Opera seria

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and 'serious' style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1720s to ca 1770. The only popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.

The age of opera seria

The age of opera seria corresponded with the rise to prominence of the castrati, prodigiously gifted singers with high, powerful soprano voices backed by decades of rigorous musical training. They were cast in heroic male roles, alongside another new breed of operatic creature, the prima donna. The rise of these star singers with formidable technical skills spurred composers to write increasingly complex vocal music, and many operas of the time were written as vehicles for specific singers, of whom the most famous is perhaps Farinelli, whose debut in 1722, guided by Porpora, coincided with the arrival of opera seria itself..

Related Topics:
Castrati - Soprano - Prima donna - Farinelli

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Given the extensive stylistic conventions of opera seria, it was a considerable challenge to write an effective drama, and not surprisingly many opera seria consisted of little more than cardboard characters and vocal exhibitionism. However, several composers transcended the genre, most important of whom was the Prussian George Friderich Handel (1685 – 1759), who wrote some fifty operas, mostly for the theaters of London, where he spent most of his career. More famous than Handel in their lifetimes, however was Johann Adolph Hasse (1699 - 1783).

Related Topics:
Prussian - George Friderich Handel - London - Johann Adolph Hasse

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While obeying the conventions of opera seria, Handel developed real flesh-and-blood characters, thanks to his prodigious lyrical and dramatic gifts. But after Handel's death tastes changed, and his operas fell into obscurity, save the odd fragment, such as the ubiquitous larghetto from Serse, "Ombra mai fù", his most famous melodic structure.

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However, beginning in the 1960s, the revival of interest in baroque music and original instrument playing styles, the development of the countertenor fach, and popularity of the long-playing record made rediscovery of Handel's Italian operas possible, and many have since been recorded and performed onstage. Of the fifty he wrote between 1705 and 1738, Alcina (1735), Ariodante (1735), Orlando (1733), Rinaldo (1711,1731), Rodelinda (1725), and Serse (also known as Xerxes) (1738) stand out and are now performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls. His finest work however is Giulio Cesare (1724), a tour de force of superb vocal and orchestral writing, possibly the finest opera seria of all.

Related Topics:
Countertenor - Orlando - Rinaldo - Rodelinda - Giulio Cesare

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –1791) was Handel's most direct descendant in the lineage of opera seria. His two notable contributions to the genre are Idomeneo (1780) and La Clemenza di Tito (1791). For most of the 19th and early 20th century both operas were virtually unknown, but starting in the 1960s, the two slowly regained a place in the standard operatic repertoire. Mozart wrote some beautiful music for these operas, but the characters, drawn from classical antiquity in accordance with the conventions of the genre, did not inspire in him the same level of incandescent musical theater as the three operas to more modern librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Related Topics:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Idomeneo - La Clemenza di Tito - Lorenzo da Ponte

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Other notable contributors to the opera seria genre were Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 – 1787), Luigi Cherubini (1760 – 1842), and Gaspare Spontini (1774 – 1851). Gluck tried to reform opera seria by reinstating the supremacy of the drama over the singers; he also did away with the recitative. Cherubini and Spontini expanded upon his ideas. Greatly admired by fellow composers such as Beethoven and Berlioz, the three enjoyed greater critical acclaim than popular success, and following the Napoleonic era, when the brilliant, effervescent operas of Rossini swept the continent with their vocal pyrotechnics, their classically austere operas fell out of fashion. But even Rossini set Metastasio's libretti to the new music.

Related Topics:
Christoph Willibald Gluck - Luigi Cherubini - Gaspare Spontini - Beethoven - Berlioz - Rossini

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