Tragedia Greca --> Opera Italiana

Speranza The Invention of Opera Opera (Italian for "work") A union of poetry, drama, music, and stagecraft ALL brought to life through PERFORMANCE= Consists of a text or LIBRETTO ("little book")= Origins around 1600 and became the leading genre of the 17th and 18th centuries Libretto ("Little Book") a play usually in rhymed or unrhymed verse combined with continuous or nearly continuous music, and is staged with scenery, costumes, and action Opera: Creation? 2 ways to tell the tale of its creation= In one way, was a new invention, an attempt to recreate in modern terms the experience of ancient Greek tragedy: a drama, sung throughout, in which music conveys the emotional effects. In other sense, opera was a blend of existing genres (including plays, theatrical spectacles, dance, madrigals, and solo song)= BOTH views are correct because creators of early opera drew on ideas about ancient tragedy and on content of modern genre Association of music with drama Does not originate with opera...but goes back to ancient times (EX: choruses and principal lyric speeches in the plays of Euripides and Sophocles were sung) Pastoral Drama One source for opera= Was a play in verse with music and songs interspersed= In a tradition from ancient Greece and Rome, these poems told idyllic love in rural settings brought to life by rustic youths and maidens, as well as mythological figures Pastoral Drama: Themes? Simple subjects, bucolic landscapes, nostalgia for classical antiquity, and yearning for an unattainable earthly paradise Favola d'Orfeo (By Angelo Poliziano) Was the first pastoral poem to be staged= On the legend of Orpheus, produced in Florence in 1471 Madrigal Was another influence on opera= Some were mini-dramas, using contrasting groups of voices to suggest dialogue between characters= Madrigal composers' experience in expression emotion and dramatizing text through music was the base for opera Madrigal Comedy (a.k.a. Madrigal Cycle) Genre of when composers grouped madrigals in a series to represent a succession of scenes or a simple plot L'Amfiparnaso (1594) By Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605)= Best known Madrigal Comedy/Cycle Intermedio (pl. intermedi) Most direct source for opera= Was a musical interlude on a pastoral, allegorical, or mythological subject performed between acts of a play= Arose out of practical need (i.e. Renaissance theaters lacked curtains; thus needed something to show division of scenes/passage of time)= Usually were 6, performed before, between, & after a play's standard 5 acts and often linked by a common theme Intermedi: For important occasions Were elaborate productions that had music, dialogue with choral, dance, etc. (basically all ingredients of opera EXCEPT a plot and the new style of dramatic singing) La Pellegrina (The Pilgrim Woman) Comic play that had the most spectacular intermedi= Performed at 1589 wedding in FLorence of Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici of Tuscany and Christine of Lorraine= The unifying theme (thought up by Florentine count Giovanni de' Bardi; 1534-1612) was the power of ancient Greek music, a consuming interest of his circle= Was a very lavish production, with the music being very elaborate La Pellegrina: Who were notable artists that worked on this play's intermedi? Many artists who were later involved in the earliest operas worked on these intermedi, including their producer/composer/choreographer Emilio de' Cavalieri (1550-1602); poet Ottavio Rinuccini (1562-1621); singer-composers Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) and Giulio Caccini (1550-1618) Greek Traedy"" Opera might never have emerged without an interest on the part of humanist scholars, poets, musicians, and patrons in reviving Greek tragedy. They hoped to generate the ETHICAL EFFECTS of ancient music in Greece by creating modern (alla ancient, rather than modern proper which they deemed Gothic and polyphonic) works with equal emotional power. Their discussions (at first abstract and theoretical) led to experiments that finally culminated in the first operas. Opera: Humanist Agenda Opera fulfilled a humanist agenda; a parallel in dramatic music to the emulation of ancient Greek sculpture and architecture Ancient Tragedy: Renaissance schoalrs Renaissance scholars disagreed among themselves about role of music in ancient tragedy. One view was that only the choruses were sung (put into practice by Andrea Gabrieli's 1585 performance of "Edipo".... Gabrieli cast the choruses in a homophonic declamantory style that emphasized the rhythm of the spoken word) = Contrary view was that the ENTIRE text of a Greek tragedy was sung (expressed by Girolamo Mei [1519-1594]) Girolamo Mei (1519-94) A Florentine scholar who felt that the ENTIRE text of a greek tragedy was sung. Mei concluded that Greek music consisted of a single melody, sung by a soloist or chorus, with/without accompaniment. This melody evoked emotions through natural expressiveness of vocal registers, rising/falling pitch, and changing rhythms and tempo. He communicated his ideas to colleagues in FLorence (notably Count Bardi and Vincenzo Galilei) Vincenzo Galilei (1520s-1591) Theorist and composer and father of astronomer Galileo Camerata (circle, or association) Hosted by Count Bardi from the early 1570s, hosted academy where scholars discussed literature, science, and the arts and musicians performed new music= Galilei and iulio Caccini (and even Jacopo Peri) were part of this group Camerata: Agenda? Mei's letters about Greek music often on agenda as part of a wider interest in classical antiquity, fostered by the ruling family of Florence, the Medici, as way to reinforce image as the "Caesars of their age" and their goals of political empire "Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna" (Dialogue of Ancient and Modern Music, 1581) Written by Galilei, where he used Mei's doctrines to attack vocal counterpoint. Galilei argued that only single line of melody (with pitches & rhythms appropriate to the text) could express a given line of poetry. When several voices simultaneously sing differently, the resulting chaos of contradictory impressions could never deliver the emotional message of the text. He felt that only a solo melody could enhance the natural speech inflections of a good orator or actor (dismissed as childish word-painting, imitations of sighing...common in madrigals) Monody Advocated by Galilei= Term used by modern historians to embrace all styles of accompanied solo singing practiced in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (as distinct from MONOPHONY)= [**NOTE: Solo singing was NOT new] Monophony Unaccompanied melody Le Nuove Musiche ("The New Music") Published pieces of music made by Caccini= These were many songs for solo voice with continuo in the 1580s and 1590s that were then published in 1602 under this title "le nuove musiche" Arias (Italian for "airs") Name given by Caccini to songs written for solo voice with strophic texts= Could mean any setting of strophic poetry Madrigals Name given by Caccini to songs for solo voice that did not have strophic texts= This term showed that he considered these works to be the same type of piece as POLYPHONIC MADRIGALS: Through-composed settings of nonstrophic poems, sung for one's own entertainment or for an audience Solo Madrigal Modern term we use to distinguish the new type (from Caccini's "Le nuove musiche") from the madrigal for several voices Vedro 'l mio Sol By Caccini= Set each line of poetry as a separate phrase ending in a cadence, shaping his melody to the natural accentuation of the text= Wrote into music the kinds of embellishments that singers would usually have added in performance= Faithful to goals of the Camerata, he placed ornaments to enhance the message of the text, not just to display vocal virtuosity= Talks about this piece in the foreward of his "le nuove musiche" writing Jacopo Corsi (1561-1602) took over discussions about new music after Bardi moved to Rome= 2 veteran participans under him were poet Ottavio Runuccini and singer-composer Jacopo Peri Which 2 people set out to recreate the ancient genre in modern form? Ottavio Rinuccini & Jacopo Peri= Both convinced that Greek tragedies were sung in their entirety Rinuccini's "Dafne" Pastoral poem= Peri's setting of this poem was performed in 1598 at Corsi's palace= This was the FIRST opera, modeled on the Greek plays: a staged drama, sung throughout, with music designed to convey the characters' emotions Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo (Representation of the Soul and the Body) By Emilio de' Cavalieri= At the time, was the longest entirely musical stage work