Hwm- Opera And Music Drama In The 19Th Century- 18

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Background

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1. Although Italian & French opera had common roots, they went separate ways until the
middle of the 18th century when they began to converge in the Parisian works of
Gluck
a) many of the principles that had guided Gluck were already described in Francesco
Algarotti's treatis "Saggio sopra l'opera in musica" (1755)
1: put into practice by Nicolò Jommelli (1714-1774) with operas written for Parma,
Stuttgart, & Mannheim in the 1750's
2: a similar combination was fused by Tammaso Traetta (1727-1779) in his
operas for Parma & Mannheim in the late 1750's & early 1760's
b) though both Jommelli & Traetta's reforms were not popular in Italy, they provided
models with opera seria for a more continuous dramatic flow and gave the
orchestra a more important role

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2. the distinction between opera seria and opera buffa was maintained throughout the
18th century - even while signs of change began to appear in serious opera - the
founder of 19th century serious opera was Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845)

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3. Opera semisera
a) a serious plot is leavened with Romantic scenery and sentiment, as in the lyric
opera of France
b) material was drawn increasingly from Romantic sources - Victor Hugo (Donizetti's
Lucrezia Borgia), Sir Walter Scott (Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Rossini's La
donna del lago)
c) influences of both Romanticism in general and French opera in particular appear
in this genre

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Italy

1. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

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a) style was particularly well suited to comic opera
b) developed - with the collaboration of his librettists - a very specific structure that
distributed throughout an act the action previously confined to dry recitative
dialogue
1: a continuous succession of orchestrally accompanied recitatives, solo arias,
duets, ensembles, and choruses all contribute to advancing the plot
1: a continuous succession of orchestrally accompanied recitatives, solo arias,
duets, ensembles, and choruses all contribute to advancing the plot
2: his style combines an inexhaustable flow of melody with snappy rhythms, clear
phraseology, and well shapped though sometimes unconventional structure of
the musical period

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Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)

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a) preferred drama of passion with fast gripping actions
b) his favorite librettist - Felice Romani - did not limit action to recitative passages but
built it into the arias and provided opportunities for lyrical moments within the
recitatives

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Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

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a) one of the most prolific Italian composers of the second quarter of the century
b) most enduring works were the serious operas - within which he was Verdi's
immediate forerunner

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Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

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a) his career constitutes practically the history of Italian music for the 50 years
following Donizetti
b) like his Italian predicessors (Rossini, Bellini, & Donizetti) he concentrated on the
human drama in opera - contrasting with the German emphasis on romanticized
nature & mythological symbolism
c) Verdi maintained a resolute independence in his own musical style and deplored
foreign influences - especially German - in the work of his younger compatriots
1: some of the early operas contain choruses that were politically inflammatory,
thinly disguised appeals to his compatriots struggling for national unity and
against foreign domination during the Risorgimento
2: by 1859 his name had become a patriotic symbol
d) Verdi's librettists adapted works by Romantic authors including Schiller, Victor
Hugo, Dumas the Younger, & Byron, Spanish dramatists, Shakespere, Arrigo
Boito, and the French Egyptologist A.F.F. Mariette (Aida)

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influences

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1: up to La battaglia di Legnano (1849) he cultivates a blunt and populist adaption
of the conventions of Rossini, Bellini, & Donizetti
2: culminating with La traviata (1853) he reaches new heights of dramatic
compression and intensity with subsequent operas becoming longer & more
expansive
3: culminating with Aida (1871) the influence of French Grand opera is strong

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music

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1: his middle style was marked by experimentation and the use of "reminiscence
motives" - themes and motives introduced earlier in the score
2: already common among other composers the reminiscence motive help to unify
the work both dramatically and musically

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France

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1. The French Revolution, the Napoleonic Empire, and the success of Gluck made Paris
the operatic capital of Europe during the 1st half of the 19th century
a) following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, the Bourbon monarchy was restored in
1815
1: musical life reawakened and new theater was built in 1821
2: the Bourbon family failed to gain support of the growing and powerful middle
class and in 1830, Louis-Philippe of the Orléans line on the throne as a
constitutional monarch in the bloodless "July Revolution"
2: the Bourbon family failed to gain support of the growing and powerful middle
class and in 1830, Louis-Philippe of the Orléans line on the throne as a
constitutional monarch in the bloodless "July Revolution"
b) the government continued to subsidize opera and concerts with the opera theater
leased to a businessman Louis Véron who found wealthy sponsors - anyone
could purchase tickets but the boxes rented at high prices
2. But with the change in political control and the comparative decline in royal
patronage change came to the French opera

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New Forms

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a) Gasparo Spontini (1774-1851) united the heroic character typical of the late Gluck
operas with the dramatic tension of the then popular rescue plot - resulted in a
new type of serious opera clothing the whole in a grand display of solo, choral,
and orchestral magnificence

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Grand Opera

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1: with the continued decline of royal patronage, this was designed to appeal to
the relatively uncultured audiences who thronged the opera theaters looking for
excitement and entertainment
2: leaders of this school were the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791-1861), the
composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), and the director of the Paris Opera
Theater Vèron
3: the French ideal of grand opera stayed alive to some extent throughout the 19th
century, influencing the work of Verdi and Wagner
4: it also still survives in 20th century works such as Darius Milhaud's Christophe
Colomb, Samuel Barber's Antony & Cleopatra, and John Corigliano's The
Ghosts of Versailles
5: Composers around 1830 most productive in the Grand Opera genre
i- Francois Auber (1782-1871)
ii- Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
iii- Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1862)

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Opera Comique

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1: pursued its course in France side by side with Grand Opera
i- used a spoken dialogue instead of the recitative of Grand opera
ii- less pretentious than Grand Opera, requiring fewer singers and players and
was written in a simpler musical idiom
iii- the plots - as a rule - presented straightforward comedy (comic type) or
semi-serious drama (romantic type) instead of the historical pageantry of
Grand Opera

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Composers of Opera Comique

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i- Francois Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
ii- Ferdinand Hérold (1791-1833)
iii- Daniel Francois Esprit Auber (1782-1871)

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Opera Bouffe

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1: another new genre - not to be confused with the 18th century Italian opera buffa
- emphasised the smart, witty, and satirical elements of comic opera
2: founder was Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) - works influenced the operettas
of W.S. Gilbert (librettist), Arthur Sullivan (composer 1842-1900), and Johann
Strauss the Younger (the Waltz King, eldest son of Johann Strauss I 1825
-1899)

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Symphonic Drama

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1: the connecting plot is considered familiar to all thereby permitting the composer
to choose only those scenes most suitable for musical treatment
2: Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
i- most important dramatic work Damnation de Faust is a symphonic drama
ii- his Les Troyens represents the Romantic consummation of the French
opera tradition descended from Lully, Rameau, and Gluck

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French Lyric Opera

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1: the romantic type of opéra comique developed into a genre that best be termed
Lyric Opera
i- lying somewhere between opèra comique and grand opera - larger than
opèra comique and smaller than grand opera
ii- main appeal is through melody, its subject matter is romantic drama or
fantasy

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Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

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i- his Carmen (Paris, 1875) became a landmark in the history of French opera
ii- a stark, realistic drama ending with a tragic murder was called comique -
indicated that the distinction between opera and opéra comique had
become a technicality
iii- his rejection of a sentimental or mythological plot signaled a small but
important move toward realism

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Composers

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i- Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896)
ii- Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

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Germany

Overview

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a) The interaction between music & literature - typical of 19th century Romanticism
developed most fully in Germany
b) Singspiel - at the root of German opera - soaked up Romantic elements from
French opera while keeping and intensifying its national features
1: illustrated by Undine (1816) by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) and Faust (1816)
by Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859)
2: established by Der Freischütz (1821) by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
c) French opéra comique was also popular in Germany between 1830 & 1850

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Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

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Principal music teachers were Michael Haydn (1739-1806) and Georg Joseph
Vogler (1749-1814), became director of the opera at Prague in 1813 & at Dresden
in 1816
b) His Der Freischütz exemplifies the characteristics of German Romantic opera
1: Plots are drawn from medieval history, legend, or fairy tale
2: involves supernatural beings and happens against a backdrop of wilderness &
mystery
3: scenes of humble village or country life are frequently introduced
4: supernatural incidents and the natural setting are not incidental/decorative, but
are intertwined with the fate of the human protagonists
5: mortal characters act not merely as individuals but as agents or representatives
of superhuman forces - whether good or evil
6: triumph of good is a form of salvation or redemption - a vaguely religious
concept of deliverance from sin and error through suffering, conversion, or
revelation
7: increasingly chromatic harmony, use of orchestral color for dramatic
expression, & an emphasis on the inner voices of the texture

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with such importance to physical and spiritual backgrounds, German opera differs
sharply from contemporary French & Italian opera

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1: musical styles and forms resemble those of other countries although the use of
simple folk like melodies introduces a distinctly German national element
2: with stress on inner voices of the texture it is in contrast with the Italian
emphasis on melody

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his Euryanthe is characterized by recurring themes - a device resembling the
cyclic themes of Liszt

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cyclic themes of Liszt
1: not a new device but used by 19th century composers
2: a radical departure though from the older convention in which the various
divisions of an opera or a symphony were thematically independent

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Richard Wagner (1813&1883) and The Music Drama

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a crucial figure in 19th century music - his significance is threefold
1: brought German opera to its consummation as Verdi did for Italian opera
2: created a new genre - the music drama
3: hastened the dissolution of tonality through the harmonic idiom of his late works
b) the Nazi movement in Germany appropriated Wagner's music as a symbol of the
best of German Aryan culture and Wagner wrote - in Judentum in der Musik -
appearing under a pseudonym in 1850 & under his name in 1869 - an anti-semitic
tract which added strength to an anti-semitic undercurrent in German culture
c) For Wagner, the function of music was to serve the ends of dramatic expression
and all of his important works are for the stage
1: he believed in the absolute oneness of drama & music - the two are organically
connected expressions of a single dramatic idea
2: Gesamtkunsterk - total art work of poetry, scenic design, staging, action, &
music working together
3: he considered the action of the drama to have an inner and outer aspect
i- orchestra conveys the inner aspect - with the vocal lines
ii- the words convey the outer aspects - events & situations that further the
action
ii- the words convey the outer aspects - events & situations that further the
action
d) involved in the political unrest in Germany during 1848-49 he emigrated to
Switzerland which became home for the next ten years
1: found time to formulate his theories about opera & publish them as a series of
essays (Oper und Drama 1851, revised 1868)
2: at the same time he was writing the poems of Der Ring des Nibelung - with the
music of Das Rheingold & Die Walküre - with part of Siegried - finished by 1857
- with the entire cycle finished in 1874 with Götterdämmerung

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The Leitmotif

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1: a musical theme or motive associated with a particular person, thing, emotion,
or idea in the drama
2: he achieved coherence within the continuity of the action and the music by this
means
i- significance of the leitmotif can be recognized from the words to which it is
first sung
ii- more than a musical label, it accumulates significance as it recurs in new
contexts
a- may recall an object in situations where the object itself is not present
b- may be varied, developed, or transformed as the plot develops
c- similar motives may suggest a connection between the objects to which
they refer
d- motive may be contrapuntally combined
e- by their repetition, may help unify a scene or an opera as recurrent
themes unify a symphony

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differs from reminiscence motif by Verdi, Weber and others

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i- they are short, concentrated, and intended to characterize their object a
various levels
ii- more important they are the basic musical material of the score - used
constantly with every step of the action
iii- serve as elements for forming melodies - replacing the four-square phrases
set off by caesuras & cadences of earlier composers
a- form the stuff of "musical prose" with which Wagner wanted to replace the
"poetic" rhythms of symmetrical phrases
b- the impression of endless melody results form the ongoing continuity of
line - unbroken by the stops & starts of Classical musical syntax

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Wagner's Influence

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1: Tristan und Isolde - the complex chromatic alterations of chords, constant
shifting of key, telescoping of resolutions, blurring of progressions by means of
suspensions and other non harmonic tones produced a ambiguous kind of
tonality that can be explained only partially in terms of the harmonic system of
the previous two centuries
2: his ideal of opera - with all elements working closely together - profoundly
influenced later composers

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Other Composers

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a) Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861) - his most important work Hans Heiling (1833)
derives from Weber and at the same time looks forward to Wagner
b) Albert Lortzing (1801-1851)
c) Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
d) Peter Cornelius (1824-1874) - Liszt's disciple