Music Weblog

Puccini's "Madama Butterfly"

Prior to the late 1800s, operas dealt primarily with mythical or historical events, monarchs or other famous people, or else broadly religious themes.  Beginning with Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in 1890, however, opera took on more “realistic” story lines.  Works by Puccini, Leoncavallo and others (see below) portrayed everyday people, oftentimes members of the lower classes, in sordid or violent situations that could just as easily turn to (or devolve from) passion and longing.  The music reflected this new way of looking at opera, with even more fluidity than the bel canto era evoked.  There continued a greater blurring of lines between standalone arias and the material that linked one “song” to another, although every composer had his own way of presenting that concept to the public.

Giacomo Puccini [1858–1924] is generally considered to be the king of verismo opera, more because of the immense popularity of his works rather than the strict adherence of his writing to verismo methodology.  Nonetheless, he did compose quite a few pieces that ably fit this mold.  These include La bohème, a story about starving artists who share a Parisian garret, La fanciulla del West, which describes the life of a female bar owner in the Wild West, and Madama Butterfly, the tale of an American sailor and the Japanese woman he takes as a concubine.  But Puccini also dealt with religious themes (Suor Angelica), mythology (Turandot), and famous personages (Tosca, a real-life opera singer), so he was not totally immersed in verismo stories—although his compositional style clearly exemplifies the era.

Other verismo composers include the aforementioned Ruggero Leoncavallo, whose I pagliacci—a one-act opera that portrays the tragic day in the life of a traveling drama troupe—is a masterpiece all out of proportion to its brevity, and Mascagni, who never seemed to match the popularity of his first opera (also a one-act work) with follow-on operas like Iris (set in Japan) or Parisina (a romance set in the Middle Ages).  The Italians dominated verismo, and the composers (along with their most notable compositions) include Francisco Cilea (Adriana Lecouvreur), Umberto Giordano (Andrea Chenier), Alfredo Catalani (La Wally), and a number of others.  The two French composers whose operas most closely exhibited verismo style—whether due to their use of characters, their musical formatting, or both—are Jules Massenet (Werther) and Gustave Charpentier (Louise).

Anna Netrebko as Lucia di Lammermoor **

The Italian term bel canto, which translates to “beautiful singing,” generally refers to a specific style and period in opera history.  Following the maturation of the operatic form during the Baroque era, Italian composers at the start of the 1800s began to write differently for the voice—notably longer and more fluid lines—and consequently expected singers to adopt techniques that would better fit the orchestration they were crafting.  This included abandoning any excessive vibrato and singing higher notes with a lighter tone.  The bel canto era saw the “heroic tenor” replace the castrato in the role of the virile young male.  Another development involved gradually doing away with keyboard-accompanied recitative in favor of full orchestration throughout the opera, thereby blurring the lines somewhat between showy arias and ensemble pieces (duets, trios, etc.) and the connecting bits that helped flesh out the story line.  The three major bel canto composers were Gioachino Rossini [1792–1868], Gaetano Donizetti [1797–1848], and Vincenzo Bellini [1801–1835].

Rossini wrote 39 operas and enjoyed more acclaim during his lifetime than any other opera composer of the era.  His two best-known operas are The Barber of Seville and Cinderella.  Oftentimes Rossini composed an overture to one opera, only to reuse it for another later on.  While most of his material was composed initially for Italian audiences, Rossini moved to Paris—the center of the opera world in the early nineteenth century—in 1824 and wrote his final three operas there.  His five-act grand opera William Tell—rarely heard these days except for its iconic overture—marked the end of his musical career at age 38.  He spent the remaining years of his life enjoying the tremendous wealth his operas had earned him.

Donizetti was an amazingly prolific composer, writing somewhere around 70 operas during his lifetime.  The number is open to interpretation primarily because some of his compositions were revised and then performed under different titles—and occasionally with different story lines as well, depending upon the whims of the censors in whichever city or kingdom he was preparing the production.  His most popular opera by far is Lucia di Lammermoor, and he composed a number of operas on historical characters that continue to remain popular with audiences worldwide.  These include Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia, and Maria Stuarda.

Bellini was a Sicilian whose life was cut short by an intestinal illness, but many music scholars consider the ten operas he composed to be the quintessential representation of the bel canto style.  His most famous works are Norma and La sonnambula, and he also composed one of the two major Romeo & Juliet operas in the repertoire (Gounod wrote the other); his was titled The Capulets and the Montagues.

** Photo courtesy Metropolitan Opera / Ken Howard

David Daniels in Handel's "Radamisto" **

The era of Baroque music is generally considered to include the period from 1600 to 1759; the latter date marks the death of G.F. Handel, considered by most experts to be the most important Baroque composer.  The operatic form existed prior to that period; however, Claudio Monteverdi is widely recognized to have made the transition from Renaissance to Baroque with the premiere of his first opera, L’Orfeo, in 1607.  Although he is credited with 18 operatic compositions, only three have survived intact.  Each of the three has continued to be performed on operatic stages worldwide.

The operatic genre began as a way to celebrate royal events, especially since the greatest patrons of the musical arts in those days were monarchs, but the form ultimately flourished on its own as a wealthier middle class arose that possessed some semblance of disposable income.  As form followed content, the broad appeal of Baroque operas created the need for public houses in which to showcase them, plus a cadre of professional singers and musicians to perform them.

The stories upon which Baroque operas were based were drawn largely from mythology.  Religious themes were frowned upon, much of that due to the influence of the Catholic Church in the countries where Baroque opera flourished, namely Italy and France.  The Italian “opera seria” style became dominant during the Baroque era—long arias (solo singing) with plenty of repeated phrases and full orchestra accompaniment were separated by stretches of nearly spoken recitative alongside harpsichord or piano accompaniment.  Opera seria was so popular that even a German composer like Handel wrote his operas to Italian librettos.  In many cases, the heroic roles were scored for the castrato voice.  These were male singers whose voices were the tonal equivalent of a female soprano, having either been castrated prior to the onset of puberty or else suffering some sort of endocrine imbalance to induce the same effect.  This practice remained legal in Italy until 1870.  However, the last starring role for a castrato singer was that of Armando in the opera Il Crociato in Egitto by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which debuted in Venice in 1824.

** Photo courtesy Santa Fe Opera / Ken Howard

The oratorio is a major musical composition where sacred religious themes are portrayed in highly dramatic fashion.  From a musical standpoint, the oratorio is closely related to the opera in that it involves a full orchestra, solo vocalists, and a chorus.  However, while opera combines the elements of music and dramatic action, oratorio is almost always a concert piece without scenery or acting and lacks any sort of interaction between characters.  Many oratorios were composed specifically for church-like settings or to commemorate a religious holiday or event.  As a general rule, Protestant composers told Bible stories while those of the Catholic persuasion dramatized the lives of saints.

The most famous composer of oratorios was Georg Friedrich Handel, a German-born musician who found his greatest success in England during the reign of the first two King Georges.  His best-known oratorio is Messiah, with its iconic “Hallelujah Chorus,” but he also composed oratorios on other Biblical theme—primarily Old Testament stories—including such titles as Samson, Joseph and his Brethren, Saul, Judas Maccabæus, and Esther.  Handel wrote 29 oratorios in all and also delved into non-religious subjects.  Two of his oratorios dealt with various stories about the mythical Hercules.

The Baroque period in general was a high point for the oratorio.  Some of Handel’s contemporaries who also contributed to this musical genre were Antonio Vivaldi (Judith Triumphant), J.S. Bach (The Christmas Oratorio), C.P.E. Bach (The Israelites in the Desert), and Joseph Haydn (The Creation).  Later composers who wrote at least one oratorio include Beethoven (Christ on the Mount of Olives), Mendelssohn (Elijah), and Berlioz (The Childhood of Christ).  In some of the heavily religious European monarchies, including various German duchies and Italian states, the Church oftentimes prohibited the staging of secular musical performances during the Easter season.  These edicts greatly broadened the public appeal and acceptance of the oratorio as entertainment.

Oratorios are usually comprised of four elements: overture, chorus, aria, and recitative.  The overture is solely instrumental in character and used to introduce the piece.  It may even contain some of the musical themes that appear later in the work.  Choruses are typically grand in nature and create a massive wall of sound to overwhelm the listener.  Arias are pieces sung by one or more of the soloists.  Recitative connects one part of an oratorio to another and usually involves spoken or semi-sung material that helps to flesh out the story being conveyed.

Classical music written for a small group of instruments is collectively known as chamber music.  This term came about because such compositions were intended for play in a salon or similar gathering place in one’s home.  The intimacy of the setting allows for individual instruments to take on much greater impact than if they were part of a larger ensemble, such as in an orchestra.

There are many different kinds of chamber music, although the genre remained relatively loosely defined as late as the Baroque period.  For example, many works written for keyboard—Bach’s Art of the Fugue is one such example—can just as easily be played by a string quartet.  In fact, many composers earned a pretty decent living by transcribing larger works (either their own or those of their colleagues; with permission, of course) such as symphonies or operas, for smaller groups.  The explosion in the popularity of chamber music can be laid directly to two events: the modernization of stringed instruments and the invention of the piano.  New ways of building violins, cellos, and stringed basses allowed them to impart a richer and more distinctive tone.  A simple thing such as the addition of a chin rest on violins and violas—the design is attributed to violinist and composer Louis Spohr—gave musicians greater freedom of movement and enabled them to play louder and with more expression.  The piano, with its dynamic personality and huge range of notes, stood in perfectly for orchestral parts of transcribed musical pieces.

The nearly endless possible combination of instruments to make up a chamber music ensemble are limited only by a composer’s imagination, although there are some basic configurations that form the standard repertoire.  A string trio is made up of a violin, a viola and a cello, while a string quartet adds a second violin.  String quintets, sextets and septets (five, six and seven instruments respectively) will double the viola, the cello, and also add a string bass.  A piano quintet usually refers to a string quartet plus piano; a clarinet quintet is a clarinet plus string quartet, and so on.

Rossini's Overture to "William Tell"

Used primarily as an introduction to an opera or ballet, the overture is the relatively short piece of music an orchestra performs prior to any action taking place on the stage.  The overture came into fashion in the mid-1600s, particularly thanks to the operatic compositions of Alessandro Scarlatti.  As with many musical forms, one saw a pattern emerge over the years that formalized its structure.  During the height of operatic composition in the 18th century, overtures were divided roughly into thirds and followed the convention of fast–slow–fast.  They usually began and ended in a major key, while the middle section was composed in a contrasting (oftentimes minor) key.

There are two primary types of overtures—symphonic and thematic.  The thematic type incorporates various themes and passages taken from the body of the work.  In opera, for example, one might hear echoes of a singer’s aria or a chorus in the overture.  In ballet, the composer may introduce a theme in the overture and return to it several times during the balance of the work.  The symphonic type can often stand alone as a concert piece, since its music is independent of any material that follows.  Most overtures for musical theater are thematic.

The composer Gioachino Rossini quite famously reused music from one opera to another, and slightly recasting one overture to be played again in front of a different opera was done several times during his career.  For example, the overture for Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra is the same piece that opens Il Barbiere di Siviglia.  While many composers employed the overture as a means of setting the mood for the audience—it is meant to be played prior to the raising of the curtain—others gave specific stage directions to provide some element of back story for the audience.  In some cases, the option of offering action during the overture is left to the vision of the director.