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CHAPTER 41
Music in the Age of Enlightenment:
Opera
• Enlightenment: a philosophical, scientific,
and political movement that dominated
eighteenth-century thought and ultimately
brought about the transition to a more
democratic society. Also called the Age of
Reason, the Enlightenment was characterized
by:
– scientific pursuit of truth and discovery of natural
laws.
– the extension of natural laws to the political realm,
including the notion that all persons are born free.
– faith in human reason rather than divine providence.
– the rise of Deism, a natural religion postulating that a
Creator had made the world, put it in motion, but left
it alone thereafter.
• Les philosophes: a group of French freethinkers
who espoused the principles of social justice,
equality, religious tolerance, and freedom of
speech. Among them were Denis Diderot, Voltaire,
and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Between 1751 and
1772, les philosophes compiled the twenty-eight
volume Encyclopédie, the most comprehensive
work of its kind to date.
• Jean-Jacque Rousseau: a leading Enlightenment
philosopher, he was also a composer and writer on
music. As well as providing the entries on music in
the Encyclopédie and compiling a Dictionnaire de
musique, Rousseau composed several works,
including the comic opera Le Devin du village.
Galant style: music of the eighteenth century that emphasized
grace, lightness in texture, and symmetrical melodic structures. The
galant ideal goes hand in hand with the Enlightenment values of
naturalness, clarity, and simplicity.
• The opera house in Dresden, built in 1719, became
one of the most important operatic centers in
eighteenth-century Europe, hiring some of the
most successful singers and composers in the
continent. Among them, opera composer Johann
Hasse.
• Faustina Bordoni: one of the great leading
sopranos (prima donnas) of the eighteenth century
and wife of composer Johann Hasse.
• Pietro Metastasio: principal librettist of
eighteenth-century opera seria. Although he often
collaborated with Hasse, his libretti were set nearly
four hundred times by other eighteenth-century
composers, including Handel, Gluck, and Mozart.
• When compared to its Baroque counterpart,
Enlightenment opera seria featured a reduced
number of characters and a simplified libretto.
Among its characteristics:
– a disguised allegorical praise of the ruler
– a lieto fine, or happy ending
– elaborate scenery, sometimes including animals on
stage
– Castrati sing the roles of young romantic leads, while
tenors and basses sing those of authoritative male
figures
– the music consists exclusively of simple recitative and
florid da capo arias which provided a display case for
virtuoso sopranos and castrati.
Coloratura: a florid figuration assigned to the soprano voice. The singers of
such passage work are called coloratura sopranos.
• Comic opera: a simpler, more direct type of
musical theater that made use of comic characters,
dealt with everyday social issues, and emphasized
values more in step with the middle class than
opera seria. Rather than only in Italian, comic
opera was sung in the local tongue. Arising in
several countries in Europe, comic opera went by
various names:
– Ballad opera in England
– Opera buffa in Italy
– Opéra comique in France
The Beggar's Opera
•
•
Ballad: a traditional, usually strophic, English song that tells a
story.
Ballad opera: a comic opera that makes use of re-texted ballads
(or other popular songs) and spoken dialogue rather than
recitative. John Gay's seminal The Beggar's Opera, produced in
London in 1728, was the first important ballad opera.
• Opera buffa: Italian comic opera, it featured a
wide spectrum of social classes, from peasants to
noblemen. Developed first as separate comic
scenes between the acts of an opera seria, opera
buffa usually included a comic bass and no castrati.
Unlike in an English ballad opera, the dialogue is
delivered in simple recitative.
• Intermezzo: a musical diversion between acts of an
opera or play.
• Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: composer of the
famous two-act intermezzo La serva padrona, the
best known opera buffa of the first half of the
eighteenth century.
• La Guerre des Bouffons: a war of words sparked
by the Parisian performance of Pergolesi's La serva
padrona in 1752. Social critics on either side of the
argument debated on what sort of opera was
appropriate for the French stage: The traditional
French court opera (tragédie lyrique) or the newer,
lighter Italian opera buffa?
• Opéra comique: similar to the Italian opera buffa, it
features characters from everyday life. While the
dialogue is sometimes spoken and other times sung
in simple recitative, the lyrical portions consist of
simple airs or popular melodies called vaudevilles.
• Chistoph Willibald Gluck: a native of Bohemia
(currently the Czech Republic), he worked in most
major cities in Europe until 1752, when he settled
in Vienna. There he directed the French opera and
dance company at the court of Empress Maria
Theresa. In 1762 Gluck and librettist Ranieri
Calzabigi teamed up to create a new type of opera
called "reform opera." The first such "reform opera"
was Orfeo et Euridice, based on the ever popular
myth of Orpheus.
• Reform opera: Gluck's new type of opera that
aimed at combining the best features of the Italian
and the French operatic traditions. Among its
characteristics:
– Reduced importance of elaborated, coloratura
singing
– Elimination of da capo arias in favor of strophic forms
– Extensive use of obbligato recitative (also called
accompanied recitative)
– Less distinction between recitatives and arias
– Fewer characters and simplified plot
– Increased importance of the chorus
– Dance assumes a dramatic role
– Increased importance of the orchestra