context Flashcards
versi sciolti
loose verse
loose rhythmic structure
unrhymed
like blank verse
secco reitative vs obbligato
secco is simple and usually only accopmanied by harpsichord or piano
obbligato is more fully accompanied
versi lirici
lyrical verse
system of rhyme and rhythm with periodic phrasing
kinetic vs statsis
recitative usually kinetic and aria stasis
libretto vs Mozart
not always following suggestions of recit/aria
misaligning poetic metre with music.
words interrupted and repeated to show emotion
Platoff (1996) tonal planning
are the tonal relationships heard by the audience?
tonal unity linking numbers
different levels of tonal relationships and perception
difficult to know what audiences can hear
some chosen not audible
unity and aesthetic value - inherent in narrative
virtually all Mozart operas conclude in overture key
tonic key of finale not used 2 or 3 numbers before
Platoff (1997) tonal organisation
continuum of tonal relationships
Chord progression such as IV-V-I operates with chords in direct succession as a move from instability to stability. In this instance in opera these chords are not in direct succession as numbers are separated from one another by applause etc. Tonics are made stable when occurring.
male and female keys - D most used for men and F A and Bb for women
arias in D for noble characters (brass instrumentation)
Eb for large ensembles
Hunter (1991) buffa and seria
Opera seria as the parallel ‘higher genre’ to opera buffa.
Buffa referencing seria through citations, illusions and parody
The more specific a reference to opera seria in opera buffa, the more likely to be a parody.
Gallarati (1997) comedy
Mozart come round to the idea of musical theatre to represent life and individuals.
In his librettos for Mozart Da Ponte he had drama of organic development, for a musical comedy of action. Making conversations more realistic.
For Mozart the conventional forms are used to shape the music.
transition to truth and realness
characters not as fixed types but encountering a variety of situations
Goehring (1997) sentimental buffa
abandoning the ridiculous in comedy through Goldoni
anti-sentimentalism in Mozart opera
Goldoni’s comedies providing buffa model for sentimental in use of music to describe feelings beyond words
Mozart and Da Ponte departing from model
liberatign comedy from fixed types for psychological realism, passion treated with irony
Don Alfonso Vorrei dir as sentimental distress and passion - parody of this as he doesn’t believe his words
McClymonds (1997) genre
Some numbers using the seria style without contradicting the buffa notions.
Some types borrowed and some shared.
Some traits, characters or number types would be at home in both.
middle musical style association with buffa
lieto fine
opera seria
serious
heroic
death
Metastasio
antiquity, distant realm, social status
lavish productions
higher poetic and musical style
coloratura
opera buffa
comic
lieto dine
contemporary clothing
greater realism
lower poetic and musical style
medium musical style
Something natural, avoiding exaltation high style and trivial of low style.
Not mixed – has another style of its own.
Smooth and flowing melodic lines.
Not forbidden to any character – available for all.
Could work as common neutral ground in terms of genre.
Platoff (1990) buffa aria
conventions as standard plot devices, stock characters and vocal stypes
buffa aria for comic bass
rapid patter and comic outburst
extended comic expression building humour
avoiding seria features
declamatory (natural)
rapid patter for strong emotion
Da Ponte takes advantage of strong accents on the third and seventh syllables to create a sing-song rhythm
Platoff (1996) catalogue arias
origins of Leporello’s catalogue aria in Haydn
designed to build to comic highpoint
gradual increase in excitement
fast declamation
Da Ponte organising text in two different sections of metre to add to musical presentation
Parakilas (1990) production history DG
held in high esteem early on
Paris production in 1834 inserted a ballet into the first-act finale and the final scene was cut
range of DG and Leporello similar - when they exchange identities harder to tell
DG’s behaviour towards other characters serving to dramatize tensions in certain social institutions at the time which then changed.
DG threatens social identity and provokes character anxieties, oppressor
responsibility of choice levels
literary source
libretto
score
direction
actors
Mozart as dramatist
At work in all three operas.
Adding to the drama with the music.
Adapting libretto
temporality
kinetic vs static moments
left to direction
operas happening over short period
Platoff (1989) musical and dramatic structure of opera buffa finale
Misconception that number and arrangement of movements in finale create unified and high-level structure relating to whole piece.
Through-composed and don’t often begin and end in the same key.
Sonata or rondo like structures in various sections.
libretto influencing structure
cycles of action and expression building the finale
importance of continuity and flow
expression following action
movement of characters onstage
Platoff (1990) operatic ensembles
Ensembles made up of active and expressive music and poetry. One advances the drama and the other expressing feeling.
active passages and emotional expression and expressive passages planning for future event
First phase involving individual solo passages for character expression.
Dialogue and interchange between characters.
punctuating tuttis for interest
Heartz (1977) buffo finale
Goldoni creating an Italian model for Mozart to then develop them further
Steptoe (1988) social context
high rent and Mozart as working artist in Vienna which was the centre and focus of empire
Emperor Joseph’s reign mirrored in Mozart
Joseph’s reforms allowing Mozart to develop
relaxed standards and flexibility with Joseph
Dances in DG ACT I finale reflecting Viennese society
1790 revolution changing society
Steptoe (1988) musicians, opera and audience
Kappelmeister as security but servant - Mozart didn’t want this
new age of Italian composer
Josephinian decade
Joseph personally supervised the court theatres of Vienna. In doing this, he enacted a series of radical reforms
Burgtheater to Nationaltheater
took away opera company and reinstated in 1783
tolerated non-Catholics and free-masons
greater freedom of thought and press
equality of citizens
Enlightenment
According to Kant, enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-inflicted immaturity’.
People questioning religious and social degrees through their sense of reason and intellect.
Mozart hostile to idea of enlightenment as he grew up in aristocratic circles.
He became an important proponent of Enlightenment thinking. Changed when moved to Vienna
Believed in the soul
words you can’t use
diegetic
societal (society)
comedic (comic)
original (in relation to versions of the score)
society in 18th century europe
Degree of continuity between aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie. They shared areas of socialisation, of which the opera house was a central area.
‘Polite society’ – constituted top 7% of Vienna’s population. 90% of the attendees of the Burgtheater were from this polite society.
Related to Figaro - name change (like Da Ponte) as progress through society
blurring class boundaries
DG comments on dishonesty of noblemen
libertinism
1780s philosophy of free thought
Libertine becomes a word to describe someone doing something to receive sexual gratification.
Don Giovanni is not a serious libertinism in the sense of being a religious freethinker. But he is a sensualist, man of great appetites (eating, drinking, sex).
Don Giovanni’s challenge to society (being a libertine) is driven by his sensualism. He is a transgressor: he attacks marriage, (implicitly) attacks religion/cult of sensitivity, he fiddles with class boundaries to serve his own interests (when he changes clothes with his servant). Section with 3 dances in different metres played at the same time– associated with 3 different social classes, thereby mixing and blurring them.
blurs social ranks
Mozart and enlightened view of marriage
Had been based on convenience/social position (arranged marriages), and aristocrats tended to have sexual relationships outside marriage.
Mozart instead believed in companionate marriage, based not on social convenience but rather on love and individual choice.
Figaro and Susanna want to get married because they love each other.
Count and Countess also married out of love and the Countess is still (mentally) inside a companionate marriage, independently of social class.
Don Giovanni has a low idea of marriage: he promises many women he will marry them even if he doesn’t. Typical figure of aristocratic seducer who promises marriage to hook up with women in literature/drama of 18th century – shows that this was a real life concern.
Nozze di Figaro therefore showcases some enlightened ideals about aristocracy/class – they should not have absolute power over other classes.
Enlightened view of sex
Considered neutral – sinless, but not good or bad.
Natural, healthy, necessary for reproduction.
BUT problems arise when sexuality becomes untargeted, obsessive, extreme (e.g. Don Giovanni). Licentiousness is socially disruptive (e.g. Count and Susanna).
18th century philosophers had been reluctant to entirely renounce the control of divinity (as Don Giovanni does) – because it keeps people under control, sexually.
DG like a child who plays with no thought of his impact on the world, just following his instincts. Idea that DG is mentally likened to a child so we can condemn him.
Even atheists had strong moral boundaries of sex.
order of sources
sketches
continuity drafts
skeleton score
particella (copyists making small copies for singers before orchestration)
Orchestration
Manuscript
autographs - reproductions of the first libretti
Rice (2008) function and genre
Opera seria put Carnival on the operatic stage with elaborate costumes, disguises and happy endings etc.
Stage holding mirror to audience.
Così first performed during Carnival and Figaro’s premiere may be thought of as such however it was delayed until the end of the season.
Archetypal plot of two lovers and a second man.
Obstructing character.
Plot archetypes as subcategories of basic archetype covering serious, comic, German and Italian opera.
Second man attracted to young woman.
DG and Così represent variation in which second man interferes with the marriage of two couples.
Rice (2008) theatres and stage design
Burgtheater elongated horseshoe
Forestage and scenic stage.
Depended on stock scenery.
No theatrical painters on permanent staff list in the 1780s.
Rice (2008) performance and reception
Cheers welcomed Mozart in the first performance of DG in Prague.
Mixed reaction to premieres of Figaro and Viennese version of Don Giovanni.
Emperor Leopold II transformation of Viennese rep in 1791 meant that Così was perhaps not performed as much as it could have been.
Williams (2006) Don Juan as an Idea
Don Giovanni not having to bear the weight of the significance with which the figure of Don Juan expresses.
Later writers of the Don Juan narrative helping to understand the opera – forever changing the character?
always presented in action - no self reflection
seducer pursuing women and not the ideal of marriage so in a way affirms the liberty of women
Buch (2008) the supernatural
19th century commentators seeing DG as heroic character irresistible to women and personifying courage in the face of death
idea of class in relation to the heavens and bestowed by God
abusing privileges of lass - attempted rape, false oaths, blasphemy, abuse of marriage, cruel to L, does not repent
Hunter nobility (2010)
Rushton as sympathetic and admiring of Don Ottavio in his writings.
Ottavio is the epitome of enlightened nobility - not understodd in current contexts
nobility as unchangeable no middle class in Da Ponte’s librettos - different from Goldoni’s model
DO friendly to DG due to class.
Robinson alternative endings
itended to cut for VIenna
two endings acceptable in different time periods
DG seen more heroic if final scene cut
calmer ending in scene after death
both obey structure of 1780s finale
By choosing the less ‘tragic’ solution Da Ponte also chose the less dramatic one.
How the others will resolve their stories remains unclear without the final scene.
Final scene ending in a presto D major in diatonic style with trills and semiquavers induce many to interpret as one more expression of joyous comic endings. Starts with fugal opening
Dido factor – ambiguity of feeling that may result when the wrong person acquires tragic status and sympathy by suffering horrific death onstage.
Till (1991) cosi
End of Josephinism and widespread social and political unrest
science of morality
18th century optimism in teaching morality
Fiordiligi experiences hihilism in the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
human frailty and acceptance that neither men or women can behave in a way other than how they are programmed to
tests the Enlightenment’s vision of world held together by secular morality independent of social, economic, political or religious authority - optimism in the power of education
till (1991) figaro
Good and evil introduced into the opera with Susanna’s announcement that the Count has designs on her.
Loss of bliss and innocence as theme throughout.
music ad nostalgia - countess laments in Dove sono
restoration of bliss and harmony
against false idealism and sentimental thinking
preservation of hierarchy
Struggle between Count and Figaro – eighteenth century masters frightened of the growing power of their servants.
celebrating ideal of marriage
Struggle of Figaro and Susanna for their marriage is a struggle taking place against the background of marriages.
False expectations in the marriage of the Count and Countess. Set up to fail by romantic delusions
Bourgeois individualism as destructive of the network of interrelationships on which it depends.
Chorus of peasants important – communal celebration of wedding, keeping an eye on the union.
Count refusing to forgive as leitmotif
Till (1991) DG
Enlightenment liberating people from the fear of death which had given the church power over Christians.
Enlightenment rationalising the supernatural and believing in just universe.
Don Juan popular buffoon by this point
sensualist not seducer - women as objects of consumption to him
attempted seduction of those about to marry
bourgeois libertarian - quest for liberty but disintegration at fulfilment, materialist pleasure
Damnation of DG both real to the extent that the Enlightenment recognized the importance of a belief in the avenging powers of God and not real in the extent that Mozart and Enlightenment thinkers considered themselves personally exempt from the need for such beliefs.
Institutions of church and state not in the opera.
DE as middle - In the epilogue Elvira sings farewell with the buffo characters before rejoining aristocrats - brush with DG robbed her of status
Heartz (1997) buffo finale
Mozart multi section finale model as Italian with Goldoni as his guide
Muller (2014) Directors Theatre ‘Regietheater’
directing as important as source and also dominating/destructing drama
modern productions present in new and provocative manener
messages beneath text
werktreue as fidelity to the work and the way that the author intended it - is this possible in terms of drama as it is with score?
frequent cuts and changes early in history
Sellars - Mozart expierments (1986/8)
Ford (2012) musical seduction with Fiordiligi and Ferrando
seduction lying at the heart of opera
Fiordiligi becomes object for masculine desire
Ferrando’s interruption steers harmony to perfect cadence in unstable minor mode dominant
resistance from Fiordiligi in dissonance and helplessness evident
submission at cadence
Ferrando reaches tonic with chromatic oboe line - oboe introduced love theme in the overture
mutual resolution of the love motif?
women left framed by the experiment with nature left to blame - enlightenment morality
music during the Enlightenment was viewed as a reflection of the inner state and thus appropriate for revealing feelings of inner connection through love, and this is exemplified in this particular performance.
Brown-Montesano (2007) Fiordiligi and Dorabella
taught to conform to the title ‘all women are like that’
all women the same - manipulated by DA
no room to say no
two sisters different despite DA trying to make them the same
Fragli amplessi - forced into duet, blackmailed and overwhelmed
Don Alfonso reduces women to single characteristic and traps them
ending unclear - modern stages struggle
lieto fine demanding happy
Platoff issues of the DG sextet
long andante - dramatic action biggest moment of separation as change to molto allegro stretta (Cm-Eb major as V/vi - I)
this progression rare but used a few times in DG for marker of surprise
influenced by instrumental writing - sense of closure within this piece itself
L (as DG) and DE duet begins - surprise at Z and M entrance marked in the music (with change in accompaniment - semiquaver descending runs as action)
tonal shift as L unmasks - comic patter vs long notes
Mozart divides into two but DP into 3 - entrance of Z and M treated as interruption within flow of andante rather than separate section
Hunter and Webster cutting DG end
retaining ties together dramatic ends
calmer, spotlight on other characters in final scene
less spectacular ending
concentrating on his death enhances hero factor
Rusbridger - the internal world of Don Giovanni (2008)
intensity and darkness of statue’s music that begins and (almost) ends opera contrasted with sexualised rush of DG - division in overture
DG evacuating pain onto others - empty chaarcter, unable to tolerate guilt
sexual psychopathy - Oedipus wish to control - music depicts flirting, he wears succession of masks and is sexually motivated
Citron (2010) Ponelle film Figaro
subjective emphasis on the individual
zooming and panning
Bartolo La Vendetta - camera angles show self importance
coubling in Figaro act iv aria - doppelganger
interior singing as narrative possibility
emphasis on subjectivity tailored to TV
Citron (2000) on Losey’s DG
cinema drawing on external envrionment
Romantic reading stressing darkness
DG sextet filmed in theatre - distance from audience
framed by wave sounds - always in motion (DG)
architecture of upper class - critique
not interested in women - DA as loves DG and guilty, DE as hysterical woman
against opera and its cultural power
gaps in musical alignment
dark and pessimistic
DeNora (1997) Mozart operas and gardens
gardens erotically charged
Susanna and Countess writing in the letter that S will meet Count in garden
Susanna ‘Deh viene’ singing about how nature conspires with love
association between women and flowers - newly sexualised in the late 18th century
Figaro rage aria compares women to thorned roses - Beaumarchais used political imagery
