Mozart and Classical Opera (Chapter 37)

Vocabulary flashcards covering Classical Opera genres, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, its characters, and Act I musical excerpts.

Opera seria

A "serious," or tragic, Italian opera characterized by a highly formalized genre with rigid conventions inherited from the Baroque tradition, featuring stories of kings and heroes from classical antiquity for an aristocratic audience.

Comic opera

A lighter opera genre in a simpler style sung in the vernacular and supported by the rising merchant class, designed to reflect human emotions more realistically.

Ballad (or dialogue) opera

The regional form of comic opera that flourished in England.

Singspiel

The regional form of comic opera that flourished in Germany.

Opèra comique

The regional form of comic opera that flourished in France.

Opera buffa

Italian comic opera popular throughout Europe, characterized by lively plots, farcical situations, popular tunes, act-ending ensembles, and social satire aimed at the aristocracy.

Lorenzo da Ponte

The librettist who wrote the text for Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, adapting a banned French play and shifting its primary focus from political intrigue to love hijinks.

Figaro

A bass character in Le nozze di Figaro who is Count Almaviva’s servant and the fiancé of Susanna.

Count Almaviva

A baritone character in Le nozze di Figaro who is an aristocratic, notorious womanizer pursuing Susanna under the pretext of the "right of first night."

Susanna

A soprano character in Le nozze di Figaro who serves as Countess Almaviva's maid and is engaged to Figaro.

Cherubino

A lovestruck teenage boy in Le nozze di Figaro, sung by a mezzo-soprano as a trouser role.

Trouser role

A theatrical convention in which a female singer (such as a mezzo-soprano) portrays a young male character, exemplified by Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro.

Basilio

A tenor character in Le nozze di Figaro who acts as a devious and mealy-mouthed music master.

“Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio”

Cherubino's Act I aria in Le nozze di Figaro, scored for mezzo-soprano and small orchestra in $A\text{–}B\text{–}A\text{–}C\text{–}C'$ form to reflect the erratic passion of a lovestruck teenager.

“Cosa sento”

A through-composed Act I terzetto in Le nozze di Figaro featuring overlapping vocal lines from Count Almaviva, Basilio, and Susanna, primarily polyphonic in texture with orchestral reinforcement of the characters' conflicting emotions.