Chapter 14 Presentation 2012
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Transcript of Chapter 14 Presentation 2012
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Opera
Opera (Italian for work) defined as:
union of versified play (Italian libretto, little book), drama,and music Continuous or near-continuous singing Staged, with scenery, costumes, and action Originally a Court entertainment
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Forerunners of operaRenaissance antecedents
Pastoral drama Play in verse, interspersed with incidental musicand songs.
Stories of idyllic love in rural settings The earliest opera composers borrowed heavilyfrom this genre.
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Forerunners of opera
Madrigal Solo madrigals and madrigal cycles (or madrigalcomedies) had simple plots and expressed emotion.
Madrigal cycles (ex by Orazio Vecchi) drew on stock
characters of commedia dellarte (ex. Pantalone orGratiano)
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Forerunners of operaRenaissance antecedents (contd)
Intermedio (pl. intermedii ) was the most direct antecedent.
Musical entertainment before, after, and between theacts of plays There were usually six for each play. Subjects were pastoral, allegorical, or mythological. For special occasions they could be very elaborate,including chorus, dance numbers, costumes, and stagedeffects.
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Forerunners of opera
Spectacular intermedi created for the 1589 wedding inFlorence of Grand Duke Ferdinand de Medici of Tuscany and Christine of Lorraine:Several artists worked on this production that would beinvolved in the earliest operas.
Emilio de Cavalieri , composer and choreographerOttavio Rinuccini , poetJacopo Peri , singer-composerGiulio Caccini , singer-composer
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Greek tragedy as the model
Scholars put their theories of musics role into practice.
Giralamo Mei He believed that all the text was sung. He concluded that Greek music consisted of a single melodysung by a soloist or a chorus with or withoutaccompaniment.
Forerunner of opera
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Forerunners of opera
Greek tragedy as the model
The Florentine Camerata
A group of scholars in Florence who discussed literature,science, and the arts. The host was Count Bardi. Members included Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520 1591),theorist and composer, son of the famous astronomer,and Giulio Caccini (ca. 1550 1618), composer/singer.
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Forerunners of opera
Greek tragedy as the model
Vincenzo Galileis Dialogo della musica antica et della
moderna (Dialogue of Ancient and Modern Music, 1581) Argued against counterpoint and madrigalisms The solo melody was ideal for emotional expression. The term for accompanied vocal melodies of this era,including the type described by Galilei, is monody .
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Forerunners of opera
A Florentine critic wrote in 1581:
Why cause words to be sung by four or fivevoices so that they cannot be distinguished,when the ancient Greeks aroused thestrongest passions by means of a single voicesupported by a lyre? We must renouncecounterpoint and the use of different kinds of instruments and return to simplicity
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Forerunners of opera
Greek tragedy as the model Caccinis Le nuove musiche (1602)
Collection of songs (arias) in monody and solo
madrigals The introduction describes ornaments and their use. Ornamentation enhances the message of the text.
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Caccini, Le Nuove musiche
Caccini wrote: Sprezzatura is that charm lent to a song by a fewfaulty eighth or sixteenth notes on various notes, togetherwith those [similar faults] made in the tempo. These relievethe song of a restricted narrowness and dryness and make itpleasant, free and airy, just as in common speech eleganceand variety make pleasant and sweet the matters beingspoken of. Similarly, the passaggi , trilli and other likeornaments, which can at times be scattered here and there in
each affect. There are many things used in good singing stylethat are written in one way but, to be more graceful, areeffected in quite another
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Forerunners of opera
NAWM 67, Caccini Vedr l mio sol This madrigal from Le nuove musiche was premiered in
Bardis Camerata.
The accompaniment is a basso continuo containing oneof the earliest examples of figured bass.
Each line of poetry is set as a separate phrase ending ina cadence.
The melody is shaped to the natural declamation of thetext.
Ornaments enhance the message of the text.
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First musical stage works
Dafne (1598) Poetry by Ottavio Rinuccini, music by singer-
composer Jacopo Peri Premiered at the palace of Jacopo Corsi (1561
1602), who hosted the Camerata after Bardimoved to Rome
Only fragments of the music survive.
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First musical staged works
Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo(Representation of the Soul and Body, 1600)
A musical morality play Music by Emilio de Cavalieri Longer than any previous staged musical work
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Euridice (1600)
Music by Peri, libretto by Rinuccini, and directedby Cavalieri
Produced for the wedding of Maria de Medici and
King Henry IV of France Caccini also set this libretto to music.
Caccinis setting is more melodious and lyrical. Peri considered his setting to be better suited for
drama. Some of Caccinis music was sung in the production of
Peris version.
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Euridice The settings by Peri and Caccini are the earliest
surviving complete operas. The story demonstrates musics power to move
the emotions. Orfeo (Orpheus) causes those in the underworld
to weep through his music. He persuades Charon to ferry him to the
underworld and then the gods of the underworldto restore his wife, Euridice, to life all throughsong (particularly through lots of ornamentation).
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Euridice
Recitative style Peri invented a new idiom later known as recitative.
A speech-song that was halfway between oratory andsong
Notes of the basso continuo are held while the voicemoves freely through consonances and dissonances. The voice simulates the free declamation of poetry. Consonances occur on all stressed syllables.
Read p. 314: Source reading from the preface toEuridice
Example 14.2 shows that Peri violates the rules of counterpoint in order to create a speech-like effect.
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Monteverdis LOrfeo The first work to show the full potential of opera
Commissioned for performance in Mantua Striggio is the librettist.
The subject is the same as in LEuridice . [inspirationfrom Classical antiquity emphasis on noble anddivine]
He organized the drama into five acts, each centeredaround a song by Orfeo and ending with a chorus that
comments on the situation. Use of special scenic effects Use of virtuoso singers
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Monteverdis LOrfeo
Monteverdi specified instruments in his score. Recorders, cornetts, trumpets, trombones, strings,
and continuo A regal (reed organ) portrays the underworld.
Monody styles Arias are strophic, but strophes are varied to
reflect the text (strophic variation). Recitative style varies depending on the situation
in the drama.
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Monteverdis LOrfeo
Ensembles and choruses provide contrast,with ritornellos as division points.
Structure of Act II It begins with a series of cheerful celebrations
(e.g., Orfeos strophic aria). The tonality changes to Aeolian (A minor) when a
messenger delivers news of Euridices death froma snake bite .
Joy and grief alternate as Orfeos companionscontinue celebrating, not having heard the news.
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Monteverdi, LIncoronazione di Poppea
Operas for public theaters in Venice LIncoronazione di Poppea (Coronation of Poppea,
1643) Based on a historical subject, Roman emperor Neros
second marriage, rather than myth Often considered Monteverdis masterpiece because of
its expressiveness but unsure what Monteverdi
actually wrote!
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Opera in Florence
Florence after LEuridice The court preferred ballets and intermedii for
celebrations of important events.
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Opera in Rome
Rome became the center for operadevelopment in the 1620s.
The range of topics expanded to include epics,saints lives, and comedy.
Stage effects were spectacular (e.g., flamesconsuming devils).
Recitative and aria became more clearly defined. Recitative became more speechlike. Arias became melodious and were usually strophic.
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Opera in Rome Other musical elements
Vocal ensembles Extended finales for each act, including choral singing
and dancing Women not permitted to sing, so castrati sang treble
solos Two-part instrumental sinfonias introduced the
operas. The first part is a slow chordal section. The second part is a lively imitative canzona. This two-part form became standard for the opening
movements of seventeenth-century opera.
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Opera in Venice
Venice The first public theaters
1637: Teatro San Cassiano opened as the first public
opera house. By 1678, there were nine stages devoted to opera. Impressario began to play important role in
development of opera Emergence of the diva and the prima dona Read pp. 324- 5 on Singer -power and Singer-worship
the Diva
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Opera in Venice -- midcentury
Recitative style The definitive style for the next hundred years Used for most of the action
Many repeated notes, with modulating harmonies Aria style
Strophic with some modification Smooth, diatonic melody with easy rhythms Violins accompany the voice throughout.
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Opera outside of Italy
Italian opera abroad Italian operas were performed in Paris in the
1640s. No known performance of Italian opera in England
in the seventeenth century, but a copy of a Cavalliopera reached England
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Italian opera in mid 17 th century
Many style features established during this erawould remain standard for Italian opera over thenext two hundred years.
Concentration on solo singing Separation of recitative and aria (as established in
Venice) Use of varied styles Singers and spectacle replaced drama as the focus of
interest.
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England
Influence of the masque Courtentertainment (cf. intermedio) Ben Jonson,Inigo Jones
Dance, staging (machinery), sets, text, music(as afterthought!)
Purcell (see pp. 374-376): composed semi-operas (ex. Fairy Queen )
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Purcell, Dido and Aeneas Purcells only true opera 1689: unsure for whom it was written: Josias
Priests girls school or court? Symbolic of Glorious Revolution (1688)?? Read the commentary! Notice the use of the ground bass in the lament
relationship between voice and bass Word painting melody, harmony, rhythm,
tonality, ground bass
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Tension between Drama and Spectacle
Opera began as an effort to place drama atthe center of a staged musical performance,but solo singing and spectacle soon overcamethis effort.
Later composers would seek to reform opera,bringing drama to the fore again.
Current theatrical productions face the sametension between drama and spectacle.