Opera Reform in the 18th Century

            According to Chapter Two of the Oxford text, Opera reform was initiated into the 1750s-1760s primarily by two individuals; Algarotti and Calzabigi. Both were very well educated “men of letters” (meaning that they had a profound literary knowledge, which, according to the author was not necessarily common among composers of the time). In retrospect, this is (in collegiate studies) commonly perceived to be a transition period between Baroque and Classical eras.  The text notes that the Rococo which followed Baroque ideals was generally beginning to be perceived as “artificial” and that artists looked to a more “noble simplicity” which became something of a mantra for Classical reform.

           Musically, things began to change; this was seen very early on in the aria. The author notes: “Now the same elegant eight or ten verses were stretched across grand da capo and dal segno arias introduced by lengthy ritornellos and punctuated by roulades and cadenzas that scorned the earlier practice of limiting such embellishments to a single breath.” It is possible that this was the first serious departure from the strophic aria and the author states at the end of the chapter that this development would pave the way for later aria reforms that would be the hallmark of Rossini and Verdi later on in the 19^th century.

            In German speaking lands there was something of a nationalistic influence on stage arts including opera. Pieces began to surface that split time between Italian language and German having bilingual productions performed.  These were mostly under the genre of “Singe-Spiel” such as Christoph Graupner’s Dido, Konigin von Carthago, which had no comic scenes and used both Italian and German language arias. These pieces tended not to go over very well with the public and German language operas were reserved for comic productions.

            There were also experimentations with mixing the spoken word with aria and recitative.  This was pointed out by the author: “As part of his campaign against French as an operatic language, Rousseau had invented an experimental new genre of music drama in which spoken declamation alternates with orchestral interludes.”  This was not successful in France but quite so in Germany and many imitations in the style began to appear. Two such pieces were a melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos and Media which, while being in the German tongue were still productions based on Greek antiquity thus continuing Europe’s love affair with the lost Eden of ancient Greece.  An exception to this would be the melodrama Romeo und Julie which seemed to embrace the newer less classical Renaissance piece of William Shakespeare, which provided very concrete reasons for not having dry recitative, and in place using the poetic speech of Shakespeare.