Chapter Seventeen:Classical Genres: Vocal Music

Vocal Music: Classical Opera• Rise of opera buffa (comic opera)– Realistic characters

– Recitative and aria

– Moves smoothly between styles

– Rapid changes in mood

• Use of vocal ensembles– Multiple characters often sing simultaneously

– Each character responds to the dramatic action

– Ensemble often closes a scene or act

– Typifies the more democratic spirit of the late 18th-century

Mozart and Opera

• Master of Classical opera

• Wrote Italian opera seria, modern opera buffa, and German Singspiel – Singspiel: Spoken dialogue and songs [Mozart’s Die

Zauberflöte (1791)]

• Created a new kind of opera that mixed serious and comic elements to powerful effects– Le nozze di Figaro (1786)

– Don Giovanni (1787)

Mozart: Don Giovanni (1787), K. 527• Story of Don Juan

• Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte

• Critical of the aristocracy

• Overture:

– Sonata-allegro form with a slow introduction that incorporates several themes or motives important later in the opera