Opera

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Opera

By the end of the Baroque period opera had become very stylised and stilted, and many composers, particularly Handel, were writing the music to suit the needs of the singers rather than to really reflect the story. Gluck (1714–87), a composer who bridged the Baroque and Classical periods, was a critic of this approach. This was reflected in his operas where, as he said in the preface to his opera ‘Alceste’, the music should serve the story and reflect the drama and emotion of the text. He said that the overture should prepare the audience for what was to come, that the story should be more continuous and that the recitative and arias should mould together rather than be a ‘show-off trip’ for the soloist. Listen to an excerpt from his opera ‘Orfeo’, built around the same legend as Monteverdi’s work of the same name. Listen to the beautiful melodic line from the strings and the alto voice over the accompanying staccato strings with changes of tempo to reflect the words.

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As a result of his development of the operatic structure, Gluck is today regarded as the ‘father’ of modern opera.

Haydn, who wrote few operas, also wrote a version of ‘Orfeo’, rarely performed, reflecting the baroque style of opera rather than Gluck’s example. That work contained many coloratura arias which were beginning to fall out of fashion in the late 18th century. Mozart was the master of the opera during this period and wrote operas in all the styles of the day. Every opera he wrote had memorable arias for all types of voice. First of all listen to an example from an early work sung by a mezzo soprano and notice how similar in style the excerpt is to the Gluck aria above.

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Now listen to another example sung by a soprano from the opera, ‘The Marriage of Figaro’. Cherubino is confused, ‘I don’t know what I am feeling’. Notice how the music seems to reflect the confusion. The original language for all of these operas is Italian but to help you understand, these recordings are all in English.

Recitative continued to be used to tell the story, frequently using characters conversing with one another. Listen to this example, where five characters from the opera move the plot quickly onwards. Notice that a piano is used to accompany the recitative, an instrument which was beginning to take over from the traditional harpsichord.

(From the Scottish Opera production of 'Don Giovanni')

In almost all of Mozart’s operas he gives the leading male part to a baritone voice. Listen to an excerpt, ‘Non piu andrai’, ‘Here’s an end’ (to the life of a rover), an aria for baritone accompanied by the orchestra and continuing straight after the recitative just heard.

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Mozart uses all of the main types of voices as soloists and in ‘The Magic Flute’, a German-style opera with speech as well as all the other ingredients, the extremes of voices can be heard. The part of the Queen of the Night is played by a coloratura soprano, singing long, highly decorated, melismatic phrases which rise up to an octave higher than the top line of the treble stave. Listen to this excerpt.

Sarastro is the High Priest and has a bass voice. Listen to his aria ‘Within these hallowed dwellings’, where he sings of his temple, and listen for the homophonic chorus entries.

The Italian operatic shape, as in ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, was continued in Italy in the Romantic period by the great composers of the time, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini

(Papageno from the Scottish Opera production of 'The Magic Flute'. Photograph: Mark Hamilton).

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