Chapter 13 Flashcards
Opera buffa
- Comic opera
- Libretto centred on everyday characters rather than heroes/rulers
- Included soprano and tenor basses but not castrati
- More emphasis on ensemble singing
- Straightforward, simple melodies
- Avoided da capo aria
- Periodic phrase structure
Intermezzo
A short work intended for performance between the acts of a larger (serious) opera (for comic relief).
The origins of opera buffa lie in the tradition of Intermezzo.
Vocal music classical era
Retained its aesthetic supremacy because it appealed to both heart and mind (text/words=reason and rationality)
Instrumental music:
Appealed only to emotions i.e. so called “language of the heart”
Important opera composers of classical era:
Mozart, Gluck, Hasse, Galuppi, Jommelli, Traetta, Piccinni, Gossec, Gretry, Cimarosa, Saliera
Opera buffa espoused the Galant musical style:
- Natural, light elegance associated with the early classical era
- Slow harmonic rhythms
- Homophonic textures with frequent unisons in strings
- Periodic phrase structure
Opera Wars
- Opera buffa provoked controversy throughout Europe
- Advocates considered it a breath of fresh air that would reinvigorate a genre grown otherwise stale
- Opponents considered it an insult to established traditoins
War of the Baffoons
- Paris 1752
- A troupe called the Bouffons performed La serva padrona, which ignited debates about the merits of French vs. Italian opera
- Pretext for animosity allowed broader issues to emerge
Reps of French style
- Traditionalists
- Louis XV
- Aristocrats and establishment
- Tragédies lyrique of Lully and Rameau
Reps of new Italian Style
- Queen Marie
- Intellectual bourgeoisie
- Light musical theatre in France
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Weighed into the opera wars with his own Le devin du village, which drew on conventions of opera buffa and united French text with the conventions of opera buffa
- Simple, unpretentious music–very popular
- Traditionalists lost the war, comic opera elements were incorporated into French opera where they remained well into the 19c
Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinists
- Christopher Gluck and Niccolo Piccinni were both foreign composers
- Gluck, Austrian, was viewed as a worthy successor to Lully and Rameau in the French tradition of the tragédie lyrique
- Piccinni, Italian, was perceived to represent the Italian tradition of opera seria
Challenges that opera seria faced
- criticized that there were unnatural impediments to dramatic action
- opening ritornello as “often superfluous”
- virtuoso in certain texts compromised
- -> In response, several composers set out to reform opera seria and make it more coherent
Gluck and the Reform of Opera
Christoph Willibold Gluck said: Opera should never serve a purely musical purpose, but always help further dramatic action
Characteristics distinguishing reform opera
- No da capo arias
- Little opportunity for vocal improvisations or virtuosic displays
- No long melismas
- More predominantly syllabic setting of text to make words more intelligent
- Far less repetition of text than aria
- Blurring of distinction between recitative and aria
- Accompanied rather than secco recitative
- Simpler, more flowing melodic lines
- Overture linked by theme/mood to ensuing action
- More prominence for the chorus, giving it an important role commenting on events unfolding onto the stage
