{"id":827,"date":"2017-02-16T15:22:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/vccs-tcc-music-rford\/?post_type=chapter&p=827"},"modified":"2021-11-01T16:00:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T16:00:17","slug":"opera-in-the-baroque","status":"web-only","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/vccs-tcc-music-rford\/chapter\/opera-in-the-baroque\/","title":{"raw":"Opera","rendered":"Opera"},"content":{"raw":"Perhaps the single greatest musical development of the Baroque period is the creation a new genre of vocal music: opera. As with most genres in this era, opera undergoes significant stylistic evolution from its origins in the early 1600s to the opera seria of Handel in the 1730s.\u00a0Pay special attention to the following terms (Read about them in the following links): libretto<\/a><\/em>, recitative<\/a><\/em> (both forms: secco<\/em> and accompagnato<\/em>), and aria<\/a><\/em>.\r\n

Introduction<\/h2>\r\nOpera<\/b> (English plural: operas;<\/i> Italian plural: opere<\/i>) is an art form in which singers and\u00a0musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto<\/em><\/strong>) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting.\u00a0Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_262\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"350\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 1. The Palais Garnier of the Paris Op\u00e9ra, one of the world's most famous opera houses[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOpera is a very important genre throughout \u00a0the Western classical music tradition.\u00a0It started in Italy at the end of the 16th century and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Sch\u00fctz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the seventeenth\u00a0century. In the eighteenth\u00a0century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe (except France), attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria<\/strong> was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his \"reform\" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Don Giovanni<\/i>, and Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/i>, as well as The Magic Flute (Die Zauberfl\u00f6te)<\/i>, a landmark in the German tradition.\r\n\r\nOpera Terminology and evolution\r\n<\/strong>The words of an opera are known as the <\/span>libretto<\/em><\/strong> (literally \"little book\"). Some composers, notably Richard Wagner, have written their own <\/span>libretti<\/strong>; others have worked in close collaboration with their <\/span>librettists<\/strong>, e.g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as \"number opera,\" consists of two modes of singing: <\/span>recitative<\/strong>, the <\/span>action<\/span> of a opera sung in a style that\u00a0 emphasizes\u00a0 the inflections of speech,\u00a0and <\/span>aria<\/strong> (an \"air\" or formal song) in which the characters express their <\/span>emotions<\/span> in a more structured melodic style. Duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. \u00a0In some forms of opera, such as<\/span> Singspiel, op\u00e9ra comique,operetta<\/strong>, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as <\/span>arioso<\/strong>. During the Baroque and Classical periods, recitative could appear in two basic forms: <\/span>secco\u00a0<\/i>(dry) recitative, sung with a free rhythm dictated by the accent of the words, accompanied only by <\/span>continuo<\/i>, which was usually a harpsichord and a cello; or <\/span>accompagnato<\/i> (also known as <\/span>strumentato<\/i>) in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. By the nineteenth\u00a0century, <\/span>accompagnato<\/i> had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Richard Wagner revolutionised opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what he termed \"endless melody.\" Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagner's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his <\/span>The Rake's Progress<\/i> have bucked the trend. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below.<\/span>\r\n<\/strong>\r\n
The Italian word opera<\/i> means \"work,\" both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin opera<\/i>, a singular noun meaning \"work\" and also the plural of the noun opus<\/i>.\r\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Italian word was first used in the sense \"composition in which poetry, dance, and music are combined\" in 1639; the first recorded English usage in this sense dates to 1648.<\/div>\r\nDafne by Jacopo Peri <\/span><\/i>was an early representation\u00a0 or <\/span>opera.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the \"Camerata de' Bardi.\"\u00a0 <\/span>See Florentine Camerata - Previous page:<\/em>\u00a0Significantly, <\/span>Dafne<\/i> was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the \"chorus\" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles. opera was thus conceived as a way of \"restoring\" this ancient tradition. <\/span>Dafne<\/i> is unfortunately lost, However\u00a0 a\u00a0 later work by Peri, <\/span>Euridice<\/i>, dating from 1600 is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. The honor of being the first opera still to be regularly performed, however, goes to Claudio Monteverdi's <\/span>L'Orfeo<\/i>, composed for the court of Mantua in 1607.\u00a0The Mantua court of the Gonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the concerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of the first actual \"opera singers\":\u00a0Madama Europa.\u00a0 (See detailed discussion of <\/span>Orfeo<\/em> in\u00a0 later page: :<\/span>Early Opera -\u00a0 Monteverdi - Orfeo<\/em>\r\n\r\n\"Figure<\/a>\r\n\r\nFigure 2. Teatro Argentina (Panini, 1747, Mus\u00e9e du Louvre)\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/strong> Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a \"season\" (Carnival) of publicly attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice. Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria<\/i> and\u00a0L'incoronazione di Poppea<\/i>, for the Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important follower Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy.\r\n\r\nIn these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by the Arcadian Academy, which came to be associated with the poet Metastasio<\/span>, whose libretti helped crystallize the genre of opera seria<\/span>, which became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the eighteenth\u00a0century. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buff<\/span>a<\/span>. Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an \"opera-within-an-opera.\" One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still not as cultured as the nobility, to the public opera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte, a long-flourishing improvisatory stage tradition of Italy.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIntermedi<\/em> had been performed in-between the acts of stage plays. The new comic genre of \"intermezzi,\" developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and '20s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They were soon being offered as separate productions having became so popular.\r\n\r\nOpera seria,\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0usually consisted\u00a0 of secco<\/i> recitative interspersed with long da capo<\/i> arias. This format afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during the golden age of opera seria. <\/i>The singer really became the star. The role of the hero was usually written for the castrato voice; castrati such as Farinelli and Senesino, as well as female sopranos such as Faustina Bordoni, became in great demand throughout Europe as opera seria<\/i> ruled the stage in every country except France. Indeed, Farinelli was one of the most famous singers of the eighteenth\u00a0century. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handelfound himself composing the likes of Rinaldo<\/i> and Giulio Cesare<\/i> for London audiences. Italian libretti remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in the operas of Mozart, who wrote in Vienna near the century's close. Leading Italian-born composers of opera seria include\u00a0Alessandro Scarlatti, Vivaldi and Porpora.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/vccs-tcc-mus121-1\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=246&action=edit<\/span>","rendered":"

Perhaps the single greatest musical development of the Baroque period is the creation a new genre of vocal music: opera. As with most genres in this era, opera undergoes significant stylistic evolution from its origins in the early 1600s to the opera seria of Handel in the 1730s.\u00a0Pay special attention to the following terms (Read about them in the following links): libretto<\/a><\/em>, recitative<\/a><\/em> (both forms: secco<\/em> and accompagnato<\/em>), and aria<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Opera<\/b> (English plural: operas;<\/i> Italian plural: opere<\/i>) is an art form in which singers and\u00a0musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto<\/em><\/strong>) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting.\u00a0Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1. The Palais Garnier of the Paris Op\u00e9ra, one of the world’s most famous opera houses<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Opera is a very important genre throughout \u00a0the Western classical music tradition.\u00a0It started in Italy at the end of the 16th century and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Sch\u00fctz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the seventeenth\u00a0century. In the eighteenth\u00a0century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe (except France), attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria<\/strong> was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his “reform” operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Don Giovanni<\/i>, and Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/i>, as well as The Magic Flute (Die Zauberfl\u00f6te)<\/i>, a landmark in the German tradition.<\/p>\n

Opera Terminology and evolution
\n<\/strong>The words of an opera are known as the <\/span>libretto<\/em><\/strong> (literally “little book”). Some composers, notably Richard Wagner, have written their own <\/span>libretti<\/strong>; others have worked in close collaboration with their <\/span>librettists<\/strong>, e.g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as “number opera,” consists of two modes of singing: <\/span>recitative<\/strong>, the <\/span>action<\/span> of a opera sung in a style that\u00a0 emphasizes\u00a0 the inflections of speech,\u00a0and <\/span>aria<\/strong> (an “air” or formal song) in which the characters express their <\/span>emotions<\/span> in a more structured melodic style. Duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. \u00a0In some forms of opera, such as<\/span> Singspiel, op\u00e9ra comique,operetta<\/strong>, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as <\/span>arioso<\/strong>. During the Baroque and Classical periods, recitative could appear in two basic forms: <\/span>secco\u00a0<\/i>(dry) recitative, sung with a free rhythm dictated by the accent of the words, accompanied only by <\/span>continuo<\/i>, which was usually a harpsichord and a cello; or <\/span>accompagnato<\/i> (also known as <\/span>strumentato<\/i>) in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. By the nineteenth\u00a0century, <\/span>accompagnato<\/i> had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Richard Wagner revolutionised opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what he termed “endless melody.” Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagner’s example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his <\/span>The Rake’s Progress<\/i> have bucked the trend. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Italian word opera<\/i> means “work,” both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin opera<\/i>, a singular noun meaning “work” and also the plural of the noun opus<\/i>.
\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Italian word was first used in the sense “composition in which poetry, dance, and music are combined” in 1639; the first recorded English usage in this sense dates to 1648.<\/div>\n

Dafne by Jacopo Peri <\/span><\/i>was an early representation\u00a0 or <\/span>opera.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the “Camerata de’ Bardi.”\u00a0 <\/span>See Florentine Camerata – Previous page:<\/em>\u00a0Significantly, <\/span>Dafne<\/i> was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the “chorus” parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles. opera was thus conceived as a way of “restoring” this ancient tradition. <\/span>Dafne<\/i> is unfortunately lost, However\u00a0 a\u00a0 later work by Peri, <\/span>Euridice<\/i>, dating from 1600 is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. The honor of being the first opera still to be regularly performed, however, goes to Claudio Monteverdi’s <\/span>L’Orfeo<\/i>, composed for the court of Mantua in 1607.\u00a0The Mantua court of the Gonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the concerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of the first actual “opera singers”:\u00a0Madama Europa.\u00a0 (See detailed discussion of <\/span>Orfeo<\/em> in\u00a0 later page: :<\/span>Early Opera –\u00a0 Monteverdi – Orfeo<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2. Teatro Argentina (Panini, 1747, Mus\u00e9e du Louvre)<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong> Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a “season” (Carnival) of publicly attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice. Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria<\/i> and\u00a0L’incoronazione di Poppea<\/i>, for the Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important follower Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy.<\/p>\n

In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera’s many reform movements, sponsored by the Arcadian Academy, which came to be associated with the poet Metastasio<\/span>, whose libretti helped crystallize the genre of opera seria<\/span>, which became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the eighteenth\u00a0century. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buff<\/span>a<\/span>. Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an “opera-within-an-opera.” One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still not as cultured as the nobility, to the public opera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell’arte, a long-flourishing improvisatory stage tradition of Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Intermedi<\/em> had been performed in-between the acts of stage plays. The new comic genre of “intermezzi,” developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and ’20s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They were soon being offered as separate productions having became so popular.<\/p>\n

Opera seria,\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0usually consisted\u00a0 of secco<\/i> recitative interspersed with long da capo<\/i> arias. This format afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during the golden age of opera seria. <\/i>The singer really became the star. The role of the hero was usually written for the castrato voice; castrati such as Farinelli and Senesino, as well as female sopranos such as Faustina Bordoni, became in great demand throughout Europe as opera seria<\/i> ruled the stage in every country except France. Indeed, Farinelli was one of the most famous singers of the eighteenth\u00a0century. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handelfound himself composing the likes of Rinaldo<\/i> and Giulio Cesare<\/i> for London audiences. Italian libretti remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in the operas of Mozart, who wrote in Vienna near the century’s close. Leading Italian-born composers of opera seria include\u00a0Alessandro Scarlatti, Vivaldi and Porpora.<\/p>\n

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