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Music 346. Music in Western Culture & Society II. Dr. James ParsonsPerspectives on Opera of the Classical Era

Vienna, Burgtheater, interior c 1830: theater where two of Mozarts operasLe nozze di Figaro (1782) and Cos fan tutte (1790) were first performed

One way of looking at and in turn

thinking about opera whatever itstime period is to try and determinethe relative importance a composer(and, by extension the librettist) hasgiven: (1) the purely musical; (2) thepurely dramatic; and (3) spectacle, by

which is meant such elements as stag-ing, scenery, costumes, lighting, anddancing. One could argue that theideal division of labor might be 33 and1/3 % for each component. As withmost ideals, however, such has never

been borne out in reality. In fact, it

would be possible to write the entirehistory of opera by charting the relativeimportance assigned to each element.To appreciate opera of the Classical era

one needs to know something about the sort of opera that came before it, that is opera of the Baroque.During the Baroque, by and large, the purely musical and specifically flashy virtuoso singing assumedthe greatest importance. (Remember the aria from the Bach cantata (No. 62) I played in class, Streite,siege, starker Held! [Fight, conquer, mighty hero!])

Yet starting with the Classical era, a growing number of people were becoming convinced that change wasneeded to put opera back on track; that is, to put it more in touch with the ideal balance between the threeconstituent parts that make up opera. To understand this, and in the hope of getting you to reflect onDonGiovanniin perhaps a more meaningful manner, I share with you in condensed format the views of

one of the most influential operatic composers of the Classical era, Christophe Willibald Gluck. Glucksviews are set forth in his well-known and often-cited dedication to his opera Alceste (1769) wherein hetells us the type of opera from which he is attempting to distance himself and that he most emphatically

will not compose. (For a full translation of Glucks operatic manifesto, see the Bonds textbook, page 342.)In reflecting on Mozarts opera, consider whetherDon Giovannicomplies with the various points, which,according to Gluck, make a good opera.

1. Most importantly, Gluck is seeking to rid opera of all those abuses, introduced into it either by themistaken vanity of singers or by the too great complaisance of composers, which have disfigured operaand made of the most splendid and most beautiful of spectacles the most ridiculous and wearisome.

2. Secondly, to restrict music to its true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by followingthe situations of the story.

3. To avoid the conventions of form associated with Baroque opera, namely the Baroque da capo aria,which in the hands of many an operatic singer had become little more than a pretense for show-stoppingvirtuoso display instead of furthering the plot. To that end, Gluck writes of his wish to avoid arresting anactor [i.e., a singer] in the greatest heat of dialogue in order to wait for a tiresome ritornello, nor to holdhim up in the middle of a word or a vowel favorable to his voice, nor to make display of the agility of hisfine voice in some long-drawn passage, nor to wait while the orchestra gives him time to recover his breathfor a cadenza. Gluck goes on to say, I did not think it my duty to pass quickly over the second section ofan aria of which the words are perhaps the most impassioned and important, in order to repeat regularlyfour times over those of the first part, and to finish the aria where its sense may perhaps not end for the

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convenience of the singer who wishes to show that he can capriciously vary a passage in a number ofguises; in short, I have sought to abolish all the abuses against which good sense and reason have longcried out in vain. Note here the emphasis on reason, one of the guiding precepts of the Enlightenment.

4. I have felt that the overture ought to apprise the spectators of the nature of the action that is to berepresented and to form, so to speak, its argument. (Note, in Mozarts Don Giovannithe opening strains

Mozart, age fourteen, oil painting by Saverio della Rosa, Verona, 6-7January 1770

of the overture return at the operasdramatic highpoint, in Act 2, when thefuneral statue of the Commandatore appearsat the banquet.)

5. Again in contrast to the prevailing style ofBaroque opera, Gluck writes: I believedthat my greatest labor should be devoted toseeking a beautiful simplicity, and I haveavoided making displays of difficulty at theexpense of [dramatic] clearness; nor did I

judge it desirable to discover novelties if itwas not naturally suggested by the situation

and the expression; and there is no rulewhich I have not thought it right to set asidewillingly for the sake of an intended effect.

6. Lastly, Gluck reveals: By good fortunemy designs were wonderfully furthered bythe libretto, in which the celebrated author,[i.e., the librettist or author of the purelydramatic text forAlceste, namely Ranieri deCalzabigi] devising a new dramatic scheme,for florid descriptions, unnatural paragons,and sententious, cold morality, hadsubstituted heartfelt language, strong

passions, interesting situations and anendlessly varied spectacle.