Listen To Early Baroque Opera Montiverdi Notes - Opera

UNIT 4 LISTENING EXAMPLES NOTES LISTEN TO EARLY BAROQUE OPERA: MONTIVERDI  ITALIAN OPERA SERIA o THE BAROQUE ERA: Although originally conceived for performances at court (think only for the aristocracy), 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 after the first public opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, opened. Montiverdi had moved to the city form Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea, for the Venetian public theatre in the 1640s. 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. The first reform, spearheaded by the Arcadian Academy, took place during the Baroque period and sought to remove comedy from tragic/heroic opera which resulted in the style of opera known as opera seria. Opera seria (serious/tragic/heroic) opera became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the 18th century. Opera seria was elevated in tone and highly stylized in form, usually consisting of secco recitative interspersed with long da capo arias. These afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during the golden age of opera seria 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 ruled the stage in every country except France. Indeed, Farinelli was one of the most famous singers of the 18th century. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handel found himself composing the likes of Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare 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 Allesandro Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and Porpora. o MONTEVERDI: BIOGRAPHY  CLAUDIO GIOVANNI ANTONIO MONTEVERDI: Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (Italian: [‘klaudjo monte’verdi]; 9 May 1567 (born) 15 May 1567 (baptized) – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, singer, and Roman Catholic priest. Monteverdi’s work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the heritage of Renaissance polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque. Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L’Orfeo, an innovative work that is the earliest surviving opera that is still regularly performed. He was recognized as an innovative composer and enjoyed considerable fame in his lifetime. In 1632, he became a priest. During the last years of his life, when he was often ill, he composed his two last masterpieces: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses, 1641), and the historic opera L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 1642), based on the life of the Roman emperor Nero. Montiverdi died, age 76, in Venice on 29 November 1643 and was buried at the church of the Frari.  o WORKS: Monteverdi’s works are split into three categories: madrigals, operas, and church music. Until the age of forty, Monteverdi worked primarily on madrigals, composing a total of nine books. We are focused only on his operas.  OPERAS o L’ORFEO: In 1607, his first opera, L’Orfeo, premiered in Mantua. L’Orfeo was not the first opera, but it was the first mature opera, or one that realized all of its potential. It was normal at that time for composers to create works on demand for special occasions, and this piece was part of the ducal celebrations of carnival. (Monteverdi was later to write for the first opera houses supported by ticket sales which opened in Venice.) L’Orfeo has dramatic power and lively orchestration. L’Orfeo is arguably the first example of a composer assigning specific instruments to parts in operas. It is also one of the first stage compositions for which the exact instrumentation of the premiere is still known. The plot is described in vivid musical pictures and the melodies are clear and linear. o L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA (THE CORONATION OF POPPEA, 1642): L’incoronazione especially is considered a culminating point of Monteverdi’s work. It contains tragic, romantic, and comic scenes (a new development in opera), a more realistic portrayal of the characters, and warmer melodies than previously heard. It requires a smaller orchestra, and has a less prominent role for the choir. EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF OPERA: Florentine Camerata – group of important Italian musicians, artists, scientists, and others that met during the late Renaissance. They studied Aristotle and the Greeks. They wanted to guide the development of the fine arts. Due to their focus on the Classical Greek drama, the Florentine Camerata laid the groundwork for the development of opera in Italy at the beginning of the Baroque period. They emphasized a texture known as “monody” which rejects the polyphony of the Renaissance and calls for solo singing with accompaniment. Early Italian opera composers included Jacopo Peri (1561-1633), Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), and Claudio Monteverdi (15671643).  WHAT IS OPERA?  DEFINITION o A drama sung throughout o Combines vocal and instrumental music with poetry, acting, elaborate scenery, and costumes o Unlike conventional theater opera presents all story elements through music o Plots based on a libretto (text of the opera), often from Greek mythology or Ancient Roman history o Originates in Northern Italy and quickly spread o Operas can have between one and five acts o First promoted by Florentine Camerata       o Influenced by ancient Greek drama TERMS USED IN OPERA: Here is a short list of terms that you encounter in opera. These terms will be more thoroughly explained as you progress.  ARIA: A dramatic solo piece sung by a soloist with accompaniment  RECITATIVE: A vocal line free of rhythm that imitates the inflections of natural speech  LIBRETTO: The text of an opera  OVERTURE: An instrumental piece preceding the opera that presents many of the main themes LIBRETTO: The libretto is the text or story. Libretto means “little book.” Generally when one attended an opera, they received a “little book” that contained all the words of the opera.  During the Baroque period, librettos (stories) were generally taken from Greek mythology or ancient Roman history. RECITATIVE: Recitative, created in the Baroque period for opera, but also used in oratorios and cantatas, made it possible to “sing” conversations. All of the action in an opera is sung using recitative.  Communicates the plot (narrative/action)  Musically heightened speech  Mirrors rhythm of speech patterns  Rapidly repeating notes  Simple recitative o Basso continuo accompaniment o Bass line and chords ARIA: Unlike the purpose of recitative which is to move the action of an opera along through a style of singing that is more speech-like than melodic, the purpose of an aria is to reflect on the emotions of a particular character. Arias are tuneful, toe-tapping emotional outbursts  Expresses a character’s emotion  Passionate, expansive, and tuneful o Clear meter and regular rhythms o Virtuosic melismas  A self-contained, independent musical unit  Accompanied by basso continuo and baroque orchestra CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)  Made significant early contributions to Opera  1601 – Worked in Northern Italy first at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and then in  1613 – Venice as maestro di cappella, St. Mark’s (most prestigious gig in Italy. He held the position until his death in 1643.) ORFEO: One of the few surviving operas by Monteverdi. It is still performed today.   ORFEO (1607) o Composed for the Duke of Mantua o Based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice o Listen to:  Recitative: “At the bitter news”  Arioso: “Thou art dead”  Aria: “Powerful spirit” SINGING STYLES IN OPERA: Look at the examples. Each looks very differently on the page. Notice that in the aria, there are many more notes in the solo part. Also notice in the aria that the singer sometimes sings several notes to a single syllable. You will recall that these florid passages are known as melismas. The recitative example is syllabic or declamatory. The arioso example is what I call the “twilight zone.” It is declamatory like recitative; however, it is more tuneful, like an aria. LISTEN TO GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: OPERA AND ORATORIO  HANDEL: BIOGRAPHY o GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: George Frideric Handel (/’hӕndl/; German: Georg Friedrich Händel; German pronunciation: [‘hεndl]; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born Baroque composer famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Born in a family indifferent to music (his parents wanted him to be a lawyer), Handel received critical training inn Halle, Hamburg, and Italy before settling in London (1712), and becoming a naturalized British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Although his first several years in England were spent composing operas, Handel made a transition to the genre oratorio. He died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honors, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with orchestral works such as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and the oratorio Messiah remaining popular today. One of his four Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II of Great Britain, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign’s anointing. According to Handel’s first biographer, John Mainwaring, he “had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey’d to a room at the top of this house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep.” In 1702, following his father’s wishes, Handel started studying law under Christiana Thomasius at the University of Halle. He earned an appointment for one year as the organist in the former cathedral, by then an evangelical reformed church. Handel seems to have been unsatisfied, and in 1703 he accepted a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt. There he met composers Johann Mattheson, Christoph Graupner, and Reinhard Keiser. His first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced in 1705. He produced two other operas, Daphne and Florindo, in 1708. It is unclear whether Handel directed these performances. Handel lived in Italy from 1706-1710. In 1710, Handel became Kapellmeister to German prince George, the Elector of Hanover (who in 1714 would become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland). Handel lived in England during a year of his appointment in Hanover and in 1712, decided to settle permanently in England. He received a yearly income of £200 from Queen Anne after composing for her the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, first performed in 1713. It was commissioned as part of the celebration of the peace treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession. During the summer of 1741, The 3rd Duke of Devonshire invited Handel to Dublin, capital of the Kingdom of Ireland, to give concerts for the benefit of local hospitals. His Messiah was first performed at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street on 13 April 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals participating. Handel secured a balance between soloists and chorus which he never surpassed.  OPERA o EXAMPLES OF LATE BAROQUE OPERA  ORATORIO: The genre oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists that typically uses stories from the Old Testament of the Bible. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of soloists, ensemble, various distinguishable characters, recitative, and arias. Unlike opera, oratorios (especially Handel’s) rely heavily on chorus. Oratorios are considered concert pieces – which means there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. Performers wear their own clothes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the libretto (text). Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible (usually the Old Testament), while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as well as to Biblical topics. Oratorios became extremely popular in early seventeenth-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church’s prohibition of spectacles during Lent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences. Handel, whose parents wanted him to be a lawyer, always knew he wanted to be a composer. As a young man, he spent time in Italy learning how to better set texts to music. He got a job in Hanover and eventually moved to and settled in England. He owned his own opera company. After he could no longer make a living composing opera, he turned to composing oratorios. His most famous oratorio is titled “Messiah.”  GEROGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) o CAREER  Hamburg (1703-1706)  Italy (1706-1710)  Hanover (1710)  London (1710-1759) o REPUATION  Most famous composer in Europe  A national institution in England  Reputation increased after his death  Most famous for choral compositions o HANDEL’S VOCAL MUSIC  42 operas  29 oratorios  129 cantatas  Expanded dramatic intensity of the chorus  HANDEL’S “MESSIAH” o BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE PIECE: Messiah is an Englishlanguage oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the version of Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently o o performed choral works in Western music. Handel’s reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s, in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and very little direct speech. Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. The piece has a three-part structure hat approximates to that of Handel’s three-act operas, with the “parts” subdivided by Jennens into “scenes.” Each scene is a collection of individual numbers or “movements” which take the form of recitatives, arias, and choruses. There are two instrumental numbers. COMPOSITION: The music for Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. Having received Jennens’s text some time after 10 July 1741, Handel began work on it on 22 August. His records show that he had completed Part I in outline by 28 August, Part II by 6 September and Part III by 12 September, followed by two days of “filling up” to produce the finished work on 14 September. Before the first performance Handel made numerous revisions to his manuscript score, in part to match the forces available for the 1742 Dublin premiere; it is probable that his work was not performed as originally conceived in his lifetime. Between 1742 and 1754 he continued to revise and recompose individual movements sometimes to suit the requirements of particular singers. The first published score of Messiah was issued in 1767, eight years after Handel’s death, though this was based on relatively early manuscripts and included none of Handel’s later revisions. PREMIERE AND EARLY PERFORMANCES  DUBLIN, 1742: After arriving in Dublin on 18 November 1741, Handel arranged a subscription series of six concerts, to be held between December 1741 and February 1742 at the Great Music Hall, Fishamble Street. These concerts were so popular that a second series was quickly arranged; messiah figured in neither series. In early March, Handel began discussions with the appropriate committees for a charit concert, to be given in April, at which he intended to present Messiah. He sought and was given permission from St Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals to use their choirs for this occasion. These forces amounted to 16 men and 16 boy choristers; several of the men were allocated solo parts. The women soloists were Christina Maria Avoglio, who had sung the main soprano roles in the two subscription series, and Susannah Cibber, an established stage actress and contralto who had sung in the second series. To accommodate Cibber’s vocal range, the recitative “Then shall the eyes of the blind” and the aria “He shall feed his flock” were transposed down to F major. The performance, also in the Fishamble Street hall, was originally announced for 12 April, but was deferred for a day “at the request of persons of Distinction”. The orchestra in Dublin comprised strings, two trumpets, and timpani; the number of players is unknown. Handel had his own organ shipped to Ireland for the performances; a harpsichord was probably also used. The custom of standing for the “Hallelujah” chorus originates from a belief that, at the London premiere, King George II did so, which would have obliged all to stand. There is no convincing evidence that the king was present, or that o he attended any subsequent performance of Messiah; the first reference to the practice of standing appears in a letter dated in 1756. MESSIAH (1741)  One of nineteen English oratorios by Handel  Composed in twenty-four days  Premiered in Dublin o Small choir and orchestra o Enthusiastic response  Later performances o Foundling Hospital, London o Chorus of thousands within a century  “REJOICE GREATLY”: Let’s go into more specific detail on the first section of Handel’s Messiah. The most important thing to remember about this piece is that it is a da capo aria sung by a soprano at a fast (allegro) tempo. Those will be the most useful characteristics to remember when trying to identify the piece on the listening exam. The poplar Part I of Messiah is sometimes called the “Christmas” portion as it is frequently performed during Advent in concert, sing-along, or as a Scratch Messiah. When performed this way, it usually concludes with “Hallelujah” (chorus) from Part II as the finale.  PART I, SCENE 5: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” (Zechariah 9:9-10) is a virtuoso coloratura aria of the soprano which might express any kind of great joy – as seen in an opera. An upward fourth followed by rest accents “Rejoice,” and further repeats of the word are rendered as seemingly endless coloraturas. “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee” is given in dotted rhythm and is reminiscent of the French overture. The middle section tells in mellow movement “He is the righteous Saviour and he shall speak peace unto the heathen” – with “peace” repeated several times as a long note. When you hear the repeat of the “A” section, notice that the singer embellishes and elaborates the melody. This was common for the da capo aria. LISTENING TO CLASSICAL OPERA: MOZART “DON GIOVANNI”  MOZART: BIOGRAPHY o WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [‘vɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt], English see fn.; 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that “posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years.” o BIOGRAPHY  EARLY LIFE  FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) and Anna Maria, née Pertl (1720-1778), at Getreidegasse in Salzburg. This was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. His elder sister was Maria Anna (1751-1829), nicknamed “Nannerl.”  1762-73 – TRAVEL: During Mozart’s youth, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition, in 1762, at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. In August 1777, Mozart resigned his Salzburg position and, on 23 September, ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich. Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters in a musical family. The end   of the visit occurred when Mozart’s mother was taken ill and died on 3 July 1778. VIENNA  1781: Mozart’s new career in Vienna began well. He performed often as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781, and he soon “had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna”. In the course of 1782 and 1783, Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result of the influence of Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart’s study of these scores inspired compositions in Baroque style, and later influenced his personal music language, for example in fugal passages in Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”) and the finale of Symphony No. 41. Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart’s six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 418, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are judged to be a response to Haydn’s Opus 33 set from 1781. Haydn in 1785 told Mozart’s father: “I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.” With substantial returns from his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife adopted a rather plush lifestyle. Saving was therefore impossible, and the short period of financial success did nothing to soften the hardship the Mozarts were later to experience. On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit (“Beneficence”). 1786 saw the successful premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which premiered in Vienna in 1788. The two are among Mozart’s most important works and are mainstays of the operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty for both listeners and performers. In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his “chamber composer,” a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. LATER YEARS AND DEATH: Toward the end of the decade, Mozart’s circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank. Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in 1790.  1791: Mozart’s last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of great productivity – and by some accounts, one of personal recovery. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works including the opera The Magic Flute. Mozart’s  financial situation, a source of extreme anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve. He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some of his works, notably The Magic Flute (which was performed several times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart’s death). o FINAL ILLNESS AND DEATH: Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the 6 September 1791 premiere of his opera La clemenza di Tito, written in that same year on commission for the Emperor’s coronation festivities. He continued his professional functions for some time, and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on 30 September. His health deteriorated on 20 November, at which point he became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting. Mozart died in his home on 5 December 1791 (aged 35) at 1:00 am. WORKS, MUSICAL STYLE, AND INNOVATIONS  STYLE o Mozart’s style, like Haydn’s, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. o Mozart helped bring back some of the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque that were then moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. o Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. o He almost single-handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, as well as dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment. o The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart’s music. o Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and the opera Don Giovanni. Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:  “It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart’s work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann’s superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart’s daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart’s supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.” o o o o Especially during his last decade, Mozart exploited chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time, with remarkable assurance and to great artistic effect. Mozart always had a gift for absorbing and adapting valuable features of others’ music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language. In London as a child, he met J. C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his own practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements. Some of Mozart’s early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements have the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J. C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers. As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and some experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at the time. Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example. Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo; and Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone color, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later nonoperatic compositions.  WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791): One of the three major figures of the Classical period, Mozart wanted to be an opera composer. Born in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart, a child prodigy, toured most of Europe during his childhood. His father, Leopold, was his teacher. Mozart, his sister, Nannerl, and Leopold played for royalty and the aristocracy throughout Europe. He moved to Vienna in 1791. We will discuss Mozart in this module as a composer of opera. We will come back to his music in later modules because of his contributions in orchestral and piano music. We will spend more time talking about his life in a later module. o MOZART’S COMIC OPERAS: Mozart worked with a couple of librettists. For his opera buffa (Italian comic operas), he worked with Lorenzo da Ponte (17491838). Their collaboration resulted in giving opera buffa characters more depth. Together they worked to introduce moral issues and highlight the social tensions between classes. Mozart’s comic operas have serious characters who are portrayed through a variety of types of songs including solo arias, duets, trios, quartets, and large ensembles. The ensembles usually occur during the finales of acts. Mozart uses the orchestra to help define his characters and their situations.  Mozart composed a variety of opera types including:  Opera seria  Opera buffa o The Marriage of Figaro o Don Giovanni o Thus Do They All  Singspiel: German comic opera o The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) o MOZART – DON GIOVANNI, K. 527: In Don Giovanni, Mozart combines the opera buffa and opera seria styles. This opera is sometimes classified as a “Dramma Giocoso” which basically means it has a serious subject portrayed through dark humour.  Composed in 1787  Premiered in Prague, October, 1787 o Favorably received by the audience o Casanova was in attendance  Overture o Composed the night before the opening o Incorporates themes that later become important in the opera LISTENING TO ROMANTIC OPERA: THE ITALIANS  BEL CANTO: The bel canto opera movement flourished in the early 19th century and is exemplified by the operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. Literally “beautiful singing,” bel canto opera derives from the Italian stylistic singing school of the same name. o Bel canto lines are  Typically florid  Intricate  Requiring supreme agility and pitch control. Example of famous operas in the bel canto style include Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, as well as Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized by Giuseppe Verdi, beginning with his biblical opera Nabucco. Verdi’s operas resonated with the growing spirit of Italian nationalism in the post-Napoleonic era, and he quickly became an icon of the patriotic movement (although his own politics ere perhaps not quite so radical). In the early 1850s, Verdi produced his three most popular operas: Rigoletto, Il trovatore, and La traviata. But he continued to develop his style, composing perhaps the greatest French Grand Opera, Don Carlos, and ending his career with two Shakespeare-inspired works, Otello and Falstaff, which reveal how far Italian opera had grown in sophistication since the early 19th century. After Verdi, the sentimental “realistic” melodrama of verismo appeared in Italy. This was a style that came virtually to dominate the world’s opera stages with such popular works as Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Later Italian composers, such as Berio and Nono, have experimented with modernism.  19TH-CENTURY OPERA: Other trends in opera that occurred throughout Europe during the nineteenth century included the use of librettos that were increasingly connected to cultural and political currents as well as the subjects that ranged from the fantastic to realistic (known as Verismo). Melodies became less ornamented and singers had to have powerful voices to be heard in the newer, larger opera venues in which they also had to sing over larger orchestras. o ROMANTIC OPERA TO MID-CENTURY: Although national trends drove the development of opera during the first half of the nineteenth century, and new types of opera were being created in France and Germany, opera from 18001850 was dominated by Italian composers. Originally seen only as entertainment for the elite, opera during the nineteenth century was popular among all classes and was an integral part of musical life in Italy.  EVIDENCE OF OPERA’S POPULARITY o New opera houses built throughout Europe o Performances of excerpts helped to make and keep opera popular  Amateur performances in people’s parlors  Arias transcribed (re-written) for piano  Overtures and arias appeared on concert venues outside of the opera house  Favorite arias were heard in cafés  Gondoliers would sing the latest tunes  ROMANTIC ITALIAN OPERA COMPOSERS THROUGH MIDCENTURY: Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), and Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). The operas of these three composers were performed throughout Europe and many of their operas became part of the core repertoire considered standard by the 1860s  ROSSINI’S CONTRIBUTIONS o Blended opera seria and opera buffa characteristics (similar to Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”) o Gets credit for establishing the bel canto (“beautiful singing”) style  Emphasis on the voice o Created a scene structure that allowed action to occur throughout an act rather than being relegated only to recitative o Melodies are tuneful with “snappy” rhythms and sparse orchestral accompaniment o Simple harmonies o Patter arias  Rapidly delivered lines that required speed and precision  GIUSEPPI VERDI (1813-1901): Dominated Italian opera scene for the entire second half of nineteenth century. In his youth, Verdi worked as a church organist and studied music locally, Prolific composer of operas. He composed 27 over the course of his lifetime.  GIUSEPPI VERDI: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 Januart 1901) was an Italian romantic composer primarily known for his operas. He is considered, together with Richard Wagner, to be the prominent opera composer of the nineteenth century. Verdi dominated the Italian opera scene after the eras of Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture, examples being “La donna è mobile” from Rogoletto, “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (The Drinking Song) from La traviata, “Va, pensiero” (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, the “Coro di zingari” (Anvil Chorus) from Il trovatore, and the “Grand March” from Aida. Visionary and politically engaged, he remains an emblematic figure of the reunification process of the Italian peninsula known as the Risorgimento. o STYLES: It would be incorrect to assume that Verdi underestimated the power of the orchestra or failed to use it to its full capacity where necessary. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation is characteristic of his style: for instance, the strings producing a rapid ascending scale in Monterone’s scene in Rigoletto accentuate the drama, and, in the same opera, the chorus humming six closely grouped notes backstage portrays, very effectively, the brief ominous wails of the approaching tempest. Verdi’s innovations are so distinctive that other composers do not use them; they remain, to this day, some of Verdi’s signatures.  RIGOLETTO (11 MARCH 1851): While he was still laboring through his “years in the galleys”, Verdi created one of his greatest masterpieces, which premiered in Venice in 1851. Based on a play by Victor Hugo (Le roi s’amuse), the libretto had to undergo substantial revisions in order to satisfy the epoch’s censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times, but the opera quickly became a great success. Budden regards it as “revolutionary,” just as Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony was: “the barriers between formal melody and recitative are down as never before. In the whole opera, there is only one conventional double aria […and there are…] no concerted act finales.” Verdi used that same word – “revolutionary” – in a letter to Piave, and Budden also refers to a letter which Verdi wrote in 1852 in which the composer states that “I conceived Rigoletto almost without arias, without finales but only an unending string of duets.” Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppi Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. It is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi’s middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s beautiful daughter Gilda. The opera’s original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to the curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke with Rigoletto’s encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda likewise falls in love with the Duke and eventually sacrifices her life to save him from the assassins hired by her father.  LA TRAVIATA (6 MARCH 1853): Verdi chose the stories for his operas and then worked closely with his librettists. Verdi’s style reflects the Italian emphasis on memorable melodies that capture the essence of the characters. Verdi pushes singers to the limits of their range. La Traviata is an example of realism. It is a tragic opera set in a contemporary period. Writing to Piave, he stated that “I don’t’ want any of those everyday subjects that one can find by the hundreds” and so it was agreed that the librettist would go to Sant’Agata and work with the composer. Within a short time, a synopsis was dispatched to Venice under the title Amore e morte (Love and Death), and described to his friend De Sactis as “a subject for our own age,” and one which Verdi wished to see staged in modern dress. It quickly became clear that that would be impossible; instead it had to be set in the 17th century. While staying at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in Milan, Verdi suffered a stroke on 21 January 1901. He gradually grew more feeble and died nearly a week later, on 27 January. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs composed of musicians from throughout Italy at Verdi’s funeral service in Milan. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy. o VERDI’S SUCCESSOR: Puccini (1858-1924), considered by many to be the most successful opera composer after Verdi, combined the melodic vocal style of Verdi with a dramatic approach that he modeled on Wagner. Many of his operas get multiple performances every year. One characteristic of Puccini is his blurring of recitative and aria so that his opera scenes are fluid. Some of his major works include Manon Lescaut (1893), La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1926). TH  19 -CENTURY ITALIAN OPERA: During the nineteenth century, Italian opera flourished. Composers expanded the already well-established tradition of recitative and aria by creating a new way to deliver the action/narrative. Action and arias were all combined in what was known as a scena ed aria so that the action developed throughout an act rather than being confined to recitative.  Typical scene structure for “scena ed aria”  Orchestral introduction  Recitative accompanied by orchestra  Two part aria o 1: Cantabile (slow and lyrical) followed by the tempo di mezzo (middle movement) o 2: Cabaletta (more active)  Ensemble Finale (like in Mozart) LISTENING TO WAGNER AND THE MUSIC DRAMA  WAGNER – BIOGRAPHY: Wilhelm Richard Wagner (/ˈvɑːɡnər/; German: [ˈʁiçaʁt ˈvaːɡnɐ]; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were known, “music dramas”). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Wagner revolutionized opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesize the poetic, visual, musical, and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realized these ideas most fully in the first half of the four opera-cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). If Verdi continued with the long tradition of Italian Romantic opera, Richard Wagner provided a new path for German Romantic opera. Wagner (1813-1883) may well have been the most influential European composer of the second half of the nineteenth century. His experiments with chromaticism and dissonance even influenced the French, whose music belies their many verbal denouncements of Wagner and his music. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of Western Classical Art music and pointed the way to atonality in the 20th century. Some music historians date the beginning of modern music to the first notes of Tristan, which include the so-called Tristan chord. Wagner felt that his musico-dramatical theories were most perfectly realized in Tristan. He believed he achieved the perfect balance between the dramatic elements, vocal lines, and orchestral lines. o His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their:  Complex textures  Rich harmonies  Rich orchestration  Elaborate use of leitmotifs – musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements  He wrote his own librettos  Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total works of art,” emphasize a unity of text, music, and action  Unending melody – the idea was for a constant lyricism, carried as much by the orchestra as by the singers  Importance of the orchestra is equal to that of the singers  Wagner eventually designed and built a theatre for the performance of his own music dramas. The Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, Germany was the first to use a sunken orchestra pit out of view of the audience. Its huge backstage area allowed for some of the most elaborate sets of Wagner’s day. Other innovations included darkening the theatre during performances. It was here that the Ring and Parsifal received their premieres and where his most important stage works continue to be performed in an annual festival run by his descendants. The Ring of the Nibelungen consists of four music dramas with over fifteen hours of music. Wagner took the story from a Nordic mythological legend that stems back to the Middle Ages. In it, a piece of gold is stolen from the Rhine River and fashioned into a ring, which gives its bearer ultimate power. The cursed ring changes hands, causing destruction around whoever possesses it. Eventually the ring is returned to the Rhine River, thereby closing the cycle. Into that story, which some may recognize from the much later fiction of R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Wagner interwove stories of the Norse gods and men. Wagner’s four music dramas trace the saga of the king of the gods, Wotan, as he builds Valhalla, the home of the gods, and attempts to order the lives of his children, including that of his daughter, the Valkyrie warrior Brünnhilde. Until his final years, Wagner’s life was characterized by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty, and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama, and politics have attracted extensive comment in recent decades, especially where they express antisemitic sentiments, The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century and the interpretations of said ideas continue to be debated; their influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts, and theatre. Adolf Hitler was an admirer of Wagner’s music and saw in his operas an embodiment of his own vision of the German nation; in a 1922 speech he claimed that Wagner’s works glorified “the heroic Teutonic nature… Greatness lies in the heroic.” Hitler visited Bayreuth frequently from 1923 onwards and attended the productions at the theatre. o CONCLUSION TO THE VALKYRIE (1876): In the excerpt we’ll watch from the end of The Valkyrie, the second of the four music dramas, Brünnhilde has gone against her father, and, because Wotan cannot bring himself to kill her, he puts her to sleep before encircling her with flames, a fiery ring that both imprisons and protects his daughter. This excerpt provides several examples of the Leitmotivs for which Wagner is so famous. Their presence, often subtle, is designed to guide the audience through the drama. They include melodies, harmonies, and textures that represent Wotan’s spear, the god Loge – a shape shifting life force that here takes the form of fire – sleep, the magic sword, and fate. The sounds of these motives is discussed briefly below and accompanied by excerpts from the musical score for those of you who can read musical notation. The first motive heard in the video you will watch Is Wotan’s Spear. The spear represents Wotan’s power. In this scene, Wotan is pointing it toward his daughter Brünnhilde, ready to conjure the ring of fire that will both imprison and protect her. Representing a symbol of power, the spear motive is played at a forte dynamic by the lower brass. Here it descends in a minor scale that reinforces the seriousness of Wotan’s actions. Wotan commands Loge to appear and suddenly the music breaks out in a completely different style. Loge’s music – sometimes also referred to as the magic fire music – is in a major key and appears in upper woodwinds such as the flutes. Its notes move quickly with staccato articulations suggesting Loge’s free spirit and shifting shapes. Depicting Brünnhilde’s descent into sleep, Wagner wrote a chromatic musical line that starts high and slowly moves downward. We call this phrase the Sleep Motive. After casting his spell, Wotan warns anyone who is listening that whoever would dare to trespass the ring of fire will have to face his spear. As the drama unfolds in the next opera of the tetralogy, one character will do just that: Siegfried, Wotan’s own grandson. He will release Brünnhilde using a magic sword. The melody to which Wotan sings his warning with its wide leaps and overall disjunct motion sounds a bit like the motive representing Sigfried’s sword. One final motive is prominent at the end of The Valkyrie, a motive which is referred to as Fate. It appears in the horns and features three notes: a sustained pitch that slips down just one step then rises a small interval of a minor third to another sustained pitch.