What is opera in music, or a short excursion into the opera. How does the opera begin?

OPERA
drama or comedy set to music. Dramatic texts in opera are sung; singing and stage action are almost always accompanied by instrumental (usually orchestral) accompaniment. Many operas are also characterized by the presence of orchestral interludes (introductions, conclusions, intervals, etc.) and plot breaks filled with ballet scenes. Opera was born as an aristocratic pastime, but soon became an entertainment for the general public. The first public opera house was opened in Venice in 1673, only four decades after the genre itself was born. Then the opera rapidly spread throughout Europe. As a public entertainment, it reached its highest development in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout its history, opera has had a powerful influence on other musical genres. The symphony grew out of an instrumental introduction to Italian operas of the 18th century. The virtuoso passages and cadenzas of the piano concerto are largely the result of an attempt to reflect operatic-vocal virtuosity in texture. keyboard instrument. In the 19th century the harmonic and orchestral writing of R. Wagner, created by him for the grandiose "musical drama", determined the further development of a number of musical forms, and even in the 20th century. many musicians considered the release from the influence of Wagner as the mainstream of the movement towards new music.
opera form. In so-called. in grand opera, the most widespread form of the opera genre today, the entire text is sung. In comic opera, singing usually alternates with conversational scenes. The name "comic opera" (opra comique in France, opera buffa in Italy, Singspiel in Germany) is largely conditional, because not all works of this type have a comic content ( feature"comic opera" - the presence of spoken dialogues). A kind of light, sentimental comic opera, which became widespread in Paris and Vienna, began to be called an operetta; in America it is called a musical comedy. Plays with music (musicals) that have gained fame on Broadway are usually more serious in content than European operettas. All these varieties of opera are based on the belief that music, and especially singing, enhance the dramatic expressiveness of the text. True, at times other elements played in the opera no less important role. Thus, in the French opera of certain periods (and in Russian opera in the 19th century), dance and the spectacular side acquired very significant significance; German authors often considered the orchestral part not as an accompaniment, but as an equivalent vocal part. But throughout the history of opera, singing still played a dominant role. If the singers are leading in an operatic performance, then the orchestral part forms the frame, the foundation of the action, moves it forward and prepares the audience for future events. The orchestra supports the singers, emphasizes the climaxes, fills in the gaps in the libretto or moments of scene change with its sound, and finally performs at the conclusion of the opera when the curtain falls. Most operas have instrumental introductions to help set the listener's perception. In the 17-19 centuries. such an introduction was called an overture. Overtures were laconic and independent concert pieces, thematically unrelated to the opera and therefore easily replaced. For example, Rossini's overture to the tragedy Aurelian in Palmyra later turned into an overture to the comedy The Barber of Seville. But in the second half of the 19th century. composers began to exert a much greater influence on the unity of mood and the thematic connection between the overture and the opera. A form of introduction (Vorspiel) arose, which, for example, in Wagner's later musical dramas, includes the main themes (leitmotifs) of the opera and directly puts into action. The form of the "stand-alone" operatic overture declined, and by the time of Puccini's Tosca (1900), the overture could be replaced by just a few opening chords. In a number of operas of the 20th century. there are no musical preparations at all for stage action. So, the operatic action develops inside the orchestral frame. But since the essence of opera is singing, the highest moments of drama are reflected in the completed forms of the aria, duet and other conventional forms where music comes to the fore. An aria is like a monologue, a duet is like a dialogue; in a trio, the conflicting feelings of one of the characters towards the other two participants are usually embodied. With further complication, various ensemble forms arise - such as the quartet in Verdi's Rigoletto or the sextet in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The introduction of such forms usually stops the action in order to make room for the development of one (or several) emotions. Only a group of singers, united in an ensemble, can express several points of view on ongoing events at once. Sometimes the choir acts as a commentator on the actions of opera heroes. In general, the text in opera choirs is pronounced relatively slowly, phrases are often repeated to make the content understandable to the listener. The arias themselves do not constitute an opera. In the classical type of opera, the main means of conveying the plot to the public and developing the action is recitative: fast melodic recitation in free meter, supported by simple chords and based on natural speech intonations. In comic operas, recitative is often replaced by dialogue. The recitative may seem boring to listeners who do not understand the meaning of the spoken text, but it is often indispensable in the content structure of the opera. Not all operas can draw a clear line between recitative and aria. Wagner, for example, abandoned complete vocal forms in order to continuously develop musical action. This innovation was picked up, with various modifications, by a number of composers. On Russian soil, the idea of ​​a continuous "musical drama" was, independently of Wagner, first tested by A. S. Dargomyzhsky in "The Stone Guest" and M. P. Mussorgsky in "The Marriage" - they called this form "conversational opera", opera dialogue.
Opera as drama. The dramatic content of the opera is embodied not only in the libretto, but also in the music itself. The creators of the opera genre called their works dramma per musica - "drama expressed in music." An opera is more than a play with interpolated songs and dances. The dramatic play is self-sufficient; opera without music is only part of the dramatic unity. This applies even to operas with spoken scenes. In works of this type - for example, in Manon Lesko J. Massenet - musical numbers still retain a key role. It is extremely rare for an opera libretto to be staged as a dramatic piece. Although the content of the drama is expressed in words and there are characteristic stage devices, nevertheless, without music, something important is lost - something that can only be expressed by music. For the same reason, only rarely can dramatic plays be used as a libretto, without first reducing the number of characters, simplifying the plot and main characters. It is necessary to leave room for the music to breathe, it must be repeated, form orchestral episodes, change mood and color depending on dramatic situations. And since singing still makes it difficult to understand the meaning of words, the text of the libretto must be so clear that it can be perceived when singing. In this way, the opera subordinates to itself the lexical richness and polished form of a good dramatic play, but compensates for this damage with the possibilities of its own language, which appeals directly to the feelings of the listeners. So, the literary source of Madama Butterfly Puccini - D. Belasco's play about a geisha and an American naval officer is hopelessly outdated, and the tragedy of love and betrayal expressed in Puccini's music has not faded with time. When composing opera music most composers observed some conventions. For example, the use of high registers of voices or instruments meant "passion", dissonant harmonies expressed "fear". Such conventions were not arbitrary: people generally raise their voices when they are excited, and the physical sensation of fear is disharmonious. But experienced opera composers used more subtle means to express dramatic content in music. The melodic line had to organically correspond to the words on which it fell; harmonic writing had to reflect the ebb and flow of emotion. It was necessary to create different rhythmic models for impetuous declamatory scenes, solemn ensembles, love duets and arias. The expressive possibilities of the orchestra, including timbres and other characteristics associated with various instruments, were also placed at the service of dramatic goals. However, dramatic expressiveness is not the only function of music in opera. The opera composer solves two contradictory tasks: to express the content of the drama and to give pleasure to the listeners. According to the first task, music serves the drama; according to the second, music is self-sufficient. Many great opera composers - Gluck, Wagner, Mussorgsky, R. Strauss, Puccini, Debussy, Berg - emphasized the expressive, dramatic beginning in the opera. From other authors, the opera acquired a more poetic, restrained, chamber look. Their art is marked by the subtlety of halftones and is less dependent on changes in public tastes. Lyric composers are loved by singers, because, although an opera singer must be an actor to a certain extent, his main task is purely musical: he must accurately reproduce the musical text, give the sound the necessary color, and phrasing beautifully. Lyric authors include the Neapolitans of the 18th century, Handel, Haydn, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Weber, Gounod, Massenet, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Few authors have achieved an almost absolute balance of dramatic and lyrical elements, among them - Monteverdi, Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Janacek and Britten.
operatic repertoire. The traditional operatic repertoire consists mainly of works from the 19th century. and a number of operas of the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Romanticism, with its attraction to sublime deeds and distant countries contributed to the development of operatic creativity throughout Europe; the growth of the middle class led to the penetration into the operatic language folk elements and provided the opera with a large and appreciative audience. The traditional repertoire tends to reduce the entire genre diversity of opera to two very capacious categories - "tragedy" and "comedy". The first is usually presented wider than the second. The basis of the repertoire today is Italian and German operas, especially "tragedies". In the field of "comedy", Italian opera predominates, or at least in Italian(for example, Mozart's operas). There are few French operas in the traditional repertoire, and they are usually performed in the manner of the Italians. Several Russian and Czech operas occupy their place in the repertoire, almost always performed in translation. In general, major opera troupes adhere to the tradition of performing works in the original language. The main regulator of the repertoire is popularity and fashion. A certain role is played by the prevalence and cultivation of certain types of voices, although some operas (like Verdi's Aida) are often performed without regard to whether the necessary voices are available or not (the latter is more common). In an era when operas with virtuoso coloratura parts and allegorical plots went out of fashion, few people cared about the appropriate style of their production. Handel's operas, for example, were neglected until the famous singer Joan Sutherland and others began to perform them. And the point here is not only in the "new" audience, which discovered the beauty of these operas, but also in the appearance of a large number of singers with a high vocal culture who can cope with sophisticated opera parts. In the same way, the revival of the work of Cherubini and Bellini was inspired by the brilliant performances of their operas and the discovery of the "novelty" of old works. The composers of the early baroque, especially Monteverdi, but also Peri and Scarlatti, were likewise brought out of oblivion. All such revivals require commentary editions, especially the works of 17th-century authors, on whose instrumentation and dynamic principles we do not have exact information. Endless repetitions in the so-called. da capo arias in the operas of the Neapolitan school and in Handel are quite tedious in our time - the time of digests. The modern listener is hardly able to share the passion of the listeners even of the French Grand Opera of the 19th century. (Rossini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Halevi) to entertainment that took the whole evening (for example, the full score of Fernando Cortes Spontini's opera lasts 5 hours, not counting intermissions). It is not uncommon for dark places in the score and its dimensions to tempt the conductor or stage director to cut, rearrange numbers, insert and even insert new pieces, often so clumsily that only a distant relative of the work that appears in the program appears before the public.
Singers. According to the range of voices, opera singers are usually divided into six types. Three female types of voices, from high to low - soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (the latter is rare these days); three men's - tenor, baritone, bass. Within each type, there may be several subspecies, depending on the quality of the voice and the style of singing. The lyric-coloratura soprano has a light and extremely mobile voice; such singers can perform virtuoso passages, fast scales, trills and other ornaments. Lyric-dramatic (lirico spinto) soprano - a voice of great brightness and beauty. The timbre of the dramatic soprano is rich and strong. The distinction between lyrical and dramatic voices also applies to tenors. There are two main types of basses: "singing bass" (basso cantante) for "serious" parts and comic (basso buffo). Gradually, the rules for choosing a singing timbre for a certain role were formed. The parts of the main characters and heroines were usually entrusted to tenors and sopranos. In general, the older and more experienced the character, the lower his voice should be. An innocent young girl - for example, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto - is a lyric soprano, and the treacherous seductress Delilah in Saint-Saens' opera Samson et Delilah is a mezzo-soprano. The part of Figaro, the energetic and witty hero of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Rossini's The Barber of Seville, was written by both composers for baritone, although as the part of the protagonist, the part of Figaro should have been intended for the first tenor. Parts of peasants, wizards, people of mature age, rulers and old people were usually created for bass-baritones (for example, Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera) or basses (Boris Godunov for Mussorgsky). Changes in public tastes played a certain role in shaping operatic vocal styles. The technique of sound production, the technique of vibrato ("sobbing") have changed over the centuries. J. Peri (1561-1633), singer and author of the earliest partially preserved opera (Daphne), supposedly sang in the so-called white voice - in a relatively even, unchanging style, with little or no vibrato - in accordance with the interpretation of the voice as an instrument that was in vogue until the end of the Renaissance. During the 18th century the cult of the virtuoso singer developed - first in Naples, then throughout Europe. At that time, the part of the protagonist in the opera was performed by a male soprano - castrato, that is, a timbre, the natural change of which was stopped by castration. Singers-castrati brought the range and mobility of their voices to the limits of what was possible. Opera stars such as castrato Farinelli (C. Broschi, 1705-1782), whose soprano, according to stories, surpassed the sound of a trumpet in strength, or the mezzo-soprano F. Bordoni, about whom they said that she could pull the sound longer than all the singers in the world, completely subordinated to their mastery those composers whose music they performed. Some of them themselves composed operas and directed opera companies (Farinelli). It was taken for granted that the singers decorate the melodies composed by the composer with their own improvised ornaments, regardless of whether such decorations fit the opera's plot situation or not. The owner of any type of voice must be trained in the performance of fast passages and trills. In Rossini's operas, for example, the tenor must master the coloratura technique as well as the soprano. The revival of such art in the 20th century. allowed to give new life to the diverse operatic work of Rossini. Only one singing style of the 18th century. almost unchanged to this day - the style of comic bass, because simple effects and rapid chatter leaves little room for individual interpretations, musical or stage; perhaps, the areal comedies of D. Pergolesi (1749-1801) are performed today no less than 200 years ago. The talkative, quick-tempered old man is a highly revered figure in the operatic tradition, a favorite role for basses prone to vocal clowning. Pure, shimmering with all colors bel canto singing style ( bel canto), so beloved by Mozart, Rossini and other opera composers of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, in the second half of the 19th century. gradually gave way to a more powerful and dramatic style of singing. The development of modern harmonic and orchestral writing gradually changed the function of the orchestra in opera, from being an accompanist to being a protagonist, and consequently the singers needed to sing louder so that their voices were not drowned out by the instruments. This trend originated in Germany, but has influenced all of European opera, including Italian. The German "heroic tenor" (Heldentenor) is clearly generated by the need for a voice capable of engaging in a duel with the Wagner orchestra. Verdi's later compositions and the operas of his followers call for "strong" (di forza) tenors and energetic dramatic (spinto) sopranos. The demands of romantic opera sometimes even lead to interpretations that seem to run counter to the intentions expressed by the composer himself. So, R. Strauss thought of Salome in his opera of the same name as "a 16-year-old girl with the voice of Isolde." However, the instrumentation of the opera is so dense that mature matron singers are needed to perform the main part. Among the legendary opera stars of the past are E. Caruso (1873-1921, perhaps the most popular singer in history), J. Farrar (1882-1967, who was always followed by a retinue of admirers in New York), F.I. Chaliapin (1873 -1938, powerful bass, master of Russian realism), K. Flagstad (1895-1962, heroic soprano from Norway) and many others. In the next generation, they were replaced by M. Callas (1923-1977), B. Nilson (b. 1918), R. Tebaldi (b. 1922), J. Sutherland (b. 1926), L. Price (b. 1927) ), B. Sills (b. 1929), C. Bartoli (1966), R. Tucker (1913-1975), T. Gobbi (1913-1984), F. Corelli (b. 1921), C. Siepi (b. . 1923), J. Vickers (b. 1926), L. Pavarotti (b. 1935), S. Milnes (b. 1935), P. Domingo (b. 1941), J. Carreras (b. 1946).
Opera theatres. Some buildings of opera houses are associated with a certain type of opera, and in some cases, indeed, the architecture of the theater was due to one or another type of opera performance. Thus, the Parisian "Opera" (the name "Grand Opera" was fixed in Russia) was intended for a bright spectacle long before its current building was built in 1862-1874 (architect Ch. Garnier): the staircase and foyer of the palace were designed as would compete with the scenery of ballets and magnificent processions that took place on the stage. "House of ceremonial performances" (Festspielhaus) in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was created by Wagner in 1876 to stage his epic "musical dramas". Its stage, modeled on the scenes of ancient Greek amphitheatres, has great depth, and the orchestra is located in the orchestra pit and hidden from the audience, so that the sound is scattered and the singer does not need to overstrain his voice. The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1883) was conceived as a showcase for the world's finest singers and respectable lodge subscribers. The hall is so deep that its "diamond horseshoe" boxes provide visitors with more opportunities to see each other than a relatively shallow stage. The appearance of opera houses, like a mirror, reflects the history of opera as a phenomenon of public life. Its origins are in the revival of the ancient Greek theater in aristocratic circles: this period corresponds to the oldest of the surviving opera houses - the Olimpico (1583), built by A. Palladio in Vicenza. Its architecture - a reflection of the microcosm of the society of the Baroque era - is based on a characteristic horseshoe-shaped plan, where the tiers of lodges fan out from the center - the royal box. A similar plan is preserved in the buildings of the theaters "La Scala" (1788, Milan), "La Fenice" (1792, burned down in 1992, Venice), "San Carlo" (1737, Naples), "Covent Garden" (1858, London). ). With fewer boxes, but with deeper tiers thanks to steel supports, this plan was used in such American opera houses as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908), the San Francisco Opera House (1932) and Chicago (1920). More modern solutions demonstrate the new building of the Metropolitan Opera in New York's Lincoln Center (1966) and the Sydney Opera House (1973, Australia). The democratic approach is characteristic of Wagner. He demanded maximum concentration from the audience and built a theater where there are no boxes at all, and the seats are arranged in monotonous continuous rows. The austere Bayreuth interior was repeated only in Munich's Principal Theater (1909); even German theaters built after World War II date back to earlier examples. However, the Wagnerian idea seems to have contributed to the movement towards the concept of the arena, i.e. theater without a proscenium, which is proposed by some modern architects (the prototype is the ancient Roman circus): the opera is left to adapt itself to these new conditions. The Roman amphitheater in Verona is well suited for staging monumental opera performances such as Verdi's Aida and Rossini's William Tell.
opera festivals. An important element of the Wagnerian concept of opera is the summer pilgrimage to Bayreuth. The idea was picked up: in the 1920s, the Austrian city of Salzburg organized a festival dedicated mainly to Mozart's operas and invited such talented people as director M. Reinhardt and conductor A. Toscanini to implement the project. Since the mid-1930s, Mozart's operatic work has shaped the English Glyndebourne Festival. After the Second World War, a festival appeared in Munich, dedicated mainly to the work of R. Strauss. Florence hosts the "Florence Musical May", where a very wide repertoire is performed, covering both early and modern operas.
STORY
The origins of opera. The first example of the opera genre that has come down to us is Y. Peri's Eurydice (1600) - a modest work created in Florence on the occasion of the wedding of the French king Henry IV and Maria Medici. As expected, the young singer and madrigalist, who was close to the court, was ordered music for this solemn event. But Peri presented not the usual madrigal cycle on a pastoral theme, but something completely different. The musician was a member of the Florentine Camerata - a circle of scientists, poets and music lovers. For twenty years the members of the Camerata have been investigating the question of how ancient Greek tragedies were performed. They came to the conclusion that the Greek actors recited the text in a special declamatory manner, which is something between speech and real singing. But the real result of these experiments in the revival of a forgotten art was a new type of solo singing, called "monody": monody was performed in free rhythm with the simplest accompaniment. Therefore, Peri and his librettist O. Rinuccini set out the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in recitative, which was supported by the chords of a small orchestra, rather an ensemble of seven instruments, and presented the play in the Florentine Palazzo Pitti. This was Camerata's second opera; the score of the first, by Daphne Peri (1598), has not survived. Early opera had predecessors. For seven centuries the church has cultivated liturgical dramas, such as the Play of Daniel, where solo singing was accompanied by a variety of instruments. In the 16th century other composers, in particular A. Gabrieli and O. Vecchi, combined secular choirs or madrigals into story cycles. But still, before Peri and Rinuccini, there was no monodic secular musical-dramatic form. Their work did not become a revival of ancient Greek tragedy. It brought something more - a new viable theatrical genre was born. However, the full disclosure of the possibilities of the dramma per musica genre, put forward by the Florentine camerata, occurred in the work of another musician. Like Peri, C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) was an educated man from noble family, but unlike Peri, he was a professional musician. A native of Cremona, Monteverdi became famous at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua and directed the choir of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice. Seven years after Eurydice Peri, he composed his own version of the legend of Orpheus - the Tale of Orpheus. These works differ from each other in the same way that an interesting experiment differs from a masterpiece. Monteverdi increased the composition of the orchestra five times, giving each character his own group of instruments, and prefaced the opera with an overture. His recitative not only sounded the text of A. Strigio, but lived its own artistic life. Monteverdi's harmonic language is full of dramatic contrasts and even today impresses with its boldness and picturesqueness. Monteverdi's subsequent surviving operas include The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda (1624), based on a scene from Jerusalem Liberated by Torquato Tasso, an epic poem about the crusaders; Return of Ulysses to his homeland (1641) on a plot dating back to the ancient Greek legend of Odysseus; Coronation of Poppea (1642), from the time of the Roman emperor Nero. The last work was created by the composer just a year before his death. This opera became the pinnacle of his work - partly due to the virtuosity of the vocal parts, partly due to the splendor of instrumental writing.
distribution of the opera. In the era of Monteverdi, opera was rapidly gaining big cities Italy. Rome gave the operatic author L. Rossi (1598-1653), who staged his opera Orpheus ed Eurydice in Paris in 1647, conquering the French world. F. Cavalli (1602-1676), who sang with Monteverdi in Venice, created about 30 operas; Together with M.A. Chesti (1623-1669), Cavalli became the founder of the Venetian school, which played a major role in Italian opera in the second half of the 17th century. In the Venetian school, the monodic style, which came from Florence, opened the way for the development of recitative and aria. The arias gradually became longer and more complex, and virtuoso singers, usually castrati, began to dominate the opera stage. The plots of Venetian operas were still based on mythology or romanticized historical episodes, but now embellished with burlesque interludes that had nothing to do with the main action and spectacular episodes in which the singers demonstrated their virtuosity. At the Opera of Honor Golden Apple(1668), one of the most complex of that era, there are 50 actors, as well as 67 scenes and 23 scene changes. Italian influence even reached England. At the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, composers and librettists began to create the so-called. masks - court performances that combined recitatives, singing, dance and were based on fantastic plots. This new genre took great place in the work of G. Lawes, who in 1643 set Milton's Comus to music, and in 1656 created the first real English opera - The Siege of Rhodes. After the restoration of the Stuarts, the opera gradually began to gain a foothold on English soil. J. Blow (1649-1708), organist at Westminster Cathedral, composed the opera Venus and Adonis in 1684, but the composition was nevertheless called a mask. The only truly great opera created by an Englishman was Dido and Aeneas G. Purcell (1659-1695), Blow's disciple and successor. First performed at a women's college around 1689, this little opera is noted for its amazing beauty. Purcell owned both French and Italian techniques, but his opera is a typically English work. Dido's libretto, owned by N. Tate, but the composer revived with his music, marked by mastery of dramatic characteristics, extraordinary grace and richness of arias and choruses.
Early French opera. Like the early Italian opera, French opera of the mid-16th century. proceeded from the desire to revive the ancient Greek theatrical aesthetics. The difference was that the Italian opera emphasized singing, while the French one grew out of ballet, a favorite theatrical genre at the French court of that time. A capable and ambitious dancer who came from Italy, J. B. Lully (1632-1687) became the founder of French opera. He received a musical education, including the basics of composing technique, at court Louis XIV and then was appointed court composer. He had an excellent understanding of the stage, which was evident in his music for a number of Molière's comedies, especially for The Tradesman in the Nobility (1670). Impressed by the success of the opera companies that came to France, Lully decided to create his own troupe. Lully's operas, which he called "lyrical tragedies" (tragdies lyriques), demonstrate a specifically French musical and theatrical style. The stories are taken from ancient mythology or from Italian poems, and the libretto, with their solemn verses in strictly defined sizes, are guided by the style of the great contemporary of Lully - the playwright J. Racine. The development of the plot of Lully is interspersed with long discussions about love and fame, and in the prologues and other points of the plot he inserts divertissement scenes - scenes with dances, choirs and magnificent scenery. The true scale of the composer's work becomes clear today, when the productions of his operas Alceste (1674), Atis (1676) and Armide (1686) are resumed. J. F. Rameau (1683-1764) is a figure of a completely different plan. Although he created his first opera only at the age of 50, the skill he acquired earlier allowed the composer to reconcile the dramatic trend coming from the Italian Lully with a national commitment to ballet. Lully's opera-ballets, notably India Gallant (1735) and Castor et Pollux (1737), are sumptuous musical monuments of the Louis XV era.
Neapolitan opera. If in France the spectacle was at the forefront, then in the rest of Europe it was the aria. Naples became the center of opera activity at this stage, and A. Scarlatti (1660-1725) became the first master of the new style. He was born in Sicily, but soon moved north. Having lost his service in Rome with the ex-Queen Christina of Sweden, he settled in Naples. Realizing that opera librettos are subject to the strict norms of "serious opera" (opera seria), Scarlatti focused his efforts on the musical side of the opera. He was most attracted to the melody, not the recitative. In his work, the type of aria da capo was finally formed, where the first part is followed by a contrasting section, often in a minor key, and then the first part is repeated. Scarlatti also established the form of a simple "Italian" opera overture - three-part, with alternating tempos "fast - slow - fast". By the age of 46, Scarlatti was the author of 88 operas (many of them are lost). Then, after his second visit to Rome, where strong impression transparent melodic violin writing by A. Corelli, Scarlatti created several last operas for Naples - Cyrus (1714), Telemach (1718) and Griselda (1721). Scarlatti was not alone. Among other authors who made the forms and melodic style of the Neapolitan opera seria (opera seria) popular throughout Europe in the 18th century are the Italians N. Porpora (1686-1766), N. Jommelli (1714-1774) and especially the son of Alessandro - Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), as well as the Germans I. Gasse (1699-1783) and G.F. Handel (1685-1759). Handel's contribution is the most significant. Starting his career as an operatic violinist, Handel traveled around Italy from 1707 to 1710. At the age of 25, he arrived in London, where after some time he received a monopoly on the production of Italian operas. There he composed the opera Rinaldo (1711), which was followed by many operas in which the variety and richness of harmonic writing are accompanied by phenomenal vocal virtuosity and where the contradiction between the needs of drama and music is smoothed out to the elusive, as in Mozart's operas. Acis and Galatea (1721), Julius Caesar (1724), Aetius (1732) and Alcina (1735) are successfully staged in our time.

In any study on the so-called. Neapolitan school, speaks of the decisive role of the librettist in the creation of the opera. In the "lyrical tragedies" of Lully, the text was a very important factor: it gave the opera performance a high moral pathos, informed it of the unity of time and place of action, and poetic rhythm and meter had to be strictly observed in it. Around 1700, a real "libretto factory" arose in Naples, founded by A. Zeno (1668-1750) and reached its peak in the activities of Zeno's follower, P. Metastasio (1698-1782). The Neapolitans constantly wrote librettos for different composers - from Scarlatti to Gluck. They developed a clear standard: the plot had to be built around the main theme and avoid the inserted spectacular episodes and side comic lines that were characteristic of the Venetian and French styles. Each scene of the opera usually consisted of a recitative dialogue followed by a da capo aria. Both Zeno and Metastasio were poets-historians rather than playwrights. Many of the conventions typical of 18th-century Italian opera must be attributed to them.
The rise of comic opera. Another type of opera originates from Naples - the opera buffa (opera-buffa), which arose as a natural reaction to the opera seria. The passion for this type of opera quickly swept the cities of Europe - Vienna, Paris, London. From its former rulers - the Spaniards, who ruled Naples from 1522 to 1707, the city inherited the tradition of folk comedy. Reviled by strict teachers in conservatories, comedy, however, captivated students. One of them, G. B. Pergolesi (1710-1736), at the age of 23 wrote an intermezzo, or little comic opera, The Servant-Mistress (1733). Even before, composers composed intermezzos (they were usually played between acts of the opera seria), but Pergolesi's creation was a stunning success. In his libretto, it was not about the exploits of ancient heroes, but about a completely modern situation. The main characters belonged to the types known from the "commedia dell'arte" - a traditional Italian comedy-improvisation with standard set comic roles. The buffa opera genre was remarkably developed in the work of such late Neapolitans as G. Paisiello (1740-1816) and D. Cimarosa (1749-1801), not to mention the comic operas of Gluck and Mozart. The French analogy of the buffa opera was the "comic opera" (opra comique). Authors such as F. Philidor (1726-1795), P. A. Monsigny (1729-1817) and A. Gretry (1741-1813) took Pergolesian mockery of tradition to heart and developed their own model of comic opera, which in in accordance with Gallic tastes, it provided for the introduction of conversational scenes instead of recitatives. The British also acted in accordance with the national character. In 1728 the famous Beggar's Opera appeared. Her music consisted of a set of popular melodies (including a march from Rinaldo Handel) with new lyrics. The colloquial part of the libretto, written by J. Gay, ridiculed English politicians, Italian opera and internal strife in the Handel opera troupe in every way. The success of the Beggar's Opera was a painful blow to Handel and his Italian singers, but the form of this work itself did not bring very rich fruits on English soil - only a number of so-called. ballad operas. In turn, the ballad opera influenced the formation of the German comic opera - the Singspiel.
opera reform. Opera reform in the second half of the 18th century. was in many ways literary movement. Its progenitor was the French writer and philosopher J.J. Rousseau. Rousseau also studied music, and if in philosophy he called for a return to nature, then in the opera genre he advocated a return to simplicity. In 1752, a year before the successful Paris premiere of Madame Pergolesi's Servant, Rousseau composed his own comic opera, The Village Sorcerer, followed by the scathing Letters on French Music, where Rameau became the main subject of attacks. The idea of ​​reform was in the air. heyday different types comic opera was one of the symptoms; others were the Letters on Dance and Ballets by the French choreographer J. Nover (1727-1810), which developed the idea of ​​ballet as a drama, and not just a spectacle. The person who brought the reform to life was K.V. Gluck (1714-1787). Like many revolutionaries, Gluck started out as a traditionalist. For a number of years he staged tragedies one after another in the old style and turned to comic opera more under the pressure of circumstances than from an inner impulse. In 1762 he met R. di Calzabidgi (1714-1795), a friend of Casanova, who was destined to return opera librettos to the ideal of natural expressiveness put forward by the Florentine camerata. Gluck and Calzabidgi created three operas in Italian - Orpheus and Eurydice (1762), Alceste (1767), Paris and Helena (1770). None of them became particularly popular. True, the role of Orpheus, as before, was intended for a male soprano, but there was no "dry" recitative, a three-part aria and coloratura, and no embellishments were allowed to lead away from the main action. Instrumental and vocal means were aimed at revealing the meaning of each word of the text. In the libretto itself, the story of Orpheus was told simply and directly, without any rhetoric. When Gluck settled in Paris and began composing new-style operas to French librettos, he enjoyed great success. Iphigenia in Aulis (1774) and the subsequent Iphigenia in Tauris (1779) combined the loftiness of the drama characteristic of the opera seria with the richness of German harmonic writing, and the musical whole, with the nobility of lyrical sound, corresponded to the plots from Euripides, on which these operas were written. Gluck created a musical drama model, which then became the basis for many modifications.

If Gluck fought to exclude everything obsolete from the opera seria, then Mozart sought to bring into it everything that was missing from the opera buffa. He gave the operatic form a grace and humanity, deepening the shadows to further emphasize the flashes of wit and fun. In his work, he created a rare type of comedy that can move the listener to tears; because it is still impossible to say exactly what Mozart's Don Juan is - a comedy or a tragedy. Mozart's difficult childhood as a wandering virtuoso wunderkind made him early acquainted with all kinds of music - the Neapolitan song, the German counterpoint, the emerging Viennese symphony. Based on these impressions, he created his own completely international operatic style, marked by harmony between solo and ensemble numbers, between vocal and instrumental beginnings. As a young man, he wrote several Italian operas - in the style of buffa and seria. Mozart composed his last opera seria (Idomeneo) at the age of 25. Three of his great comedy operas were written to Italian librettos by L. Da Ponte: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni and That's What All Women Do (1790). Figaro and Don Giovanni were too innovative for the Viennese public, who preferred Mozart's singspiel to German librettos - The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782) and The Magic Flute (1791). The Magic Flute was Mozart's last opera: he died two months after its premiere.

The French Revolution completed the work begun by Rousseau's pamphlets. Paradoxically, but the dictatorship of Napoleon was the last rise of the opera seria. There were such works as "Medea" by L. Cherubini (1797), "Joseph" by E. Megul (1807), "Vestal" by G. Spontini (1807).
romantic opera in Italy. The flourishing of a new type of novel (for example, in the work of W. Scott) gave rise to a number of Italian operas. Rossini borrowed plots from the novels of W. Scott for two of his operas - Elizabeth, the Queen of England and the Maiden of the Lake. Donizetti became famous for Lucia di Lammermoor, whose libretto was written based on the novel The Bride of Lammermoor by W. Scott, and Bellini conquered Europe with the opera Puritani, also based on Scott's novel. These three composers, as it were, bridge the gap between the late Neapolitans and Verdi. However, in comic opera they are very different from each other. G. Rossini (1792-1868) was a master of the sparkling, impeccable style of opera buffa. Relying primarily on his innate gift for melody and rhythm, from 1813 to 1817 he published one masterpiece after another - Italian in Algeria (1813), Turk in Italy (1814), Cinderella (1817) and, of course, the pinnacle of Rossini's work in this genre - The Barber of Seville (1816). In all these operas, there is a certain disrespect for the singers, because Rossini does not hesitate to write out various passages and ornaments in the score, which in his era the singers, improvising, adorned the author's texts. The liveliness of the musical and dramatic action in Rossini is facilitated by a clear and precise orchestral writing, although the music often reaches a climax thanks to the so-called. Rossini's crescendo, a rather mechanical technique. When the composer is serious—for example, in Othello (1816), Moses in Egypt (1818) and William Tell (1829), bravura passages give way to majestic choirs and strong orchestral effects.

The main qualities of Rossini's style are sharpness, liveliness, theatricality. On the contrary, the music of his contemporary V. Bellini is marked by aristocracy and almost feminine softness. Bellini throws a veil of thick melancholy even on the comic opera (La sonnambula, 1831), although he is also not averse to showing off with virtuoso coloratura finales. Bellini wrote his operas for the best singers of the era and introduced carefully crafted vocal embellishments into his graceful melodies. The Puritans (1835), the composer's lyrical "swan song", requires a particularly high technique of singing; Norma (1831), where the action takes place in ancient Gaul, is more heroic.

SKETCH OF THE DECORATION for the opera "Norma" by Bellini.

G. Donizetti occupies an intermediate position between Rossini and Bellini - both in age and style, and differs from them in greater fertility. Donizetti's melody is not as elegant as Bellini's, and his theatrical flair is inferior to Rossini's, but Donizetti's orchestral part is harmoniously richer and richer. By the ability to combine theatrical and musical beginning Donizetti anticipates Verdi. Donizetti's late operas, such as Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), Anne Boleyn (1830) and The Duke of Alba (1840), show mastery in characterization, as well as the refraction of the principles of Gluck's musical reform on Italian soil. In this era, the romantic opera comes to the fore, and the comic opera leaves the stage: such works by Donizetti as the Elixir of Love (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843) are among the best and chronologically last examples of buffa opera. Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini were still firmly connected with the traditions of the 18th century. The ideas of romanticism are expressed more in the libretto than in the music of their operas. In full force, the romantic era of Italian music declared itself in the works of G. Verdi, the greatest Italian opera composer. Verdi was self-taught, he defended his creative independence in every possible way and, having found his own path, boldly moved along it. He sought to recreate strong dramatic conflicts in music. In the early operas - Nebuchadnezzar (1842), Ernani (1844) and Macbeth (1847) - the conflict is expressed more in the libretto than in the music, although these political operas were perceived as symbols of the national movement. Already in Macbeth, Verdi demonstrates special attention to the development of the musical characteristics of the characters - both in vocal parts and in the orchestra. The same quality marks his first real successes - Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La Traviata (1853). These bold, even shocking stories have received convincing expression in all aspects of music - melodic, rhythmic, orchestral.

SCENE FROM THE OPERA "MACBETH" G. Verdi

After a period of consolidation of what had been achieved earlier, when Simone Boccanegra (1857), Un ballo in maschera (1859) and Force of Destiny (1862) appeared, Verdi turned to the genre of the French "grand opera", which he interpreted in his own way in Don Carlos (1867) and especially in Hades (1871) - perhaps the most popular opera of all time. Ballet and spectacular scenes are combined here with deep psychological authenticity. In Othello (1887), the 74-year-old composer challenged Wagner's "symphonic opera" without sacrificing Italian melodiousness; Verdi's librettist A. Boito (1842-1918), in turn, challenged Shakespeare - both in Otello and Falstaff (1893), which became Verdi's last opera. Falstaff is considered by many to be a masterpiece; in his score, violent humorous scenes coexist with chamber-lyrical episodes. In the last decade of the 19th century Italian "serious" opera finally becomes quite "modern". In the operas Rural Honor (1890) by P. Mascagni (1863-1945) and Pagliacza (1892) by R. Leoncavallo (1857-1919), everyday life in Italy is on stage. (The plot of Pajatsev may have been borrowed from the story of the judge, the composer's father, about a real incident.) In these one-act operas, often combined into one performance, a stream of frenzied passions and tragic events pours out on the listener. Such realism (or "verism") is close to the style of the tabloid press. G. Puccini (1858-1924) also gravitated toward vivid theatricality and had a talent for truthfully conveying emotions in a lyrical, semi-declamatory melody. In his La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904; staged in Russia under the name Cio-Cio-san) and Turandot (the opera remained unfinished after the death of the author; completed by the composer F. Alfano in 1926), the orchestra acts as a permanent commentator stage action. A simple "talk" in vocal parts takes the place of recitative; true arias are rare. Puccini's art is marked by "photography", and in his operas music is the servant of drama. Moreover, few composers had such a penchant for theatrical effects, and it can be said that the century of Italian serious opera practically ended after him, despite the efforts of Verdian composers - L. Dallapiccolo (1904-1975), I. Pizzetti (1880- 1968), R. Rossellini (1908-1982).
Romantic opera in Germany. Next to Verdi in the opera of the 19th century. you can put only R. Wagner. At the beginning of the Romantic era, German opera hardly existed. German opera composers worked outside of Germany - Handel in England, Gasse in Italy, Gluck in Vienna and Paris, while the German court theaters were occupied by fashionable Italian troupes. The Singspiel, the local analogue of the opera buffa and French comic opera, began its development later than in Latin countries. The first example of this genre was I. A. Hiller's Devil at Large (1728-1804), written in 1766, 6 years before Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio. Ironically, the great German poets Goethe and Schiller inspired not domestic, but Italian and French opera composers. Romanticism combined with the Singspiel in Fidelio, the only opera by L. van Beethoven (1770-1827). A staunch supporter of the ideals of equality and fraternity put forward by the French Revolution, Beethoven chose the story of a faithful wife delivering an unjustly convicted husband from prison and execution. The composer unusually carefully finished the opera score: he completed Fidelio in 1805, made the second edition in 1806 and the third in 1814. However, he did not succeed in the operatic genre; it has not yet been decided: whether Beethoven managed to transform the Singspiel into a wonderful opera, or whether Fidelio is a grandiose failure. The action of Beethoven's opera takes place in Spain, although revolutionary France is implied. And the creator of a truly German opera - both in terms of plot and language - was an even more cosmopolitan-minded composer. K. M. Weber (1786-1826) studied many arts (he tried his hand both as a graphic artist and as a writer), traveled all over Central Europe as a virtuoso pianist and later headed opera houses in Prague and Dresden. During his wanderings, he got acquainted with folk songs, and while working in the theater, he delved deeply into the expressive possibilities of various instruments of the orchestra. These two elements were combined in his Free Shooter (1821), an opera about a forester who receives enchanted bullets from the devil in order to win a shooting competition and receive the hand of his girlfriend as a reward. The free shooter is an ultra-romantic singspiel: it reflects both peasant superstitions and the fear of a city dweller before the mysterious forest thickets. The nationally colored choral episodes and orchestral scenes of nature in this opera influenced the entire further development of the genre on German soil and brought Weber a huge success, which could not be surpassed by the composer's next "big" operas - Euryanta (1823) and Oberon (1826). German opera reached its absolute peak in the work of R. Wagner (1813-1883), in whose early works the influence of Weber and Marschner, as well as Spontini and Cherubini, is noticeable. The composer's first opera, Rienzi (1842), was quite a traditional work in French heroic taste. Wagner made a significant step towards the realization of a fundamentally new idea of ​​"musical drama" in The Flying Dutchman (1843). Although this opera is "numbered", which is typical of the Italian style, the "numbers" here tend to merge rather than divide, and within the acts the action develops continuously. In The Flying Dutchman, the main philosophical theme of Wagner appears - redemption through female love. The composer wrote the text of the libretto himself. In Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1850), the listener is immersed in the world of ancient Germanic legends. In these operas, declamatory vocal writing is combined with the active development of musical themes in the orchestra, and leitmotifs ("leading motives"), the main melodic ideas are already widely used: relatively short, constantly returning phrases associated with specific characters, objects or concepts. The next step was to weave such leitmotifs into a single fabric, as a result of which the center of musical action shifted to the symphonic sphere. Finally, the new method was put at the service of the cross-cutting theme of Wagner's creativity - the Scandinavian epic, which, according to Wagner, dates back to the time of the birth of the Germanic ethnos.

Wagner twice interrupted his twenty years of work on the tetralogy Ring of the Nibelung; during these breaks, two operas appeared - Tristan and Isolde based on a medieval legend (1865) and the delightful comic opera The Nuremberg Mastersingers (1868). Wagner then returned to his grandiose musical narrative of gods and warrior maidens. The first two parts of the tetralogy - the Rhine Gold (1869) and Valkyrie (1870) were staged separately, and the premiere of the following parts - Siegfried and the Death of the Gods - was already in the composition full cycle Ring of the Nibelung at the first Wagner festival, which opened a purpose-built theater in Bayreuth in 1876. Tristan's chromatic harmony determined the further development of the harmonic language in European music for a whole century. The staging principles of Bayreuth laid the foundation for modern principles design and staging of the opera; Bayreuth provided an excellent setting for Parsifal (1882), whose plot is based on the legend of the Grail. It is possible, however, that the cheerful opera Die Meistersingers of Nuremberg is most in line with Wagner's desire for a synthesis of the arts - "a total work of art."

One of the members of Wagner's Bayreuth entourage was E. Humperdinck (1854-1921), who helped Wagner stage Parsifal. Parsifalian sounds are heard in the "pantomime of a dream" from Humperdinck's own opera Hansel and Gretel (1883), a small masterpiece where Wagnerian technique is wonderfully adapted to the world of a children's fairy tale with folk songs and dances. The main figure in German opera after Wagner was R. Strauss (1864-1949), who first became famous as an operatic author after the premiere of Salome based on O. Wilde's drama (1905). Strauss' Elektra (1909) was even more shocking. In the music of these one-act operas, pathological passions are reflected with amazing force, which is facilitated by sharply dissonant harmony and super-intense instrumentation. A completely different composition is the charming and graceful Der Rosenkavalier (1911), a comedy in an exquisite rococo style, with an eye on Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. Ariadne auf Naxos (1912, second edition - 1916) synthesized the genres of opera seria and intermezzo; in Capriccio (1942), "a conversation in one act", the question of the advantages of music and poetry is discussed.
Romantic opera in France. The French penchant for heroic and spectacular opera performances, dating back to the time of Lully, in the 19th century found a continuation in a new type of opera performance, called opra grande - "big opera". The French "grand opera" was created by E. Scribe (1791-1861) and J. Meyerbeer (1791-1864), who became idols throughout Europe for three decades. Scribe produced a libretto with a speed (but not quality) worthy of Metastasio. Born in Berlin, Meyerbeer wrote in an eclectic (and rather impersonal) style, full of pathos and lack of a sense of humor (but in the 19th century, humor was not an obligatory quality of serious art). Scribe and Meyerbeer composed a number of grandiose works for staging at the Paris Opera: Robert the Devil (1831), Huguenots (1836), The Prophet (1849) and the posthumously staged African Woman (1865); original orchestral effects are combined here with bravura vocal parts in the spirit of Rossini, ballet, spectacular scenes. A pervasive literary theme of these operas is the persecution of minorities, national and religious; the same idea is also present in the opera by J. Halevi (1799-1862) Jewess (1835) to the libretto by Scribe. Perhaps the best "grand opera" is G. Berlioz's Trojans (1803-1869) written in 1856-1858. Back to antique theme, Berlioz managed to convey a genuine epic spirit thanks to an exceptionally interesting harmony and instrumentation, and a strictly sustained style. After a long oblivion, these French operas are now again being performed in a magnificent performance, proving their vitality. The French author, who achieved a remarkable result in the field of "comic opera" (opra comique), was Halévy's student and son-in-law, J. Bizet (1838-1875). Bizet came to the musical theater at a time when the combination of the national tradition of comic opera with romantic tendencies brought to life such beautiful and original operas as Faust (1859) by C. Gounod (1818-1893) and Mignon (1866) by A. Thomas (1811). -1896). In Carmen (1875) Bizet achieved an astonishing poignancy of musical characterization that French musical theater had not known since Rameau's time. Bizet's librettists retained the powerful realism of P. Merimee's short story, as far as the comic opera genre allowed. In terms of dramatic integrity, only the Tales of Hoffmann (1881) by J. Offenbach (1819-1880) can be compared with Carmen. C. Saint-Saens (1835-1921) in Samson and Delilah (1877) also gives bright musical characteristics, but as a whole this opera is quite static. A charming essay - Lakme (1883) L. Delibes (1836-1891); the same can be said about a number of operas by J. Massenet (1842-1912). Among them are achievements such as Manon (1884) and Werther (1892), chamber operas marked by the naturalness of the melody that follows from the intonations of speech. C. Debussy (1862-1918) went even further along this path, whose vocal melody can be called notated speech. His opera Pelléas et Melisande (1902) based on the play of the same name by M. Maeterlinck was an experience of merging music and drama, reminiscent of Wagner's Tristan, despite the fact that Debussy deliberately did this by completely different methods. Wagner's music is heroic and chromatic through and through; Debussy's music is refined, ascetic, and in the field of harmony it is very peculiar and often based on the modal principle. The orchestra reproduces the medieval atmosphere and depicts the emotional states of the characters, but, unlike Wagnerian operas, nowhere suppresses the singing.
Other Operas of the Romantic Era. No one influenced Debussy so strongly, as well as other composers who struggled with the dominance of Wagnerian influence, MP Mussorgsky (1839-1881). Mussorgsky, who was destined to become the creator of a truly Russian opera, departed from the method of including individual colorful samples of folklore in the work, which was characteristic of his compatriot and predecessor MP Glinka (1804-1857) in the operas Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842). Instead, he turned to Pushkin's dark psychological drama from Russian history Boris Godunov (the opera was staged in 1874), and then to the even more complex epic plot of the opera Khovanshchina (staged in 1886), which deals with the struggle of adherents of Russia's original path (Old Believers , or schismatics) with the detrimental consequences of planting Western civilization embodied in the figure of Peter the Great. Mussorgsky's vocal writing is closely connected with the intonations of Russian speech, and he made the choir ("the voice of the people") the protagonist of opera action. His musical speech, depending on the plot, tends either to sharp chromatism or to the harsh modes of Russian church singing. The score of Boris Godunov, now considered a model of expressiveness and originality, was considered by the composer's contemporaries to be harsh in sound and inept in techniques. After Mussorgsky's death, his friend N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) edited Boris and Khovanshchina, "correcting" much of Mussorgsky's sharp, unconventional and uneven style. Although Korsakov's editions of Mussorgsky's operas were generally accepted almost until the end of the 20th century, now more and more often Boris is staged in the original author's edition. More lyrical, but no less "national" is the opera Prince Igor by A.P. Borodin (1833-1887) based on a plot from the ancient Russian poem The Word about Igor's Campaign, for the most part completed and instrumented after the death of the author by his friends Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Glazunov. Rimsky-Korsakov's brilliant writing recreates the world of the Russian fairy tale in such operas as The Snow Maiden (1882), Sadko (1898), The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1907) and The Golden Cockerel (1909). IN latest opera elements of political satire are noticeable, and The Tsar's Bride (1899) testifies that the composer was also subject to lyric-tragic plots. Relatively cosmopolitan in style are the operas of P. I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), including two of his operas on Pushkin's subjects - Eugene Onegin (1879) and Queen of Spades(1890). While in exile, S. S. Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed the comic opera The Love for Three Oranges (1921) to his own libretto based on a comedy by Carlo Gozzi - perhaps the most viable and popular of his operas. Prokofiev also managed to compose an opera before returning to the USSR Fire Angel(1919-1927) on the plot of Bryusov. At home, the composer was forced to compose primitive patriotic operas, and even his War and Peace (1921-1942), which contains a lot of beautiful music, is stuffed with stilted stamps of communist ideology. Prokofiev's colleague D. D. Shostakovich (1906-1975) subjected the Stalinist regime to covert criticism. After a brilliant and caustic opera based on the satirical story by N.V. Gogol The Nose (1928-1929), where the severed nose of an official becomes an independent character, Shostakovich sneered at the bureaucracy of Stalin's Russia in the opera riddled with erotic motifs Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district(1934), which is now considered one of the best - and one of the most difficult - operas of the 20th century. "Czech Opera" is a conditional term, which means two contrasting artistic directions: pro-Russian in Slovakia and pro-German in the Czech Republic. A recognized figure in Czech music is Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), although only one of his operas, Rusalka, imbued with deep pathos, has gained a foothold in the world repertoire. In Prague, the capital of Czech culture, the main figure opera world was Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), whose Bartered Bride (1866) quickly entered the repertoire, usually translated into German. The comic and uncomplicated plot made this work the most accessible in the legacy of Smetana, although he is the author of two more ardently patriotic operas - the dynamic "opera of salvation" Dalibor (1868) and the picture-epic Libusha (1872, staged in 1881), which depicts the unification of the Czech people under the rule of a wise queen. The unofficial center of the Slovak school was the city of Brno, where Leos Janacek (1854-1928), another ardent supporter of the reproduction of natural recitative intonations in music, in the spirit of Mussorgsky and Debussy, lived and worked. Janacek's diaries contain many notes of speech and natural sound rhythms. After several early and unsuccessful experiences in the operatic genre, Janáček first turned to a stunning tragedy from the life of the Moravian peasants in the opera Jenufa (1904, the composer's most popular opera). In subsequent operas, he developed various plots: the drama of a young woman who, out of protest against family oppression, enters into an illegal love affair (Katya Kabanova, 1921), the life of nature (The Cunning Chanterelle, 1924), a supernatural incident (Makropoulos' Remedy, 1926) and narration Dostoevsky about the years he spent in hard labor (Notes from the Dead House, 1930). Janacek dreamed of success in Prague, but his "enlightened" colleagues treated his operas with disdain - both during the composer's lifetime and after his death. Like Rimsky-Korsakov, who edited Mussorgsky, Janáček's colleagues thought they knew better than the author how his scores should sound. Janáček's international recognition came later as a result of the restoration efforts of John Tyrrell and the Australian conductor Charles Mackeras.
Operas of the 20th century The First World War put an end to the romantic era: the sublimity of feelings inherent in romanticism could not survive the upheavals of the war years. The established opera forms were also in decline, it was a time of uncertainty and experimentation. The craving for the Middle Ages, expressed with particular force in Parsifal and Pelléas, gave the last flashes in such works as The Love of Three Kings (1913) by Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952), Knights of Ekebu (1925) Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944), Semirama ( 1910) and Flames (1934) by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). Austrian post-Romanticism represented by Franz Schrekker (1878-1933; Distant Sound, 1912; Stigmatized, 1918), Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942; Florentine Tragedy; Dwarf - 1922) and Erik Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957; Dead city, 1920; Miracle of Heliana, 1927) used medieval motifs for artistic exploration of spiritualistic ideas or pathological mental phenomena. The Wagner heritage, picked up by Richard Strauss, then passed to the so-called. new Viennese school, in particular to A. Schoenberg (1874-1951) and A. Berg (1885-1935), whose operas are a kind of anti-romantic reaction: this is expressed both in a conscious departure from the traditional musical language, especially harmonic, and in the choice "violent" scenes. Berg Wozzeck's first opera (1925) - the story of an unfortunate, downtrodden soldier - is breathtaking strong drama, despite its extraordinarily complex, highly intelligent form; the composer's second opera, Lulu (1937, completed after the death of the author F. Tserkhoy), is a no less expressive musical drama about a dissolute woman. After a series of small acute psychological operas, among which most famous enjoys Waiting (1909), Schoenberg worked all his life on the plot of Moses and Aaron (1954, the opera remained unfinished) - based on the biblical story about the conflict of the tongue-tied prophet Moses and the eloquent Aaron, who seduced the Israelis to bow to the golden calf. Scenes of orgy, destruction and human sacrifice, which are able to outrage any theatrical censorship, as well as the extreme complexity of the composition, hinder its popularity in the opera house. Composers from different national schools began to emerge from the influence of Wagner. Thus, the symbolism of Debussy served as an impetus for the Hungarian composer B. Bartok (1881-1945) to create his psychological parable Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1918); another Hungarian author, Z. Kodály, in the opera Hari Janos (1926) turned to folklore sources. In Berlin, F. Busoni rethought old stories in the operas Harlequin (1917) and Doctor Faust (1928, remained unfinished). In all the works mentioned, the all-pervading symphonism of Wagner and his followers gives way to a much more concise style, to the point of monody predominating. However, the operatic heritage of this generation of composers is relatively small, and this circumstance, together with the list of unfinished works, testifies to the difficulties that the opera genre experienced in the era of expressionism and impending fascism. At the same time, new currents began to emerge in war-ravaged Europe. The Italian comic opera gave its last escape in G. Puccini's little masterpiece Gianni Schicchi (1918). But in Paris, M. Ravel raised the fading torch and created his wonderful Spanish Hour (1911), and then the Child and the Magic (1925, to Collet's libretto). The opera also appeared in Spain - A Short Life (1913) and Maestro Pedro's Balaganchik (1923) by Manuel de Falla. In England, opera experienced a real revival - for the first time in several centuries. The earliest examples are The Immortal Hour (1914) by Rutland Baughton (1878-1960) based on a plot from Celtic mythology, Traitors (1906) and The Bosun's Wife (1916) by Ethel Smith (1858-1944). The first is a bucolic love story, while the second is about pirates who make their home in a poor English coastal village. Smith's operas enjoyed some popularity in Europe, as did the operas of Frederic Delius (1862-1934), especially Romeo and Juliet's Village (1907). Delius, however, was by nature incapable of embodying conflict dramaturgy (both in text and in music), and therefore his static musical dramas rarely appear on stage. The burning problem for English composers was the search for a competitive plot. Savitri by Gustav Holst is based on an episode of the Indian epic Mahabharata (1916), while Hugh R. Vaughan-Williams's Rider (1924) is a pastoral richly filled with folk songs; so is the case in Vaughan Williams' opera Sir John in Love after Shakespeare's Falstaff. B. Britten (1913-1976) succeeded in raising English opera to new heights; success was already his first opera Peter Grimes (1945) - a drama taking place on the seashore, where the central character is a fisherman rejected by people, who is in the grip of mystical experiences. The source of comedy-satire Albert Herring (1947) was Maupassant's short story, and Billy Budd uses Melville's allegorical story about good and evil (the historical background is the era of the Napoleonic wars). This opera is generally recognized as Britten's masterpiece, although he later successfully worked in the "grand opera" genre - examples are Gloriana (1951), which tells about the tumultuous events of the reign of Elizabeth I, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960; a libretto based on Shakespeare was created closest friend and collaborator of the composer - singer P. Pierce). In the 1960s, Britten paid much attention to parable operas (Woodcock River - 1964, Cave Action - 1966, Prodigal Son - 1968); he also created the teleopera Owen Wingrave (1971) and the chamber operas The Turn of the Screw and The Lamentation of Lucretia. The absolute pinnacle of the composer's operatic work was his last work in this genre - Death in Venice (1973), where extraordinary ingenuity is combined with great sincerity. Britten's operatic legacy is so significant that few English authors subsequent generations were able to emerge from its shadow, although it is worth mentioning famous success operas by Peter Maxwell Davis (b. 1934) Taverner (1972) and operas by Harrison Birtwhistle (b. 1934) Gavan (1991). As for composers from other countries, we can note such works as Aniara (1951) by the Swede Karl-Birger Blomdal (1916-1968), where the action takes place on an interplanetary ship and electronic sounds are used, or the opera cycle Let There Be Light (1978-1979) German Karlheinz Stockhausen (the cycle has the subtitle Seven Days of Creation and is designed to be completed within a week). But, of course, such innovations are fleeting. More significant operas German composer Carla Orff (1895-1982) - for example, Antigone (1949), which is built on the model of an ancient Greek tragedy using rhythmic recitation against the background of ascetic accompaniment (mainly percussion instruments). The brilliant French composer F. Poulenc (1899-1963) began with the humorous opera Breasts of Tiresias (1947), and then turned to aesthetics, which put natural speech intonations and rhythm at the forefront. Two of his best operas were written in this vein: the mono-opera human voice after Jean Cocteau (1959; the libretto is built like a telephone conversation of the heroine) and the opera Dialogues des Carmelites, which describes the suffering of the nuns of a Catholic order during the French Revolution. Poulenc's harmonies are deceptively simple and at the same time emotionally expressive. The international popularity of Poulenc's works was also facilitated by the composer's demand that his operas be performed whenever possible in local languages. Juggling like a magician different styles, I. F. Stravinsky (1882-1971) created an impressive number of operas; among them are the romantic Nightingale written for Diaghilev's entreprise based on the fairy tale by G.Kh. for theater and concert stage. During the period of the German Weimar Republic, K. Weil (1900-1950) and B. Brecht (1898-1950), who remade John Gay's Beggar's Opera into the even more popular Threepenny Opera (1928), composed a now forgotten opera based on the sharply satirical plot Rise and Fall the city of Mahagonny (1930). The rise of the Nazis put an end to this fruitful cooperation, and Vail, who emigrated to America, began working in the American musical genre. The Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) was in great vogue in the 1960s and 1970s with his expressionistic and overtly erotic operas Don Rodrigo (1964), Bomarzo (1967) and Beatriz Cenci (1971). The German Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) rose to prominence in 1951 when his opera Boulevard des Solitude was staged to a libretto by Greta Weill based on the story of Manon Lescaut; V musical language works combine jazz, blues and 12-tone technique. Henze's subsequent operas include: An Elegy for Young Lovers (1961; set in the snowy Alps; the score is dominated by xylophone, vibraphone, harp and celesta), A Young Lord Infused with Black Humor (1965), Bassarides (1966; after Euripides' Bacchantes, English libretto by C. Cullman and W. H. Auden), the anti-militarist We will come to the river (1976), the children's fairy tale opera Pollicino and the Betrayed Sea (1990). In the UK, Michael Tippett (1905-1998) worked in the operatic genre: Midsummer Night Wedding (1955), Labyrinth Garden (1970), The Ice Breaks (1977) and the science fiction opera New Year's Eve (1989) - all to the composer's libretto. The avant-garde English composer Peter Maxwell Davies is the author of the above-mentioned operas Taverner (1972; plot from the life of the 16th century composer John Taverner) and Resurrection (1987).
FAMOUS OPERA SINGERS
BJERLING Jussi
(Johan Jonatan) (Bjrling, Jussi) (1911-1960), Swedish singer (tenor). He studied at the Stockholm Royal Opera School and made his debut there in 1930 in a small role in Manon Lescaut. A month later, Ottavio sang in Don Giovanni. From 1938 to 1960, with the exception of the war years, he sang at the Metropolitan Opera and enjoyed particular success in the Italian and French repertoire.
GALLI-CURCHI Amelita
GOBBI Tito
(Gobbi, Tito) (1915-1984), Italian singer (baritone). He studied in Rome and made his debut there as Germont in La Traviata. He performed a lot in London and after 1950 in New York, Chicago and San Francisco - especially in Verdi's operas; continued to sing in major theaters in Italy. Gobbi is considered the best performer of the part of Scarpia, which he sang about 500 times. He has acted in opera films many times.
DOMINGO Placido
Callas Maria
CARUSO Enrico
CORELLI Franco
(Corelli, Franco) (b. 1921), Italian singer (tenor). At the age of 23 he studied for some time at the Pesaro Conservatory. In 1952 he took part in vocal competition Festival "Florence Musical May", where the director of the Rome Opera invited him to pass the test in the "Experimental Theater" Spoletto. Soon he appeared in this theater in the role of Don José in Carmen. At the opening of the La Scala season in 1954, he sang with Maria Callas in Spontini's Vestal. In 1961 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Manrico in Il trovatore. Among his most famous parties is Cavaradossi in Tosca.
LONDON George
(London, George) (1920-1985), Canadian singer (bass-baritone), real name George Bernstein. He studied in Los Angeles and made his Hollywood debut in 1942. In 1949 he was invited to the Vienna Opera, where he made his debut as Amonasro in Aida. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1951-1966), and also performed in Bayreuth from 1951 to 1959 as Amfortas and Flying Dutchman. He superbly performed the parts of Don Giovanni, Scarpia and Boris Godunov.
MILNZ Cheryl
NILSON Birgit
(Nilsson, Birgit) (b. 1918), Swedish singer (soprano). She studied in Stockholm and made her debut there as Agatha in Weber's Free Shooter. Her international fame dates back to 1951 when she sang Elektra in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Glyndebourne Festival. In the 1954/1955 season she sang Brunnhilde and Salome at the Munich Opera. She made her debut as Brunnhilde at London's Covent Garden (1957) and as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera (1959). She also succeeded in other roles, especially Turandot, Tosca and Aida.
PAVAROTTI Luciano
PATTI Adeline
(Patti, Adelina) (1843-1919), Italian singer (coloratura soprano). She made her debut in New York in 1859 as Lucia di Lammermoor, in London in 1861 (as Amina in Sonnamboul). She sang at Covent Garden for 23 years. With a great voice and brilliant technique, Patti was one of the last representatives of the true bel canto style, but as a musician and as an actress she was much weaker.
PRICE Leontina
Sutherland Joan
Skipa Tito
(Schipa, Tito) (1888-1965), Italian singer (tenor). He studied in Milan and in 1911 made his debut in Vercelli in the role of Alfred (La Traviata). Constantly performed in Milan and Rome. In 1920-1932 he had an engagement at the Chicago Opera, he constantly sang in San Francisco from 1925 and at the Metropolitan Opera (1932-1935 and 1940-1941). He superbly performed the parts of Don Ottavio, Almaviva, Nemorino, Werther and Wilhelm Meister in Mignon.
SCOTTO Renata
(Scotto, Renata) (b. 1935), Italian singer (soprano). She made her debut in 1954 at the New Theater of Naples as Violetta (La Traviata), in the same year she sang for the first time at La Scala. She specialized in bel canto repertoire: Gilda, Amina, Norina, Linda de Chamouni, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda and Violetta. She made her American debut as Mimi de la Bohème with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1960, and made her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera as Cio-chio-san in 1965. Her repertoire also included Norma, Mona Lisa, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Francesca da Rimini.
SIEPI Cesare
(Siepi, Cesare) (b. 1923), Italian singer (bass). He made his debut in 1941 in Venice as Sparafucillo in Rigoletto. After the war, he began performing at La Scala and other Italian opera houses. From 1950 to 1973 he was the lead bass player at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang, among others, Don Giovanni, Figaro, Boris, Gurnemanz and Philip in Don Carlos.
TEBALDI Renata
(Tebaldi, Renata) (b. 1922), Italian singer (soprano). She studied in Parma and made her debut in 1944 in Rovigo as Helena (Mephistopheles). Toscanini chose Tebaldi to perform at the post-war opening of La Scala (1946). In 1950 and 1955 she performed in London, in 1955 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Desdemona and sang in this theater until her retirement in 1975. Among her best roles are Tosca, Adriana Lecouvreur, Violetta, Leonora, Aida and other dramatic roles from operas by Verdi.
FARRAR Geraldine
SHALYAPIN Fedor Ivanovich
SCHWARZKOPF Elisabeth
(Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth) (b. 1915), German singer (soprano). She studied with in Berlin and made her debut at the Berlin Opera in 1938 as one of the Flower Maidens in Wagner's Parsifal. After several performances in Vienna Opera was invited to the leading roles there. Later she also sang at Covent Garden and La Scala. In 1951 in Venice, at the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Adventures, she sang the part of Anna, in 1953 at La Scala she participated in the premiere of Orff's stage cantata The Triumph of Aphrodite. In 1964 she performed for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. She left the opera stage in 1973.
LITERATURE
Makhrova E. V. The Opera House in German Culture in the Second Half of the 20th Century. St. Petersburg, 1998 Simon G. W. One Hundred Great Operas and Their Plots. M., 1998

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. - (it., from lat. opus labor). Dramatic performance, the text of which is sung with the accompaniment of instrumental music. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. OPERA dramatic work, acting ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

composition - a musical theatrical performance based on the synthesis of words, stage action and music. Originated in Italy at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

OPERA

ital. opera - composition), a genre of theatrical art, a musical and dramatic performance based on the synthesis of words, stage action and music. Representatives of many professions participate in the creation of an opera performance: composer, director, writer, composing dramatic dialogues and lines, as well as writing the libretto (summary); an artist who decorates the stage with scenery and composes the costumes of the characters; illuminators and many others. But the decisive role in the opera is played by music, which expresses the feelings of the characters.

The musical "statements" of the characters in the opera are aria, arioso, cavatina, recitative, choirs, orchestral numbers, etc. The part of each character is written for a specific voice - high or low. The highest female voice is soprano, the middle one is mezzo-soprano, and the lowest one is contralto. For male singers, these are respectively tenor, baritone and bass. Sometimes opera performances include ballet scenes. There are historical-legendary, heroic-epic, folk-fabulous, lyrical-everyday, and other operas.

Opera originated in Italy at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Music for operas was written by W. A. ​​Mozart, L. van Beethoven, G. Rossini, V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi, R. Wagner, C. Gounod, J. Bizet, B. Smetana, A. Dvorak , J. Puccini, K. Debussy, R. Strauss and many others. major composers. The first Russian operas were created in the second half. 18th century In the 19th century Russian opera experienced a bright flowering in the work of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M. I. Glinka, M. P. Mussorgsky, P. I. Tchaikovsky, in the 20th century. – S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, T. N. Khrennikov, R. K. Shchedrin, A. P. Petrov and others.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

But first, a basic about the opera.Opera- a synthetic genre of art that combines various types of art: dramaturgy, music, fine arts (costumes, scenery), choreography.

Opera history

The opera first appeared in Italy. But it was not opera in its usual modern form. Or rather, it was the prototype of the opera - a mystery play.

Mystery(from lat. ministerium- service) - one of the genres of the European medieval theater of the XIV-XV centuries, associated with religion. Usually the plot of the mystery was taken from the Bible and interspersed with various everyday scenes. The development of the mysteries in different countries took place in different ways: somewhere they exhausted themselves in a natural way (as, for example, in Italy), somewhere they were banned, and somewhere they were composed and staged until the 18th century. Music in the mysteries was originally present sporadically, and then began to accompany the action from beginning to end.

At first, the opera served as entertainment at the royal court, and later became a public performance. The first opera house was opened in 1637 in Venice. Jacopo Peri's opera "Eurydice", which was performed in 1597, is considered the first major opera.

In Spain, the first opera appeared at the beginning of the 18th century, and in Russia in the middle of the 18th century. The very first opera written on the theme of Russian life was F. Volkov's opera "Tanyusha, or a Happy Meeting" (1756).

Grand Theatre

The opera very quickly gained popularity in Europe: already at the beginning of the 18th century. the opera begins to be divided into a big serious opera and a comic opera (buffa).

At the end of the XVIII century. opens Russian theater Petersburg, but at first foreign operas were staged here, Russian operas at that time were only comic. In 1815, the premiere of K. Kavos's opera Ivan Susanin took place at the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg. It was written in the style of the French "opera comique", where the dialogue took up almost as much space as the music.

In the 19th century all the best Russian composers turn to the genre of opera, and the first Russian national opera is considered to be an opera by M.I. Glinka "Life for the Tsar" (later renamed "Ivan Susanin").

Fyodor Chaliapin as Ivan Susanin

More about the opera

The literary basis of the opera is libretto. The libretto of an opera can be created either by the author of a literary work or by another writer. Sometimes the librettos of their operas are created by the composers themselves.

Usually at the beginning of the opera it is performed overture(introduction). At first, overtures were performed so that the audience had time to take their seats in the hall. In Mozart's time, the overture became a full-fledged part of the opera. Some composers created their overtures programmatically, that is, they conveyed the plot of the main action of the opera into them.

To perform an opera, a large group of musicians is needed: a choir, soloists, an orchestra, dancers (if there are choreographic numbers in the opera). Artistic decorations are being created.

Opera duet

Opera action is divided into acts, pictures, scenes, numbers. The opera consists of recitatives(singing recitation) arioso(highest recitative form ), songs, arias(work performed by one singer), duets(two singers) trio(three singers ), quartets(four singers) ensembles(group of singers), etc.

Varieties of opera

Grand Opera (grand-opera)

Consists of 5 acts and includes a voluminous ballet (dance) part. Grand opera as a new genre had developed by 1828 as a new "serious" French opera. Until the beginning of the 20th century. it remained the most popular operatic genre. Grand operas include, for example, William Tell by G. Rossini, Les Troyens by G. Berlioz (1858), Vespers Sicilian by G. Verdi (1855), Don Carlos by G. Verdi (1867) and others.

comic opera

Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro"

It was especially developed in the XVIII-XIX centuries. and had a significant influence on such musical genres as vaudeville, musical and operetta. In Italy, operas by G. Rossini, G. Pergolesi, N. Piccinni were created in this genre, and one of the most famous comic operas is Falstaff by D. Verdi. Features of comic opera are also present in Mozart's operas Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Abduction from the Seraglio. In a comic opera, dialogue is allowed between musical numbers.

romantic opera

Born in Germany in early XIX V. The plots of such operas were fantastic and mystic. K. Weber (Free Gunner) in particular, and partly R. Wagner, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and others belong to the romantic opera school.

Semi-opera (semi-opera)

An English Baroque opera that combines oral drama, vocal mise-en-scenes and symphonic works. One of the adherents of the semi-opera is the English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695).

Opera for children

B. Britten created operas in this genre: "Noah's Ark", "The Little Chimney Sweep".

Tasks:

• Tutorial:
  consolidate the concept of genre: opera.
• Developing:
  the main thing in the opera is human characters, feelings and passions, clashes and conflicts that can be revealed by music.
• Develop the ability to reflect on the music and works of composers of different eras.
• Educational: to awaken students' interest in the genre - opera, the desire to listen to it not only in the classroom, but also outside it.

During the classes

1. Music sounds. J.B. Pergolesi.”Stabat Mater dolorosa”

Rice. 1

Among countless wonders,
What is given to us by nature itself,
There is one, incomparable with anything,
Unfading through any years -

He gives a quivering delight of love
And warms the soul in the rain and cold,
We return sweet days,
When every breath was full of hope.

Before him, both the beggar and the king are equal -
The fate of the singer is to give himself away, to burn out.
He was sent by God to do good -
Death has no power over beauty!
Ilya Korop

“The 18th century was the century of beauty, the 19th century was the century of feeling, and the finale of the 20th century was the century of pure drive. And the viewer comes to the theater not for a concept, not for ideas, but to feed on energy, he needs a shock. Therefore, such a demand for pop culture - there is more energy than in academic culture. Cecilia Bartoli told me that she sings opera like rock music, and I understood the mystery of the fantastic energy of this great singer. opera has always been folk look art, in Italy it developed almost like a sport - a competition of singers. And it has to be popular.” Valery Kichin

In literature, music and other arts, various types of works have developed during their existence. In literature, this is, for example, a novel, a story, a story; in poetry - a poem, a sonnet, a ballad; in fine arts - landscape, portrait, still life; in music - opera, symphony ... The type of works within one kind of art is called the French word genre (genre).

5. Singers. During the 18th century the cult of the virtuoso singer developed - first in Naples, then throughout Europe. At that time, the part of the protagonist in the opera was performed by a male soprano - castrato, that is, a timbre, the natural change of which was stopped by castration. Singers-castrati brought the range and mobility of their voices to the limits of what was possible. Opera stars such as the castrato Farinelli (C. Broschi, 1705–1782), whose soprano, according to stories, surpassed the sound of a trumpet in strength, or the mezzo-soprano F. Bordoni, about whom it was said that she could pull the sound longer than all the singers in the world, completely subordinated to their skill those composers whose music they performed. Some of them themselves composed operas and directed opera companies (Farinelli). It was taken for granted that the singers decorate the melodies composed by the composer with their own improvised ornaments, regardless of whether such decorations fit the opera's plot situation or not. The owner of any type of voice must be trained in the performance of fast passages and trills. In Rossini's operas, for example, the tenor must master the coloratura technique as well as the soprano. The revival of such art in the 20th century. allowed to give new life to the diverse operatic work of Rossini.

According to the range of voices, opera singers are usually divided into six types. Three female types of voices, from high to low - soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (the latter is rare these days); three men's - tenor, baritone, bass. Within each type, there may be several subspecies, depending on the quality of the voice and the style of singing. The lyric-coloratura soprano has a light and extremely mobile voice; such singers can perform virtuoso passages, fast scales, trills and other ornaments. Lyric-dramatic (lirico spinto) soprano - a voice of great brightness and beauty.

The timbre of the dramatic soprano is rich and strong. The distinction between lyrical and dramatic voices also applies to tenors. There are two main types of basses: “singing bass” (basso cantante) for “serious” parties and comic (basso buffo).

Assignment for students. Determine what type of voice performs:

• Santa Claus part - bass
• Spring part – mezzo-soprano
• Snow Maiden part - soprano
• Lel part - mezzo-soprano or contralto
• Mizgir part - baritone

The chorus in the opera is interpreted in different ways. It may be a background unrelated to the main storyline; sometimes a kind of commentator of what is happening; its artistic possibilities make it possible to show monumental pictures of folk life, to reveal the relationship between the hero and the masses (for example, the role of the choir in MP Mussorgsky's folk musical dramas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina").

Let's listen:

• Prologue. Picture one. M. P. Mussorgsky “Boris Godunov”
• Picture two. M. P. Mussorgsky “Boris Godunov”

Assignment for students. Determine who is the hero and who is the mass.

The hero here is Boris Godunov. The mass is the people. The idea to write an opera based on the plot of Pushkin's historical tragedy Boris Godunov (1825) was suggested to Mussorgsky by his friend, a prominent historian, Professor VV Nikolsky. Mussorgsky was extremely fascinated by the opportunity to translate the topic of the relationship between the tsar and the people, which was acutely relevant for his time, to bring the people as the main character in the opera. “I understand the people as a great personality, animated by a single idea,” he wrote. “This is my task. I tried to solve it in the opera.”

6. Orchestra. In the musical dramaturgy of the opera, a large role is assigned to the orchestra, symphonic means of expression serve to more fully reveal the images. The opera also includes independent orchestral episodes - overture, intermission (introduction to individual acts). Another component of the opera performance is ballet, choreographic scenes, where plastic images are combined with musical ones. If the singers are leading in an operatic performance, then the orchestral part forms the frame, the foundation of the action, moves it forward and prepares the audience for future events. The orchestra supports the singers, emphasizes the climaxes, fills in the gaps in the libretto or moments of scene change with its sound, and finally performs at the conclusion of the opera when the curtain falls. Let's listen to Rossini's overture to the comedy "The Barber of Seville" . The form of the “autonomous” operatic overture was in decline, and by the time of the appearance of “Tosca” Puccini (1900) the overture could be replaced by just a few opening chords. In a number of operas of the 20th century. in general, there are no musical preparations for the stage action. But since the essence of opera is singing, the highest moments of drama are reflected in the completed forms of the aria, duet and other conventional forms where music comes to the fore. An aria is like a monologue, a duet is like a dialogue; in a trio, the conflicting feelings of one of the characters towards the other two participants are usually embodied. With further complication, different ensemble forms arise.

Let's listen:

• Gilda's aria "Rigoletto" by Verdi. Action 1st. Left alone, the girl repeats the name of the mysterious admirer ("Caro nome che il mio cor"; "The heart is full of joy").
• Duet of Gilda and Rigoletto "Rigoletto" by Verdi. Action 1st. (“Pari siamo! Io la lingua, egli ha il pugnale”; “We are equal with him: I own the word, and he the dagger”).
• Quartet in Verdi's Rigoletto. Action 3. (Quartet "Bella figlia dell" amore "; "O young beauty").
• Sextet in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti

The introduction of such forms usually stops the action in order to make room for the development of one (or several) emotions. Only a group of singers, united in an ensemble, can express several points of view on ongoing events at once. Sometimes the choir acts as a commentator on the actions of opera heroes. In general, the text in opera choirs is pronounced relatively slowly, phrases are often repeated to make the content understandable to the listener.

Not all operas can draw a clear line between recitative and aria. Wagner, for example, abandoned complete vocal forms, aiming at the continuous development of musical action. This innovation was picked up, with various modifications, by a number of composers. On Russian soil, the idea of ​​a continuous “musical drama” was, independently of Wagner, first tested by A.S. Dargomyzhsky in “The Stone Guest” and M.P. Mussorgsky in “The Marriage” – they called this form “conversational opera”, opera dialogue.

7. Opera houses.

• the Parisian “Opera” (the name “Grand Opera” was fixed in Russia) was intended for a bright spectacle (Fig. 2).
• The Festspielhaus in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was created by Wagner in 1876 to stage his epic musical dramas.
• The Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1883) was conceived as a showcase for the best singers in the world and for respectable subscribers of the lodges.
• "Olympico" (1583), built by A. Palladio in Vicenza. Its architecture, a reflection of the microcosm of Baroque society, is based on a characteristic horseshoe-shaped plan, where tiers of boxes fan out from the center - the royal box.
• theater “La Scala” (1788, Milan)
• "San Carlo" (1737, Naples)
• "Covent Garden" (1858, London)
• Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908) America
• opera house in San Francisco (1932)
• opera house in Chicago (1920)
• new building of the Metropolitan Opera in New York's Lincoln Center (1966)
• Sydney Opera House (1973, Australia).

Rice. 2

Thus, the opera dominated the whole world.

In the era of Monteverdi, the opera rapidly conquered the major cities of Italy.

Romantic opera in Italy

Italian influence even reached England.

Like early Italian opera, French opera of the mid-16th century proceeded from the desire to revive the ancient Greek theatrical aesthetics.

If in France the spectacle was at the forefront, then in the rest of Europe it was the aria. Naples became the center of opera activity at this stage.

Another type of opera originates from Naples - the opera - buffa (opera - buffa), which arose as a natural reaction to the opera - seria. Passion for this type of opera quickly swept the cities of Europe - Vienna, Paris, London. Romantic opera in France.

The ballad opera influenced the development of the German comic opera, the Singspiel. Romantic opera in Germany.

Russian opera of the era of romanticism.

“Czech Opera” is a conventional term that refers to two contrasting artistic trends: pro-Russian in Slovakia and pro-German in the Czech Republic.

Homework for students. Each student is given the task to get acquainted with the work of the composer (of his choice), where the opera flourished. Namely: J. Peri, C. Monteverdi, F. Cavalli, G. Purcell, J. B. Lully, J. F. Rameau, A. Scarlatti, G. F. Handel, J. B. Pergolesi, J. Paisiello , K.V. Gluck, W.A. Mozart, G. Rossini, V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi, R. Leoncavallo, G. Puccini, R. Wagner, K. M. Weber, L. Van Beethoven, R. Strauss, J. Meyerbeer, G. Berlioz, J. Bizet, Ch. Gounod, J. Offenbach, C. Saint-Saens, L. Delibes, J. Massenet, C. Debussy, M. P. Mussorgsky, M.P. Glinka, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.P. Borodin, P.I. , Carl Orff, F. Poulenc, I.F. Stravinsky

8. Famous opera singers.

• Gobbi, Tito, Domingo, Placido
• Callas, Maria (Fig. 3) .
• Caruso, Enrico, Corelli, Franco
• Pavarotti, Luciano, Patti, Adeline
• Scotto, Renata, Tebaldi, Renata
• Chaliapin, Fedor Ivanovich, Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth

Rice. 3

9. Demand and modernity of opera.

Opera is a rather conservative genre by its nature. This is due to the fact that there is a centuries-old tradition, due to the technical capabilities of performance. This genre owes its longevity to the great effect it has on the listener through the synthesis of several arts capable of producing an impression in themselves. On the other hand, opera is an extremely resource-intensive genre, and it is not for nothing that the word “opera” in Latin means “work”: of all musical genres, it has the longest duration, it requires high-quality scenery for staging, maximum skill of singers for performance and a high level the complexity of the composition. Thus, opera is the limit to which the art strives in order to make the maximum impression on the audience using all available resources. However, due to the conservatism of the genre, this set of resources is difficult to expand: it cannot be said that over the past decades the composition of the symphony orchestra has not changed at all, but the whole foundation has remained the same. The vocal technique, connected with the need for great power when performing the opera on stage, also changes little. Music is limited in its movement by these resources.

Stage performance in this sense is more dynamic: one can stage a classical opera in an avant-garde style without changing a single note in the score. It is usually believed that the main thing in the opera is music, and therefore the original scenography cannot ruin a masterpiece. However, this usually doesn't work out. Opera is a synthetic art and scenography is important. A production that does not correspond to the spirit of the music and the plot is perceived as an inclusion alien to the work. Thus, classical opera often does not meet the needs of directors who want to express modern sentiments on the stage of musical theater, and something new is required.

The first solution to this problem is a musical.

The second option is modern opera.

There are three degrees of artistic content of music.

• Entertainment . This variant is of no interest, since for its implementation it is enough to use ready-made rules, especially since it does not meet the requirements for modern opera.
• Interest. In this case, the work brings pleasure to the listener thanks to the ingenuity of the composer, who found an original and most effective way to solve the artistic problem.
• Depth. Music can express high feelings that give the listener inner harmony. Here we are faced with the fact that modern opera should not harm the mental state. This is very important, because, despite the high artistic merit, music can contain features that imperceptibly subjugate the will of the listener. Thus, it is widely known that Sibelius contributes to depression and suicide, and Wagner - internal aggression.

The significance of modern opera lies precisely in the combination of modern technology and fresh sound with the high artistic merit characteristic of opera in general. This is one way to reconcile the desire to express modern sentiments in art with the need to maintain the purity of the classics.

The ideal vocal, based on cultural roots, refracts in its individuality the folk school of singing, and can serve as the basis for the unique sound of modern operas written for specific performers.

You can write a masterpiece that does not fit into the framework of any theory, but sounds great. But for this it still must satisfy the requirements of perception. These rules, like any other, can be broken.

Homework for students. Mastering the characteristic features of the composer's style of works by Russian composers, Western European and contemporary composers. Analysis musical works(on the example of the opera).

Used Books:

1. Malinina E.M. Vocal education of children. - M., 1967.
2. Kabalevsky D.B. Music program in a secondary school. - M., 1982.
3. Right R. Series "Lives of Great Composers". LLP ”POMATUR”. M., 1996.
4. Makhrova E.V. Opera theater in the culture of Germany in the second half of the 20th century. St. Petersburg, 1998.
5. Simon G.W. One hundred great operas and their plots. M., 1998.
6. Yaroslavtseva L.K. Opera. Singers. Vocal schools in Italy, France, Germany in the 17th - 20th centuries. – “Publishing House “Golden Fleece”, 2004
7. Dmitriev L.B. Soloists of the theater "La Scala" about vocal art: Dialogues about the technique of singing. - M., 2002.

The National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Solomiya Krushelnytska. Already more than a hundred rokіv at yogi walls sound the voices of the all-worldly masters of the operatic world.

History of the Opera House

The history of the Lviv Opera House began in 1885, when the river Poltva, which flows through the center of the city, became silted, they took it to the collector and made it underground. In order to restore the sound of the place, the city of vlad decided to build an opera theater here. For whom the competition was voted, Zygmunt Gorgolewsky, the architect of the royal palaces near Nimechchyna, was unanimously recognized as the winner. Yogo project zahopiv Zhuri not only beauty, but and innovative engineering thought. The architect adopted a smart and reasonable solution - to win the foundation of the same blocks, so that the better to build yoga on the ground with underground waters. In this rank, the Lviv Opera Theater is the only theater of the Old World, we will be inspired by the river.

Budіvnytstvo began in 1897, and the urochist for the theater started on August 4, 1900. The best artists and sculptors of Lvov worked on the decorations. Part of the color of beauty can be assessed by looking at the facade. Ale, it’s more richly attached in the middle, where you can eat with a tour, adding tickets for the opera or a simple entry ticket.

Exter "єr i inter" єr theater

Budynok was created in the style of the so-called “Vidensky pseudo-Renaissance”, in which the architecture of the renaissance and the baroque is far away. Shape the façade to oppose your grandeur, richness and versatility. Vіdomi sculptors created statues of the eight muses, like placements above the head cornice, and above them - a high-relief composition "Joys and suffering life."

Above the very entrance at the center of the towering Slava with a palm tree in her hands, as if to inspire, became the subject of a super trick. One eminent professor of medicine supposedly admitted that the sculpture does not seem to have such a round life. Vіn rushed, scho Slava rebuy on the fourth month of pregnancy. In order to win a super girl, the doctor turned to the sculptor, having worked over the monument, and asking for the girl’s address, what she called for the creator. As it turned out, the real lady had a child. Z "having understood the number and birth of the baby, the professor understood that the sculpture has been effectively" bula vagіtna "for a couple of months already.

Not less hostile inter "єр theater, in which miraculously combine gilding, different-colored marmur, decorative paintings and different sculptures.

All the guests are quiet mirror hall from paintings and candles. I’ll name the wines like this, having removed the stars of the placement of one opposite one of the mirrors, as if visually increasing the placement. Behind the help of the arches, the hall is divided into three parts. Above the mirrors are paintings with fragments of operatic and dramatic plays. Under the plafond - canvases that reflect all the spirits of rock, different types of arts and professions. Busts of prominent playwrights and composers have been installed near the niches: Mykoli Lysenok, Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Semyon Hulak-Artemovsky.

On to another objects were saved for the speeches and speeches of Franz Josip.

Glyadatska Hall accommodating more than a thousand osib. This form is guessing the lyre, as it is composed of several tiers. The hall is decorated not only with paintings and sculptures, but with miraculous moldings. The theater has three balconies, some of which are unique. So on the first one there are twelve paintings, depicting gray marmur, like mythological scenes, on the other - atlanti, and on the third - women and human statues.

Above stage refinishing the ceiling "Apotheosis of Glory", sculptures of the Genius and the Angel, as well as the old coat of arms of Lviv. The decorative curtain “Parnassus” is of color and decorative, as if lowered from the forest of prem "єr and tracts of the bottom. It depicts the allegorical figures of the mythical gods.

Performances of the Lviv Opera

For the duration of the life of the theater, there were awards "both Ukrainian and foreign performances. So, on the stage of the Lviv theater, a production ballet performance "Swan Lake" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. This day at the Lviv Opera House is also holding a recently revived Vidensky ball.

Yak dohati

To see the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Solomiya Krushelnytska, you can take a minibus or a tram that runs through the center of the city. Take minibuses No. 29, 32, 25. For a taxi, you need to go straight for the address: Svobodi Avenue, 28.