Opera buffa

Opera buffa (comic opera), also known as Commedia per musica (musical comedy), or Dramma giocoso per musica (musical dramatic comedy), is a form of opera.

History

In the sequence of musical epochs, this sub-genre follows the development of opera and of the so-called opera seria, which should have been perhaps a constrasting sub-genre due to some of its formal and ideological characteristics. One of the functions of opera at the time was to bring some of the technique and aesthetic of serious music--oratorio, cantata, and other forms--into something more "accessible" by musicians and listeners, a process as culturally significant in 18th century Italy as it is today in other countries. The reason for the great success of opera in general, has been in this sort of "descent" to more popular and understandable themes, together with the contemporary approach to theatre (of universal comprehension, over an average moderated cultural requirement of the spectator).

Related Topics:
Opera seria - Oratorio - Cantata - Theatre

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In this climate, opera buffa was one among the many forms in which the evolution of music contacted the audience with more friendly "manners": the French Opéra Comique, or the German Singspiel, as well as the German Melodram (very similar to the French Mélodrame, but not related to the Italian Melodramma). These were all sub-genres in which the recitative (the spoken, and not sung, part of the work) started to increase its presence within the body of related works, while the "purely" musical part was proportionally decreased. Music and talk (recitative, which in reality is recited over an essentially basic music, sometimes of chamberistic echoes) started then to experience an interesting symbiosis which the public seemed to enjoy. However, some of these evolutions were not going to completely abandon a formalist or emphatic state of mind, as happened for the French déclamation chantée, that soon re-joined the tragédie-lyrique of Jean-Baptiste Lully and was re-absorbed in more traditional measures.

Related Topics:
Recitative - Spoken - Sung - Jean-Baptiste Lully

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Among the first composers of opera buffa were Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Nicola Logroscino, Baldassare Galuppi and Alessandro Scarlatti, all of them Italians.

Related Topics:
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Nicola Logroscino - Baldassare Galuppi - Alessandro Scarlatti

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