HWM - 2

Baroque Opera

• Drama in music (Dramma in musica): sung dialogues

• An attempt to revive Greek Tragedy (Renaissance ideal)
• First opera: Jacopo Peri (1561-1633): Euridyce (1600, Firenze)
Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo: Favola in Musica Act 2: Tu se’ morta (1607, Mantua; libretto
Allessandro Striggio)
Monody
• Solo madrigal (see Lamento della Ninfa)
• Strophic aria
Giulio Caccini (1550-1618). Udite, Udite, Amanti (Le Nuove Musiche)
• Cantata (piece to be sung).
• Piece for solo voice with basso continuo, in several movements
• Both secular (cantata da camera) and sacred (cantata da chiesa)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1720): Cantata Correa nel seno amato (before 1694; 12 movements)

Development of Opera
Venice
• Operas for paying public, Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, as of 1637
• Model for all future operas
• Emphasis on vocal solo, richly embellished
• Stars: prima donne and castrates
• No choir, orchestra only for accompaniment
• Music for the citizens: popular taste
• Separate numbers: arias and recitatives
• Dialogue less important (reversal of earlier ideals)

Naples
• Neapolitan opera (opera seria)
• Important composer: Allesandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
• Emphasis on musical beauty and simpler musical language
• Da Capo Aria (ABA)
Alessandro Scarlatti: Oratorio La Giuditta. Act 1. Recitativo e aria: “Duce, Bettulia”

France
• Court of Louis XIV (1638-1715) “The Sun King”
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli, 1632-1687)
• Tragédy Lyrique or tragédy en musique
• Opera develops from Ballet de Cour and French tragedy
• French overture (two-part: slow dotted rhythms and fast)
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Ouverture Roland

England
• Masque: musical-theatrical courtly genre (cf. ballet de cour)
• Semi-opera, or dramatic[k] opera or English opera
• Singing, dancing, speeking, acting, music interludes
• English opera develops at the court of Charles II (1630-1685) during Restauration
• Replaced in 1737 by Italian opera
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Dido and Aeneas, Act III-2. Dido’s Lament (libretto Nahum Tate)

Germany (1700-1750)
• Singspiel with influences from Italian and French opera leads to German Opera
• Centre: Hamburg (1678-1738)
Georg Friedrich Telemann (1681-1767): Der geduldige Socrates (1720; libretto Johann Ulrich von
König)