Opera Reform/Opera Wars
opera seria
- light opera buffa style invaded serious opera
- metastasio set the standard for opera seria
- court poet in vienna
- heroic operas present a conflict of human passions and were intended to promote morality through entertainment
- two pairs of lovers, resolution of drama, deed of heroism
- three acts consist of alternating recitatives and arias, main focus is on the aria
- opened it up to abuses - singers made crazy demands on poets and composers, singers added irrelevant embellishments
- da capo aria continued to grow
- expressed a succession of moods
- ritornello could introduce all the material sung later - began incorporating structural features of instrumental music
- melodies presented in four measure units of antecedent and consequent phrases
- hasse was the master of opera seria
opera reform
- some italian composers wanted to bring opera into harmony with the changing ideals of music and drama by making it more natural - changes reflected enlightenment thought
- flexible structure, expressive, less coloratura, more varied in other musical resources
- modified da capo aria and introduced other forms
- employed arias and recitatives less predictably to make it more realistic
- made orchestra more important and brought back chorus
- more resistant to singers’ arbitrary demands
- trying to get a happy medium between all of these categories
- jommelli, traetta
- gluck
- synthesized french and italian opera
- strongly affected by reform movement in 1750s
- resolve to remove abuses that had deformed italian opera
- music serves the poetry, advances the plot
- overture: integral part of the opera
- lessen contrast between aria and recitative
- chorus of furies in act ii of orfeo
- music molded to the drama
- integrated chorus into the action