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  • Opera Buffa / The Opera Wars: - La Serva Padrona 1733

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    This document summarizes the development of opera buffa and the musical conflicts it sparked in the 18th century. It describes how the simple, comedic Italian opera buffa style popularized by composers like Pergolesi challenged the serious French tragedie lyrique tradition and led to political disputes known as the "War of the Buffoons" and later the "Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinists" between Gluck and Piccinni's opposing styles of opera.

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    November 16th

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    This document summarizes the development of opera buffa and the musical conflicts it sparked in the 18th century. It describes how the simple, comedic Italian opera buffa style popularized by composers like Pergolesi challenged the serious French tragedie lyrique tradition and led to political disputes known as the "War of the Buffoons" and later the "Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinists" between Gluck and Piccinni's opposing styles of opera.

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    61 views3 pages

    Opera Buffa / The Opera Wars: - La Serva Padrona 1733

    Uploaded by

    Candice
    This document summarizes the development of opera buffa and the musical conflicts it sparked in the 18th century. It describes how the simple, comedic Italian opera buffa style popularized by composers like Pergolesi challenged the serious French tragedie lyrique tradition and led to political disputes known as the "War of the Buffoons" and later the "Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinists" between Gluck and Piccinni's opposing styles of opera.

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    of 3

    November 16th

    Opera Buffa / the Opera Wars

    N. Piccinni C.W.Gluck

    Fair Game​;
    - Opera buffa
    - Intermezzo
    - La Serva Padrona 1733
    - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 1710-1736
    - War of the Buffoons (​Guerre des Bouffons)​ 1752
    - jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778
    - Le devin du village ​1752
    - Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinists 1770
    - Niccolo Piccinni 1728-1800

    Opera in the Second Half of the 18th Century


    - Music WITH WORDS has a special place in Age of Enlightenment thinking
    (MUSICAL TEXT)
    - Supposed thinking about the meanings of the text/story/philosophy
    - Classical opera: largely unperformed today
    - Andre-Ernest-Modeste-Gretry
    - Johann Adolphe Hasse
    - Baldassare Galuppi
    - P 336
    - Niccolo Piccinni 1728-1800

    Opera Buffa
    - Predecessor : The Beggar’s Opera (J. Gay, 1728, England)
    - Makes a caricature out of opera seria
    - Characteristics:
    - Simple melodies
    - Libretti contain every-day people
    - Duets, trios, etc. (instead of focus on solo arias)
    - Very few da capo arias
    - Involved bass singers
    - Avoided castrati
    - Lighter subject matter
    The Intermezzo
    - Origin of Opera Buffa
    - Lighter entertainment between the acts of an opera seria
    - Sung drama
    - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 1710-1736
    - La serva padrona​ (‘the Maidservant as Mistress’)
    - Performed between the acts of Il prigionier subperbo (‘the Proud
    Prisoner’) 1733

    La Serva Padrona
    - Cast: 3 people (of whom 1 is mute)
    - Serpina (soprano)
    - Uberto (bass)
    - Vespone (manservant, mute)
    - Plot Part 1:
    - Uberto is exasperated with Serpina for being ‘arrogant’ and tells Vespone
    to find him a wife, so he can be rid of Serpina
    - Plot Part 2:
    - Serpina and Vespone trick Uberto. Vespone disguises himself as
    ‘Tempesta’, a man about to marry Serpina, who wants 4000 crowns
    dowry. When Uberto refuses, ‘Tempesta’ Tells him to either pay the dowry
    or marry Serpina himself, which he does.
    - Considered a silly, funny thing, not supposed to be heavy at all

    Funny Little PIece Causes Uproar


    - Opera Buffa presents light subject matter through simple music
    - Catalyst for political/ cultural conflict
    - Those who promoted Italian style/ culture (also more international in general)
    (i.e. Pergolesi)
    - VS
    - Those who backed Louis XV and traditional French culture (i.e. Rameau)

    War of the Buffoons / Guerre Des Bouffons


    - Musical excuse for political unrest
    - La serva padrona ​had been performed in Paris, by Italians in 1746 and all was
    well
    - Remounting in 1752 in the Royal Academie
    - This theatre usually reserved for ​tragedie lyrique
    - Those who are on the pro-opera buffa side led to a defence. Vs.
    conservatives

    Pamphlet War
    - Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778
    - Swiss
    - Le devin du village 1752
    - SIMPLE MUSIC (drawn from folk songs)
    - Plot: shepherd and shepherdess love each other but suspect each other.
    Help comes from the village soothsayer (‘devin’), and they get married
    - Pamphlet by Rousseau (1753): ‘Letter on French Music’
    - …. There is neither measure nor melody in French music, because the
    language is not sensitive… French singing is only continual barking,
    unbearable to all unprejudiced ears; that the harmony is brutal…. I
    conclude that the French have no music and can have none…”

    Quarrel of the Gluckists and Piccinnists


    - Debate in France between ‘French’ and ‘Italian’ opera reopened 20 years later
    - Gluck vs Piccinni
    - Christoph Willibald Gluck:
    - Born in what is now the Czech Republic
    - Lived mostly in Milan and Vienna
    - Moved to paris at age 60
    - Niccolo Piccinni:
    - Wrote an opera buffa : La Cecchina, ossia la buona Figliuola (‘the
    good-natured girl’) 1760
    - Invited to Paris in 1774 by Marie Antoinette
    - First Italian (after Lully) to write operas for the Academie Royale

    Iphigenie en Tauride
    - To bring this conflict to a head, the directors of the Grand Opera convinced Gluck
    and Piccinni to write an opera on the same subject
    - Gluck’s was first : may 18, 1779
    - Piccini's was second January 23, 1781
    - Rival parties were much more antagonistic than probably necessary….

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