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

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