Opera buffa

Opera buffa ( comic opera ger, musical comedy, even jocular opera ) is the comic Italian opera, in contrast to the serious opera seria. It has two to three acts and recitatives between the musical numbers (as opposed to the spoken texts Between the Opéra -Comique ). Your main characters are not nobles, but peasants, servants or city citizens. Some of these figures are the Commedia dell'arte borrowed. The opera buffa, emerged in the 18th century at the same time in Naples (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi ) and Venice ( Baldassare Galuppi ).

History

Breakfast time

The Intermezzo, the opera buffa is near, served as amusing insert between the acts of serious opera, which was performed at court. Since it often tendencies were to mix comic and serious offenses, such as Apostolo Zeno himself librettist Pietro Metastasio and tried to make a clear distinction between tragedy and comedy. Separate from the serious opera independent opera buffa was considered until the later 18th century as entertainment for the Third Estate, was so despised by the nobles (see items clause).

The Teatro dei Fiorentini was the first public theater in which the Neapolitan opera buffa was performed. As a very early example of comic opera in Naples La Cilla (premiered 1706) may require the lawyer Faggioli Michelangelo, who had dedicated the work to the Minister of Justice of Naples, to be seen. From this opera only the libretto is obtained. A special feature was that they played in a city district of Naples and was listed in the local dialect.

Everyday, realistic actions were an important feature of opera buffa. From Naples, it spread to Rome, which also became the center of this opera form in the 1730s. Important composers Niccolò Jommelli, Niccolò Piccinni and Giovanni Paisiello. The genre was, however, considered as a whole as secondary. With greater energy were devoted to the librettist and composer of opera seria.

Effect outside Italy

If one understands opera buffa as a generic term for the Italian comic opera, so you can also Pergolesi's La serva padrona ( 1733) counted among the early successes of this genus. This piece was typical of the opera buffa, because it triggered the Buffonistenstreit in Paris. Paris was going to be the European Opera Centre and to stand up to the Italian cities with their older traditions. Therefore rivalries between Italian and French opera troupes were a political issue. Added to this were the political changes before the French Revolution that led to the appreciation of the popular forms of theater, which the Italian opera buffa and French opéra comique concerned.

1752 sparked an Italian opera troupe in Paris from a dispute between the " Buffonisten " and the advocates of serious Tragédie lyrique. Such disputes were for decades, but now the Italian genre against the " high " French genre was "lower " played (instead of about the Tragédie lyrique with the peer opera seria or the Opera Comique with the opera buffa to compare). So the national Unlike a social contrast was superimposed. The opera buffa " from the gutter " appeared about Jean -Jacques Rousseau more valuable than the Tragédie lyrique the high aristocracy, which led to angry reactions.

The German operas were until then only translations or imitations of these forms. Vienna was a sideshow for the development of the genre. The later musical comedies Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte (1790) and Le nozze di Figaro (1786 ) remained insignificant for the development of opera buffa, but were for a "bourgeois opera" in the city theaters of the 19th century groundbreaking. Mozart created with Le nozze di Figaro a genus synthesis by transferring features of the opera seria in opera buffa.

Development since 1800

The combination of comedy and tragedy in the years around the French Revolution no longer a sign of neglect, but a political- aesthetic program. Under French influence at the end of the 18th century developed from the opera buffa of the type of the Opera semiseria. The Dramma giocoso as a mixture of serious and serene elements to define, is a common mistake, which is not supported by the language of the 18th century. Even Mozart 's Don Giovanni (1787 ) was first considered opera buffa and interpreted differently in the course of the 19th century. The social differentiation and the emancipation efforts of the comedy were more significant than the difference between serious and serene. The sly rogue Don Juan is a nobleman on the side of the powerful, which was contrary to the conventions of comedy and could provoke this reason and interest. Mozart gave at that time only a contribution to the Don Giovanni opera buffa in fashion in the decade before the Revolution.

Gioachino Rossini revived the opera buffa, creating works that are still in the repertoire, such as Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1816 ) and La Cenerentola (1817 ). In the early 19th century, the Romantic era, the importance of opera buffa took off quickly. She had lost her socially critical explosive force, and Rossini seemed to have performed their comedy and drama to an unsurpassable peak.

A romantic work, which is always still belongs to this form of opera, Gaetano Donizetti 's L' elisir d' amore (1832 ). Greed and wealth are no longer made ​​here as Vanitas attributes ridiculous, but celebrated as a bourgeois love and prosperity. Giuseppe Verdi wrote only one opera buffa ( Un giorno di regno, 1840) that no longer plays in the milieu of ordinary people.

Some features of the opera buffa were included in the operetta by Jacques Offenbach called some of his plays as an opéra bouffon or Opérette bouffe. Joyous Italian operas, there are also later as Verdi's Falstaff (1893 ), Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (1918 ) or Nino Rota Il cappello paglia di di Firenze ( 1955). They refuse mostly to the secco recitative.

Characteristics

The opera buffa, or comic is characterized by popular topics recourse to the impromptu comedy of the Renaissance ( Commedia dell'arte ), which experienced a revival by Carlo Gozzi and Carlo Goldoni in the 18th century, as well as the occasional parody of opera seria. A principal author was Pietro Metastasio, in time reinforced social criticism Lorenzo Da Ponte was famous. Typical is the rivalry between two social classes, the lower layer finally triumphed over the top. It should convey a moral message caricatured shown weaknesses such as greed, lust, greed and pride. The victory of Trickery on social privileges should, however, win the sympathy of the audience.

Musical features of Buffostils are the secco recitative that Parlando and the repetition of short melodic phrases as well as the formation of longer ensembles with surprising contrasts at the end. As a performer, there have been specialized buffo singer. In addition to the language- related song of secco recitative the song-like melodies played a major role. It sets itself apart from the conditions prevailing in the Baroque opera bel canto with its coloratura. Motif imitations in the orchestra, onomatopoeia and a swinging rhythms that the solemn progress of the baroque basso replaced inspired musical innovations in the second half of the 18th century. Also new was that the music supported the actions of the actors. Not only in the finals at the end of the file, but also in arias and ensembles often takes an act whereby the Baroque da capo aria was ousted.

Other composers

Estates of the realm#Third Estate Nobility Querelle des Bouffons Falstaff (opera) Melodics Belcanto
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