3. Teatro alla Fenice
(Venezia, Italia)
• opera was invented in
Italy around 1600
• first public opera
house in Venice 1637
Golden Age
of Opera:
1800-1850
4. Opera in the Romantic Era
The Roles of Opera
• new opera theaters erected all over western Europe
• Houses run for profit by an impresario (the opera house business manager)
• backed by government funding or private support
• attended by upper and middle classes
• opera throughout elite and popular culture
• excerpts and complete scores published, voice and piano
• performed in salons by amateurs at home
• selections transcribed for piano
• overtures and arias on concert programs
5. 19th Century Opera singers
◦ focus on Italian Bel Canto technique
◦ bel canto = beautiful singing in Italian
◦ Ornate and elegant operatic singing style of 19th
century Italy
◦ Embellished melodies
◦ Described as a “circus act” in the business
◦ Takes a lifetime to learn!
◦ Many musical elements are implied by tradition
(fermatas on high notes, rubato)
◦ Began with Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti
◦ Star Opera singers paid more than composers
◦ Female Stars – Jenny Lind, Pauline Viardot, and
many more!
Opera in the Romantic Era
6. The Bel Canto Diva
• Diva = goddess in Italian
• Superstars of European Opera
in the 19th Century
• Maria Malibran, Spanish
mezzo-soprano from the
famous Garcia family (brother
invented the laryngoscope)
• Pauline Viardot, sister of Maria
Malibran, also in the famous
Garcia family
• Jenny Lind, « The Swedish
Nightingale », famous Swedish
opera singer
Opera in the Romantic Era
7. • Opera orchestras, composers & Librettists
• French and German opera, orchestra increasingly significant,
Italian composers followed
• composer’s score starting point for a performance
• new operas major events; successful ones restaged, performed
numerous times
• by 1850, a permanent repertory of operas emerged, most still done
• subjects and settings
• strong plots, interesting characters, wide audience appeal
• subjects and settings varied widely
• distant lands, long-ago times had special attraction
• many adapted from recent literary works or literary masterpieces
• librettists addressed concerns of the broader audience (including the
middle class now!)
Opera in the Romantic Era
8. Nationalism
French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars: spread concept of a nation
unified group of people, national identity through shared
characteristics
intentionally created; social and political goals
nation and state
foundation for unification: common language, literature, music,
other arts
presence of national elements in opera
use of exoticism, evocation of a foreign land or culture
Opera in the Romantic Era
10. • Opera invented and popularized in
Italy
• more opera houses than any other
region
• forty or more new operas produced
every year
• dozens of composers wrote operas
• Classics of Italian opera
• Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti were
performed throughout Italy and
other nations
• most famous arias became popular
tunes
• by midcentury, these operas were
part of core repertory, staged
repeatedly
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
11. Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)
one of the most popular and influential
composers of his generation
• born in Pesaro, Italy
• 1806 entered Bologna Conservatory
• 1810, first opera commission
• 1815, musical director of Teatro San Carlo in
Naples
• 1824, director of Théâtre Italien in Paris
• retired at age forty, disappeared from operatic
scene
• major works: 39 operas, including Tancredi,
L’italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Otello,
La Cenerentola, Mosè in Egitto; Stabat mater,
Petite messe solennelle, other sacred vocal
works; smaller vocal and instrumental pieces
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
12. Rossini’s Operas
• best known today for his comic operas
• reputation during his lifetime rested on serious operas
• blended opera buffa and opera seria
• bel canto singing style (Beautiful Singing)
• elegant, effortless technique, agility, flexibility, control
• long lyrical lines, florid embellishment
• general style
• catchy melodies, snappy rhythms, clear phrases
• coloratura melodies, vocal display, expressivity, depiction of
character
• spare orchestration supports singers – all about the voice
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
13. ◦ Rossini’s The Barber of Seville/Il
Barbiere di Siviglia (1816)
◦ Premiered in Rome, Italy
◦ opera buffa with bel canto tradition
◦ chaotic plot: secret messages,
drunken brawls, mistaken identity
◦ Una voce poco fa
◦ Rosina’s entrance aria (cavatina)
◦ conveys character through changes of
style
◦ cantabile: appropriate to narration,
comic patter, elaborate
embellishments
◦ cabaletta: reveals Rosina’s true nature;
vocal leaps, rapid passage work
◦ masterful combination of bel canto
melody, wit, comic description
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
14. Rossini’s serious operas
• wider range in delineating characters, capturing
situations, conveying emotions
• Guillaume Tell (1829) (William Tell)
• written for the Paris Opéra; over 500 performances
during composer’s lifetime
• a new kind of tenor - Gilbert Duprez (1806–1896), high C
in full voice (chest voice), Guillaume Tell, Paris, 1837
• first time on operatic stage
• composers wrote for his type of voice
• timely theme of rebellion; subjected to censorship
• choruses, ensembles, dances, processions, atmospheric
instrumental interludes;
• founding example of French grand opera
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
15. Rossini’s Opera Overtures
• gems of the orchestral repertoire
• Guillaume Tell overture/William Tell Overture
• musical depiction of a storm
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
16. Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835)
• Born in Catania, Italy (Sicily)
• came to prominence after Rossini retired
• dramas of passion, fast, gripping action
• action built into arias; lyrical moments in recitatives
• long, sweeping, highly embellished, intensely
emotional melodies
• ten serious operas include:
◦ La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker, 1831)
◦ Norma (1831)
◦ “Casta diva” (“Chaste goddess”) from Norma, aria - cavatina
◦ subject reflected fascination with distant times, Italian
yearnings for freedom
◦ vocal line: constant motion, deeply expressive,
unpredictable
◦ follows Rossini’s scene pattern
◦ chorus plays important role, creates continuous action
◦ I puritani (The Puritans, 1835)
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
17. Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
◦ Major works: oratorios, cantatas, chamber and church music, 100
songs, several symphonies, 70 operas
◦ most enduring works:
◦ serious operas: Anna Bolena (Milan, 1830) Lucia di Lammermoor
(Naples, 1835)
◦ opéra comique: La fille du regiment (Paris, 1840) – French Comic Opera
◦ buffo operas: L’elisir d’amore (Milan, 1832), Don Pasquale (Paris 1843) –
Italian comic opera
◦ melodies capture character, situation, or feeling
◦ constantly moves drama forward, sustained dramatic tension
Lucia di Lammermoor (1835)
◦ based on novel by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
◦ set among Scottish highlands, culture fascinated Romantics
◦ “mad scene” in last act, unbroken flow of events, numerous
entrances and tempo changes
◦ flexible adaptation of Rossini’s scene structure; model for
Giuseppe Verdi
Early Romantic Italian Opera (Bel Canto)
19. French Grand Opera
◦ Opera remained most prestigious genre
throughout nineteenth century
◦ French opera under Napoleon
◦ since late seventeenth century, opera centered in
Paris, shaped by politics
◦ Napoleon restricted theaters, only three presented
operas
◦ the Opéra: focused on tragedy, most prestigious
◦ Opéra-Comique: operas with spoken dialogue,
many with serious plots
◦ Théâtre Italien: operas in Italian
◦ other Paris theaters featured variety of stage works
◦ defeat of Napoleon, monarchy restored
◦ government sponsorship for the Opéra continued;
1821, new theater built
◦ Théâtre Italien: operas by Rossini
21. ◦ Grand opera = serious opera,
sung throughout, with
spectacular staging, sets,
ballets and large choruses
◦ designed to appeal to newly
well-to-do middle class
◦ spectacle as important as
music
◦ librettos on romantic love,
context of historical conflicts
◦ ballets, stage machinery,
choruses, crowd scenes
◦ early examples: Rossini’s
Guillaume Tell
French Grand Opera
22. Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864)
• librettist and composer: leader of grand opera
• Robert le diable (Robert the Devil, 1831), Les
Huguenots (1836)
• defined new genre of grand opera, set pattern for
musical treatment
◦ Les Huguenots 1836
◦ five acts, enormous cast, ballet, dramatic scenery and
lighting effects
◦ St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572
◦ new view of history, influenced by 1789 and 1830
revolutions
◦ closing scene of Act II
◦ deep personal feelings with crowd scenes, public
ceremonies
◦ impact of grand opera
◦ Meyerbeer’s approach admired and emulated
◦ genre spread to Germany, London, and elsewhere
◦ profound influence on Richard Wagner
French Grand Opera
23. Berlioz, Les Troyens/The Trojans (1856–58)
◦ five-act opera, libretto by Berlioz based on Virgil’s Aeneid
◦ drew on grand opera and French opera tradition
◦ “epic opera”: story of a nation, passions of individual
characters
◦ 4 hours long!!!
◦ Cassandre - ’s aria
◦ Cassandre calls upon the Trojan women to join her in death, to
prevent being defiled by the invading Greeks. A group of women
unite with Cassandre to die. Greek soldiers come and Cassandre
defiantly mocks them, then suddenly stabs herself. The remaining
women scorn the Greeks and commit mass suicide.
French Grand Opera
24. ◦ Opéra comique
◦ spoken dialogue instead of recitative
◦ less pretentious than grand opera, fewer
singers and players
◦ Straight-forward comedy or serious drama
◦ Ballet
◦ Romantic ballet introduced by Marie
Taglioni (1804–1884)
◦ performed in Paris, London, St. Petersburg
◦ helped establish ballet tradition in Russia
◦ music composed after choreography
French Grand Opera
26. • Interaction between music and
literature developed fully
• Singspiel root of German opera
• elements from French opera
• intensified genre’s specific national
features
Semper Opera in Dresden, Germany
German Opera before Wagner
27. Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826)
• German Opera Composer
• Der Freischütz (The Free Shooter, first
performed in Berlin, 1821)
• established German Romantic opera
• plots drawn from medieval history, legend, fairy
tale
• supernatural incidents intertwined with human
protagonists
• triumph of good is form of salvation, redemption
• importance to physical and spiritual background
• musical styles and forms draw directly from
other countries
• folklike melodies, distinctly German element
• more equal role for the orchestra; use of
chromatic harmony, orchestral colors
German Opera before Wagner
28. Weber’s Der Freischütz 1821
• Wolf’s Glen Scene (finale of Act II)
• elements of melodrama,
spoken dialogue with
background music casting of
bullets exploits resources of
orchestra
• Setting by Carl Wilhelm
Holdermann for the Wolf’s Glen
Scene in Weber’s Der
Freischütz as performed at
Weimar in 1822. In the magic
circle, Caspar casts the magic
bullets, while Max looks around
with growing alarm at the
frightening apparitions aroused
by each bullet cast.
German Opera before Wagner
Hinweis der Redaktion
Carl Maria von Weber, in a portrait by Caroline Bardua. (UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES)
Setting by Carl Wilhelm Holdermann for the Wolf’s Glen Scene in Weber’s Der Freischütz as performed at Weimar in 1822. In the magic circle, Caspar casts the magic bullets, while Max looks around with growing alarm at the frightening apparitions aroused by each bullet cast. (STAATLICHE KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN, SCHLOSSMUSEUM, WEIMAR. PHOTO: LEBRECHT MUSIC & ARTS PHOTO LIBRARY)
