3. Earlier Opera vs. Romantic
Operation
• Before 1800
– A series of songs (arias
and duets)
– Thin plot lines
– Choruses and
instrumental music are
fillers, introductions, or
interludes
– During arias, action
stops
• After 1800
– Performers act as
characters in a tightly
knit plot
– Choruses and
instrumental music
integral to story
– Opera showcases not
only musical brilliance
but grand spectacle of
drama
4. Romantic Opera: Background
Information
• Opera was “grand.”
– Musical and “extra-musical” ideas of Romanticism
could be expressed fully.
– The libretto, staging, acting, costumes, sets, and
characters added to the expression of the
instrumental music.
– Audiences loved the spectacle.
– Opera performers were “stars.”
5. Some Important Romantic
Composers of Opera
• Italian
– Donizetti--operas in -
Italian and French
– Bellini--operas in Italian
and French
– Rossini--operas in Italian
and French, The Barber
of Seville, William Tell
– Verdi--an innovator in
Italian opera
– Puccini--settings in
foreign lands
• German
– von Weber--stage
effects and mysticism
– Wagner--music dramas
• French
– Offenbach--French
comic opera style,
operettas
– Bizet--cool reviews by
audiences and critics,
but later acclaimed
6. Subjects of Typical Romantic
Operas
• Beethoven--Fidelio--
heroism, love, death
• Von Weber--Der Freishcültz-
-magic, supernatural,
mysterious
• Verdi--La Traviata--love,
death, beauty
• Wagner--Die Walküre--hero,
supernatural, love
• Bizet--Carmen--common
man, love, death, exotic
cultures
• Puccini--Madama Butterfly
and Turandot--distant
lands, travel, exotic
cultures, love, death
8. Italian Romantic Opera:
Characteristics
• Italian = dominant language
• Bel canto style continues
• Opposing genres of opera seria and opera buffa still prevalent in Italy
• Verdi’s innovations--typical of period
– Sought to develop national style
– High quality librettos; arias grew out of plot and blended with action
– Plot and staging discouraged interruptions of mood and story for
applause
– Human, believable characters
– Instrumental passages integral to mood, highly expressive; not just
fillers
11. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
• Born in Busseto, Italy, where he studied music until age
18.
• Couldn’t play piano well enough to study at Milan
Conservatory, so studied privately.
• Composed more than 25 operas, many for Milan’s
famous opera house, La Scala.
• Was also a politician--appointed to Italian parliament and
elected to the senate.
• Established a home for retired opera singers.
12. Giuseppe Verdi(1813-1901)
• Music education funded by
prosperous merchant
• Married merchant’s
daughter
• Wife & two children died
• Gave up composing for a
year due to these tragedies,
failed opera
• Nebucco-story of
Nebuchadnezzar, relaunched
career
• Re-married, composed
opera in his eighties
13. Guiseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
• Verdi lived in an unmarried relationship with a woman; this is
reflected in the story of La Traviata (Pretty Woman).
• Verdi sought to reform cultural and political conventions through
his art and his activities.
– Advocated for the unification of Italy.
– Elected to the newly constituted Italian parliament in 1860.
• Other important compositions
– Operas Il Travatore, Rigoletto, Aïda, Otello, Falstaff
– Requiem--a Mass for the Dead
Verdi: Requiem, “Dies irae”
14. Verdi’s Requiem (Mass for the Dead)
• Monumental work, appropriate for stage
• Performing forces: large chorus, orchestra,
and soloists
• Intersection between opera and sacred
tradition: controversial to the Catholic Church
• 1868, began as tribute to Gioachino Rossini
15. • Completed after death of Alessandro Manzoli
(revered poet and humanist)
• 1874 premiere, one-year anniversary of
Manzoni’s death
• Instant popularity
across Europe
Verdi’s Requiem (Mass for the Dead)
17. Verismo
• After the Romanticism of Bellini
and others, Italian opera entered
a “realistic”(verismo) phase, with
true to life individuals and true
emotions expressed
• Strong emotional situations,
speed of action, and contrast with
plenty of opportunity for exciting,
lusty, ferocious melodies and
rhythms
18. Verismo
• A typical plot involves:
– X(soprano) and Y(tenor) have
a project in common. They
may or may not achieve it in
the fact of Z(mezzo or bass
antagonist). Paternal or
maternal type(W) may help
or interfere. X and Y are
forced to make a moral
choice which usually causes
their downfall.
19. Verdi
• Verdi’s ideas are of unswerving
fidelity to themes, certain
emotions, and morals (behavioral,
political, social, sexual)
• Glorifies honor, patriotism, and
father-daughter relationships
• Exhibits hatred of oppression,
inequality, and tyranny
• Through all, judges his characters
with understanding, compassion,
and indulgence
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
• Victor Hugo’s The King Is
Amused (Le roi s’amuse)
• Libretto by Francesco Piave
• Seduction and deceit, with
a tragic end
• Popular moment from Act
III:
– tenor aria, “La donna è
mobile”
– Duke’s aria, expresses
pleasure-seeking personality
– Knew it would be popular,
waited until opening night
to rehearse it
24. Ensemble Vocal Music in the
Nineteenth Century
• Ensemble and choral vocal music grew in
popularity
– social singing and concert performance
– secular ensemble song
• one-to-three singers to a part
• influenced American “barbershop quartet”
• part songs: secular choral pieces, three or four parts
• Large-scale choral genres
– mostly sacred: Mass, oratorio
– moved to concert hall
25. Romantic Composers
of Choral Music
• Schubert
• Berlioz
• Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn
• Clara and Robert Schumann
• Liszt
• Verdi
• Brahms