Chapter 17:
Romantic Opera
Early Romantic
Opera
Key Terms
Early Romantic
opera
Italian opera
Bel canto opera
German Romantic
opera
Romantic Opera
Transcendence of artistic barriers
• Romantic era fused music & poetry (the Lied)
as well as music & literature (program music)
• Also committed to union of music & drama
19th century a golden age for opera
• In Germany, France, Italy, Bohemia, Russia
If music is the most profound of all arts –
• Composers must take the “message” seriously
• Opera subjects taken from highly regarded
novels (Scott, Dumas) & plays (Shakespeare)
Early Romantic Opera
Made its serious start in the 1820s
• After the Viennese Classical period ended
Comic opera remained popular at first
• Especially Italian operas of Rossini & Donizetti
In the 1820s tastes shifted to more
serious, even tragic operas
• French grand operas by Meyerbeer & Rossini
• Tragic Italian operas by Bellini & Donizetti
• German Romantic operas by Weber
Gioacchino Rossini
(1792-1868)
Best known for his opera buffa
• Crisp, elegant – style not far from Mozart
• Barber of Seville is his most famous work
Admired equally for his serious operas
• Set the style & form of Italian Romantic opera
• Called bel canto – glorifies beautiful singing
• Full of coloratura arias for virtuoso singers
Gave up opera entirely in 1829!
• After success of William Tell, a grand opera
Gaetano Donizetti
(1797-1848)
Dominated bel canto opera after Rossini
• Preferred simple, sentimental arias
• Lot of blood-and-thunder “action” music
Enormously prolific – more than 60 operas
Many tragic bel canto operas
• Most famous was Lucia di Lammermoor on
novel by Sir Walter Scott
Also wrote opera buffa
• Don Pasquale & L’elisir d’amore, for example
Vincenzo Bellini
(1801-1835)
Preferred serious, tragic bel canto operas
Wrote in a refined, elegant, melodic style
• Influenced Chopin’s nocturnes
• Verdi often expressed admiration for Bellini
• More “Romantic” sound than Rossini or
Donizetti
Norma is his most famous work
• Demands expressive singing, coloratura
fireworks, & great acting – all at the same time!
Carl Maria von Weber
(1786-1826)
Founder of German Romantic opera
Der Freischütz is his most famous work
• Has the quality of a German folktale or ballad
put to music
• Nature & the supernatural figure prominently
• Mix of spiritual Romantic arias, folk-song
hunters’ choruses, & devilish conjuration
• Orchestra plays a much more significant role in
establishing mood & telling the story