Would you class Don Giovanni as an opera buffa or opera seria? I know there is a lot of speculation about this and I wondered if anyone has any gems of information about it because it may come up as one of my exam questions and I don't want to say exactly the same thing as everyone else! Though the basics would also be good if anyone has any thoughts...
Quote from: Mystery on May 27, 2007, 01:28:15 AM
Would you class Don Giovanni as an opera buffa or opera seria? I know there is a lot of speculation about this and I wondered if anyone has any gems of information about it because it may come up as one of my exam questions and I don't want to say exactly the same thing as everyone else! Though the basics would also be good if anyone has any thoughts...
Uhhh,
Don is opera buffa. Opera seria as an entire new genre dealing with subject matters such as Kings, heros, gods and goddess, for example. For the most part is is associated with the stilted operas from Handel, Vivaldi, etc.. The only opera seria that is on the fringe of the repertoire is Mozart's
Idomeneo. No one is going th confuse Idomeneo with Don.
As an example question
Don is therefore opera buffa.
Most music history books I've read classify DG as one of the first operas that combines elements of both opera buffa and opera seria, that's part of the reason why it is so popular and why Mozart is regarded so highly in the genre of opera.
Yeah because there is the on-stage murder of the Commendatore and then DG goes to Hell in the end - a scene in which the audience is scared! Perhaps it's 'dramma giocoso' if we want to take that as an amalgamation of the two (even if I've just made up that definition).
Quote from: Mystery on May 27, 2007, 01:28:15 AM
Would you class Don Giovanni as an opera buffa or opera seria? I know there is a lot of speculation about this and I wondered if anyone has any gems of information about it because it may come up as one of my exam questions and I don't want to say exactly the same thing as everyone else! Though the basics would also be good if anyone has any thoughts...
I have to agree with hornteacher. It's not opera seria, but doesn't quite fit into opera buffa.
In his own thematic catalogue, Mozart entered it as "Il dissoluto punito, o, il Don Giovanni. opera buffa in due atti."
You can see a facsimile of the page here: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/mozart/accessible/images/page7full.jpg (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/mozart/accessible/images/page7full.jpg).
In spite of its more serious subject manner, Giovanni is much certainly closer formally to Figaro and Così than it is to Idomeneo or Tito.
BTW, the term dramma giocoso isn't Mozart's, but da Ponte's, and describes the text, rather than the opera as a whole. He also called Così fan tutte a dramma giocoso, while Figaro's a commedia per musica.
Quote from: Wendell_E on May 27, 2007, 06:40:34 AM
In his own thematic catalogue, Mozart entered it as "Il dissoluto punito, o, il Don Giovanni. opera buffa in due atti."
You can see a facsimile of the page here: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/mozart/accessible/images/page7full.jpg (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/mozart/accessible/images/page7full.jpg).
In spite of its more serious subject manner, Giovanni is much certainly closer formally to Figaro and Così than it is to Idomeneo or Tito.
BTW, the term dramma giocoso isn't Mozart's, but da Ponte's, and describes the text, rather than the opera as a whole. He also called Così fan tutte a dramma giocoso, while Figaro's a commedia per musica.
Così is not a light comedy despite it's elements of farce. It's a very serious and cynical statement about the interplay of men and women at that time in history. I can fully understand how da Ponte would have grouped
Don Giovanni and
Così Fan Tutte together. It has always been linked in my mind with Choderlos de Laclos epistolary novel,
Les Liaisons Dangereuses;
Così's "happy ending" has never quite sat well in my consciousness.
Yes. ;D
Which other operas end in Hell, and/or a closing moral?
Quote from: Mystery on May 27, 2007, 10:23:05 PM
Which other operas end in Hell, and/or a closing moral?
Boitio's
Mephistofele?
The Rake's Progress ends with a closing moral, and Bedlam's fairly hellish. >:D
Tosca ends with an execution and a suicide, but no moral -- maybe an excuse in Vissi d'Arte.
Carmen ends with a murder, and a moral. ("Eh bien, damnée".)
Madama Butterfly ends with a suicide and a moral. (Don't put your faith in a sailor on shoreleave. ;))
'Dramma giocoso' means: cheerful screenplay.
Da Ponte's work is a 'dramma giocoso'. Mozart made an 'opera buffa' of this 'dramma'.
These desciptions have got nothing to do with terms like 'tragic' or 'tragedy'.
Opera seria: serious, yes, because it was meant to enlighten and ennoble the audience. And this audience had to be ennobled with examples of great Gods and Kings of the Ancient World, mostly. (Like Van Swieten said, in the movie Amadeus.)
Mozart has written a lot of opera seria, especially in his younger days. His 'adult' opera seria are very good IMHO: Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito. Although, about the latter, not everyone agreed. The empress called it: "una porcheria tedesca," eine Teutsche ;) Schweinerei, a German filth.
BURN HER! VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE!
Quote from: Marc on May 29, 2007, 10:59:38 AM
'Dramma giocoso' means: cheerful screenplay.
Screenplay? Wow, da Ponte was
really ahead of his time! ;D
Quote from: Wendell_E on May 29, 2007, 11:13:23 AM
Screenplay? Wow, da Ponte was really ahead of his time! ;D
Huh huh ....
Oops!
(Blush) :-[
Play. Play. Play!
CHEERFUL PLAY!
(Darned language. English. Should be forbidden. Grumble grumble.)
Quote from: Wendell_E on May 29, 2007, 11:13:23 AM
Screenplay? Wow, da Ponte was really ahead of his time! ;D
:-)
Quote from: Marc on May 29, 2007, 10:59:38 AM
Mozart has written a lot of opera seria, especially in his younger days. His 'adult' opera seria are very good IMHO: Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito. Although, about the latter, not everyone agreed. The empress called it: "una porcheria tedesca," eine Teutsche ;) Schweinerei, a German filth.
Evidently the empress had impecible taste in these matters. Whenever you get a CD or DVD or this opera the linear notes or commentaries go on and on about how 'Tito' is a masterpiece despite the fact that virtually everyone who has heard it has hated it, from the premier to the present day. In fact, it
is rubbish.
Quote from: head-case on May 29, 2007, 02:56:03 PM
Evidently the empress had impecible taste in these matters. Whenever you get a CD or DVD or this opera the linear notes or commentaries go on and on about how 'Tito' is a masterpiece despite the fact that virtually everyone who has heard it has hated it, from the premier to the present day. In fact, it is rubbish.
Do these notes say they hate the play, or the music--a crucial distinction in opera? ???
Quote from: jochanaan on May 29, 2007, 03:23:49 PM
Do these notes say they hate the play, or the music--a crucial distinction in opera? ???
In this case it is difficult to determine which is worse.
Quote from: head-case on May 29, 2007, 02:56:03 PM
virtually everyone who has heard [La Clemenza di Tito has hated it, from the premier to the present day.
Not me. I'll take it over Mozart's other final opera [
Die Zauberflöte] any day.
Quote from: head-case on May 29, 2007, 02:56:03 PM
In fact, it is rubbish.
Could be. But it's not a fact, it's a personal opinion.
Quote
[....] despite the fact that virtually everyone who has heard it has hated it, from the premier to the present day.
Another fact. A historical fact, in the way it's presented. But, IMHO ;), it will be difficult to prove it. In fact ;),
Tito was very popular in the late 18th century and early Romantics, because qualities like 'nobility' were very highly considered those days. And the music was not too difficult for the 'common' listener, and the opera did not last as long as almost all the other opera seria did. The classic opera seria was a dying kind of 'artefact', this is true. But
Tito remained popular for a couple of decades.
(BTW: the first performance in 1791 was a disaster, because it was badly rehearsed, and because the royal couple only arrived two and a half hours after the performance was scheduled. BURN THEM! VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE ;))
Nowadays, I think that people who love Mozart's music enjoy the music in
Tito a lot. Considering the story though, I think there is a large gap between our rather cynical times and the world of
Clemenza, which makes the story difficult for us to understand. Let's just say, there is some historical distance.
But there were and there are people who feel attracted to humans like Titus, whose device was (or so they say)
diem perdidi (I've lost a day), when, late in the evening, he discovered that he had not helped one single person that day. 0:)
Quote from: Wendell_E on May 29, 2007, 05:08:23 PM
Not me. I'll take it over Mozart's other final opera [Die Zauberflöte] any day.
Zauberflote may have a tangled plot-line which particularly falls apart after the first act, but it has many moments of transcendent beauty, including a brilliant overture and arias of great drama (O zittre nicht), touching beauty (Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön), and humor (Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja). Many more examples can be cited. The opening of the first act seems almost to foreshadow Wagner's music-drama. Tito is a sequence of formulaic set-pieces. After listening to it within the past week, I cannot bring to mind a single musical element from it. In this case I can beleive the story that Mozart wrote it in a few days while riding in a stage coach.
Quote from: head-case on May 30, 2007, 07:41:14 AM
[....] Tito is a sequence of formulaic set-pieces. After listening to it within the past week, I cannot bring to mind a single musical element from it.
I prefer
Die Zauberflöte, no question about that.
About
Tito, I really like the Ouverture, there are some very good and attractive arias (IMO), like 'Parto, ma tu ben mio' (Sesto), 'S'altro che lagrime' (Servilia) and Vitellia's Rondo 'Non più di fiori'. I think the Finale of Act I is really great, and the Duetto 'Ah, perdona al primo affetto' (Annio, Servilia) is one my personal Mozart-favourites.
Quote
In this case I can believe the story that Mozart wrote it in a few days while riding in a stage coach.
Well, I don't believe that. He was engaged for the job around the middle of July. He had to be ready at september the 6th. Of course he was very busy with several other things, but that's no exception with Mozart :). He put aside his work at the
Requiem and committed his pupil Süßmayr to compose the secco recitatives.
Sure, it was hard and fast work, but again: no exception to this man.
To me, this 'two weeks composition' story is just another 19th century legend: "Wow man, this guy must have been directly communicating with God!! Just think of it: two weeks, and at that time the man was almost practically dead!" (Another fable.)
Semi-seria ;D
Last post here was in 2007 !!!
Here's a thought on Don Ottavio, often regarded rather negatively in comparison to the other roles in DG.
Dramatically and psychologically he is the exact antithesis of Don Giovanni himself: ardent but indecisive, incapable of taking action, deferent to a fault toward Anna, emotionally chained by code values such as honor, courteous love etc. In that sense he is the perfect dramatic foil to the type of manhood (brash, sex-oriented, self-serving) Giovanni impersonates. To Don Giovanni a woman is a trophy and, ultimately just another number (cf. the catalogue aria). To Don Ottavio she is an untouchable deity.
Vocally Ottavio is the pivot around which the other voices revolve: 3 soprano voices, 4 bass voices (2 in the Act 2 finale). His is the only middle voice in the ensemble textures. Therefore his every word can be heard clearly, his lines stand out like a ray of light through the clouds. Compare this to the vocal layout of Cosi fan tutte: light lyric soprano, lirico-spinto soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass: all the shades of singing voices are on display. None can be said to have a harmonic function that stands out in the ensembles - they are all equal in that regard.
I believe that an effective Ottavio must possess a distinctive tenor voice, one that is rounded, with a strong but clear emission, with no dryness, no obtrusive vibrato, no bleating. It must be plangent, ample but perfectly focused. And of course endowed with impeccable breath control and fluent coloratura. This is not an easy vocal mix to achieve. Too often the wrong kind of tenor is used: either too 'white' of voice, or with a beat, or a dryness that are uningratiating. Although german and english voices may tend to sound like that sometimes, I don't think any specific school of singing produces the right type: great Ottavios of the past include Anton Dermota, Stuart Burrows, Léopold Simoneau - all the product of different countries and schools of singing.