Dramatic Alternatives
Exoticism, Operetta, and Verismo
Stereotyping the Other:
“Orientalism”
• Product of colonialism
• Napoleon’s Egyptian campaigns (1798–99)
• The Orient as license for the enjoyment of
carnal fantasies
Stereotyping the Other:
“Orientalism”
• Félicien David (1810–76)
– Le Désert (The Desert) (1844)
• “Ode-Symphony”
Stereotyping the Other:
“Orientalism”
• Orientalism in Opera
– Félicien David, Lalla-Roukh (1862)
– Meyerbeer, L’Africaine (1865)
– Léo Delibes (1836–91), Lakmé (1883)
– Jules Massenet (1842–1912), Le roi de Lahore
(1877)
– Bizet, Les pêcheurs de perles (1863)
– Ambroise Thomas (1811–96), Le Caïd (1849)
– Camille Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila (1877)
Stereotyping the Other:
“Orientalism”
• Camille Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila (1877)
• Act III ballet, Bacchanale [Anthology 2-63]
• augmented seconds
• asymmetrical rhythmic pattern
Bizet’s Carmen (1875)
• Spanish gypsy, ethnic minority
• Act I, “Habanera” (Cuban import) [Anthology
2-64]
Russian Orientalism
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Stasov, “the Oriental element”
Glinka, Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842)
Balakirev, Tamara (1882)
Borodin, Prince Igor (1890); In Central Asia
(1880)
• Rimsky-Korsakov, Antar (1868); Scheherazade
(1888)
Russian Orientalism
• Borodin, Prince Igor (1890)
– Act II, “Polovtsian Dances” [Anthology 2-65]
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melodic undulations
chromatic pass from sixth scale degree to fifth
throbbing drumbeat
English horn as “snake-charmer’s” pipe
Gounod’s Opéra Lyrique
• Paris Théâtre Lyrique (opened 1851)
• Gounod, Faust (1859); Roméo et Juliette
(1867)
Jacques Offenbach and Opera About
Opera
• Jacques Offenbach (1819–80)
• Opéras comiques
– one-act farces, spoken dialogue and musical
numbers
• Opérettes (operetta) “little opera”
• Opéra bouffe
– full-evening works
• Librettist Ludovic Halévy (1834–1908)
Jacques Offenbach and Opera About
Opera
• Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in
the Underworld) (1858)
– Orpheus myth
– galop infernale (cancan)
• Les contes d’Hoffmann (The
Tales of Hoffmann)
Johann Strauss II
The Waltz King and Viennese Operetta
• Johann Strauss II (1825–99) “Waltz King”
• Imperial and Royal Music Director of the Court
Balls
• Die Fledermaus (The Bat, 1874)
– Act II dances [Anthology 2-66]
England’s Gilbert and Sullivan
• Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
– composer
• William S. Gilbert (1836–1911)
– librettist
• The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
–“patter song”
• Ruddigoe (1887)
–patter ensemble [Anthology 2-67]
Italian Verismo
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“Truthism”
Naturalistic depictions
Lower classes
Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945)
– Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry, 1890)
• Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919)
– Pagliacci (Clowns, 1892)
• “Vesti la giubba” [Anthology 2-68]
Innovation and Popularity
“Canon” versus “Repertory”
• Art vs. commerce
• Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
Giacomo Puccini’s Ascent
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Manon Lescaut (1893)
La bohème (1896)
Tosca (1900)
Madama Butterfly (1904–06)
– local color
• “The Star-Spangled Banner”
• Japanese folk songs
– “Un bel di” (“One fine day”) [Anthology 2-69]
Giacomo Puccini’s Ascent
• La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden
West, 1910)
• La rondine (The Swallow, 1917)
• Il tabarro (The Coat), Suor Angelica (Sister
Angelica), and Gianni Schicchi (1918)
• Turandot (premiered posthumously 1926)
– orientalism
– last Italian opera to enter the permanent
repertory