https://courses.lumenlearning.com/music-app-rford/chapter/italian-opera/
Opera seria vs Opera Buffa
Portrait of Italian poet Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)
Though its opera originated in the court, it was not confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a publicly attended “season” (Carnival) supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice. Monteverdi had moved to this city from Mantua and composed his last operas. Francesco Cavalli, his most important follower, helped spread opera throughout Italy.
Tragedy and Comedy in opera In early baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities. Previous to this libretti had featured a separate unfolding comic plot as sort of an “opera-within-an-opera.” A reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class to the public opera houses. This newly wealthy population, not as cultured as the nobility was attracted to such a format. However, in time this above described tradition yielded opera seria (tragedy) – the first of opera’s many reform movements associated with the poet Metastasio. whose libretti helped crystallize this genre.. Opera seria became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the eighteenth century.
However the separate plots Form early opera (opera within an opera) were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition partly derived from the a long-flourishing improvisatory stage tradition of Italy m- commedia dell’arte,. This new comic genre of “intermezzi”, was initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They became so popular, that they were soon being offered as separate productions. Hence Opera Buffa began to emerge as a separate genre in the early 18th century. Thus we have two formats of opera in the 17th and 18th centuries: Opera Seria and Opera Buffa (or comic Opera).
Teatro Argentina (Panini, 1747, Musée du Louvre)
Reform: Gluck, the Attack on the Metastasian Ideal, and Mozart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck
Gluck thought both above descriptions of the main Italian operatic genres – opera buffa and opera seria – seemed unnatural and had strayed too far from what opera should really be. The singers decorated the vocal lines so floridly that the original melody could no longer be recognized . He wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance striving for a “beautiful simplicity.” This is evident in his first reform opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, where his non-virtuosic vocal melodies are supported by simple harmonies and a richer orchestra presence throughout.
LISTEN: GLUCK
Listen to an aria by Gluck from his opera: Orfeo ed Euridice below: Note that this aria is not for a virtuoso yet beautiful, simple and direct.
Gluck’s reforms have had resonance throughout operatic history. Weber, Mozart and Wagner, in particular, were influenced by his ideals. Mozart, in many ways Gluck’s successor, combined a superb sense of drama, harmony, melody, and counterpoint to write a series of comedy operas notably Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni (in collaboration with Lorenzo Da Ponte), which remain among the most-loved, popular and well-known operas today.
Listen: Basso Buffo
A well-known basso buffo role is Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. You can listen to an example below: Notte e giorno faticar – Don Giovanni.
Don Giovanni – a tragic comedy This aria is name a buffa role but should be noted that Mozart referred to this opera Don Giovanni a “tragic comedy” – combining elements of comedy and tragedy. This aria is sung by Leporello who bemoans his lot in life as he endures the indignities of being Don Giovanni’s servant. Leporello wants to extricate himself from this lot and become a member of the gentlemen’s class. During the aria he is compelled to be a watchman for the authorities while Giovanni commits aggression upon Donna Anna. Toward the end the commandant confronts Giovanni and the two duel. Giovanni kills the commandant. Thus the stage is set for Mozart’s “tragic comedy” as Don cavorts over the country side indulging himself – never considering his sins even when confronted by the “Statue” (Ghost of the commandant) at the end where he is condemned to a fiery death in hell..
Lyrics of the aria: http://operainenglish.blogspot.com/2011/08/notte-e-giorno-faticar-don-giovanni.html
La ci darem la mano
The duet, with words by Mozart’s librettist – Lorenzo Da Ponte, is sung during the first act of the opera. Don Giovanni has just met Zerlina and her betrothed, Masetto. In an attempt to distract Masetto and have him removed from the scene, Don Giovanni offers to host a wedding celebration for the couple at his castle. When Masetto has left, Don Giovanni attempts to seduce Zerlina to accompany him to his castle. However, after the end of the duet Donna Elvira arrives and thwarts the seduction, leaving with Zerlina.
Below are two translations of this duet aria. Don Giovanni is seduces Zerlina to abandon her commitment to Masetto. There are two English translations.
| Don Giovanni- |
Là ci darem la mano, |
Give me thy hand, oh fairest, |
There we will give each other our hands, |
| Zerlina— |
(Vorrei e non vorrei, |
I would, and yet I would not, |
I would like to, and I wouldn’t, |
| Don Giovanni | Vieni, mio bel diletto! | Come, dearest, let me guide thee. | Come, my beautiful delight! |
| Zerlina | (Mi fa pietà Masetto.) | Masetto sure will chide me! | I feel sorry for Masetto. |
| Don Giovanni | Io cangierò tua sorte. | Danger shall ne’er come nigh thee!— | I will change your fate. |
| Zerlina | Presto … non son più forte.— | Ah … that I could deny thee! | Soon…I won’t be strong anymore. |
| Don Giovanni | Andiam! Andiam! | Let’s go! Let’s go! | Let’s go! Let’s go! |
| Zerlina | Andiam! | Let’s go! | Let’s go! |
| Both— |
Andiam, andiam, mio bene, |
Let’s go, let’s go, my dear, |
Mozart’s Librettist – Lorenzo Da Ponte
The life and career of Lorenzo Da Ponte might be seen as a bit unusual and colorful. His activities in America are interesting as well. Read it (below) for your pleasure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Da_Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte born a Jew, then converted to the Roman Catholic Faith and became a roman catholic priest. After some apparent transgressions Da Ponte was banned from Venice. He then obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna where, as court poet and librettist in Vienna, Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart’s most popular Italian operas, The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).
Da Ponte was dismissed from the Imperial Service in 1791 with the death of Da Ponte’s patron, Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1790, In 1792, not being able to return to Venice, from which he had been banished, he set off for Paris via Prague and Dresden. On the road to Paris, upon learning of the worsening political situation in France and the arrest of the king and queen, Da Ponte headed for London, accompanied by his companion Nancy Grahl (with whom he eventually had four children). After a number of jobs including that of grocer and Italian teacher, he became librettist at the King’s Theatre, in 1803. He remained based in London undertaking various theatrical and publishing activities until 1805, when debt and bankruptcy caused him to flee to the United States with Grahl and their children.
In the United States, Da Ponte settled in New York City first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he ran a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons. He returned to New York to open a bookstore and gained an unpaid appointment as the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia College. In New York he introduced opera and produced in 1825 the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the United States. He also introduced Gioachino Rossini’s music in the U.S., through a concert tour.
At the age of 79 Lorenzo Da Ponte became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In 1833, at the age of eighty-four, he founded the New York Opera Company – first opera house in the United States the location of which is the predecessor of the New York Academy of Music and of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Lorenzo Da Ponte died in 1838 in New York. An enormous funeral ceremony was held in New York’s old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street.