The Language of the Soul - A History of Opera

Author: (Italian) Piero Mocchi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-11-01
Features: 3 Romanticism 1 Between Light and Shadow Rossini was like a lightning bolt in a clear sky, or a streak of light from a meteor in a dark sky. In that period of Neapolitan music, the throne of the music king remained unoccupied. Mozart died young, and no one had yet filled the void left by the death of this great man. At that time, Rossini had many operas performed in Italy and abroad. As soon as he appeared, opera enthusiasts shouted in unison: "He is the long-awaited successor to Paisiello and Cimarosa, he innovated Italian anthems, and he filled this void." This was a void in the position of a great man, a void that would soon be occupied by second-rate musicians. Nicola Manfredi failed to fulfill the promise to fill this void and died at just over twenty. The two decades spanning the turn of the century were like the forty years between Monteverdi's death and Scarlatti's birth, a time of fierce competition. The entire 18th century was the era of the opera republic, and figures like Pergolesi and Piccinni never monopolized the opera world. Now, the form of the opera republic still existed, but it was no longer peaceful, almost waiting for the involuntary and frightening birth of an autocratic monarch. Nicola Guglielmi①, Pietro Genovese②, Stefano Pavesi③, Vincenzo Puccini④, and Vincenzo Lavini⑤ were all working diligently, especially in the field of comic opera, creating many excellent works. Among them, the farce La Rustica by Valentino Fioravanti⑥ remained beloved until the 1930s. Many works by Giovanni Simone Mayr⑥, who moved to Bergamo, spread widely in the decades that followed. Fernando Pal⑦'s works Camilla and Agnes achieved great success and endured for a long time. These two works are often defined as semi-serious and humorous serious styles. When the French army swept across the Italian peninsula and established governments there, inspiring artists to create, a new phenomenon appeared on the horizon of Italian opera: the third wave of opera style, the semi-serious style. At that time, this style was not very vibrant, but it was foreshadowed in the works of Piccinni's La serva padrona and Paisiello's Nina. In the Nina libretto, the author brought the twists and turns of a love story between a loving husband and wife onto the stage, caused by a provocative and stubborn squire, and ended with a happy resolution. The plot was often interspersed with the performances of comic characters such as servants, housekeepers, or tutors, making it somewhat disorganized. In France, the so-called comédie en vaudeville had long been practiced, always able to untie the knots in the plot. Both Cherubini and Mayr had composed music for stories of typical characters like Elisa and Rodoliska. It can be seen that Italian opera had already bloomed in Gaul (France). Moreover, Mayr's Elisa was directly called a "dramma sentimentale." Rossini also incorporated melancholic duets, such as "Ah! Per i miei ricordi," into his semi-serious work Il barbiere di Siviglia; this was not entirely Romantic emotion. But Bellini, in his La sonnambula, made Amenaide weep for the "withered" flowers, and that was truly Romantic emotion. In fact, just as Bellini and Donizetti reached the peak of their artistry, the semi-serious opera was declining in momentum. From Bellini's works emerged Romanticism in the history of Italian music. Perhaps the connection between them was subtle, but it was profound. The prison scene in Rossini's Tancredi also conveyed a sense of worry. Rossini was born the year after Mozart's death, and his works created at the age of 20 were considered a new form of serious opera, one that had moved far away from ancient stories and myths. In short, serious Romanticism may have originated from humorous classicism, from an overall blend of humor and passion. When Rossini claimed to be the last of the classicists, his contemporary Italian composers quickly took up their pens and worked, producing their accomplished works in the 1820s and 1830s. Works such as Carlo Coccia①'s Catarina di Guisa, Giuseppe Pericoli①'s Ines di Castro, and Pietro Antonio Cappuccio②'s new work Amore delirante were created during the brief flourishing of Bellini's Romanticism. In short, Romanticism came from abroad. Even if it is said that the French played an intermediary role, it did not contain the color of Napoleon.
2 Dawn of Romanticism Romanticism truly came from abroad. The Enlightenment was not only an artistic and creative movement but also a philosophical and cultural movement. Thus, Italian music was able to shake off the atmosphere of sadness. The dominant Italy, having contributed the Renaissance and Baroque, Petrarca and Merino, opera, and concerts to Europe, could also stand aside, watching and waiting for others' invitations. In fact, at that time, philosophers elsewhere were engaged in debates about music, while Wolfgang Goethe was entering his maturity and later years, and nearby lived the radical revolutionary in music, Beethoven. Romanticism spread from Germany to other parts of Europe, first in the realms of thought and culture, then in literature, art, and music, so that by the time it was ready to illuminate Italy and France, it had already exhausted its initial passion. When the significant German work Lehrbuch der dramatischen Literatur by August Wilhelm Schlegel was published in Italian, Rossini was at the height of his fame. That same year, 1798, Romanticism was fully explained in the Berlin magazine Atheneum, and the term romantik was used for the first time. At that time, Naples still followed traditional methods—using dialects—and was simply preparing to celebrate the aforementioned masterpiece by Fioravanti. For this very reason, musical Romanticism took a long time to take root in Italy, fragmenting and appearing and disappearing intermittently. Here, the simple semi-serious opera may have fulfilled its duty, and many of Rossini's works had already taken on this new hue. Berlioz believed that France also had traces of Rossini, as Rossini himself had been active there for many years. But before Rossini, France had Spontini. Spontini was a diligent professional collector, perhaps best described as a shrewd time-user. Spontini was from Marche and studied in Naples. He came to Paris just before Napoleon became emperor. This French emperor, having lost his taste for the elegant music of Paisiello, fell in love with Spontini's style and had his romantic-style tragic opera La Vestale performed in 1807. The opera was filled with triumphant music in mixed tones, which had an undeniable Romantic flavor. When Spontini was preparing another tragedy Fernando Cortez, the emperor was also simultaneously fond of this opera with a folk theme of, as it implied his recent non-peaceful conquest of Spain. After Napoleon's fall, Spontini came to Berlin to resist the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty and served as the director of performances. He later returned to Italy and died the year Verdi composed Il Trovatore. Spontini's opera was a responsive opera, despite the lively use of orchestral instruments and the passionate portrayal of medieval themes, but because his opera was serious and lacked tenderness, it could not be called a Romantic work. In that era, French opera, apart from the mature Cherubini, also looked to Jean Fran?ois Roger① for the "solemn grandeur" of Romanticism and to Joseph Méhul② for his inclusive comedy and tragedy.