Elements of Opera

Readings:

Sacher, Opera: A Listener’s Guide, Chapter 1, pp. 3-10 (“The Nature of the Beast”)
Sacher, Chapter 2, pp.20-22 (“The Filter of History” – “Opera’s History – An Overview”).

In the readings, author briefly discusses

opera’s focus: drama through music.
difference between opera and musical.
- nature of singing. Musical’s singing close to simple songfulness. Opera singers develop high notes.
- Diction. Opera: stylized vowel production. Musical: speaking habits of characters.
- Opera enough power to be heard without mic.
- In opera, characterization relies exclusively on voice and instrument, rather than appearances.
opera’s history.
- Baroque era: Monterverdi, Scarlatti, Lully, Handel. Opera seria, comic opera.
- Classical era. Simpleness, naturalness, melody elaborateness. Farbic of voices and instruments. Constant variety, interchange of motives among vocal and instrumental. Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven.
- Romantic Era. Tone, richly varied colors, passionate emotionalism.
  - first four decades of 1800s: Rossini, Weber, Bellini, Donizetti.
  - next four: Verdi, Wagner. Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Bizet, Offenbach.
  - final decades of era: Puccini, Debussy, Richard Strauss.

What is Opera?

The literal translation of the term “opera” does not tell us much:

Opera = Latin for “works” (plural of opus “work”)
Short form for “opera in musica” (work in music)
Different names through history:
- Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) was labelled “favola in musica” (a fable in music)
- French Baroque opera: Tragédie lyrique or Tragédie en musique (lyrical tragedy or tragedy in music)
- Dramma per musica (drama for music): term used for Italian serious opera from 17th century to early 19th century
Different forms of opera: e.g.
- Comic opera
- Serious opera
- Singspiel: German opera with spoken dialogue

Opera: a play that is sung = drama with continuous music, staged with scenery, costumes & action

multi-media, collaborative, expensive genre:
controversial: strong reactions for and against
powerful: emotionally; socially; politically…
relevant today?
- Universal themes of life, death, love, hatred, pain…
- a place in contemporary collective popular imagination

Musical elements

operas start with words before one note is written:

Libretto: (“little book”):

The words or text of an opera
dramatic text + scene instructions for an opera
Normally written by someone else (librettist) to be set to music by the composer
The librettist will often indicate places to be set to:
- recitative (prose, no poetic meter)
- Aria (poetry, regular poetic meter)
The composer takes the libretto and dramatizes the story through music!

Aria

Aria: solo song

A solo piece written for a main character
focuses on expression of character’s emotions/reactions to plot
Time stands still
Often inner thoughts and emotions of character
monologue in poetic stanza form
Features repetition of text & music
- usually in patterned form

Here are some examples of arias

Monteverdi, L’Orfeo (1607), “Vi Ricorda”:

Orpheus expressing his happiness thanks to his bride, Eurydice
Strophic: same music with different words (verses)
Separated by instrumental interludes
Strong regular rhythm

Handel, Messiah (1742), “Rejoice Greatly”

Da capo aria (A B A’ form):
- an opening section, a contrasting section, return of the opening music & words but more ornamented
- Strong meter (notice the strong meter in 3s here (12/8) here compared to most versions!)

Mozart, Don Giovanni (1787), “Batti, Batti” (Zerlina)

Zerlina tries to persuade her fiancé Masetto to forgive her
Flowing cello accompaniment

Recitative

Recitative: reciting style, sung declamation (朗唱法)

Halfway between singing and speaking
fits natural accents, rhythm, pace & inflections of words
No strong regular accents
Syllabic: usually just one note per syllable of text
Usually used to moves plot forward
Sometimes consists of dialogue between characters
“Invented” in 1600:
- made opera possible
- More “efficient” style of singing that tells the story more quickly than full song

Accompaniment:

the instrumental accompaniment is usually quite spare and sparse
Allows the voice to flow naturally like speech rhythms with minimal structure

Here are 2 examples of recitative:

Giulio Cesare, Act II, sc. 1: “Eseguisti…” recitative

Cleopatra and her friend Nireno conspire to enchant Julius Caesar
Notice how spare the accompaniment is, allowing the voices to follow the natural speech rhythms in their dialogue.
The accompaniment style here is called “secco” or “dry”

Monteverdi, Orfeo, Act II:

Messenger delivers bad news of Eurydice’s death
Long narrative, very emotionally charged scene
Delivered in recitative with spare accompaniment & flexible vocal line

Accompaniment: depending on the storyline, the instruments can accompany the recitative in different ways: 2 styles of accompaniment:

simple chordal punctuation (secco: “dry”). Consists of just a bass line and instrument filling in the chords (basso continuo)
Orchestral: added instrument (accompagnato: “accompanied”). Fuller accompaniment that includes the addition of other instruments of the orchestra

Handel, Messiah: alternates between the 2 styles. although Messiah is not an opera, it uses operatic elements, like recitative and aria, and is a great example of alternating styles of accompaniment

Pergolesi, La serva padrona (1733):