Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tragedia Greca --> Opera Italiana
Speranza
Early Opera
Forerunners of Opera (see HWM chronology 1570–1640)
Drama and music have been intertwined from ancient Greek through Renaissance times.
Intermedi, or intermezzi, were pastoral, allegorical, or mythological interludes staged between acts of a play.
For important state occasions, intermedi were spectacular, with choruses, soloists, and large instrumental ensembles
The intermedi for the 1589 wedding of Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici and Christine of Lorraine were the most expensive ever produced (HWM, ex. 9.2).
Opening solo madrigal Dalle più alte sfere (From the highest spheres); typical solo song of the period.
Four instrumental parts, with the solo vocalist singing an embellished version of the top line.
Homophonic texture and cadences at the end of each line of poetry, like a frottola
Virtuoso runs and cadenzas in the solo voice, made possible by the virtuosity of trained singers
Madrigal cycle (now usually called madrigal comedy)
Short-lived dramatic form at the end of the sixteenth century
A comic story or a representation of a series of scenes or moods in dialogue
Music: usually light, lively, and humorous
The most famous: L'Amfiparnaso by Orazio Vecchi, 1597
The pastoral
Pastoral poems, about idyllic love, were the predominant genre of Italian poetry in the Renaissance
Characters were simple rustic youths and the settings involved nature and imaginary places
The Role of Greek Theater
Renaissance scholars studied Greek tragedies but disagreed about the role of music
In one view, only choruses were sung.
Andrea Gabrieli composed homophonic, declamatory choruses for a 1585 production of "Edipo", Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza
A second view, promulgated by Florentine scholar, Girolamo Mei (1519–1594), held that
ALL
the parts of a Greek tragedy were to be sung.
Experiments demonstrating this view resulted in early opera
The Florentine Camerata
Background
From the early 1570s onward Count Giovanni Bardi hosted an informal academy of scholars at his palace in Florence
The academy discussed literature, science, and the arts
Musicians performed new compositions at gatherings
Circa 1577 onward, the scholars read letters from Girolamo Mei on Greek music
Mei believed the power of Greek music lay in the use of a single melody (solo or unison choir)
The melody moved the listener through the natural expressiveness of vocal registers, rises and falls in pitch, and changes of rhythm and tempo
Vincenzo Galilei (ca. late 1590s–1591, father of Galileo the astronomer)
Used Mei's theories about ancient Greek music to attack Renaissance counterpoint as exemplified in the madrigal
Simultaneous melodies contradicted each other, detracting from the meaning of the words.
Galilei dismissed portrayals of individual words (word-painting) as childish.
He promoted a single melody written to enhance the natural speech inflections of a good orator or actor.
He set some verses from Dante's Divine Comedy for solo voice with viols (the manuscripts did not survive)
The Earliest Operas
Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–621), a poet, and Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), a composer, collaborated on all-sung works
"Dafne", produced in Florence in 1598. Only fragments survive
L'Euridice was set by Peri and also by Giulio Caccini; both settings were published
Emilio de' Cavalieri worked at the Florentine ducal court mounting scenes in the same experimental style.
His first opera was Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo, about the rivalry between the soul and body, in 1600
Styles of Monody
Monody (from the Greek monos, alone, and aidein, to sing), music for a solo singer accompanied by basso continuo
Monody was not new; solo performers had accompanied themselves in the sixteenth century, and single lines of polyphonic madrigals were often supported by instrumental accompaniments (solo madrigals)
Monody embraced all the styles of solo singing of the early seventeenth century, from speechlike recitative to strophic arias and solo madrigals. All of these types of singing made the creation of theatrical music possible by allowing music to represent different situations, emotions, and types of speech
Monodic writing was quickly taken up by composers of sacred music
Giulio Caccini developed a tuneful yet mainly syllabic style of solo song
Clear and flexible text declamation
He composed embellishments of the melodic line at places that would not disrupt the text and in places where it would enhance the message
Le nuove musiche (The New Music, 1602)
Collection of his airs and solo madrigals
Included the madrigal, Vedrò ‘l mio sol (NAWM 51)
Recitative style
Peri's style of speech-song was similar to the style scholars thought was used for ancient Greek epic poetry
The basso continuo holds steady notes while the voice moves in a speechlike fashion, with harmonic relations determined by speech declamation
Words that would be emphasized in speech were given pitches that were consonant with the bass
HWM, ex. 9.3 from Peri's Euridice shows Peri's approach to dissonance
Vignette by Peri shows how he attempted to combine Greek theory, expression of emotion, and speech inflection into the recitative style
Peri's Euridice (NAWM 52) uses all types of monody
Prologue (NAWM 52a), was modeled on the strophic aria
Each line of verse is sung to a repeated pitch with a cadential formula
A ritornello separates the strophes
Tirsi's song (NAWM 52b) is a canzonet, or dance-song
Rhythmic and tuneful
Harmonically strong cadences (mostly dominant–tonic)
Framed by a "symphony," an instrumental section
Dafne's speech (NAWM 52c and HWM, ex. 9.3)
Recitative style
Basso continuo plays chords with no rhythmic or formal structure
Voice part imitates inflections and rhythms of speech
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607)
The librettist, Alessandro Striggio, expanded the Rinuccini play into a five-act drama
Monteverdi's style
Recitatives are songful at key moments, with careful tonal organization
Contrasting sections in a variety of styles: solo airs, duets, and dances
Scenes defined with the use of choruses and instrumental ritornellos
Proportions expanded from Peri's Euridice
NAWM 54 a, b, c correspond roughly to NAWM 52 a, b, c
Prologue, NAWM 54a
Patterned on sixteenth-century improvised techniques for singing poetry
Each strophe written out, with the same harmony and different melodies
Strophes separated by a ritornello
Strophic canzonet, Vi ricorda, o baschi ombrosi (Do you recall, O shady woods), NAWM 54b
Hemiola techniques reminiscent of the frottola
Root-position chords favored
Strophes separated by a contrapuntal ritornello
In un fiorito prato (In a flowered meadow), NAWM 54c
Dramatic dialogue in the most "modern" style of the day
Recitative style as developed by Peri, but with more harmonic variety
In Orfeo's lament, Tu se' morta, each phrase of text builds on the previous one.
Monteverdi uses harmony
to reflect the emotion of the text,
with unprepared chord changes and
DISSONANCES
between the voice and the accompaniment.
Monteverdi's use of the orchestra
The orchestra for Orfeo consisted of forty instruments, including strings, flutes, cornetts, trumpets, sackbuts, and continuo instruments
Monteverdi often specified which instruments were to play
Brief orchestral interludes, including an introductory fanfare ("toccata") and several ritornellos
Francesca Caccini (1587–ca. 1640)
Background
Daughter of Giulio Caccini
Sang as a soloist and with her sister and stepmother, singing both sacred and secular music
Worked for the Duke of Florence, whose court preferred ballets, masques, and intermedi to opera; became his highest-paid musician
Composed many works for the duke, including La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (The Freeing of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina) in 1625
Composed for the visit of the Prince of Poland
Performed in the courtyard of the duchess's villa
Combined ballet and intermedi-style scenes but included the trappings of opera, including an opening sinfonia, prologue, recitatives, arias, choruses, instrumental ritornellos
Choruses were either homophonic or madrigal-style (e.g., HWM ex. 9.2)
Opera in Rome
Wealthy prelates vied with each other in offering lavish entertainment, and in the 1620s the pope's nephews began sponsoring operas
Roman opera libretto stories came from the lives of the saints, mythology, or epic poems
Recitative and aria become more distinct in style
Recitative style was more speechlike than that of Peri and Monteverdi
Arias became more melodious, usually with strophic settings
Domenico Mazzocchi (1592–1665) developed half-arias, mezz'arie, short tuneful interludes in the midst of recitative
Two-part preludes became the accepted pattern for the overture
Luigi Rossi (1597–1653)
Composed Orfeo in 1647, on a libretto by Francesco Buti
The libretto for this version adds incidents, characters, special effects, and comic episodes
The integrity of the drama began to be less important
Beautiful arias and ensembles
Opera in Venice
Venice was an ideal place for opera because its Carnival season (between Christmas and Lent) attracted people from all over Europe who were interested in entertainment
The first opera produced in Venice was Benedetto Ferrari (ca. 1603–1681) and Francesco Manelli's (after 1594–1667) Andromeda, brought from Rome in 1637 to a public theater, the Teatro San Cassiano
By 1678 there were nine opera theaters in Venice, and over 150 operas had been produced there
All performances were ticketed
Topics of operas included mythological subjects at first; epic tales and historical war tales became popular mid-century
Striking stage effects portrayed clouds with choruses of singers, magical transformations, etc
Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (NAWM 55), 1642, was composed for Venice
Monteverdi continued to blend speechlike recitative with more lyrical monody
Scene flows between recitative and aria, with sections in measured arioso
The content of the libretto rather than its poetic forms dictates the style of the setting
Pier Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676), a student of Monteverdi, became a leading Venetian opera composer, and composed forty-one operas in which recitatives alternate with soloistic arias
Antonio Cesti (1623–1669)
His most famous opera was Il pomo d'oro (The Golden Apple), composed in 1667 to celebrate a royal wedding, with a large orchestra, many choruses, and elaborate machinery for special effects
His Orontea (NAWM 56), ca. 1649, was more typical of mid-seventeenth century Venetian opera, and was performed frequently outside of Venice
NAWM 56, Intorno all'idol mio
Orontea's aria confessing her love to the sleeping Alidoro
Two violins playing throughout, not just in ritornellos
Large-scale form, with adjustments to the strophic form
Bel canto style: smooth, mainly diatonic melodies with easy rhythms
Mid-seventeenth century Italian (i.e., Venetian) opera had the main features it would maintain for the next two hundred years:
Concentration on solo singing
Separation of recitative and aria
Distinctive aria types
Reversal of the Florentine ideal of the text as master of the music; instead, the libretto became only a support for the musical structure
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