opera

Question 1

MOZART

Answer 1

Talk about Mozart*
-1756-1791
-Mozart is able to accurately portray personailties through his music. And he did it intentionally. in his letters he described the effects.
-on a visit to vienna
–in 1768,
—he wrote his first opera buffa
—-(la finta semplice) (the pretend simpleton).
-Mozart also composed opera serie in 1770
-idomeneo
–in 1781,
—best one,
—-has dramatic and pictoral music,
—–accompanied recitatives,
——conspicuous use of chorus and
——-inclusion of spectacular scenes,
——–idomeneo shows the reformist tendencies,
——— also shows influence of french opera.
-The singspiel “Die entfuhrung aus dem serail” was responsible for much of mozart’s fame.
-Mozart wrote “thus do all women,”
–An italian comic opera.
-Librettos by ponte, gave great depth to the characters,
–and addressed social tensions
—were used by mozart
-Marriage of Figaro is an example of exchanges between nobility and commoners.
–People of the time thought marriage of fig it was risque.
-Don Giovanni has more dark subject, and
–looks deeply at the personality of a person.
-Don Giovanni incorporates opera seria characters and styles,
–but opera buffa style is also used.
—For example, at the beginning, a persuer sings in opera seria style,
—-and a person hiding and observing, comments in buffa style.
—–Someone dies in this opera, which is unusual for a comedy,
-Throughout the opera, there are three levels of character,
–1. Nobles that emote in the elevated dramatic tone of opera seria;
—2. lower class people that emote in a buffa style,
—-3. don giovanni, who goes from one world to the other as a duplicitous seducer.
-Mozart even mimicks old styles of opera
–to illegitimize the statements made by characters in the play.
-“The mercy of titus” written in later years of his life
–“the magic flute” later years of his life also.
-The magic flute is a singspiel,
–has spoken dialogue instead of recitative.
—music is rich and profound,
-Late Opera Buffa was used by Mozart used.
–Many times it was centered upon two lovers and their circumstances,
—and the interaction of other people around them.
—-Mozart in particular liked to set music to librettos that portray his characters as human subjects, capable of making mistakes,
—–perhaps in contrast to characters in opera seria, who could be legendary figures from history, or from greek mythology that were seemingly larger than life.

Question 2

french opera

Answer 2

• TALK ABOUT FRENCH OPERA
• Opera took a while to take hold in France.
• -The French preferred ballet,
• –French language was not conducive to recitative.
• When opera finally did become more popular, the task was givens to Lully.
• -no one else allowed to compose opera initially
• NOtes inegales, performance practice, was considered elegant and expressive
• in french baroque, agrements were brief ornaments.
• Lully’s music projected the formal splendor of louis’s court.
• In the beginning, Lully was the only opera composer,
• In France, Opera was closely associated with Ballet,
• Opera associated with King Louis XIV. The
• Louis 14 was King was a great lover of ballet, and
• -he himself was a dancer.
• Elements of the French Opera were propagandistic, praising and paying homage to King Louis XIV.
• -The overtures of the opening were pompous, and stately,
• –featuring notes inegales, very regal.
• —At times choruses would sing praises to the king,
• The ornaments of Lully and the French opera composers were more often written out as opposed to Italian arias, where the singer could ornament freely.
• believe that in many ways, French opera was influenced by Italian opera.

Question 3

lully

Answer 3

• Talk about Lully
• sixteen thirty two to sixteen eighty seven
• lully he was italian, but lived in france his whole life.
• Fostered the modern orchestra
• favorite musician of louis fourteeenth.
• wrote music for ballets and religious services at court,
• earned his greatest success with dramatic music.
• in the sixteen seventees, with louises support, .. lully created a distinctive french kind of opera that persisted for a century.
• -tragedie lyrique
• gained the exclusive rights to produce french opera, and
• established the academie royale de musique.
• lully made comedies ballets, with blended ballet and opera.
• court ballet, french genre,
• -staged with costumes and scenery,
• –members of the court alongside professional dances.
• —several acts each composed of a series of entrees, (entries)
• —-entries included solo songs,
• —–entries included choruses and
• ——entries included instrumental dances
• ——-all of these in styles suited to the characters portrayedby the dancers.

Question 4

lully french overtures

Answer 4

• talk about Lully french overtures
• lully pioneered this genre
• operas began with an ouvrture, (french for opening).
• -marking the entry of the king (when he was present) and
• –welcoming him and the audience to the performance.
• overtures were grand,
• -followed a format
• –two sections,
• —each section played twice,
• —-the first is homophonic
• —–the first is majestic
• ——the first is marked by dotted rhythms and ——–the first is marked by figures rushing toward the downbeats,
• ——–the second section is faster and
• ———begins with a semblance of fugal imitation
• ———-then usually returns at the end to the manner of the first section.

Question 5

lully adapt recitative

Answer 5

• Talk about Lully adaptation of recitative
• to project drama, lully adapted italian recitative to french language, and poetry.
• -this was hard to do,
• –solution has the melodies more songful, and
• —does not as much create the illusion of speech.
• —-lully folllowed the general countours of spoken french, while shifting the metric nottation between duple and triple to allow
• —–effect is the most natural and expressive declamation of the words.

Question 6

lully tragedie lyrique

Answer 6

• talk about Lully’s creation of tragedie lyrique
• in the sixteen seventees, with louises support, .. lully created a distinctive french kind of opera that persisted for a century.
• -new kind of opera
• –reconciled demands of drama, music and ballet
• —five act dramas,
• —-combined serious plots from ancient mythology, with frequent divertissements,
• —–divertissements were long interludes of dancing with solo and choral singing.
• ——divertissements contained French propaganda therein.

Question 7

ramea

Answer 7

• Talk about Rameau
• 1683-1764.
• first theorist to describe the tonal system,
• used corellis musical language as the basis for his rules of functional tonality.
• “Opera tragique” was used by Rameau.
• Rameau wrote stage works,
• wrote hippolyte et aricie,
• -in 1733.
• wrote les indes galantes,
• -in 1735,
• castor et pollux
• -in 1737.
• zoroastre
• -(in 1749) was
• –his most important work.
• People were divided about the music of Rameau
• -too much influenced by Italian styles,
• –opposed to Lully,
• —who supposedly composed in a more distinctly French style.
• —-However Ramea later became very successful in France,
• —–in 1750, in france, opposition to the old style of opera began to appear.

Question 8

rameau opera

Answer 8

• Describe operas by Rameau
• They resemble Lully
• realistic declamation and precise rhythmic notation of recitative.
• recitative is mixed with more tuneful, formally organized airs, choruses, and instrumental interludes.
• -like lully
• long divertissements,
• -like lully
• Rameau made many changes with lully,
• -such as his notions of harmony,
• –more triadic phrases, and
• —the harmonic progression is clear.
• rameau included chromatic progressions,
• -his style is more diverse in this way.
• he used dissonance as a dramatic force.
• Events of the opera are depicted by novel orchestration.
• recitative and air are similar to one another.

Question 9

handel

Answer 9

• Talk about Handel————————————————
• wrote opera,
• 1685-1759,
• Giulio Cesare, and
• -40 operas,
• Wrote opera for 30 years,
• first opera was Almira
• Blending of national styles.
• an example of national blending,
• -set arias in Italian, and
• –recitatives in German
• —so the audience could follow the plot.
• He patterned overture and dance music after French models.
• Action of his most popular operas developed through dialogue
• -rendered in two distinct types of recitative
• –these two types emerged in Italian opera in the early eighteenth century.
• —one type accompanid only by basso continuo,
• —-set stretches of dialogue or monologue in as speechlike fashion as possible.
• —–called simple recitative,
• ——also called dry recitative
• ——-the other type is accompanied recitative,
• ——–stirring and impressive orchestral outbursts to dramatize tense situations.
• ———reinforcing rapid change of emotion.
• handels operas had a wide variety o aria types.
• -brilliant displays of ornamentation, coloratura,to
• –in contrast to his sustained sublimely expressive pathetic songs.

Question 10

english opera from 17th century

Answer 10

• Talk about English opera from the 17th century
• the first english operas, were done in private,
• the goverment did not allow stage plays, but concerts or private musical entertainments wre allowed.
• -this is how the first english “operas” were produced.
• they were not operas in the italian sense, but mixtures of elements from spoken drama and the masque,
• -including dances,
• –songs,
• —recitatives and
• —-choruses.
• From this period comes the only seventeenth century masque whose music survives complete,
• -cupid and death, with
• –music by matthew locke, and
• —music also by christopher gibbons.
• opera was not really introduced in the 17th century. english they preferred native genres.
• the masque was used,
• -it was like opera because it had insturmental music,
• –dancing,
• —songs,
• —-choruses,
• —– costumes,
• —— scenery
• ——-and stage machinery.
• ——–but they are more akin to french court ballets.
• ———the triumph of peace is one example of a masque.
• ———-it had music by william lawes.

Question 11

purcell

Answer 11

• talk about purcell_________________________________________________________
• composed Dido and Aeneas
• -1689
• was englands leading composer,
• best remembered for his dramatic music,
• 1659-1695

Question 12

opera in spain

Answer 12

• talk about opera in spain
• Spain developed its own national types of opera and musical theater.
• an opera in spanish modeled on the early florentine operas was presented at the royal court in sixteen twenty seven,
• Hidalgo wrote music for many plays,
• he devised the distinctly spanish zarzuela,
• -calderon helped him do this
• –this was the predominant genre of musical theater in Spain for several centuries,

Question 13

opera in early classic

Answer 13

+OPERA IN THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD

• many traits of early classic era, originated in italian opera in the 1720s.
• Around 1700, seperate traditions of comic and serious opera.
• General distinguishing traits
• -Classical operas placed value on the beauty of the melody
• –value on the ability of music to portray complex characters
• —value on the ability of music to portray rapidly changing emotions. -Renewed interest in the views of drama found in aristotle/classical writers led librettists to eliminate comic elements from serious opera.
• -because of this, the people that continued to use comic elements, made new genres, that appealed to a wider audience.
• The opera seria was more specialized and streamlined, allowing for less variation.
• In comic opera, more innovations were allowed than with opera seria
• opera buffa, was a full length work with six or more singing characters and was sung throughout,
• -plots of buffa, centered on ordinary people in the present day,
• –not stories from myth or history in serious opera.
• —caricaturized the foibles of aristocrats,
• —-commoners,
• —–vain ladies,
• ——All types of people from everyday society
• arias of comic operas were in galant style,
• -made up of short phrases
• –these phrases were also tuneful
• —arias were made up of simple harmonies
• —-organized into periods.
• During this time, Intermezzos were performed in two or three segments between the acts of a serious play or opera.
• -When comic scenes were purged from serious opera, these intermezzos were included, to allow for comic relief.
• Pergolesi (1710) is famous for his intermezzos such as
• -ex: “The maid as mistress.”
• Midcentury, the comic opera changed,
• -woeful and serious plots appeared
• Also, innovation in comic opera appeared
• • the ensemble finalE was one such innovation
• – At the end of an act, all the characters were gradually brought on stage while the action continued.
• —singing becoming more and more animated until reches a climax with all of the singers.
• during the classic period, opera comic opera took different forms in different countries.
• leading french opera composer from the classical period was Gretry, who wrote richared the lion. a french opera comique

Question 14

opera seria

Answer 14

OPERA SERIA_____________________________________________________

• The opera seria was developed in Italy
• -when and Metastasio expressed the desire for more serious plots with characters from history,
• –Greek mythologic or
• —other important tales.
• Metastasio played an important part in the appearance of the opera seria.
• -(1698 to 1782)
• metastasio operas present conflicts of human passions,
• -piting love against duty.
• –based on ancient greek tales
• —based on latin tales.
• metastasio was influenced by enlightenment thought.
• opera seria, was often in three acts, and contained alternating recitative and arias.
• opera seria utilized simple and accompanied recitative.
• opera seria=arias are dramatic soliloquy in which principal character expresses feelings, or reacts to a scene.
• Opera Seria became closely associated with Virtuosic solo vocalists.
• -The composers wrote difficult music for these performers,
• –that was allowed to be ornamented.
• —The Da capo aria, allowed for ornamentation in the return of the a section (ABA.)
• In general, the most important aspect constituted the solo arias.
• -Members of the audience often were bored during the recitatives,
• –only cared about arias.
• During Italian Opera Seria, vocal soloists such as Farinelli became very famous and successful for their performances of the aria.
• -Many of these soloists were male castrati that had an unusal vocal range.
• first half of the century, the favored form of aria was the da capo aria. see earlier.
• arias written in the first decades of the century, by scarlatti for example, usually projected a single affection or mood.
• -they could present contrastin affections in the a and b sections.
• –beginning in the 1720’s and 1730s composers started to express a succession of moods,
• —using a variety of musical material

Question 15

scarlatti

Answer 15

*Talk about Scarlatti

• associated with Italian opera seria. –he wrote one or more operas almost every year.
• He was the leading composer of opera in italy in the early eighteenth century.
• A. Scarlatti was a champion of the Da capo aria,
• -it offeredgreat flexibility in expression, this form did.
• “In voler cio che tu brami”
• -an aria from the opera “La Griselda”
• –by Scarlatti,
• —exemplifies the rich contrasts, the
• —-A section shows two sides of Griseldas character,
• —–dignity and strength
• ——with tenderness and love.
• ——-The B section, she adamantly insists that she will never stop loving him.
• ——–so here you see, Contrasts but also coherence.
• He is said to have provided a link between the early Baroque italian vocal style, and the classical school of the 18th century.
• Alessandro Scarlatti helped to establish the fast slow fast form of the overture that began the operas,
• The best operas of Scarlatti are La Rosaura,
• -and Pirro e Demetrio.
• –These operas exemplify his use of Italian Overture form,
• —also exemplify his use of “Da Capo Aria.”
• —-both things of which he personally helped to solidify.

Question 16

hasse

Answer 16

——–Talk about Hasse
-(1699-1783)
-german
-Hasse was one of the most successful in europe from the 1720s to the 1770s.
_hasse was the great master of the opera seria.
-Metastasio wrote for him.
-he wrote “cleofide”

Question 17

england opera ballad opera

Answer 17

ENGLAND BALLAD OPERA_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-In england, ballad opera was popular
–during classical.
-ballad opera had spoken dialogue interspersed with songs
–these songs set new words to borrowed tunes.
—these including folk songs and dances.
-ballad operas peaked in the 1730’s.
-as the genre developed, original music and words were added.
–and it mimicked opera comique.
-john gay’s “the beggar’s opera” ,
–music arranged by pepusch.
—began the trend for ballad opera.

Question 18

german opera and singspiel

Answer 18

• GERMAN opera and SINGSPIEL
• serious operas in german had been composed and produced since the seventeenth century,
• -and a few composers continued to write such works throughout the eighteenth century.
• –adopting the style and format of italian opera
• —mixed with french and native elements.
• —This is seperate from singspiel.
• Singspiel was more popular.
• new genre called “singspiel” an opera with spoken dialogue,
• -musical numbers,
• – comic plot.
• the earliest examples of singspiel appeared in the 1710s
• -in vienna.
• Principal composer of singspiel in the 1760s was Hiller
• -hiller lived(1728-1804).
• success of ballad operas in england inspired poets in northern germany to adapt some into german.
• after 1750, the germans were providing new music for them.

Question 19

enlightenment reform

Answer 19

ENLIGHTENMENT REFORM

• enlightenment ideals changed the classical opera after 1750s.
• -made the design more “natural”
• –more flexible in structure,
• —more expressive,
• —-less ornamented with coloratura,
• —–more varied in musical resources.
• ——less emphasis on the da capo aria.
• ——-more flexible alternations between recititives and arias
• ——–greater use of accompanied recitatives and
• ———greater use of ensembles.
• ———-singers became part of a larger purpose,
• ———–ie less emphasis on the singer by themselves.
• algarotti wrote “essay on the opera” which influenced these enlightenment ideas.
• important figure in the reform was Jommelli
• important figure was Traetta also

Question 20

gluck and enlightenment

Answer 20

GLUCK AND ENLIGHTENMENT————————————————————–

• Gluck was associated with enlightenment ideals.
• (1714-1787
• Gluck was a later composer from classical period.
• gluck composed italian opera and
• -gluck composed french opera.
• He achieved success in vienna.
• He aimed to make operas more simple and naturalistic
• -through the libretto
• –and through his style of music.
• he achieved a synthesis of french, italian, and german operatic styles.
• he worked with Calzabigi
• -calzabigi was a librettist,
• -they produce “Orfeo and Euridice”
• –(1762)
• —they also produced Alceste
• —-(1767).
• he wanted to remove the abuses that had deformed italian opera,
• -and wanted to confine music to what reformers considered its proper function,
• –to serve the poetry
• —and advance the plot,
• gluck wanted to make the overture an integral part of the opera.
• gluck lessened the contrast between aria and recitative.
• glucks music aims for “beautiful simplicity.”
• less vanity in opera seria.
• -an example is orfeo and euridice.
• the music serves the drama
• recitaties, arias and chorusus mingled in large unified scenes.
• gluck implemented more naturalistic lighting,
• -more naturalistic staging
• –more natural acting.
• —he wanted the singers to act realistic and natural.
• —-less time between recitative and aria.
• —–Didn’t want to make the singers wait to finish their sentence,
• ——to stop mid speech would make it seem unnatural.
• Gluck influenced cherubini,
• -spontini and
• –berlioz.

Question 21

french opera

Answer 21

• TALK ABOUT FRENCH OPERA
• Opera took a while to take hold in France.
• -The French preferred ballet,
• –French language was not conducive to recitative.
• When opera finally did become more popular, the task was givens to Lully.
• -no one else allowed to compose opera initially
• NOtes inegales, performance practice, was considered elegant and expressive
• in french baroque, agrements were brief ornaments.
• Lully’s music projected the formal splendor of louis’s court.
• In the beginning, Lully was the only opera composer,
• In France, Opera was closely associated with Ballet,
• Opera associated with King Louis XIV. The
• Louis 14 was King was a great lover of ballet, and
• -he himself was a dancer.
• Elements of the French Opera were propagandistic, praising and paying homage to King Louis XIV.
• -The overtures of the opening were pompous, and stately,
• –featuring notes inegales, very regal.
• —At times choruses would sing praises to the king,
• The ornaments of Lully and the French opera composers were more often written out as opposed to Italian arias, where the singer could ornament freely.
• believe that in many ways, French opera was influenced by Italian opera.

Question 22

opera

Answer 22

OPERA

• general characteristics of opera
• definition of opera=a text or libretto, in rhymed or unrhymed verse, combined with music, scenery costumes and action.
• origins around 1600.
• leading genre of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, important to this day.
• Early opera came about by humanist scholars reviving greek tragedy

Question 23

early opera

Answer 23

EARLY OPERA____________________________________________________
*General characteristics of early opera
-List genres that had an influence
–ancient Greek Dramas.
–infouenced by morality plays
–influenced by miracle/mystery plays
–ballet had an influence
–pastorals
–courtly dances that featured
–intermedios (early)
–liturgical dramas
–madrigal comedies/cycles
—-Intermedios, were musical performances that took place between acts of the plays.
—–Perhaps the close association of story, to music=influential.
——Early opera composers reconstructed the music of intermedes, to allow for dialogue.drama and stories
-The first surviving opera was from Peri
–it is called Euridice.
-Corsi, played a role
-origins of opera are in 1600.
-Peri and caccini, and others, an attempt to recreate in modern terms, the experience of ancient greek tragedy.
-Some would say it’s also a blend of existing genres,
–plays,
–theatrical spectacles,
–dance,
–maderigals and
–solo song.
-early opera has themes from greek traged
-the association of music with drama began in ancient times,
–music was featured in plays by euripides and sophocles had
—example:choruses

Question 24

pastoral drama

Answer 24

• Describe pastoral drama
• A play in verse with music and songs interspersed.
• Pastoral drama told of idyllic love
• -in rural settings
• –rustic youths,
• —maidens and
• —-mythological figures.
• —–nostalgia for classical antiquity,
• ——and yearning for unattainable earthly paradise.
• first pastoral poem to be staged was by angelo poliziano
• -“favola d’orfeo”,
• –favola d’orfeo was based on the legend of orpheus.
• —made in 1471 (favola d’orfeo)
• how did madrigals influence the operas?
• some were miniature dramas.
• madrigal comedies/madrigal cycles
• -succession of madrigals that were linked together, illuminating a simple plot.
• –slopes of parnassas,
• —by orazio vecchi.

Question 25

intermedio

Answer 25

• Describe the intermedio
• a musical interlude performed between acts of a play
• what are the subjects
• -allegorical
• –pastoral
• —mythological
• why were they initially used?
• -renaissance theatres lacked curtains, so they needed some way to divide different moments of the play from one another.
• usually there were six, performed before and after each of the five acts
• often the intermedios were linked by a common theme.
• list composers that worked on intermedi
• -Caccini
• –peri

Question 26

florentine camerata

Answer 26

• Talk about the florentine camerata
• from the early 1570s, Count Bardi hosted an academy
• -arts sciences were discussed
• –Called the florentine camerata
• Vincenzo Galilei was part of this group
• -theorist composer, father of astronomer
• –he attacked vocal counterpoint in favor of monody,
• —a single line of mlody with pitches and rhythms appropriate to the text could express a given line of poetry.
• —-one of the first advocates for monody.
• —–this type of monody was practiced in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
• ——I gather that it was most influential for peri and caccini, and not as influential for Monteverdi, and cavalli, c’esti
• ——-monteverdi, cavalli, c’esti feature more of a variety of styles in their operas.

Question 27

caccini and peri operas

Answer 27

• Talk about operas of Caccini and Peri
• Some of the first opera composers set out to re-create ancient Greek dramas in the way that they believed they were originally performed.
• -this means sung in their entirety.
• –included rinnucini poet and peri eho collaborated together for dafne,
• —they were sponsored by bardi
• —-the result was “Dafne”,
• —–performed in 1598.
• Cavalieri contemporarily with peri, produced morality play (representation of the soul and the body.),
• -at the time, this was the longest entirely musical stage work.
• In 1600, peri wrote music to a pastoral drama l’euridice
• -first performance of the earliest surviving opera.
• few operas written in the thirty years after l’eurydice,
• another setting of the libretto used for L’Euridice, exists
• -by Caccini
• –is melodious
• —lyrical.
• Caccini wrote “the liberation of ruggiero from the island of alcina” in 1625,
• -this is ballet,
• –has much in common with opera
• —(opening sinfonia,
• —-prologue,
• —–recitatives,
• ——arias,
• ——-choruses,
• ——–instrumental ritornellos, and
• ———elaborate staging.
• peri invented the recitative style.
• -influenced by the continuous and Diastematic singing of ancient Greeks.
• –diastemic is jumping
• —continuous is continuous, unbroken sound
• —-he found something that was inbetween the two.
• —–peri claimed that his setting imitated speech.
• ——in recitative of peri, he formed consonance with the bass on stressed syllables.
• ——-compatible with modern practice, even though it’s ancient greek style
• peri used two types of monody
• -sinfonia=abstract ensemble piece
• –many serve as a prelude.
• —2nd type, ritornello=an instrumental refrain

Question 28

monteverdi

Answer 28

MONTEVERDI______________________________________________________

• Who was Monteverdi in general
• Gave opera a place in history
• first widely known opera composer
• music suited to the text
• combined many styles
• -contrasts between the styles shaped the music and the drama.
• He lived 1567-1643
• wrote L’Orfeo,
• -and L’Arianna,
• –the return of ulysses,
• —and the coronation of poppea.
• Monteverdi incorporated Concitato genere or stile concitato,
• -to convey anger and warlike actions.
• –Rapid reiteration on a single note.
• He wrote only vocal works,

Question 29

l’orfeo

Answer 29

• talk about L’orfeo
• first opera was L’orfeo,
• the librettist for L’orfeo was Striggio.
• for L’orfeo he used a larger and more varied group of instruments than Peri,
• drew on a wider range of styles than l’euridice,
• in L’Orfeo, he used strophic variation,
• -where he varies repetitions of the music, to reflect the differences in text
• –differences could be accentuation
• —differences could be meaning of the text
• —-for example, can vary the durations of the harmonies,
• included a range of styles in L’Orfeo, that reflected the different moods of the music.
• -The differences even helped to organize different sections of the opera.
• elaborate construction
• only a fragment survives.
• produced in 1607,
• monody is extant, therefore somewhat influenced by peri
• the aria, possente spirto, uses strophic variation
• -and is an important aria from the opera.
• recitative is more varied than peri
• in addition to monody, Monteverdi used duets,
• -dances, and
• –ensemble madrigals and
• — ballettos,
• —-thus providing a range of contrasting styles
• —–to reflect the varying moods in the drama.
• The story is tragic, having many contrasts in mood. and
• -these changes are reflected in the instrumentation.
• the lament, tu se’morta, is a very expressive and more lyric for recitative that time
• -bitter feelings are expressed by the dissonances.

Question 30

coronation of poppea

Answer 30

*talk about the coronation of poppea
-written near the end of his life,
-about an affair
involving roman emperor Nero.
-considered monteverdi’s masterpiece,
-lacks the varied instrumentation of orfeo, because of the court restraints, -depicts very well the human character
–depicts also human passions.
-styles are changed frequently to reflect the characters and their feelings,
-expressive recitative that has dissonance when poppea pleads with nerone,
–simpler recitation for dialogue,
—aria styles with ritornellos, often in triple time, for declarations of love,
—-passages that lie somewhere between recitative and aria style, which are often called recitative arioso,

Question 31

rome music from 1620

Answer 31

• Talk about Rome music from 1620 (comic opera)
• in 1620, the center for developments in opera moved to Rome.
• -the first comic operas happened here
• In the earliest stage of Comic opera,
• -light subjects,
• –spoken dialogue, and
• — simple musical forms were featured.
• .
• in rome 1620, the most prolific librettist was Rospigliosi,
• -example is called “Sant’ Alessio”,
• –set to music by Landi
• General characteristics from rome
• -spectacular stage effects
• –two distinct types of solo music emerged
• —recitative and aria.
• —-recitatives were more speechlike than peri and monteverdi,
• —–arias became even more melodious and strophic.
• ——For example, recitative was more speechlike than the melodious “tu se’morta”.
• vocal ensembles were common
• castrati began to be known here,
• -took the female roles.

Question 32

opera in venice, 1637

Answer 32

• talk about opera in venice (approx 1637)
• in 1637, in venice the opening of the first public opera house., –was important event
• –9 more were opened before the end of the century.
• general characteristics
• -plots had wide range of emotions,
• –dramatic conflicts,
• —striking stage effects.
• —-number of arias per act increased.
• —–arias became more melodious graceful smooth flowing phrases.
• ——arias didn’t follow text as much
• Leading venetian opera composers were Cavalli
• -Cesti,
• venice=center for Italian opera in late seventeenth century.
• -opera also in naples
• –and florence.

Question 33

cavalli and c’esti

Answer 33

• Talk about Cavalli
• most celebrated opera of cavalli was giasone,
• -arias exemplify the lyric style.
• –(1602-1676)
• —italian
• —-His operas make use of smaller orchestra than Monteverdi.
• —–Melodious arias.
• ——Sometimes his operas feature a grotesque humour.
• ——-wrote forty-one operas.
• ——–the first opera of Cavalli is “the wedding of Peleus and Thetis
• ———later opera is ercole amante,
• ———-this written in paris.
• Talk about C’esti
• opera written by Cesti called “Orontea”
• -1656,
• –one of the most frequently performed operas in the seventeenth century.
• —epitomizes the changes opera had undergone,

Question 34

expansion of italian opera 1650

Answer 34

===========================

• talk about expansion of italian opera (approx 1650)
• Opera was extremely popular in Italy during the 17th century.
• because Italians loved theatre,
• -music glorified the theatre
• Italian opera was internationally influential.
• -by the 1650s, permanent opera houses were established in places other than venice,
• –such as naples
• —such as florence,
• —-others soon followed.
• Features of italian opera from the middle of the seventeenth century,
• -1. concentration on solo singing, rather than ensembles and instrumental music
• –another feature2. The separation of recitative and aria,
• —another feature3. the use of varied styles.
• —-florentine view of music as the servant of poetry and drama had been reversed.
• —–venetians, of this new style, saw drama and poetry as the scaffolding for the music,
• ——and theyare most interested in visual elements of scenery, costumes and special effects,
• ——-more attention to arias
• ——–more attention to the stars who sang them.

Question 35

list genres that had influence on early opera

Answer 35

• List genres that had an influence
• -ancient Greek Dramas.
• -infouenced by morality plays
• -influenced by miracle/mystery plays
• -ballet had an influence
• -pastorals
• -courtly dances that featured
• -intermedios (early)
• -liturgical dramas
• -madrigal comedies/cycles