Opera Flashcards
What was opera mostly about?
Mythical stories
Why did opera flourish in Italy?
States ij competition
When did ‘public’ opera developer in Italy and where
Venice 1637
Jacopo Peri Euridice
1600
Libretto= Ottavio Rinuccini
How was Peris euridice fit for a wedding?
Ending changed to be happy
Where was Peris Euridice first performed?
Pilti Palas, Florence
Italian opera structure
Recitatives
Words structure the music
What was the focus on in Italian opera?
Vocal music
Not a large role for Instruments
Instrumentation of Italian Operas
Large scale
Intermedio
Italian
Musical act inbetween acts of a play
Castrati
Boys castrated in Italian opera to keeo high voices
What does L’Orfeo have the same story as?
Euridice
L’Orfeo
1607
Monteverdi
Why was L’Orfeo different to other Italian operas e.g Euridice
Instrumentals e.g ritornelli
Emotion
What was L’Orfeo written for and how is this shown?
Duke of Mantuas power display against his brother
Prologue praises the duke
Italian operas use of instruments
Used in groups e.g just ww in underworld
Renaissance style
L’Orfeo act 2
Greatest range of emotions
Rejoicing then tragedy at Euridice death
What did Monteverdi start to do?
Write small public operas
How did French Operas reflect the ruling style?
Absolute power of Louis XIV
Absolute control over opera by Jean Baptiste Lully
Palais Royale
Differences between French and Italian opera
France had more dance
France had more lavish costumes and set
No Castrato voice in France
French recitative
French recitative
Word based (like Aria)
Functional bass line
French
Why was Lully careful to separate French and Italian Opera
Lully was Italian
Prologue always in praise of Louis XIV
Louis payed him so he didn’t have to make money
Tragedie en musique
French
Love and duty
Drama in 5 acts about mythological subjects
Dance
French instrumentation
Smaller
5-part string band
Travelled
Larger role for Instruments
French harmonic repeating pattern
Chaconne = major Passacaylia = minor
Lully, Persee, Act 3
1682
The Palace gardens
Dancing, fight scenes and special effects
Story of Perseus, son of Zeus, ans his fight Against Medusa
What did Intermedio represent?
Gods/leaders
Who’s wedding was Euridice written for?
Maria de Medici and French King Henry IV
The Ballet comique de la reine
French
Showed the richness of King Henris reign
Intrigated music, dance and drama with variety and splendour
What did comic mean in ballet comique de la reine?
Beautiful, calm and happy conclusion
How were the Intermedi virtuosic?
Solos, madrigals in elaborate counterpoint, accompanied choruses and sinfonias
What Intermedi was an important precursor to opera and ballet
Florentine intermedi
What principles of Intermedi formed the general principles for structuring theatrical dance and performance
Interlocking variations of basic material and music controlling poetry
L’Orfeos advanced thinking
Inventive use if music to control pace/flow
Symbolic writing
Dramatic centrepiece of Orfeo
Orfeos prayer to Carante
Strophic variations over slow moving bass line
Solemn sound of trombones mark underworld
Strings represent Orpheuses lyre
Northern Italian festivals
Showed theatre to the public
Barbenni operas in Rome
1623
Started to divide into scene
Travelling troupes began to present to the public
Which troupe spread Roman operas?
Commedia dell’arte
1645
Large opera in French Court
First public opera House in France
Palais Royale
1670s
How did Commedia Dell’arte influence French opera
French opera turned away from heroism and increasingly towards human love, influenced by Commedia Dell’arte imagery
De capo aria
Aria in three parts
1) theme
2) contrasting
3) return of the theme
J. C bach
Blended German and Italian traditions
Attractive to Mozart
Haydn dates
1723-1809
Life covered many musical changes
Storm and stress and Haydn
Tempesta movement
Late 1770s = half his works minor
Why was London important to Haydn?
Europe’s largest city
Received lots of praise
12 symphonies reinvented sonata form
How did Haydn reinvent sonata form
2nd subject almost eliminated allowing more extended works
Haydn and ‘the creation’
Embraces his mature symphonic style hut also draws on Vuennese traditions and an English, Handelian one
Mozart dates
1756-1791
24 yesrs after Haydn
How did Mozart piano concertos enlarge the idea of Concertos
Added a sonata form in which solo episodes alternate with Ritornellos
Dialogue between orchestra and piano
Piano elaborated orchestral ideas
Mozart finest manifestation of counterpoint
‘Jupiter’
Piano symphonies fell out of favour = mozart in trouble
Mozart first great opera
Idomeneo
How did Mozart develop comic opera
Infusing it with a new humanity and depth
Characters recognisable and defined by their music
Mozart and opera music
Music representations Defined class and situation of a character
Mozart and the freemasons
Was a freemason from 1784
Magic flute defines the age of enlightenment
Opera worldwide
Each country has its own form of light opera
Italian = language of court opera so Italians held important positions
Boccherini
Isolation in Spain = away from mainstream
Individuality
Clementi
Pupil of Haydn and competed with Mozart before the Emporer
Experiments with pianoforte and developed thr nocturne style Chopin went on to use
Beethkven6
Climax and dissolution of classical music
