Classical Opera Buffa

1
Classical Opera Buffa

• Vs
• Baroque Opera Seria

2
The Beginnings

• The Advent of Opera Buffa or Comic Opera, was
  one of the most important developments of the
  Classical Era.
• Developed to create a more flexible, realistic,
  natural vehicle for music expression.

3
The Demise of Opera Seria

• Baroque opera was heavily dependant on the Star
  system whereby the operas required frequent
  arias to keep the very popular (and highly paid)
  soloists and their audiences happy.
• Librettists were forced to create contrived
  plots in order to create situations where extreme
  emotions were plausible, in order to make room
  for more arias.
• The momentum of the story was constantly halted
  every time a new aria was sung
• Opera Serias mythological, overdramatic, and
  constantly interrupted stories were far from
  natural or realistic.

4
Jean-Jaques Rousseau

• In the early 1700s one of the top philosophers
  and writers of the age of Enlightenment,
  Jean-Jaques Rousseau lead a devastating attack on
  the aristocratic serious opera of the late
  Baroque.
• Rousseau believed that Baroque opera plots and
  Characters were as hopelessly artificial as their
  complicated music.
• He suggested that the only opera relevant to the
  humanist spirit of the Enlightenment was an opera
  that portrayed REAL people in REAL-LIFE
  situations.
• First Opera Buffa La Serva padrona (The Maid as
  Master, 1733) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was
  embraced by Rousseau and his followers, and
  spurred on the next generation of Opera.

5
A Comparison ChartSeria vs Buffa

• Opera Seria Opera Buffa
• Story from ancient history based on
  contemporary
  or mythology often plays or novels
• Characters ancient herores or often ordinary
  middle-lower
• nobility class folk
• Singers castrati, sopranos NO castrati, bass
  voice common
• tenors, few basses
• Musical recitative, aria recitative, arias,
  choruses
• Numbers choruses AND ensembles
• Acts four long operas two shorter operas
• At its best gripping, profound drama fast-paced,
  nonstop enter-
• powerful expression of tainment, pointed
  social
• emotions, timelessness commentary, realistic
  story
• of myth and characters

6
Conclusions about Opera Buffa

• Opera Buffa revolutionized the history of opera
  by
• The addition of ensembles in arias allow
  character interaction, the therefore the drama
  continues
• Greater strides towards realisim and dramatic
  continuity (REAL people in REAL situations)
• All this would be carried out further by the
  romantic composers (Chapter 17).