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Jul 24, 2020 · Overtures can be long or short, loud or soft, melodious or dissonant; they can be anything. Following the classical era of rules and structures, when composition became less regulated, the art of the overture became even freer. Overtures are very important to an opera.
May 5, 2020 · The overture is simply an instrumental piece that plays before the start of the opera or one of its acts. In opera's early days, many overtures were considered incidental music that played before the audience was even seated. This was still the case during Mozart's era.
Oct 15, 2024 · Overtures in opera have a rich history, evolving from functional ‘beginnings’ to artistic statements that set the tone for entire productions, and became works that could stand alone as concert repertoire, such as Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Fingal’s Cave or Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and then developing into an integral part ...
- Overture
- Parts of An Opera: The Early History of The Overture
- The Beginnings of The Italian Overture
- The Foundation of The Modern Opera Overture
- Parts of An Opera: History of The Aria
- The Evolution of Arias
- Aria Evolution Continued…
- Parts of An Opera: The Recitative
- History of Recitative: The Early Beginnings
- The Two Main Types of Recitative
The history of the opera overture goes back to the very beginning of the 17th century. Instruments were different back then (think gut stringsand the violoncello), the symphony hadn’t been invented yet, and opera was just getting started. Thanks to guys like Peri, Caccini, and Monteverdi, operas and overtures were able to get off the ground.
The word “overture” comes from the Latin word “apertura.” You may be familiar with the English word “aperture,” which refers to an opening or a hole. Considering the origins of the word, it comes as no surprise that “overture” is often used to describe the instrumental opening of an opera prior to the beginning of Act 1. [su_box title=”Side Note on...
It was about time for a composer to “mix things up” by the time Purcell’s Dido and Aeneasstarting topping the late Baroque charts. Alessandro Scarlatti (the father of Domenico) took it upon himself to introduce something new. He came up with a three section overture in the 1680s, as opposed to Lully’s two. Scarlatti also employed a fast-slow-fast f...
Thanks to Christoph Gluck (1714-1787), overtures started relating more and more the body of the opera itself. Gluck believed that an overture should foreshadow the plot and mood of the opera–the audience should be prepared by the orchestra for what would follow later. His opera Alceste offers an early example of this mindset. Mozart’s Don Giovannip...
In 1602, a composer named Giulio Caccini released a new collection of solo songs called Nuove Musiche(The New Music) in monodic style rather than the more traditional polyphonic style. This basically means that the songs featured a solo melody line with accompaniment. The songs had verses (meaning they were “strophic”), and they featured embellishm...
Like other parts of an opera, the aria followed a similar path to the overture; it began in A-B (binary) form, and it evolved into A-B-A (ternary) form. By the middle of the 17th century, Lully had started popularizing “extended binary” arias into his French Opera style. What do we mean by extended binary? In short, extended binary arias followed a...
While the arias of Lully, Scarlatti, and Gluck dominated the opera world for a long time, new forms of experimentation eventually took over. Operatic arias started to regularly appear in two distinct halves again around the year 1800 (you might be thinking that 2-part arias are nothing new–you’re right. The beginnings of “binary” arias were back in...
Recitative refers to the parts of an opera in which a performer imitates the rhythm of the spoken word. Recitative passages are usually sung on a repeated note or just a few notes, and there is no melody. Furthermore, the singer doesn’t repeat any words or sections of a recitative as he would in a strophic aria. In short, recitative is used in plac...
By now you might be tired of hearing about Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (from the year 1600), but wouldn’t you know–operatic recitative was born right here in the first known opera. The recitative in Euridice wasn’t exactly how we know it today, but the majority of the opera was written in a lyrical recitative style. Given the fact that Caccini had not y...
Recitative falls into two sub categories: Recitativo Secco and Recitativo Stromentato We’ll start with Recitativo Secco, which literally means “dry recitative.” No, it has nothing to do with white wine–it has everything to do with the amount of instrumental accompaniment underneath. Recitativo Secco has a stark and bare sound, accompanied by only m...
With the reform of opera seria, the overture began to distinguish itself from the symphony, and composers began to link the content of overtures to their operas dramatically and emotionally. Elements from the opera are foreshadowed in the overture, following the reform ideology that the music and every other element on stages serves to enhance ...
Overtures are instrumental pieces played before the start of the opera or one of its acts. In Handel’s time, audiences probably didn’t pay all that much attention to overtures. That’s just one more reason why we should take a closer listen to these musical gems.
A Beginner’s Guide, Act I: Overture. Opera is such a hugely varied art form, especially now that the boundaries of the repertoire have been opened up to include works of every period, style, and nationality.
