Page 376 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 376
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
in the classical period, with numerous lighter works with genres such as
opera buffa, but including the two greatest operas of the Classical period,
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, both of which embrace the
lighter and serious styles in a brilliant synthesis.4 Mozart was also involved
in the German Singspiel, including lighter operas, with dance routines and
spoken dialogue rather than formal recitative, notably Die Entführung aus
dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte.5 The composer Chistoph Willibald Gluck
(1714–1787) made a more conscious attempt to reform opera by reducing the
length of baroque operas, with the omission of da capo sections and oth-
er features. The operas of Gluck, consequently, were well received in Par-
is, notably Orfée.
In France in the 19th century, this reaction to new and serious opera
continued the conflict with what we now see as an populist attack on the
whole idea of serious opera. The operas of Berlioz suffered some terrible in-
dignities at the hands of the troublemakers of the Parisian press and public.
For example, in 1838 Berlioz’s adventurous Benvenuto Cellini was subjected
to a barrage of abuse and ill-informed criticism, as well as by many of his
performers who were unable to understand the composer’s style.6 Berlioz’s
Les Troyens met with great resistance because it was a long opera based on
the classical story of Troy and Rome,7 a subject seemingly irrelevant to the
people of contemporary Paris.
The situation was ripe for some novelties. In the chaotic theatrical en-
vironment of Paris in the mid-19th century there gradually and fitfully
emerged a form that represented the protest against serious opera.8 It was
4 Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (London: Faber, 1971), 164–83, in a detailed and
perceptive but selective stylistic analysis, considers these two operas as a fusion of se
ria and buffa.
5 Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte is much more complex than is suggested by the features
mentioned, because it operates as a pantomime, a pair of interconnecting romantic
or quasi-romantic love stories and a masonic manifesto, sometimes simultaneously.
6 Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: Dent, 1982), 34–6, spells out some of the main
points, while David Cairns does so in much greater detail in the second volume of
his majestic biography Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832–1869 (London: Allen
Lane, Penguin Press, 1999) in chapter 7, 157–75, ironically entitled ‘Malvenuto Cel-
lini’.
7 Cairns, Berlioz, chapter 24, 591–627, explains the difficulties met by the composer in
his last years to achieve a satisfactory performance of his great epic opera, Les Troy
ens.
8 James Harding, Folies de Paris: the Rise and Fall of French Operetta (London: Chap-
pell, 1979), 11–36, especially 22–3, vividly describes the haphazard and chaotic way
that the situation evolved.
374
in the classical period, with numerous lighter works with genres such as
opera buffa, but including the two greatest operas of the Classical period,
Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, both of which embrace the
lighter and serious styles in a brilliant synthesis.4 Mozart was also involved
in the German Singspiel, including lighter operas, with dance routines and
spoken dialogue rather than formal recitative, notably Die Entführung aus
dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte.5 The composer Chistoph Willibald Gluck
(1714–1787) made a more conscious attempt to reform opera by reducing the
length of baroque operas, with the omission of da capo sections and oth-
er features. The operas of Gluck, consequently, were well received in Par-
is, notably Orfée.
In France in the 19th century, this reaction to new and serious opera
continued the conflict with what we now see as an populist attack on the
whole idea of serious opera. The operas of Berlioz suffered some terrible in-
dignities at the hands of the troublemakers of the Parisian press and public.
For example, in 1838 Berlioz’s adventurous Benvenuto Cellini was subjected
to a barrage of abuse and ill-informed criticism, as well as by many of his
performers who were unable to understand the composer’s style.6 Berlioz’s
Les Troyens met with great resistance because it was a long opera based on
the classical story of Troy and Rome,7 a subject seemingly irrelevant to the
people of contemporary Paris.
The situation was ripe for some novelties. In the chaotic theatrical en-
vironment of Paris in the mid-19th century there gradually and fitfully
emerged a form that represented the protest against serious opera.8 It was
4 Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (London: Faber, 1971), 164–83, in a detailed and
perceptive but selective stylistic analysis, considers these two operas as a fusion of se
ria and buffa.
5 Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte is much more complex than is suggested by the features
mentioned, because it operates as a pantomime, a pair of interconnecting romantic
or quasi-romantic love stories and a masonic manifesto, sometimes simultaneously.
6 Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz (London: Dent, 1982), 34–6, spells out some of the main
points, while David Cairns does so in much greater detail in the second volume of
his majestic biography Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832–1869 (London: Allen
Lane, Penguin Press, 1999) in chapter 7, 157–75, ironically entitled ‘Malvenuto Cel-
lini’.
7 Cairns, Berlioz, chapter 24, 591–627, explains the difficulties met by the composer in
his last years to achieve a satisfactory performance of his great epic opera, Les Troy
ens.
8 James Harding, Folies de Paris: the Rise and Fall of French Operetta (London: Chap-
pell, 1979), 11–36, especially 22–3, vividly describes the haphazard and chaotic way
that the situation evolved.
374
