The Evolution of the Opera until Puccini
From DIMA
Author : Elena Andrieş
The syncretism of the arts dominated the artistic manifestations ever since ancient times: magic rituals, the Greek tragedies, the liturgical plays and dramas, the mysteries of the Middle Ages are some of the examples of connections among poetry, music and dance. Italy is the country which in the 15-16th centuries built the propitious framework for the birth of the opera genre. Starting in the 16th century, in Tuscany, the sacred performances (analogous to the mysteries) intercalated between the acts scenes foreign to the action proper, comprising dances, drinking songs and choruses. There were reunited this way, in a rough form, all the elements of an opera performance.
Towards the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, Neo-Hellenism which manifested itself in the plastic arts, has to the same extent influences on the theatre. The poets and musicians, surrounded by artists such as Heinrich Isaac or Agricola, Lorenzo the Magnificent, favoured the birth of the pastoral drama, introducing in the chivalry performances the gods and goddesses of the mythology.
“Orfeo” by Politien and Gerni (Mantua, 1474), “Dafne” by Gian Pietro della Viola (1486) and numerous pastorals by Alfonso della Violla are the first manifestations of a genre which “Armida” by Tasso will bring in 1573 towards perfection; a few years later, Rinuccini transforms the subject of the pastoral drama in a real opera subject. In the last years of the 16th century, Florence knew an intense artistic life. Poets and musicians attended the salons of Count Bardi, and were in favour of the return to the Greek art, seeking its essence in the works of Aristotle, translated in 1562. Let us not forget that one of the most important works of Aristotle – “On Tragedy” – draws a reference to the catharsis of the dramatic representations and is most likely that this text had influenced the representatives of the Florence Camerata. Rinuccini, Caccini and Peri set the foundations of the representative style of the opera with “Dafne” (1594) and “Euridice” (1600) while Cavalieri states in the preface to “La Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo” (1600) the artistic conditions necessary for the public performance of the new genre.
Accomplishing the synthesis of this style with the one of the madrigal comedies of Orazio Vecchi, Claudio Monteverdi established the final foundation of the opera with “L'Orfeo” (1607) and “L'Arianna” (1608). There are already present all the elements of the genre: recitatives, arias, choruses, ensembles supported with a relatively rich and expressive orchestration. In Venice (the city with the first institution of public musical theatre), the same Monteverdi will compose the first opera on a historical subject, “L'Incoronazione di Poppea” (1642). The Italian opera flourishes afterwards, with Cavalli in Venice, Cesti in Florence, Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples.
While the opera invades the whole of Italy, France seeks its own way through the means of the courts ballets. The Italians who arrive in France given the protection of Cardinal Mazarin bring along with them the new genre. The French opera opens its gates in 1671 with “Pomone” by Perrin and Cambert. A year later, because of the court intrigues Perrin is arrested, and Cambert exiles himself in England. Lully obtains from the Crown the privilege on the opera with his first performance of “Les fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus”. He will retain this privilege until his death, becoming together with his librettist Quinault the founder of the French opera. A. Campra (1660-1744) proceeds together with Lully on the pathway of the opera with “L'Europe galante” (1697) written on a libretto by Houdar della Motte. This opera marks the birth of a new genre: the ballet-opera, in which each act treated a different subject, the pieces being linked by a general idea. The French school follows the line shown by Lully and Campra, but Rameau is the one who in the 18th century becomes the undisputed maestro of the beginnings of the French opera. “Hippolyte et Aricie” (1733), “Les Indes galantes” (1735), “Castor et Pollux” (1737), “Dardanaus” (1739), “Plantée” (1745) are the works through which Rameau tries to express in a direct way the feelings of the characters. Their connection with a melodic or harmonic musical line represents the forte in counterpart of Monteverdi or Lully, who sought a musical expression tied with the natural inflexions of the speech.
The synthesis of the Italian opera with the French one was accomplished by Gluck, who will bring about the unification of the subject, removing all the dispersions of the action, and insisting on outlining the feelings of the characters. “Orfeo ed Euridice” (1762), “Alceste” (1767), “Paride ed Elena” (1770) mark the level of this reform, these being followed by the operas composed after French librettos: “Iphigénie en Aulide” (1774), “Orphée” (1774), “Armide” (1775 ) and “Iphigénie en Tauride” (1779), “Echo et Narcisse” (1779).
Introduced in Germany by Schütz (the author of “Dafne” on a text by Rinuccini), the opera will extend this way also in the main cities of Central Europe. In Germany, between 1678 and 1738, by the foundation of a theatre in Hamburg are presented operas by Keiser, Russer, Mattheson and Telemann, although all composed on the Italian pattern of the genre. Hasse, Haendel, Gluck and Mozart themselves compose Italian operas and only starting with the Singspiels “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (1781) and “Die Zauberflöte” (1791) the German opera is born. Also, Mozart is the one who combines the genre of the opera seria with the comic opera in “Don Giovanni” (1787), which he refers to as “Dramma gioccoso”.
In England, Cambert tries to adapt the French opera towards the end of the 17th century. His attempt is nonetheless crushed by the invasion of the Italian opera through the means of Haendel and Bononcini. This foreign invasion will bring to a secondary level the memory of an ephemeral school, brilliantly represented by Richard Edwards during the Elizabethan theatre, Ferraboco, Thomas Campion, C. Gibbons, N. Lanier, H. and W. Lawes, M. Locke, composers of “masques” at the beginning of the 17th century. At the end of the century the English opera knows its height through the works of Purcell “Dido and Aeneas” (1689) and “King Arthur” (1691).
Another culmination of the opera is represented by the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. This is the stage of the Grand Opéra style, represented in Italy by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, in France by Meyerbeer, Halévy and Felicien David and in Germany by Spohr. But the same Italy, which will give the world Giacomo Puccini, remains the undisputed sanctuary of opera. The Italian triad Rossini-Bellini-Donizetti represents in this stage the hard to obtain standard.
The triad Bellini – Donizetti – Rossini prepares the arrival of the moment which will represent the high point of the Italian Romanticism in opera: the works of Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901). “Un giorno di regno” (1840), “Nabucodonosor” (1842), “I lombardi alla prima crociata” (1843), “Ernani” (1844), “Macbeth” (1847), “Luisa Miller” (1849),”Rigoletto” (1851), “Il trovatore” (1853), “La traviata” (1853), “Les vêpres siciliennes” (1855), “Simon Boccanegra” (1857, rev. 1881), “Un ballo in maschera” (1859), “La forza del destino” (1962, rev. 1869), “Don Carlos” (1867, rev. 1884), “Aida” (1871), “Otello” (1887), “Falstaff” (1893) are only some of the most important operas of the one who will perfect the Grand-opera style, opening the path towards the dramma per musica.
The plots of Verdi’s operas are consistent and veridical. A remarkable contribution to its success was brought by his skilful libretto writers: Francesco Maria Piave snd Arrigo Boito, inspired by the great background of universal literature, from Shakespeare or Schiller to Alexandre Dumas-son. Let us not forget that “La Traviata” is the first opera which brings on the stage characters from the composer’s contemporary life, with the social problems of the day. From the central character of this Verdian opera, Puccini will extract the prototype of his feminine characters, Manon from “Manon Lescaut” and Mimi from “La bohème” being nothing else than the true “successors” of Violeta Valéry. The similarities go up to writing details, so that, for instance, in Mimi’s death scene, Puccini will employ the same methods as Verdi in Violetta’s death scene: on a pianissimo background (ppp or pppp) of the orchestra is overlapped the quasi recto tono writing, almost spoken voice of the female soloist. By the means of some characters such as Philip in “Don Carlo”, Verdi will introduce introspection in the domain of musical drama, offering thus patterns for the Puccinian works. In this sense, Tosca is nothing else than a reversed Othello, in other words, a jealousy drama in mirror. Puccini was to use many of the solutions offered by Verdi.