BAROQUE (1600-1750)
Elements of Opera
(drama that is sung to orchestral accompaniment)
(developed in Italy around 1600)
Fusion of music, acting, dance, costumes, &
scenery
1st musical theater
BROADWAY .. 1st Grease or HSM
…was HOLLYWOOD of the time
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• Characters & Plot revealed through song not
speech (some spoken word but very little)
• THE PLAYERS
• Solo Singers, 2nd soloist, chorus, dancers
• minor characters, stage director
• Conductor, instrumentalists
• Total numbers can range into the hundreds
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• Originally developed in courts as
stories for royals
• public houses opened with more
“real” stories.
• Libretto (the text) written by
librettist or dramatist then set to
music by composer
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• Can have serious and comic opera
• comic opera will have more spoken
parts for comedic timing
• 3-hour opera will have less text than
play because it takes longer to sing a
story
• opera actors must act & sing
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• Voice Ranges for opera more defined
• Coloratura soprano = high range, rapid scales and
trills
• Lyric soprano = high light voice, graceful & charming
• Dramatic Soprano = Full, Powerful , intense
• Lyric tenor = light bright voice
• Dramatic Tenor = powerful, heroic expression
• Basso Buffo = comic roles, rapid notes
• Basso Profondo = low range, powerful, great dignity
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BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
One to five acts like a play
May have defiant split
Or acts flow into one another
Two types of songs =
ARIA & RECITATIVE
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• ARIA = solo voice with orchestra
accompaniment
• slow long expressive melodies that depict
emotion
• RECITATIVE = (to Recite)
• song that moves story,
• words sung quickly often with less melodic
change on one or two notes
• more like monologue
• BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
• ENSEMBLE=Duets (anything more
than 1 main singer at a time)
• Opera Chorus =
• no main singer or vocal part
• but generates atmosphere
• or makes comments or the actions
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BAROQUE (elements of Opera)
OTHERS (besides the actors)
Hidden prompter who gives cues or lines
Plus orchestra pit musicians
Conductor who is glue
• Most Opera have instrumental Overture or
Prelude before drama begins
• Opera still sung in native tongue but DVD
today have subtitles
• Opera in the Baroque
• Was started by group of Italians CAMERATA
• The father of Astronomer Galileo (Vincenzo)
was a member of CAMERATA
• Group wanted to create new style based
around a new style of singing RECITATIVE
(style modeled after speech)
• Opera in the Baroque
• 1st preserved opera written for King of France
wedding
• 1st great opera by Monteverdi
• Both Based on Greek myth of Orpheus’s
decent into Hades to bring back beloved
Eurydice
• 1st public opera house in 1637 in Venice
• By 1700 , 17 public opera houses in Venice
• Opera spread across Europe but Venice is the
Hub
• Opera in the Baroque
• Rise of Virtuoso singers called CASTRATO
• Male singers who had been castrated before
puberty to sing soprano
• Combined power of male voice with female
range
• Usually done by impoverished parents hopeful
their child would be opera star
• Opera combined musical virtuosity,
extravagance, and spectacle to become the
perfect expression of the age
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
• Music Director of St. Mark’s in Venice
• wrote church and secular music
• 1st composer of Operatic
Masterpieces
• Wrote what is considered the 1st
great Opera
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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
LISTENING JOURNAL:
Monteverdi, Tu se’ morta from ORFEO
1st great opera based on Greek myth
Composed 1607 for aristocracy
Our piece is recitative from ACT II
Sung by Orpheus finds out beloved is dead
Mostly Homophonic texture with free time feel
Word painting (stars high notes death low notes)
• Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
• English composer
• Acclaimed as THE English composer of
his day
• Live short life died at 36
• Worked in Chapel Royal as organist
• Head composer for the King’s string
orchestra
• No other international ranked English
composer until the 20th century
• Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
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His only true opera in Dido & Aeneas
Ground Bass (bass ostinato)
repeated bass line pattern
pattern could be only 4 notes short
or 8 measures long
• Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
• LISTENING JOURNAL: Purcell, Dido’s Lament
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Written for students at a boarding school
Short only an hour with small orchestra
Based on Epic poem of Roman writer VIRGIL
Aeneas king of fallen Troy is seeking new land to
rebuild Troy
• stops in Carthage falls in love with Dido (Queen)
• witches trick Aeneas to resume search
• leaves Dido, as he leaves Dido sings lament and ends
opera with her suicide
• Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741)
• Born in Venice
• Father was famous violinist in the church
at St. Mark’s Cathedral
• Had red hair and became a priest
• Known as the “Red Priest”
• Become famous and influential violinist
• Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741)
• Plus known as a composer who worked
with Bach
• However, popularity waned before death
and died in poverty
• Wrote church music & operas
• Best remembered for over 450 concertos
• Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741)
• LISTENING JOURNAL: Vivaldi, La Primavera, from
The Four Seasons (Movement I)
• Concerto Form
• We listening to first movement (FAST section)
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a.Tutti, ritornello in home key
b. Solo
2.
a.Tutti, Ritornello fragment
b. Solo
3.
a.Tutti, ritornello fragment
b. Solo
4. Tuttie, ritornello in home key
• Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741)
• LISTENING JOURNAL: Vivaldi, La Primavera, from
The Four Seasons (Movement I - Spring)
• Program Music =
• instrument music associated with story, poem, idea,
scene
• Vivaldi’s piece each movement is associated with
each different season
• we are listening to 1st season ….Spring
• TRILL = an ornament consisting of the rapid
alternation of two tones that are a whole or half step
apart