GRESHAM COLLEGE
2005
Operatic crises and reforms in
the 18th century
The path to Gluck’s Orfeo
A lecture by Roderick Swanston
François Raguenet 1702
A Comparison between the French and Italian Music
and Operas
Operas are the compositions that admit of the greatest
variety and extent……Our [French] operas are writ
much better than the Italian; they are regular, coherent
designs; and, if repeated without the music, they are as
entertaining as any of our other pieces that are purely
dramatick. Nothing can be more natural and lively than
their dialogues; the gods are made to speak with a
dignity suitable to their character; kings with all the
majesty their rank requires, and the nymphs and
shepherds with a softness and innocent mirth, peculiar
to the plains. Love, jealousie, anger, and the rest of the
passions, are touch’d with the greatest art and nicety.
Raguenet goes on to add
As the Italians are naturally more lively than the French, so are they
more sensible of the passions, and constantly express ‘em more
lively in all their productions. If a storm, or rage, is to be describ’d in a
symphony, their notes give us so natural an idea of it, that our souls
can hardly receive a stronger impression from the reality than they do
from the description; every thing is so brisk and piercing, so
impetuous and affecting, that the imagination, the senses, the soul,
and the body itself are all betray’d into a general transport; ‘tis
impossible not to be borne down with the rapidity of these
movements. A symphony of furies shakes the soul; it undermines
and overthrows it in spite of all; the violinist himself, whilst he is
performing it, is seiz’d with an unavoidable agony; he tortures his
violin; he racks his body’ he is no longer master of himself but is
agitated like one possessed with an irresistible motion
Handel
in
1726/7
Ariosti
Handel’s rival composers in the Royal Academy of Music
Bononcini
Da tempeste from Giulio Cesare
Handel 1724
Da tempeste (Cleopatra)
When the ship
Da tempeste il legno infranto,
se poi salvo giunge in porto,
non sa più che desiar.
Così il cor tra pene e pianto,
or che trova il suo conforto,
torna l’anima a bear.
Da tempeste &c
When the ship, broken by
the storms,Succeeds at
last in making it to port,
It no longer knows what
it desires. Thus the heart,
after torments and woes,
Once it has recovered its
solace, Is beside itself
with bliss. When the ship &
Engraving of Handel’s Giulio Cesare on stage
Faustina
Bordoni
Senesino
Pietro Metastasio
(1698-1782)
- wrote 27 drammi per musica
- most influential librettist of his,
perhaps any day
- student of Niccola Porpora he wrote his first dramma per musica in
1723
- 1730 succeeded Apostolo Zeno as
Imperial Court Poet in Vienna, where
he remained till his death
- he wrote the libretto of La Clemenza
di Tito in 1734
- he considered his libretti as plays
and as literature, and he roundly
denounced the growing operatic
abuses he perceived
- He disliked composers who treated
singers as though they were violinists
Letter to Francesco Giovanni
di Chastellux, 1766
The execution of a play is an extremely difficult undertaking in which all the arts participate;
and they, in order to assure the best possible success of their venture, appoint a dictator.
Does the music perhaps aspire this high office? It will occupy it on occasion, but in that case it
will slight the subject and the economy of the plot; will determine the moments of the
individuals’ entrances as well as the characters and the situations; will imagine the
decorations, invent the songs, and commission the poetry to furnish suitable verses. And if it
refuses to do all this, because of the many qualities necessary for the creation of a play, it
possesses only the science of sounds, it leaves the rule to that art which has them all and,
imitating the repentant Minucius in admitting that it cannot command, obeys. In other words, if
by the grace of its venerable patron it did not carry the name of fugitive slave, it could not
avoid being called a Republican rebel.
Cornelia - Act 1 Sc 2
Vidi io stessa, oh Dei! lo sposo,
Dagli amplessi miei rapito,
Esser vittima, tradito,
Do un' amico traditor.
Even as I, 0 gods, you beheld my spouse
Torn from my embraces,
And I the victim, betrayed
By a treacherous friend
Nel mirarmi in fin costretta
Domandar a te vendetta,
Puoi veder al vivo espresso
Quel dolor, che mi trafigge
Nel più tenere del cor.
Now you see me constrained
To beseech you for vengeance;
Most vividly may you see
What suffering pierces me
To the depths of my heart.
CH Graun - Cleopatra e Cesare
Cleopatra - Act 1 Sc 8
Tra le procelle assorto
Se resta il passeggiero,
Colpa non a il nocchiero,
Ma solo il vento, e il mar.
If in the midst of the tempest
The passenger is drowned,
The steersman is not to blame,
But only the gale and the sea.
Colpa non à, se il frutto
Perde l'agricoltore,
Ma il nembo, che sui fiore.
Lo venne a dissipar.
If the fruit is lost,
The farmer is not to blame,
But the squall that has come
To squander the blossom.
Niccolo
Jomelli
Jomelli Vologeso recitative
Berenice, dove sei? qual lugubre apparato di spavento e di lutto? Qual di tenebre e
d'ombre, regia dolente e fiera? forse qui di Fieste di rinuovan Ie cene? O langue iol giorno
fugitivo così, perché tra queste soglie funeste, oh Dio! trucidato mori I'idolo mio? ahimè!
Sogno o son desta? odo ... o parmi di udir ... la voce, il pianto del moribondo sposo. Ahi,
son pur
questi gemiti di chi langue, singulti di chi spira. E quella oscura caligine profonda che là
s'innalza e mostra non so qual simulacro agli occhi miei, quella, si quella, oh Dei! già la
ravviso, è del mio Vologeso l'ombra mesta e dolente ... ah barbaro tiranno, il mio sposo
uccidesti, io non m'inganno.
Berenice, where are you? What sombre display of terror and grief is this? What sorrowful and
cruel play of darkness and shadows? Are the Fieste banquets perhaps to be repeated here? Or
does the fleeting day end like this because on these fatal thresholds, O God, my idol was
slaughtered and died? Alas! Am I dreaming or waking? I hear... or seem to hear... the voice, the
tears of my dying husband. Ah, those are indeed the groans of one who is languishing, the sobs
of the dying. And this deep dark mist that rises there and shows I know not what illusion to my
eyes - that, yes that, O gods, I recognise. It is the mournful and grieving shadow of my Vologeso
... Ah, barbarous tyrant, you have killed my husband, I am not deceived.
Jomelli aria
Ombra che pallida
fai qui soggiorno.
Larva che squallida
mi giri intorno,
perché mi chiami?
Che vuoi da me?
Che giri? Se pace brami,
ombra infelice,
in Berenice pace non v'è.
Pale shadow
that tarries here,
bleak ghost
that circles round me,
why do you call me?
What do you want of me?
If you long for peace,
unhappy shade,
in Berenice there is no peace.
Traetta
Traetta - Antigona Act 2 - recit
Ombra cara (Antigona)
Ombra cara, amorosa, ah perchè
Mai Tu corri al tuo riposo, ed
io qui resto? Tu tranquilla
Godrai Nelle sedi beate, ove
non guinge Nè sdegno, nè dolor;
dove ricopre Ogni cura mortale
eterno oblio; Nè più rammenterai
Fra gli amplessi paterni
Il pianto mio Nè questo di dolor
soggiorno infesto. Ombra cara,
amorosa, ah, perchè mai Tu corri
al tuo riposo, ed io qui resto?
Dear, beloved shade
Dear beloved shade, ah, why
Do you hasten to your rest while
I remain here? You will enjoy peace
in those happy regions
Untouched by hatred and by pain;
Where every mortal care
Is covered in eternal oblivion;
And in the embrace of your ancestors
You will no longer remember
My lament Nor this abode full of
sorrow. Dear beloved shade, ah, why
Do you hasten to your rest while
I remain here
Traetta - Antigona Act 2 - aria
Io resto (Antigona)
Io resto sempre a piangere,
Dove mi guida ognor,
D’uno in un altro orror,
La cruda sorte.
E a terminar le lacrime
Pietosa al mio dolor,
Ahi, chè non giunge ancor
Per me la morte.
Io resto sempre &c.
I shall remain
I shall remain to weep forever
Where cruel destiny
Leads me ever on
To further horrors.
Why will not death
Show mercy to my sorrow
And come to me
To put an end to my tears?
I shall remain &c
Christoph Willibald
Gluck
(1714-1787)
- bn Germany
- 1732 studied Prague
University
- 1736 Vienna with
Prince Lobkowitz
- 1737-1745 in Italy
to study with Sammartini
- then directed opera in
Denmark & London
(1746- met Handel)
- 1752 Naples
- La Clemenza di Tito
- 1754 - appointed by
Empress Maria Theresa
opera Kapellmeister to
Viennese Court
Gluck’s Parnaso confuso
a performance at the Schönbrunn Palace
Painting of the first performance of Gluck’s
La Clemenza di Tito - in Teatro San Carlo, Naples 1752
Gluck/ MetastasioLa Clemenza di Tito
Vitellia’s aria at the end of Act 2
Tremo fra’ dubbi miei
Pavento i rai del giorno;
L’aure, che ascolto intorno,
Mi fanno palpitar.
Nascondermi vorrei,
Vorrei scoprir l’errore;
Nè di celarmi ho core,
Nè core ho di parlar
I tremble in my uncertainty;
I fear the daylight;
The breezes I hear around me
Make my heart beat fast.
I would hide away,
I would reveal the error;
But I lack courage either to hide
Or to speak out.
Gluck - La Clemenza di Tito – Act 2 Sc 6
Vitellia
Ah, taci,
Barbaro, e del tuo fallo
Non volermi accusar. Dove apprendesti
A secondar di cieca donna irata,
Un delirio d’amore? Ah, tu nascesti,
Crudel, per mia sventura.
Empio, se tun non eri, oggi di Tito
La destra stringere: leggi alla terra
Darei dal Campidoglio: ancor vantarmi
Innocente potrei. Per tua cagione
Son rea: perdo l’empero:
Non spero più conforto!
E Tito, ah scellerato! e Tito è morto.
Come, potesti, oh Dio!
Perfido traditor...
Ah, che la rea son io!
Sento gelarmi il cor,
Mancar mi sento.
Pria di tradir la fè,
Perchè, crudel, perchè...
Ah, che del fallo mio
Tardi mi pento
Ah, be silent,
Villain, and do not accuse me
Of your offence. Where did you learn
To indulge the crazed love
Of a woman blinded by anger? Ah, cruel man,
You were born to bring misfortune.
If it were not for you, villain, today I would be
Taking Titus’s hand: I would be giving laws
To the world from the Capitol: I would still be able
To boast of my innocence. Because of you
I am guilty: I have lost the Empire:
I can no longer hope for comfort!
And Titus, ah wicked man! and Titus is dead.
How could you, O God!
Faithless traitor..
Ah, I am the guilty one!
My heart turns to ice,
I feel faint.
Before betraying your word,
Why, cruel man, why...
Ah, too late I repent
Of my sin.
Gluck/ MetastasioLa Clemenza di Tito
Sesto’s aria- Act 2 Scene 14
Se mai senti spirarti
sul volto Lieve fiato
che lento s’aggiri
Di: son questi gli
estremi sospiri Del
mio fido, che muore
per me Al mio spirto
dal seno Disciolto
La memoria di tanti
martiri Sarà dolce
con questa mercè.
If ever you feel upon
your face A soft,
slowly drifting breath,
Say; this is the dying
breath Of my faithful
love, who dies for me
When my sould has left
my breast The memory of
so much torment Will be
sweet, with this reward.
Gluck on his reforms - from the preface to Alceste (1767/9)
"When I undertook to write the music for Alceste, I decided to rid it altogether of those
abuses which introduced either by the inappropriate vanity of the singers or an exaggerated
complaisance on the part of the composers, have long disgraced the Italian opera...........I
sought to restrict music to its true function, namely to serve the poetry by means of the
expression - and the situations which make up the plot - without interrupting the action or
diminishing its interest by useless and superfluous ornament. I thought it should do for the
poem what the vivid colours and the skilfully contrived contrasts of light and shade, which
serve to animate the figures without changing their outline, do for a correct and wellproportioned drawing. Accordingly, I did not wish to stop an actor in the greatest heat of
dialogue in order to let him wait for a dull ritournelle; nor did I want to interrupt a word on a
suitable vowel to let him display, in an extended passage, the agility of his fine voice......I
refused to let the singers glide rapidly over the second part of an aria, which may be the
most passionate and important one, to have them repeat four times the words of the first
part; or to end an aria when its full meaning has perhaps not yet been conveyed, in order to
give the singer a chance to show how capriciously he can vary a passage in diverse
manners
Gluck on his reforms
"By a stroke of luck the libretto was admirably suited to my intentions, its famous author having
constructed it according a new dramatic plan. He has replaced the flowery descriptions,
superfluous similes, and cold and sententious maxims by the language of the heart, by strong
passions, interesting situations, and a constantly changing spectacle”
"If one seeks the truth, one must change style according to the subject, the greatest beauties
of melody and harmony turning into faults and imperfections when they are out of context” Gluck letter to Duc de Bragance (1770) - Dedication of Paride ed Elena
"Whatever the composer's talent, he will compose nothing but mediocre music unless the post
inspires him with that enthusiasm without which all works of art remain weak and
dull........Always as simple and natural as I can make it, my music stives toward the utmost
expressiveness and seeks to reinforce the meaning of the underlying poetry. It is for this
reason that I do not use those trills, coloraturas, and cadences the Italians employ so
abundantly” - letter to Mercure de France (1773)
Gluck on expression
I believed that the voices, the instruments, all the
sounds, and even the silences, ought to have only
one aim, namely that of expression, and that the
union of music and words ought to be so intimate
that the poem would seem to be no less closely
patterned after the music than the music after the
poem.
Orfeo
production
1764, Paris
GRESHAM COLLEGE
2005
Operatic crises and reforms in
the 18th century
Thank you for coming
A lecture by Roderick Swanston