Unit 4: Opera

Question 1

Reason for Gluck and Operatic Reform

Answer 1

• late Baroque era: opera began to favour empty musical display over dramatic integrity
• overture little to do w/ work that followed
• lengthy ballets were a distraction
• stars of the day - singers - would substitute aria from different opera if they felt it would display their virtuosity more effectively
• Gluck’s goal: restore dramatic integrity to opera, (much like Monteverdi did before him: that the music should serve the poetry)

Question 2

Gluck and Operatic Reform

Answer 2

• restore chorus in opera: make it integral part of dramatic action
• minimize contrast b/t recirative and aria: arioso stye
• make overture organic part of score: use themes that would be heard later in opera
• reject empty display of virtuosity: favor “beautiful simplicity”

Question 3

What are examples of the Fluck and Operatic Reform?

Answer 3

• Orfeo ed Euridice
• Alcest
• Iphigénie en Aulide
• Iphigénie en Tauride

Question 4

opera buffa

Answer 4

• Italian comic opera
• sung throughout with no spoken dialogue
• down-to-earth characters, fast-paced plots, farce, sexual innuendo

Question 5

modified sonata form

Answer 5

• abbreviated sonata form
• exposition and recapitulation, no development
• developed 18th century

Question 6

terzetto

Answer 6

• Italian: “trio”

- musical number for three voices (characters)

Question 7

trouser role

Answer 7

• male character performed by soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto
• male castrati roles turned to trouser role in modern performance

Question 8

(overture)

Answer 8

• orchestral work preceding opera or oratorio
• frequently sonata form
• in 18th century: quoted themes heard later in opera

Question 9

(singspiel)

Answer 9

• German comic opera

- contains spoken dialogue