a staging of alienation among the narrative agents onscreen. Puccinis music in Quantum thus takes on a mode of complexity it
does not have in the stage opera: it works harder,
assumes multiple roles, and delivers the emotional punch that caps off the amazing sequence.
Yet this portion of the opera visit affords little
time for reflectionnot only for Bond, but for
filmic viewers.59 In the process, opera cedes
some of its cultural weight to the needs of
newer idioms, such as action films. Opera typically proceeds slowly and deliberately, and this
requires time. Even with Puccinis slow-moving music, the fracturing that appears in the
first half of the segment makes that impossible. And while this is not the whole of
Quantums opera sequence, it may be the part
one remembers most. The Big Eye became a
sensational logo for the Bregenz Festival in 2007
and 2008, and it remains one of the most memo-
59
The scenes obsession with montage amounts to a rejection of Andr Bazins advocacy of mise-en-scne and its
encouragement of reflection. For its connection with opera in film, see the study of the Godfather trilogy in Citron, When Opera Meets Film, pp. 2528.
rable images from the film.60 But the frantic

chase imprints itself on the imagination and
for this viewer, at least, represents what is most
special about the performed Tosca in Quantum of Solace.
When we watch Quantums opera scene we
are distracted from focusing on anything for
long. Walter Benjamin wrote, presciently, that
reception in distractionthe sort of reception
which is increasingly noticeable in all areas of
art and is a symptom of profound changes in
apperceptionfinds in film its true training
ground.61 In this sense, the Big Eye embodies a
new way of arranging image and viewing opera
in film. It becomes a symbol of the mediated
spectatorship of operawatching that is onceremoved through the prism of the camera and
the screen. This means that Bond at the opera
becomes a commentary on this film and on
opera in a media age. To take one important
example, the Eye may stand for the growing
mediated gaze directed at opera as more and
more people attend the Metropolitan Operas
HD broadcasts in movie theaters. Of course,
broadcast performances have appeared on television for decades, and opera-films such as
Zeffirellis Otello and Bergmans Magic Flute
have played to sizeable movie audiences. But
the Mets cinecasts reconfigure the ritual of
what it means to be engaged in the opera visit
as we moviegoers are made to feel as if we are
at the Metropolitan Opera, experiencing the
sense of occasion that accompanies a live
performance.62 At the same time, we know that
the camera and the transmission are mediating
what we see, for the venue constantly reminds
us that we are at the movies.
60
Koch, Blick ins Innere: Bregenzer Festival, p. 38.

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its
Technological Reproducibility, in The Work of Art in the
Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, ed. Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty,
and Thomas Y. Levin; trans. Edmund Jephcott, Rodney
Livingstone, and Howard Eiland (Cambridge, Mass.:
Belknap Press, 2008), pp. 4041.
62
For sense of occasion in connection with the televised
relay broadcast, see Citron, Opera on Screen (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2000), p. 49. W. Anthony Sheppard
offers a perceptive look at the Mets cinecasts in his Review of the Metropolitan Operas New HD Movie Theater
Broadcasts, American Music 25 (2007), 38387.
61
339

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Operatics of
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Beyond signifying mediation, the Big Eye

functions as a seeing device twice-removed. The
camera watches it as it emits a gaze, one that
supplants the usual specular dynamics of opera. It leads me to wonder, does this discerning
Eye acknowledge the loss of aura that comes
with mechanically reproduced art, or does it
camouflage the loss? In my view, the functioning of the Big Eye spells a recognition of the loss
of aura. It creates a situation that is more honest than many opera visits in film, where the
illusionism of film is masked in order to buttress the sense of a live performance. When
Quantum offers techno-opera and a fragmented
presentation, it foregrounds the technological
mediation and discloses the manufactured nature of opera in film. It signals that watching
opera from inside a film and filmic opera from
outside have new meaning in a postmodern age.
Future filmic visits may continue in this
vein, but action films and late-stage Bond films
constitute special cases because they construct
their own subjective universe. In the broader
picture, opera in the opera house still exudes a
special cachet and signifies high culture. Many
films will use it for these social meanings, even
if, as in A Night at the Opera, they use opera to
criticize it. Thus I do not expect a broad-based
sea change in opera visits in film. What Quantum envisions is the potential for a wider range
of opera visits, including scenes where the unifying power of operatic subjectivity is fractured
and becomes the ingredient of a new spectacle.
While an operatics of detachment may seem
like a contradiction, Quantum of Solace persuades us that it can be a vibrant reimagining
of the special filmic ritual that is the
opera visit.
Abstract.
I argue that Quantum of Solace, the 2008 James
Bond movie, marks a change in the conception of
the opera visit in film, which typically shows opera
in an idealizing light. Quantums opera visit, which
may be a first in an action film, signifies detachment and encapsulates the subjective isolation of
the protagonist. The scenes distance comes from
the floating operatic venue (Bregenz Festival), the
voyeuristic production (techno-opera), the frenetic
montage in much of the sequence, and the work
itself (Tosca), which has parallels with the filmic
story. Detachment is further promoted by a dry sound
environment, a rearranged temporal scheme, and
opera music that approaches underscore in its distance from operatic idioms. Comprised of slow harmonic rhythm and considerable repetition, the two
musical excerptsthe Te Deum ending act I and the
instrumental music after Scarpias murder in act
IIare noticeably static and impose a groundedness
that separates the scene from the films other set
pieces, which are extremely fast in music, sound,
and image. The disposition of the operatic music
points up the cinematic bent of Puccinis score and
its remarkable ability to accommodate the needs of
the film.
Although Quantums opera visit is cynical toward opera culture, it captures the postmillennial
malaise of the long-running Bond franchise and forms
the high point of a film that disappointed critics and
fans alike. But while opera may redeem the films
larger narrative, the protagonist remains aloof from
operas transforming qualities as he shuns engagement with the spectacle and the resonant music on
the soundtrack. Bonds detachment is embodied in
the symbol of the sets iconic Big Eye, which not
only reverses operas scopic dynamic by gazing at
the audience more than the audience gazes at the
stage, but also represents mediated looking at opera
in general, as in the Metropolitan Operas HD
cinecasts. While an operatics of detachment may
seem like a contradiction, Quantum of Solace persuades us that it can be a vibrant reimagining of the
special filmic ritual that is the opera visit. Keywords: opera visit in film, Tosca, Quantum of Solace, film music, sound design
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The Operatics of Detachment - 'Tosca' in The James Bond Film 'Quantum of Solace'

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The Operatics of Detachment: Tosca in the James Bond Film Quantum of Solace

Author(s): Marcia J. Citron

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