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Baroque Opera
©2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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•Use
of arts to celebrate the
Church and to support
those in political power
•Grand churches and
palaces richly decorated
with ornamentation
•Ornamentation reflected in
visual arts
•Laborers created buildings
and art for the Church and
ruling class
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Purposes/Performers
Music composed for
and performed for or
by aristocracy
Music for aristocracy
performed in homes
and in public
Songs and dances
also performed in
alehouses and streets
for average citizens
Characteristics
Constant motion
Use of ornaments
(melodic
decoration)
Use of contrasts
(loud then quiet
phrase)
Songs performed
by average citizens
not written down
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•Began
in Italy, circa 1600
•Florentine camerata (society
of scholars and musicians)
•Added melodies to Greek
dramas
•Emphasized clarity of text
•Rhythm followed textual
accents
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Basso continuo (also called
continuo)
Monody
• Solo singer
• Accompaniment
• Homophonic texture
• Accompanied monody
• Bass instrument (cello or
bassoon) + chordal
instrument (lute,
harpsichord, or organ)
• Figured bass – bass line
with numbers indicating
harmonies for chordal
instrument to improvise
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Usually limited
accompaniment
More lyrical than
recitative
Melodies were more
distinct and
expressive than
recitative
Aria
Rhythm flexible,
based on text
Arioso
Recitative
Speech-like, served
as dialogue
Early operas were
mainly recitatives
Expansion of arioso
style
Song-like, focus of
operas
Can stand alone
outside of the opera
In da capo arias (ABA
form) singers
embellish the repeat
of the A section
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Opera Chorus
• Included to represent
groups of people
• Often homophonic
texture so that audience
can understand text
• Repetition of text by
opera chorus was
common
Opera Firsts
• Jacopo Peri
• Eurydice (circa 1600)
• earliest surviving
opera from the
camerata
• almost entirely
recitative
• Francesca Caccini
• first known female
opera composer
• La Liberazione di
Ruggerio first opera to
be performed outside
of Italy
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•Life
spanned from Renaissance
into baroque (1567-1643)
•Composed madrigals and
opera
•First master of opera
•Opera Orfeo (1607) introduced
opera as a major art form
including:
•Costumes
•Staging and lighting
•40 instrumentalists, chorus, dancers
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•Based
Listening Guide
Excerpt
from CD 3, track
15, p. 72
on Greek legend of Orpheus
•The libretto (literally, “book” or the text)
changed from original legend to operatic
version to provide happy ending
•Homophonic texture
•Tenor soloist with continuo
•Non-metric recitative from opera
•Listen to the ending of this recitative sung
by Orfeo he descends to the underworld to
find his wife:
Text Translation
Farewell earth, farewell heaven and sun,
farewell.
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•Italy
•Originally for aristocracy
•Public opera houses by
1637
•Entertainment for middle
classes and nobility
•Across
Europe
•Opera
spread
•Works composed and
performed in vernacular and
in Italian
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•Composed
sacred and secular
music
•Composed vocal and
instrumental works
•Organist at Westminster Abbey
and Chapel Royal
•Composed funeral music for
Queen Mary
•Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
considered first English opera
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•Adapted
from Virgil's Aeneid
•Operatic
recitative and aria
•Homophonic texture
•Solo soprano with string
accompanmiment
•The aria employs a five-measure
ground bass (repeating bass melody)
•Listen
Listening Guide
Excerpt
from CD 1, track 4,
pp. 73-74
to the ground bass and the first
iteration of sections A and B of this aria
sung just before Dido’s death:
When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs
create no trouble, no trouble in thy breast.
Remember me, remember me, but ah! Forget
my fate.
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•George
Frederic Handel
Italian-style opera in
England
•
•Jean-Baptiste
Lully
•French
opera
•simple arias, similar to
recitatives
•use of dances and chorus
Handel
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