Opera is a feature genre formation. Opera comic Characteristic features of the opera genre

20.06.2020

A brief overview of creativity A

The image and characteristics of Olga Ilyinskaya based on the novel Oblomov (Goncharov I

Characteristics of Maria Mironova from "The Captain's Daughter" Pushkin A

Composition "Was there a different path for Katerina": could she have acted differently?

Target:

the concept of the specifics of the genre.
essence of opera
diverse embodiment of various forms of music

Tasks:

Educational:
to consolidate the concept of genre: opera.
Developing:
the main thing in opera is human characters, feelings and passions, clashes and conflicts that can be revealed by music.
Develop the ability to reflect on the music and works of composers from different eras.
Educational: to awaken students' interest in the genre - opera, the desire to listen to it not only in the classroom, but also outside it.

During the classes

1. Music sounds. J. B. Pergolesi. ”Stabat Mater dolorosa”

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Among countless miracles
What are given to us by nature itself,
There is one, incomparable with anything,
Unfading through any years, -

He gives the quivering delight of love
And warms the soul in the rain and cold,
Returning sweet days to us
When every breath was filled with hope.

Before him are both the beggar and the king -
The singer's destiny is to give himself up, to burn out.
He was sent by God to do good -
Death has no power over beauty!
Ilya Korop

“The 18th century was a century of beauty, the 19th century was a century of feeling, and the final of the 20th century was a century of pure drive. And the viewer comes to the theater not for a concept, not for ideas, but to be fed with energy, he needs a shock. Therefore, there is such a demand for pop culture - there is more energy than in academic culture. Cecilia Bartoli told me that she sings opera like rock music - and I understood the riddle of the fantastic energy of this great singer. Opera has always been a folk art form, in Italy it developed almost as a sport - a competition of singers. And it has to be popular. " Valery Kichin

In literature, music and other arts during their existence, various types of works have developed. In literature, this is, for example, a novel, a story, a story; in poetry - a poem, sonnet, ballad; in the visual arts - landscape, portrait, still life; in music - opera, symphony ... The genre of works within one art is called the French word genre (genre).

5. Singers. During the 18th century. the cult of the virtuoso singer developed - first in Naples, then throughout Europe. At this time, the part of the main character in the opera was performed by a male soprano - castrate, that is, a timbre whose natural change was stopped by castration. The castrated singers pushed the range and mobility of their voices to the limits of the possible. Such opera stars as castrato Farinelli (K. Broski, 1705-1782), whose soprano, according to his stories, surpassed the sound of the trumpet in strength, or the mezzo-soprano F. Bordoni, about whom it was said that she could pull the sound longer than any other singer in the world, completely subordinated to their skill those composers whose music they performed. Some of them composed operas themselves and directed opera troupes (Farinelli). It was taken for granted that singers decorate the melodies composed by the composer with their own improvised ornaments, regardless of whether such decorations fit the plot situation of the opera or not. The owner of any type of voice must be trained to perform fast passages and trills. In Rossini's operas, for example, the tenor must master the coloratura technique no worse than the soprano. Revival of this kind of art in the 20th century. allowed to give new life to the diverse operatic creativity of Rossini.

According to the range of voices, opera singers are usually divided into six types. Three female types of voices, from high to low - soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (the latter is rare these days); three male - tenor, baritone, bass. Within each type, there can be several subspecies, depending on the quality of the voice and the style of singing. The lyric-coloratura soprano is distinguished by a light and exceptionally mobile voice, such singers are able to perform virtuoso passages, fast scales, trills and other decorations. Lyric-dramatic (lirico spinto) soprano - a voice of great brightness and beauty.

The timbre of the dramatic soprano is rich, strong. The distinction between lyric and dramatic voices also applies to tenors. Bass has two main types: “singing bass” (basso cantante) for “serious” parts and comic (basso buffo).

Assignment to students. Determine what type of voice is performing:

Father Frost part - bass
Spring part - mezzo-soprano
Snegurochka part - soprano
Lelya part - mezzo-soprano or contralto
Mizgir's part - baritone

The chorus in the opera is interpreted in different ways. It can be a background not related to the main storyline; sometimes a kind of commentator of what is happening; his artistic potential allows him to show monumental pictures of folk life, to reveal the relationship between the hero and the masses (for example, the role of the chorus in the folk musical dramas of M. P. Mussorgsky "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina").

Let's listen:

Prologue. The first picture. M. P. Mussorgsky "Boris Godunov"
Scene two. M. P. Mussorgsky "Boris Godunov"

Assignment to students. Determine who is the hero and who is the mass.

The hero here is Boris Godunov. The masses are the people. The idea to write an opera based on the historical tragedy of Pushkin "Boris Godunov" (1825) was suggested to Mussorgsky by his friend, a prominent historian, Professor V. V. Nikolsky. Mussorgsky was extremely fascinated by the opportunity to translate the topic of the relationship between the tsar and the people, which was acutely relevant for his time, to bring the people out as the main protagonist of the opera. "I understand the people as a great person, animated by a single idea," he wrote. "This is my task. I tried to solve it in the opera."

6. Orchestra. In the musical drama of the opera, an important role is assigned to the orchestra, the symphonic means of expressiveness serve for a more complete disclosure of images. The opera also includes independent orchestral episodes - overture, intermission (introduction to individual acts). Another component of an opera performance is ballet, choreographic scenes where plastic images are combined with musical ones. If the singers are leading in the opera performance, then the orchestral part forms the frame, the foundation of the action, moves it forward and prepares the listeners for the upcoming events. The orchestra supports the singers, emphasizes the climax, fills in the gaps of the libretto or the moments of the change of scenery with its sound, and finally performs at the conclusion of the opera when the curtain falls. Listen to Rossini's overture to the comedy The Barber of Seville . The form of the "stand-alone" operatic overture had fallen into disrepair, and by the time Tosca appeared Puccini's (1900) overture could be replaced with just a few opening chords. In a number of operas of the 20th century. there are no musical preparations for stage action at all. But since the essence of opera is singing, the highest moments of the drama are reflected in the completed forms of the aria, duet and other conventional forms, where music comes to the fore. The aria is like a monologue, the duet is like a dialogue, the trio usually embodies the conflicting feelings of one of the characters in relation to the other two participants. With further complication, different ensemble forms appear.

Let's listen:

Aria by Gilda “Rigoletto” by Verdi. Action 1. Left alone, the girl repeats the name of the mysterious admirer ("Caro nome che il mio cor"; "The heart is full of joy").
Duet of Gilda and Rigoletto “Rigoletto” Verdi. Action 1. ("Pari siamo! Io la lingua, egli ha il pugnale"; "We are equal with him: I own the word, and he dagger").
Quartet in Verdi's Rigoletto. Action 3. (Quartet "Bella figlia dell" amore ";" O young beauty ").
Sextet in "Lucia di Lammermoor" by Donizetti

The introduction of such forms usually stops the action in order to make room for the development of one (or more) emotions. Only a group of singers united in an ensemble can express several points of view at once on the events taking place. Sometimes the choir acts as a commentator on the actions of opera heroes. Basically, the text in opera choirs is pronounced relatively slowly, phrases are often repeated to make the content understandable to the listener.

Not all operas can draw a clear line between recitative and aria. Wagner, for example, abandoned complete vocal forms in order to continuously develop musical action. This innovation has been taken up, with various modifications, by a number of composers. On Russian soil, the idea of a continuous “musical drama” was, independently of Wagner, first tested by AS Dargomyzhsky in “The Stone Guest” and MP Mussorgsky in “The Marriage” - they called this form a “spoken opera,” opera dialogue.

7. Opera houses.

the Parisian Opera (in Russia the name Grand Opera was fixed) was intended for a vivid spectacle (fig. 2).
The Festspielhaus in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was founded by Wagner in 1876 to stage his epic musical dramas.
the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1883) was conceived as a showcase for the world's best singers and for respectable box subscribers.
Olimpico (1583), built by A. Palladio in Vicenza. Its architecture - a reflection of the microcosm of Baroque society - is based on a characteristic horseshoe-shaped plan, where the tiers of boxes fan out from the center - the royal box.
Teatro alla Scala (1788, Milan)
"San Carlo" (1737, Naples)
Covent Garden (1858, London)
Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908) America
opera house in San Francisco (1932)
opera house in Chicago (1920)
the new Metropolitan Opera building at New York's Lincoln Center (1966)
Sydney Opera House (1973, Australia).

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Thus, the opera ruled the whole world.

During the Monteverdi era, opera rapidly conquered the major cities of Italy.

Romantic opera in Italy

Italian influence even reached England.

Like early Italian opera, French opera of the mid-16th century. proceeded from the desire to revive the ancient Greek theatrical aesthetics.

If in France the spectacle was at the forefront, then in the rest of Europe - the aria. Naples became the center of operatic activity at this stage.

Another type of opera originates from Naples - opera - buffa, which arose as a natural reaction to opera - seria. Passion for this type of opera quickly swept the cities of Europe - Vienna, Paris, London. Romantic opera in France.

Ballad opera influenced the formation of the German comic opera - the singspiel. Romantic opera in Germany.

Russian opera of the era of romanticism.

“Czech opera” is a conventional term, which means two contrasting artistic directions: pro-Russian in Slovakia and pro-German in Czech Republic.

Homework for students. Each student is given the task to familiarize themselves with the work of the composer (by choice), where the opera flourished. Namely: J. Peri, C. Monteverdi, F. Cavalli, G. Percell, J. B. Lully, J. F. Ramo, A. Scarlatti, G. F. Handel, G. B. Pergolesi, J. Paisiello , K.V. Gluck, W.A. Mozart, G. Rossini, V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi, R. Leoncavallo, G. Puccini, R. Wagner, K. M. Weber, L. Van Beethoven, R. Strauss, J. Meyerbeer, G. Berlioz, J. Bizet, C. Gounod, J. Offenbach, C. Saint-Saens, L. Delibes, J. Massenet, C. Debussy, M. P. Mussorgsky, M.P. Glinka, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.P. Borodin, P.I.Tchaikovsky, S.S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, Antonin Dvorak, Bedrich Smetana, Leos Janacek, B. Britten , Karl Orff, F. Poulenc, I.F. Stravinsky

8. Famous opera singers.

Gobby, Tito, Domingo, Placido
Callas, Maria (Fig. 3) .
Caruso, Enrico, Corelli, Franco
Pavarotti, Luciano, Patti, Adeline
Scotto, Renata, Tebaldi, Renata
Chaliapin, Fedor Ivanovich, Schwarzkopf, Elizabeth

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9. Demand and modernity of the opera.

Opera is a fairly conservative genre by its very nature. This is due to the fact that there is a centuries-old tradition due to the technical capabilities of performance. This genre owes its longevity to the great effect it has on the listener through the synthesis of several arts capable of making an impression on their own. On the other hand, opera is an extremely resource-intensive genre, it is not without reason that the word “opera” itself, translated from Latin, means “work”: of all musical genres, it has the longest duration, it requires high-quality scenery for staging, the maximum skill of singers for performance and a high level complexity of the composition. Thus, opera is the limit to which art strives in order to make the maximum impression on the public using all available resources. However, due to the conservatism of the genre, this set of resources lends itself little to expansion: it cannot be said that the composition of the symphony orchestra has not changed at all over the past decades, but the whole basis has remained the same. The vocal technique is also little changed due to the need for great power when performing an opera on stage. Music is limited in its movement by these resources.

The stage performance in this sense is more dynamic: you can stage a classical opera in an avant-garde style without changing a single note in the score. Opera is generally considered to be about music, and therefore original scenography cannot ruin a masterpiece. However, this usually does not work out that way. Opera is a synthetic art and scenography is important. A production that does not correspond to the spirit of the music and the plot is perceived as an inclusion that is alien to the work. Thus, classical opera often does not meet the needs of directors who want to express modern moods on the stage of musical theater, and something new is required.

The first solution to this problem is a musical.

The second option is contemporary opera.

There are three degrees of artistry in music content.

Entertainment . This option is not interesting, since for its implementation it is enough to use ready-made rules, especially since it does not meet the requirements for modern opera.
Interest. In this case, the work brings pleasure to the listener thanks to the ingenuity of the composer, who has found an original and most effective way to solve an artistic problem.
Depth. Music can express high feelings that give the listener inner harmony. Here we are faced with the fact that modern opera should not harm the mental state. This is very important, because, despite its high artistic merit, music can contain features that imperceptibly subdue the will of the listener. Thus, it is widely known that Sibelius promotes depression and suicidal tendencies, and Wagner - internal aggression.

The significance of modern opera lies precisely in the combination of modern technology and fresh sound with the high artistic merit characteristic of opera in general. This is one of the ways to reconcile the desire to express modern moods in art with the need to maintain the purity of the classics.

An ideal vocal, based on cultural roots, refracts in its individuality the folk school of singing, and can serve as the basis for the unique sound of modern operas written for specific performers.

You can write a masterpiece that does not fit into the framework of any theory, but sounds great. But for this he still has to satisfy the requirements of perception. These rules, like any others, can be broken.

Homework for students. Mastering the characteristic features of the composer's style of works by Russian composers, Western European and contemporary composers. Analysis of musical works (for example, opera).

Used Books:

Malinina E.M. Vocal education of children. - M., 1967.
Kabalevsky D.B. Music program in a comprehensive school. - M., 1982.
True R. Series “Lives of Great Composers”. POMATUR LLP. M., 1996.
Makhrova E.V. The opera house in the culture of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century. SPb, 1998.
Simon G.W. One hundred great operas and their plots. M., 1998.
Yaroslavtseva L.K. Opera. Singers. Vocal schools of Italy, France, Germany of the 17th - 20th centuries. - "Publishing House" Golden Fleece ", 2004
Dmitriev L.B. Soloists of the Teatro alla Scala on vocal art: Dialogues on singing technique. - M., 2002.

Opera(Italian opera - business, labor, work; from Latin opera - labor, product, work) - a genre of musical and dramatic art, in which the content is embodied by means of musical drama, mainly through vocal music. The literary basis of the opera is the libretto.

History of the genre

Opera appeared in Italy, in mysteries, that is, spiritual performances in which episodically introduced music was at a low level. Spiritual Comedy: "The Conversion of St. Paul ”(1480), Beverini, is already a more serious work in which music accompanied the action from beginning to end. In the middle of the 16th century, pastorals or pastoral games, in which music was limited to choirs, in the character of a motet or madrigal, were very popular. In Amfiparnasso, by Orazio Vecchi, the choral singing backstage, in the form of a five-part madrigal, served to accompany the actors on stage. This "Commedia armonica" was given for the first time at the Modena court in 1597.

At the end of the 16th century, attempts to introduce monophonic singing (monody) into such compositions set the opera on the path on which its development quickly proceeded. The authors of these attempts called their musical and dramatic works drama in musica or drama per musica; the name "opera" began to be applied to them in the first half of the 17th century. Later, some opera composers, for example Richard Wagner, again returned to the name "musical drama".

The first opera house for public performances was opened in 1637 in Venice; previously, the opera was only for court entertainment. The first major opera can be considered Daphne by Jacopo Peri, performed in 1597. The opera soon spread in Italy, and then in the rest of Europe. In Venice, since the opening of public shows, 7 theaters have appeared in 65 years; 357 operas have been written for them by various composers (up to 40). The pioneers of the opera were: in Germany - Heinrich Schütz (Daphne, 1627), in France - Cambert (La pastorale, 1647), in England - Purcell; in Spain, the first operas appeared at the beginning of the 18th century; in Russia, Araya was the first to write an opera ("Mullet and Procrida") on an independent Russian text (1755). The first Russian opera, written in Russian customs - "Tanyusha, or Happy Meeting", music by FG Volkov (1756).

Opera varieties

Certain forms of opera music have developed historically. In the presence of some general laws of operatic drama, all of its components, depending on the types of opera, are interpreted differently.

big opera (opera seria - Italian, trag "edie lyrique, later grand-op" era - French),

semi-comic (semiseria),

comic opera (opera-buffa - Italian, op "era-comique - French, Spieloper - German),

romantic opera, on a romantic plot.

In comic opera, German and French, dialogue is allowed between musical numbers. There are also serious operas in which dialogue is inserted, for example. Beethoven's Fidelio, Cherubini's Medea, Weber's Magic Shooter.

Operas for children (for example, the operas by Benjamin Britten - "The Little Chimney Sweep", "Noah's Ark", operas by Lev Konov - "King Matt the First", "Asgard", "The Ugly Duckling", "Kokinvakasu").

Opera elements

Opera is a synthetic genre that combines various types of arts in a single theatrical action: drama, music, visual arts (scenery, costumes), choreography (ballet).

The opera collective includes: soloist, chorus, orchestra, military orchestra, organ. Opera voices: (female: soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto; male: countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass).

The operatic work is divided into acts, pictures, scenes, numbers. Before acts there is a prologue, at the end of the opera - an epilogue.

Parts of an opera work - recitatives, ariosos, songs, arias, duets, trios, quartets, ensembles, etc. From symphonic forms - overture, introduction, intermissions, pantomime, melodrama, processions, ballet music.

The characters of the heroes are most fully revealed in solo numbers (aria, arioso, arietta, cavatina, monologue, ballad, song). The recitative has various functions in the opera - the musical intonation and rhythmic reproduction of human speech. Often, he connects (in a plot and musically) separate complete numbers; is often an effective factor in musical drama. In some genres of opera, mainly comedic ones, colloquial speech is used instead of recitative, usually in dialogues.

A musical ensemble (duet, trio, quartet, quintet, etc.) corresponds to the stage dialogue, the stage of a dramatic performance in the opera, the specificity of which makes it possible to create conflict situations, to show not only the development of the action, but also the clash of characters and ideas. Therefore, ensembles often appear in the climax or final moments of an opera performance.

In the musical drama of the opera, an important role is assigned to the orchestra, the symphonic means of expressiveness serve for a more complete disclosure of images. The opera also includes independent orchestral episodes - overture, intermission (introduction to individual acts). Another component of an opera performance is ballet, choreographic scenes where plastic images are combined with musical ones.

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RUSSIAN OPERA. The Russian opera school - along with the Italian, German, and French - is of global importance; This mainly concerns a number of operas created in the second half of the 19th century, as well as several works of the 20th century. One of the most popular operas on the world stage at the end of the 20th century. - Boris Godunov M.P. Mussorgsky, is often put also The Queen of Spades P.I. Tchaikovsky (less often his other operas, mainly Eugene Onegin); is well known Prince Igor A.P. Borodin; of 15 operas by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov appears regularly The Golden Cockerel... Among the operas of the 20th century. most repertoire Fire Angel S.S. Prokofiev and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk D.D. Shostakovich. Of course, this does not in any way exhaust the wealth of the national opera school. see also OPERA.

The emergence of opera in Russia (18th century). Opera was one of the first Western European genres to take hold on Russian soil. Already in the 1730s, an Italian court opera was created, for which foreign musicians who worked in Russia wrote ( cm... RUSSIAN MUSIC); public opera performances appear in the second half of the century; operas are also staged in serf theaters. The first Russian opera is considered Miller - sorcerer, deceiver and matchmaker Mikhail Matveyevich Sokolovsky on the text of A.O. Ablesimov (1779) - a household comedy with musical numbers of a song nature, which laid the foundation for a number of popular works of this genre - early comic opera. Among them are the operas of Vasily Alekseevich Pashkevich (c. 1742-1797) ( Stingy, 1782; St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor, 1792; The misfortune of the carriage, 1779) and Evstigney Ipatovich Fomin (1761-1800) ( Coachmen on a set-up, 1787; The americans, 1788). In the genre of the opera-series, two works by the largest composer of this period, Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky (1751-1825), were written in French librettos - Falcon(1786) and The Rival Son, or Modern Stratonica(1787); there are interesting experiences in the genres of melodrama and music for dramatic performances.

Opera before Glinka (19th century). In the next century, the popularity of the opera genre in Russia increased even more. Opera was the pinnacle of aspirations of Russian composers of the 19th century, and even those of them who did not leave a single work in this genre (for example, M.A. Balakirev, A.K. Lyadov), for many years pondered certain operatic projects. The reasons for this are clear: first, opera, as Tchaikovsky noted, was a genre that made it possible to “speak in the language of the masses”; secondly, the opera made it possible to artistically illuminate major ideological, historical, psychological and other problems that occupied the minds of Russian people in the 19th century; finally, in the young professional culture there was a strong gravitation towards genres that included, along with music, word, stage movement, painting. In addition, a certain tradition has already developed - a legacy left in the musical and theatrical genre of the 18th century.

In the first decades of the 19th century. court and private theater died out

The monopoly was concentrated in the hands of the state. The musical and theatrical life of both capitals was very lively: the first quarter of a century was the heyday of Russian ballet; in the 1800s, there were four theater troupes in St. Petersburg - Russian, French, German and Italian, of which the first three staged both drama and opera, the last only opera; several troupes worked in Moscow as well. The Italian company turned out to be the most stable - even in the early 1870s, young Tchaikovsky, performing in the critical field, was forced to fight for a decent position of the Moscow Russian opera in comparison with the Italian one; Raek Mussorgsky, in one of the episodes of which the passion of the Petersburg public and criticism for famous Italian singers is ridiculed, was also written at the turn of the 1870s.

The Russian opera is a most valuable contribution to the treasury of world musical theater. Born in the era of the classical heyday of Italian, French and German opera, Russian opera in the 19th century. not only caught up with other national opera schools, but also outstripped them. The multifaceted nature of the development of the Russian opera house in the 19th century. contributed to the enrichment of world realistic art. The works of Russian composers opened a new area of operatic creativity, introduced into it a new content, new principles of building musical drama, bringing opera closer to other types of musical creativity, primarily to symphony.

The history of Russian classical opera is inextricably linked with the development of social life in Russia, with the development of progressive Russian thought. Opera was distinguished by these connections already in the 18th century, having emerged as a national phenomenon in the 70s, the era of the development of Russian enlightenment. The formation of the Russian opera school proceeded under the influence of educational ideas, expressed in the desire to truthfully portray the life of the people.

Thus, from its very first steps, Russian opera has taken shape as a democratic art. The plots of the first Russian operas often put forward anti-serfdom ideas, which were also characteristic of Russian drama theater and Russian literature at the end of the 18th century. However, these tendencies were not yet formed into an integral system, they were expressed empirically in scenes from the life of peasants, in showing their oppression by the landowners, in a satirical depiction of the nobility. These are the plots of the first Russian operas: "Misfortune from the carriage" by VA Pashkevich (c. 1742-1797), libretto by Ya. B. Knyazhnin (post, in 1779); “Coachmen on a set-up” by EI Fomin (1761-1800). In the opera "The Miller - the Wizard, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker" with the text by A.O. Ablessimov and the music by M.M.Sokolovsky (in the second edition - E.I. In the opera by M. A. Matinsky - V. A. Pashkevich "St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor", the usurer and the bribe-taker are shown in a satirical form.

The first Russian operas were plays with musical episodes along the way. Conversational scenes were very important in them. The music of the first operas was closely associated with Russian folk song: composers made extensive use of the melodies of common folk songs, processed them, making the basis of the opera. In Melnik, for example, all the characteristics of the characters are given with the help of folk songs of a different nature. The opera "St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor" reproduces the folk wedding ceremony with great accuracy. In "Coachmen on a Stand" Fomin created the first example of a folk choral opera, thus laying the foundation for one of the typical Traditions of the later Russian opera.

Russian opera developed in the struggle for its national identity. The policy of the tsarist court and the elite of the noble society, who patronized foreign troupes, was directed against the democracy of Russian art. The workers of the Russian opera had to learn opera skills on the models of Western European opera and at the same time defend the independence of their national direction. For many years this struggle became a condition for the existence of Russian opera, taking on new forms at new stages.

Along with the opera-comedy in the XVIII century. other opera genres also appeared. In 1790, at the court, a performance was held under the title "Oleg's Initial Administration", the text to which was written by Empress Catherine II, and the music was composed jointly by composers K. Canobbio, G. Sarti and V. A. Pashkevich. The performance was not so much an operatic performance as oratorical character, and to some extent it can be considered the first example of the musical-historical genre, so widespread in the 19th century. In the works of the outstanding Russian composer Dmitry Bortnyansky (1751-1825), the opera genre is represented by the lyrical operas The Falcon and The Rival Son, whose music, in terms of the development of operatic forms and skill, can be put on a par with contemporary examples of Western European opera.

The opera house was used in the 18th century. very popular. Gradually, the opera from the capital penetrated into the manor theaters. The serf theater at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries gives individual highly artistic examples of the performance of operas and individual roles. Talented Russian singers and actors are nominated, such as the singer E. Sandunova, who performed on the capital's stage, or the serf actress of the Sheremeteva theater, P. Zhemchugova.

Artistic achievements of Russian opera of the 18th century gave impetus to the rapid development of musical theater in Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century.

The ties of the Russian musical theater with the ideas defining the spiritual life of the era were especially strengthened during the Patriotic War of 1812 and during the years of the Decembrist movement. The theme of patriotism, reflected in historical and modern stories, becomes the basis of many dramatic and musical performances. The ideas of humanism, protest against social inequality inspire and fertilize the theater arts.

At the beginning of the XIX century. yet one cannot speak of opera in the full sense of the word. Mixed genres play an important role in Russian musical theater: tragedy with music, vaudeville, comic opera, opera-ballet. Before Glinka, Russian opera did not know of works whose drama was based only on music without any conversational episodes.

O. A. Kozlovsky (1757-1831) was an outstanding composer of "tragedy on music", who created music for the tragedies of Ozerov, Katenin, Shakhovsky. Composers A. A. Alyabyev (1787-1851) and A. N. Verstovsky (1799-1862) successfully worked in the genre of vaudeville, who composed music for a number of vaudeville humorous and satirical content.

Opera at the beginning of the 19th century. developed the traditions of the previous period. Everyday performances accompanied by folk songs were a typical phenomenon. Examples of this kind are the performances: "Yam", "Sitting", "Devishnik", etc., the music for which was written by the amateur composer A. N. Titov (1769-1827). But this did not exhaust the rich theatrical life of the era. The attraction to the romantic tendencies typical of that time was expressed in the fascination of the society with fantastic and fantastic performances. The Dnieper Mermaid (Lesta), which had several parts, enjoyed particular success. The music for these operas, which constituted, as it were, chapters of a novel, was written by composers S. I. Davydov, K. A. Kavos; the music of the Austrian composer Cauer was used in part. “Dnieper Mermaid” did not leave the stage for a long time, not only due to the amusing plot, in the main outlines anticipating the plot of Pushkin's “Mermaid”, not only due to the magnificent staging, but also due to the melodic, simple and accessible music.

The Italian composer K.A.Kavos (1775-1840), who worked in Russia from a young age and put a lot of effort into the development of Russian operatic performance, made the first attempt to create a historical and heroic opera. In 1815 he staged the opera Ivan Susanin in St. Petersburg, in which, basing on one of the episodes of the struggle of the Russian people against the Polish invasion at the beginning of the 17th century, he tried to create a national-patriotic performance. This opera responded to the mood of the society that survived the war of liberation against Napoleon. Cavos's opera is favorably distinguished among contemporary works by the skill of a professional musician, reliance on Russian folklore, and liveliness of action. Yet it does not rise above the level of the numerous "operas of salvation" by French composers on the same stage; Kavos was unable to create in it a folk-tragic epic, which Glinka created twenty years later, using the same plot.

The largest composer of the first third of the 19th century. A. N. Verstovsky, who was mentioned as the author of music for vaudeville, must be recognized. His operas Pan Tvardovsky (post, 1828), Askold's Grave (post, 1835), Vadim (post, 1832) and others constituted a new stage in the development of Russian opera before Glinka. The characteristic features of Russian romanticism were reflected in the work of Verstovsky. Russian antiquity, poetic legends of Kievan Rus, fairy tales and legends form the basis of his operas. The magic element plays a significant role in them. Verstovsky's music, deeply rooted, based on folk song art, has absorbed folk origins in the broadest sense. His characters are typical of folk art. Being a master of operatic drama, Verstovsky created romantic and colorful scenes of fantastic content. An example of his style is the opera "Askold's Grave", which has survived in the repertoire to this day. It showed the best features of Verstovsky - a melodic gift, excellent dramatic flair, the ability to create vivid and characteristic images of the characters.

Verstovsky's works belong to the pre-classical period of Russian opera, although their historical significance is very great: they generalize and develop all the best qualities of the previous and contemporary period of development of Russian opera music.

Since the 30s. XIX century. Russian opera enters the classic period. The founder of Russian opera classics MI Glinka (1804-1857) created the historical and tragic opera Ivan Susanin (1830) and the fabulous epic one Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842). These pillars laid the foundation for two major trends in Russian musical theater: historical opera and magical-epic; Glinka's creative principles were implemented and developed by the next generation of Russian composers.

Glinka developed as an artist in an era overshadowed by the ideas of Decembrism, which allowed him to raise the ideological and artistic content of his operas to a new, significant level. He was the first Russian composer in whose work the image of the people, generalized and deep, became the center of the entire work. The theme of patriotism in his work is inextricably linked with the theme of the people's struggle for independence.

The preceding period of Russian opera prepared the appearance of Glinka's operas, but their qualitative difference from earlier Russian operas is very significant. In Glinka's operas, the realism of artistic thought is not manifested in its particular aspects, but acts as a holistic creative method that allows one to give a musical and dramatic generalization of the idea, theme and plot of the opera. Glinka understood the problem of nationality in a new way: for him, it meant not only the musical development of folk songs, but also a deep, multifaceted reflection in the music of the life, feelings and thoughts of the people, the disclosure of the characteristic features of its spiritual appearance. The composer did not confine himself to reflecting the folk life, but embodied the typical features of the folk worldview in music. Glinka's operas are complete musical and dramatic works; there are no conversational dialogues in them, the content is expressed by means of music. Instead of separate, undeveloped solo and choral numbers of comic opera, Glinka creates large, expanded operatic forms, developing them with genuine symphonic mastery.

In Ivan Susanin, Glinka glorified the heroic past of RUSSIA. Typical images of the Russian people are embodied in the opera with great artistic truth. The development of musical drama is based on the opposition of various national musical spheres.

Ruslan and Lyudmila is an opera that laid the foundation for folk-epic Russian operas. The significance of Ruslan for Russian music is very great. Opera has influenced not only theatrical genres, but also symphonic ones. The majestic heroic and mysteriously magical, as well as the colorful oriental images of "Ruslan" have fed Russian music for a long time.

After Glinka, A.S.Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869), a typical artist of the era of the 40-50s, spoke. XIX century. Glinka had a great influence on Dargomyzhsky, but at the same time, new qualities appeared in his work, born of new social conditions, new themes that came to Russian art. Ardent sympathy for a humiliated person, a consciousness of the perniciousness of social inequality, a critical attitude towards the social structure were reflected in the work of Dargomyzhsky, associated with the ideas of critical realism in literature.

Dargomyzhsky's path as an opera composer began with the creation of the opera Esmeralda, after V. Hugo (post. 1847). In this opera, Dargomyzhsky's talent was fully revealed and the direction of his work was determined. The drama of social inequality of the miller's daughter Natasha and the Prince, who love each other, attracted the composer with the relevance of the topic. Dargomyzhsky strengthened the dramatic side of the plot by diminishing the fantastic element. "Mermaid" is the first Russian everyday lyricopsychological opera. Her music is deeply popular; on the basis of the song, the composer created vivid images of heroes, developed the declamatory style in the parts of the main characters, developed ensemble scenes, significantly dramatizing them.

Dargomyzhsky's last opera, The Stone Guest, after Pushkin (post. 1872, after the death of the composer), belongs already. another period in the development of the Russian honra. Dargomyzhsky set in it the task of creating a realistic musical language reflecting speech intonations. The composer here abandoned traditional operatic forms - arias, ensemble, chorus; vocal parts of the opera prevail over the orchestral part, "The Stone Guest" marked the beginning of one of the directions of the subsequent period of Russian opera, the so-called chamber recitative opera, presented later by Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, Rachmaninov's The Covetous Knight and others. The peculiarity of these operas is that they are all written on the unaltered full text of Pushkin's "little tragedies".

In the 60s. Russian opera has entered a new stage in its development. The works of the composers of the Balakirevsky circle ("The Mighty Handful") and Tchaikovsky appear on the Russian stage. In the same years, the work of A.N.Serov and A.G. Rubinstein developed.

The operatic work of A.N.Serov (1820-1871), who became famous as a musical critic, cannot be counted among the very significant phenomena of Russian theater. However, at the time, his operas played a positive role. In the opera Judith (post, in 1863) Serov created a work of a heroic patriotic character on a biblical subject; in the opera Rogneda (op. and post. in 1865) he turned to the era of Kievan Rus, wishing to continue the line of Ruslan. However, the opera was not deep enough. Of great interest is Serov's third opera, "The Power of the Enemy", based on the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Do not live as you want" (post. 1871). The composer decided to create a song opera, the music of which should be based on primary sources. However, the opera does not have a unified dramatic concept, and its music does not rise to the heights of realistic generalization.

A. G. Rubinshtein (1829-1894), as an opera composer, began with the composition of the historical opera The Battle of Kulikovo (1850). he created the lyric opera Feramors and the Romagic opera Children of the Steppes. The best opera by Rubinstein, "The Demon" by Lermontov (1871), has survived in the repertoire. This opera is an example of Russian lyric opera, in which the most talented pages are devoted to the expression of the heroes' feelings. bring local flavor. ”The opera" Demon "was a success among contemporaries who saw in the protagonist the image of a man of the 40-50s.

The operatic creativity of the composers of The Mighty Handful and Tchaikovsky was closely associated with the new aesthetics of the 60s. New social conditions set new tasks for Russian artists. The main problem of the era was the problem of reflecting folk life in works of art in all its complexity and contradictions. The influence of the ideas of revolutionary democrats (most of all Chernyshevsky) manifested itself in the field of musical creativity by gravitation towards generally significant themes and plots, the humanistic orientation of works, and the glorification of the high spiritual forces of the people. The historical theme is of particular importance at this time.

Interest in the history of their people in those years was typical not only of composers. Historical science itself is developing widely; writers, poets and playwrights turn to a historical theme; historical painting is developing. The epochs of coups, peasant uprisings, and mass movements are of the greatest interest. An important place is occupied by the problem of the relationship between the people and the tsarist government. The historical operas by M.P. Mussorgsky and N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov are dedicated to this topic.

Operas by MP Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Boris Godunov (1872) and Khovanshchina (completed by Rlmsky-Korsakov in 1882) belong to the historical and tragic branch of Russian classical opera. The composer called them "folk musical dramas", since the parod is at the center of both works. The main idea of "Boris Godunov" (based on the tragedy of the same name by Pushkin) is a conflict: the tsar - the people. This idea was one of the most important and poignant in the post-reform era. Mussorgsky wanted to find an analogy with modernity in the events of the past of Russia. The contradiction between popular interests and autocratic power is shown in the scenes of a popular movement turning into an open uprising. At the same time, the composer pays great attention to the "tragedy of conscience" experienced by Tsar Boris. The multifaceted image of Boris Godunov is one of the highest achievements of world opera.

Mussorgsky's second musical drama, Khovanshchina, is dedicated to the Streltsy uprisings at the end of the 17th century. The element of the popular movement in all its violent force is remarkably expressed by the music of the opera, based on the creative rethinking of folk song art. The music of Khovanshchina, like the music of Boris Godunov, is characterized by high tragedy. The melodic mile of both operas is based on the synthesis of song and declamation principles. Mussorgsky's innovation, born of the novelty of the concept, the deeply original solution to the problems of musical drama, makes both of his operas to be ranked among the highest achievements of musical theater.

Opera by AP Borodin (1833-1887) "Prince Igor" also adjoins the group of historical musical works (its plot was "The Lay of Igor's Campaign"). The idea of love for the homeland, the idea of unification in the face of the enemy is revealed by the composer with great drama (scenes in Putivl). The composer combined the monumentality of the epic genre with the lyrical beginning in his opera. In the poetic embodiment of the Polovtsian camp, the precepts of Glinka were embodied; in turn, the musical pictures of the East by Borodin inspired many Russian and Soviet composers to create oriental images. Borodin's remarkable melodic gift manifested itself in the broad-song style of the opera. Borodin did not have time to finish the opera; "Prince Igor" was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov and staged in their edition in 1890.

The genre of historical musical drama was also developed by N. L. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). The Pskov freemen, rebelling against Ivan the Terrible (opera "The Pskovite Woman", 1872), is depicted by the composer with epic grandeur. The image of the king is a canopy of true drama. The lyrical element of the opera, associated with the heroine Olga, enriches the music, introducing features of sublime tenderness and gentleness into the majestic tragic concept.

PI Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), most famous for his psychological and psychological honors, was the author of three historical operas. The operas The Oprichnik (1872) and Mazepa (1883) are dedicated to dramatic events from Russian history. In the opera "The Maid of Orleans" (1879), the composer turned to the history of France and created the image of the national French heroine Jeanne D "Arc.

The peculiarity of Tchaikovsky's historical operas is their relationship with his lyric operas. The composer reveals in them the characteristic features of the era depicted through the fate of individuals. The images of his characters are distinguished by the depth and truthfulness of the transfer of the complex inner world of a person.

In addition to folk-historical musical dramas in the Russian opera of the 19th century. an important place is occupied by folk fairy-tale operas, widely represented in the work of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, the best fairy-tale operas by Rimsky-Korsakov - "The Snow Maiden" (1881), "Sadko" (1896), "Kashey the Immortal" (1902) and " The Golden Cockerel "(1907). A special place is occupied by the opera "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" (1904), written on the basis of folk legends about the Tatar-Mongol invasion.

Operas by Rimsky-Korsakov amaze with a variety of interpretations of the folk-fairy genre. Either it is a poetic interpretation of ancient folk ideas about nature, expressed in a wonderful tale about the Snow Maiden, or a mighty picture of ancient Novgorod, or an image of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. in the allegorical image of the cold Kashchey kingdom, then a real satire on the rotten autocratic system in fabulous popular prints ("The Golden Cockerel"). In different cases, the methods of musical depiction of the characters and the techniques of Rimsky-Korsakov's musical drama are different. However, in all of his operas one can feel the composer's deep creative insight into the world of folk performances, folk beliefs, and the worldview of the people. The music of his operas is based on the language of folk songs. The reliance on folk art, the characterization of the characters through the use of various folk genres is a typical feature of Rimsky-Korsakov.

The pinnacle of Rimsky-Korsakov's work is the majestic epic about the patriotism of the people of Russia in the opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia, where the composer reached a tremendous height of musical and symphonic generalization of the theme.

Among other varieties of Russian classical opera, one of the main places belongs to the lyrical and psychological opera, the beginning of which was laid by Dargomyzhsky's "Mermaid". The greatest representative of this genre in Russian music is Tchaikovsky, the author of works of genius included in the world opera repertoire: Eugene Onegin (1877-1878), The Enchantress (1887), The Queen of Spades (1890), Iolanta (1891 ). Tchaikovsky's innovation is associated with the direction of his work dedicated to the ideas of humanism, protest against humiliation of man, faith in a better future for mankind. The inner world of people, their relationships, their feelings are revealed in Tchaikovsky's operas by combining theatrical efficiency with the consistent symphonic development of music. Tchaikovsky's operatic creativity is one of the greatest phenomena of the world musical theatrical art of the 19th century.

Fewer works are represented in the operatic work of Russian composers, comedy opera. However, even these few samples are distinguished by their national originality. There is no entertaining lightness in them, no comics. Most of them are based on Gogol's stories from Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. Each of the comedy operas reflected the individual characteristics of the authors. In Tchaikovsky's opera "Chere vichki" (1885; in the first edition - "Blacksmith Vakula", 1874), the lyrical element predominates; in "May Night" by Rimsky-Korsakov (1878) - fantastic and ceremonial; in "Sorochinskaya Yarmarka" by Mussorgsky (70s, not finished) - purely comedic. The named operas are examples of the skill of realistic reflection of the life of the people in the genre of comedy of characters.

A number of so-called parallel phenomena in Russian musical theater adjoin Russian opera classics. We mean the work of composers who did not create works of enduring significance, although they made their own contribution to the development of Russian opera. Here it is necessary to name the operas of Ts. A. Cui (1835-1918), a member of the Balakirev circle, a prominent music critic of the 60-70s. Cui's operas William Ratcliff and Angelo, which do not go beyond the conventionally romantic style, are devoid of drama and, at times, bright music. Cui's later supports are of lesser importance ("The Captain's Daughter", "Mademoiselle Fifi", etc.). An accompanying work of classical opera was the work of the conductor and musical director of the opera in St. Petersburg, E. F. Napravnik (1839-1916). The most famous is his opera Dubrovsky, composed in the tradition of Tchaikovsky's lyric operas.

Of the composers who performed at the end of the 19th century. on the opera stage, it is necessary to name A. S. Arensky (1861-1906), the author of the operas “Dream on. Volga "," Raphael "and" Nal and Damayanti ", as well as M. M. Ishulitova-Ivanov (1859-1935), whose opera" Asya ", after I. S. Turgenev, was written in the lyrical manner of Tchaikovsky. Stands apart in the history of the Russian opera "Oresteia" by SI Taneyev (1856-1915), after Aeschylus, which can be described as a theatrical oratorio.

At the same time he appeared as an opera composer S. V. Rachmaninov (1873-1943), who composed by the end of the conservatory (1892) a one-act honra "Aleko", sustained in the traditions of Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff's later operas, Francesca da Rimini (1904) and The Covetous Knight (1904), were written in the character of opera-cantatas; in them the stage action is maximally compressed and the musical and symphonic beginning is very developed. The music of these operas, talented and bright, bears the stamp of the originality of the author's creative style.

Of the less significant phenomena of operatic art at the beginning of the 20th century. let's call the opera by A. T. Grechaninov (1864-1956) "Dobrynya Nikitich", in which the characteristic features of the fairytale-epic classical opera gave way to romance lyrics, as well as the opera by A. D. Kastalsky (1856-1926) "Klara Milich", in which elements of naturalism are combined with a sincere, impressive lyricism.

The 19th century is the era of Russian opera classics. Russian composers have created masterpieces in various genres of opera art: drama, epic, heroic tragedy, comedy. They created an innovative musical drama that was born in close connection with the innovative content of operas. An important, defining role of mass folk scenes, a multifaceted characterization of the characters, a new interpretation of traditional operatic forms and the creation of new principles of the musical unity of the entire work are characteristic features of Russian opera classics.

Russian classical opera, which developed under the influence of advanced philosophical and aesthetic thought, under the influence of events in public life, became one of the remarkable aspects of Russian national culture in the 19th century. The entire path of development of Russian operatic creativity in the last century went parallel to the great liberation movement of the Russian people; composers were inspired by the lofty ideas of humanism and democratic enlightenment, and their works are for us great examples of truly realistic art.

Opera varieties

The opera begins its history at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries in the circle of Italian philosophers, poets and musicians - "Camerata". The first essay in this genre appeared in 1600, the creators took the famous the story of Orpheus and Eurydice ... Many centuries have passed since then, but operas continue to be composed by composers with enviable regularity. Throughout its history, this genre has undergone many changes, ranging from themes, musical forms and ending with its structure. What are the types of operas, when they appeared and what are their features - let's figure it out.

Opera varieties:

Serious opera(opera seria, opera seria) is an opera genre that was born in Italy at the turn of the 17th - 18th centuries. Such works were composed on historical and heroic, legendary or mythological subjects. A distinctive feature of this type of opera was excessive pomp in absolutely everything - the main role was played by virtuoso singers, the simplest feelings and emotions were presented in long arias, magnificent scenery prevailed on the stage. Costumed concerts - this is what the Seria operas were called.

Comic opera originates in Italy in the 18th century. It was called opera-buffa and was created as an alternative to the "boring" opera of the series. Hence the small scale of the genre, a small number of characters, comic techniques in singing, for example, tongue twisters, and an increase in the number of ensembles - a kind of revenge for the "long" virtuoso arias. In different countries, the comic opera had its own names - in England it is a ballad opera, France defined it as a comic opera, in Germany it was called the singspiel, and in Spain it was called tonadilla.

Semi-Serious Opera(opera semiseria) is a border genre between serious and comic opera, whose homeland is Italy. This type of opera appeared at the end of the 18th century; the plot was based on serious and sometimes tragic stories, but with a happy ending.

Grand opera(grand opera) - originated in France at the end of the 1st third of the 19th century. This genre is characterized by a large scale (5 acts instead of the usual 4), the obligatory presence of a dance act, an abundance of scenery. They were created mainly on historical themes.

Romantic opera - originated in Germany in the 19th century. This type of opera includes all musical dramas based on romantic plots.

Opera ballet takes its origins in France at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. The second name of this genre is French court ballet. Such works were created for masquerades, pastorals and other festivities held at royal and eminent courts. Such performances were distinguished by their brightness, beautiful decorations, but the numbers in them were not related to each other according to the plot.

Operetta- "little opera", appeared in France in the 2nd half of the 19th century. A distinctive feature of this genre is a comic, unpretentious plot, a modest scale, simple forms, and "light", easily memorized music.

The content of the article

OPERA, drama or comedy set to music. Dramatic texts are sung in the opera; singing and stage performance are almost always accompanied by instrumental (usually orchestral) accompaniment. Many operas are also characterized by the presence of orchestral interludes (introductions, conclusions, intermissions, etc.) and plot breaks filled with ballet scenes.

Opera was born as aristocratic fun, but soon became entertainment for the general public. The first public opera house opened in Venice in 1637, just four decades after the genre itself was born. Then the opera quickly spread throughout Europe. As a public entertainment, it reached its highest development in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Throughout its history, opera has had a powerful influence on other musical genres. The symphony grew out of an instrumental introduction to 18th century Italian operas. The virtuoso passages and cadenzas of the piano concerto are in many ways the fruit of an attempt to reflect the operatic vocal virtuosity in the texture of the keyboard instrument. In the 19th century. R. Wagner's harmonic and orchestral writing, created by him for the grandiose "musical drama", determined the further development of a number of musical forms, and even in the 20th century. many musicians saw liberation from Wagner's influence as the mainstream of movement towards new music.

Opera form.

In the so-called. large opera, the most widespread form of the opera genre today, the entire text is sung. In comic opera, singing usually alternates with spoken scenes. The name “comic opera” (opéra comique in France, opera buffa in Italy, Singspiel in Germany) is largely arbitrary, because not all works of this type have comic content (a characteristic feature of “comic opera” is the presence of conversational dialogues). The type of light, sentimental comic opera, which became widespread in Paris and Vienna, became known as operetta; in America it is called a musical comedy. Plays with music (musicals) that have gained fame on Broadway are usually more serious in content than European operettas.

All of these varieties of opera are based on the belief that music, and especially singing, enhances the dramatic expressiveness of the text. True, at times other elements played an equally important role in the opera. Thus, in the French opera of certain periods (and in Russian - in the 19th century), dance and the entertainment side acquired a very significant importance; German authors often considered the orchestral part not as an accompanying part, but as an equivalent vocal part. But throughout the history of opera, singing still played a dominant role.

If the singers are leading in the opera performance, then the orchestral part forms the frame, the foundation of the action, moves it forward and prepares the listeners for the upcoming events. The orchestra supports the singers, emphasizes the climax, fills in the gaps of the libretto or the moments of the change of scenery with its sound, and finally performs at the conclusion of the opera when the curtain falls.

Most operas have instrumental intros to help tune the listeners' perceptions. In the 17th and 19th centuries. such an introduction was called an overture. Overtures were laconic and independent concert pieces, thematically unrelated to opera and therefore easily replaceable. For example, the overture to the tragedy Aurelian in Palmyra Rossini later turned into a comedy overture Barber of seville... But in the second half of the 19th century. composers began to draw much greater influence on the unity of mood and the thematic connection between the overture and the opera. A form of introduction (Vorspiel) has arisen, which, for example in Wagner's late musical dramas, includes the main themes (leitmotifs) of the opera and directly brings into play. The form of the "autonomous" operatic overture had fallen into decay, and by the time Longing Puccini's (1900) overture could be replaced with just a few opening chords. In a number of operas of the 20th century. there are no musical preparations for stage action at all.

So, the operatic action develops within the orchestral setting. But since the essence of opera is singing, the highest moments of the drama are reflected in the completed forms of the aria, duet and other conventional forms, where music comes to the fore. The aria is like a monologue, the duet is like a dialogue, the trio usually embodies the conflicting feelings of one of the characters in relation to the other two participants. With further complication, various ensemble forms arise - such as a quartet in Rigoletto Verdi or sextet in Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti. The introduction of such forms usually stops the action in order to make room for the development of one (or more) emotions. Only a group of singers united in an ensemble can express several points of view at once on the events taking place. Sometimes the choir acts as a commentator on the actions of opera heroes. Basically, the text in opera choirs is pronounced relatively slowly, phrases are often repeated to make the content understandable to the listener.

Arias by themselves do not constitute operas. In the classical type of opera, the main means of conveying the plot and the development of the action to the public is recitative: a fast melodic declamation in a free meter, supported by simple chords and based on natural speech intonations. In comic operas, recitative is often replaced by dialogue. The recitative may seem boring to listeners who do not understand the meaning of the spoken text, but it is often indispensable in the content structure of the opera.

Not all operas can draw a clear line between recitative and aria. Wagner, for example, abandoned complete vocal forms in order to continuously develop musical action. This innovation has been taken up, with various modifications, by a number of composers. On Russian soil, the idea of a continuous "musical drama" was, independently of Wagner, first tested by A.S. Dargomyzhsky in Stone guest and M.P. Mussorgsky in Marriage- they called this form "a spoken opera", opera dialogue.

Opera as a drama.

The dramatic content of the opera is embodied not only in the libretto, but also in the music itself. The creators of the opera genre called their works dramma per musica - "drama expressed in music." Opera is more than a play with inserted songs and dances. The dramatic play is self-sufficient; opera without music is only part of the dramatic unity. This even applies to operas with spoken scenes. In works of this type - for example, in Manon Lescaut J. Massenet - musical numbers still retain a key role.

It is extremely rare for an opera libretto to be performed on stage as a dramatic piece. Although the content of the drama is expressed in words and the characteristic stage techniques are present, yet without music something important disappears - something that can only be expressed by music. For the same reason, only occasionally dramatic plays can be used as librettos, without prior reduction in the number of characters, simplification of the plot and main characters. We must leave room for the music to breathe, it must be repeated, form orchestral episodes, change the mood and color depending on the dramatic situations. And since singing still makes it difficult to understand the meaning of words, the text of the libretto should be so clear that it can be perceived when singing.

Thus, the opera subjugates the lexical richness and refinement of the form of a good dramatic play, but compensates for this damage with the capabilities of its own language, which is addressed directly to the feelings of the listeners. So, literary source Madame Butterfly Puccini - a play by D. Belasco about a geisha and an American naval officer is hopelessly outdated, and the tragedy of love and betrayal expressed in Puccini's music has not faded at all with time.

When composing opera music, most composers followed certain conventions. For example, the use of high registers of voices or instruments meant "passion", discordant harmonies expressed "fear". Such conventions were not arbitrary: people generally raise their voices when worried, and the physical feeling of fear is disharmonious. But experienced operatic composers used more subtle means to express dramatic content in music. The melodic line had to organically correspond to the words on which it lay; harmonic writing was supposed to reflect the ebb and flow of emotions. It was necessary to create different rhythmic patterns for fast-paced recitation scenes, solemn ensembles, love duets and arias. The expressive capabilities of the orchestra, including timbres and other characteristics associated with different instruments, were also placed at the service of dramatic goals.

However, dramatic expressiveness is not the only function of music in opera. The operatic composer solves two conflicting tasks: to express the content of the drama and to please the audience. According to the first objective, music serves drama; according to the second, music is self-sufficient. Many great opera composers - Gluck, Wagner, Mussorgsky, R. Strauss, Puccini, Debussy, Berg - emphasized the expressive, dramatic beginning in the opera. With other authors, the opera acquired a more poetic, restrained, chamber look. Their art is marked by the subtlety of halftones and is less dependent on changes in public tastes. Lyric composers are loved by singers, for although an opera singer must be to a certain extent an actor, his main task is purely musical: he must accurately reproduce the musical text, give the sound the necessary coloring, and phrase beautifully. Among the lyric authors are the 18th century Neapolitans, Handel, Haydn, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Weber, Gounod, Masnet, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Few authors have reached an almost absolute balance of dramatic and lyrical elements, among them Monteverdi, Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Janacek and Britten.

Opera repertoire.

The traditional operatic repertoire consists mainly of works from the 19th century. and a number of operas from the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Romanticism, with its gravitation towards exalted deeds and distant lands, contributed to the development of operatic creativity throughout Europe; the growth of the middle class led to the penetration of folk elements into the operatic language and provided the opera with a vast and grateful audience.

The traditional repertoire tends to reduce the entire genre diversity of opera to two very capacious categories - "tragedy" and "comedy". The first is usually presented wider than the second. The basis of the repertoire today is made up of Italian and German operas, especially "tragedies". In the field of "comedy", Italian opera predominates, or at least in Italian (for example, operas by Mozart). There are few French operas in the traditional repertoire, and they are usually performed in the manner of Italians. Several Russian and Czech operas, performed almost always in translation, take their place in the repertoire. In general, large opera troupes adhere to the tradition of performing works in the original language.

The main regulator of the repertoire is popularity and fashion. The prevalence and cultivation of certain types of voices plays a prominent role, although some operas (like Aide Verdi) are often performed without considering whether the necessary voices are available or not (the latter is more common). In an era when operas with virtuoso coloratura parts and allegorical plots went out of fashion, few people cared about the appropriate style of their production. Handel's operas, for example, were neglected until the famous singer Joan Sutherland and others began performing them. And the point is not only in the “new” public, which discovered the beauty of these operas, but also in the emergence of a large number of singers with a high vocal culture who can cope with sophisticated operatic parts. Likewise, the revival of Cherubini and Bellini was inspired by the brilliant performances of their operas and the discovery of the "novelty" of old works. Early Baroque composers, especially Monteverdi, and Peri and Scarlatti, were likewise pulled out of oblivion.

All such revivals require commented editions, especially the works of authors of the 17th century, about whose instrumentation and dynamic principles we have no precise information. Endless repetitions in the so-called. arias da capo in the operas of the Neapolitan school and in Handel are quite tiresome in our time - the time of digests. The modern listener is hardly able to share the passion of listeners even of the 19th century French grand opera. (Rossini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Halevy) to the entertainment that took the whole evening (for example, the complete score of the opera Fernando Cortez Spontini is played for 5 hours, excluding intermissions). It is not uncommon for a conductor or stage director to be tempted by dark places in the score and its dimensions to cut, rearrange the numbers, make inserts and even write in new pieces, often so clumsy that only a distant relative of the piece that appears in the program appears before the public.

Singers.

Gradually, the rules for choosing a singing timbre for a specific role were formed. The parts of the main characters and heroines were usually assigned to tenors and sopranos. In general, the older and more experienced the character, the lower his voice should be. An innocent young girl - like Gilda in Rigoletto Verdi is a lyric soprano, and the insidious seductress Delilah in the opera of Saint-Saens Samson and Delilah- mezzo-soprano. Part of Figaro, the energetic and witty hero of Mozart's Figaro weddings and Rossinievsky Barber of Seville written by both composers for baritone, although Figaro's part should have been assigned to the first tenor as the main character. The parts of peasants, wizards, people of mature age, rulers and old people were usually created for bass-baritones (for example, Don Juan in Mozart's opera) or basses (Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky).

Changes in social tastes have played a role in the formation of operatic vocal styles. The technique of sound production, the technique of vibrato ("sobbing") has changed over the centuries. J. Peri (1561-1633), singer and author of the earliest partially preserved opera ( Daphne), presumably sang in the so-called white voice - in a relatively even, unchanging style, with little or no vibrato - in accordance with the interpretation of the voice as an instrument, which was in vogue until the end of the Renaissance.

During the 18th century. the cult of the virtuoso singer developed - first in Naples, then throughout Europe. At this time, the part of the main character in the opera was performed by a male soprano - castrate, that is, a timbre whose natural change was stopped by castration. The castrated singers pushed the range and mobility of their voices to the limits of the possible. Such opera stars as castrato Farinelli (K. Broski, 1705-1782), whose soprano, according to his stories, surpassed the sound of the trumpet in strength, or the mezzo-soprano F. Bordoni, about whom it was said that she could pull the sound longer than any other singer in the world, completely subordinated to their skill those composers whose music they performed. Some of them composed operas themselves and directed opera troupes (Farinelli). It was taken for granted that singers decorate the melodies composed by the composer with their own improvised ornaments, regardless of whether such decorations fit the plot situation of the opera or not. The owner of any type of voice must be trained to perform fast passages and trills. In Rossini's operas, for example, the tenor must master the coloratura technique no worse than the soprano. Revival of this kind of art in the 20th century. allowed to give new life to the diverse operatic creativity of Rossini.

Only one singing style of the 18th century. almost unchanged to this day - the style of comic bass, because simple effects and fast chatter leave little room for individual interpretations, musical or stage; Perhaps, the square comedies by D. Pergolesi (1749-1801) are performed now no less often than 200 years ago. The chatty, quick-tempered old man is a highly revered figure in the opera tradition, a favorite role for bass, prone to vocal clownery.

The pure, iridescent singing style of bel canto, so beloved by Mozart, Rossini and other opera composers of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, in the second half of the 19th century. gradually gave way to a more powerful and dramatic style of singing. The development of modern harmonic and orchestral writing gradually changed the function of the orchestra in opera: from an accompanist it turned into a protagonist, and therefore, the singers needed to sing louder so that their voices were not drowned out by the instruments. This trend originated in Germany, but has influenced all European opera, including Italian. The German "heroic tenor" (Heldentenor) is clearly born out of the need for a voice capable of dueling with Wagner's orchestra. Verdi's later compositions and operas by his followers call for "strong" (di forza) tenors and energetic dramatic (spinto) sopranos. The requests of romantic opera sometimes even lead to interpretations that seem to run counter to the intentions expressed by the composer himself. Thus, R. Strauss thought of Salome in his opera of the same name as “a 16-year-old girl with the voice of Isolde”. However, the instrumentation of the opera is so dense that mature singers-matrons are needed to perform the main part.

Among the legendary opera stars of the past are E. Caruso (1873-1921, perhaps the most popular singer in history), J. Farrar (1882-1967, who was always followed in New York by a retinue of fans), F. I. Chaliapin (1873 –1938, powerful bass, master of Russian realism), K. Flagstad (1895–1962, heroic soprano from Norway) and many others. In the next generation, they were replaced by M. Callas (1923-1977), B. Nilson (b. 1918), R. Tebaldi (1922-2004), J. Sutherland (b. 1926), L. Price (b. 1927) ), B. Sills (b. 1929), C. Bartoli (1966), R. Tucker (1913-1975), T. Gobbi (1913-1984), F. Corelli (b. 1921), C. Siepi (b 1923), J. Vickers (b. 1926), L. Pavarotti (b. 1935), S. Milns (b. 1935), P. Domingo (b. 1941), H. Carreras (b. 1946).

Opera houses.

Some buildings of opera houses are associated with a certain type of opera, and in some cases, indeed, the architecture of the theater was determined by one or another type of opera performance. Thus, the Parisian Opera (in Russia the name of the Grand Opera was fixed) was intended for a vivid spectacle long before its present building was built in 1862-1874 (architect Charles Garnier): would compete with the scenery of ballets and magnificent processions that took place on stage. The Festspielhaus in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was founded by Wagner in 1876 to stage his epic musical dramas. His stage, modeled on the scenes of ancient Greek amphitheaters, has great depth, and the orchestra is located in the orchestra pit and is hidden from the audience, thanks to which the sound diffuses and the singer does not need to overextend his voice. The original Metropolitan Opera building in New York (1883) was conceived as a showcase for the world's best singers and respectable box subscribers. The hall is so deep that its “diamond horseshoe” boxes provide visitors with more opportunities to see each other than a relatively shallow stage.

The appearance of opera houses, as in a mirror, reflects the history of opera as a phenomenon of social life. Its origins lie in the revival of the ancient Greek theater in aristocratic circles: this period corresponds to the oldest surviving opera house - Olimpico (1583), built by A. Palladio in Vicenza. Its architecture - a reflection of the microcosm of Baroque society - is based on a characteristic horseshoe-shaped plan, where the tiers of boxes fan out from the center - the royal box. A similar plan is preserved in the buildings of the Teatro alla Scala (1788, Milan), La Fenice (1792, burned down in 1992, Venice), San Carlo (1737, Naples), Covent Garden (1858, London ). With fewer boxes, but with deeper tiers, thanks to steel supports, this plan is used in such American opera houses as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908), the opera houses in San Francisco (1932) and Chicago (1920). More modern solutions are demonstrated by the new Metropolitan Opera building at New York's Lincoln Center (1966) and the Sydney Opera House (1973, Australia).

A democratic approach is characteristic of Wagner. He demanded maximum concentration from the audience and built a theater where there are no boxes at all, and the seats are arranged in monotonous continuous rows. The austere Bayreuth interior was repeated only in the Munich "Prince Regent Theater" (1909); even German theaters built after World War II date back to earlier examples. However, Wagner's idea, apparently, contributed to the movement towards the concept of the arena, i.e. theater without a proscenium, which is proposed by some modern architects (the prototype is the ancient Roman circus): the opera is left to adapt itself to these new conditions. The Roman Amphitheater in Verona is well suited for staging monumental opera performances such as Aida Verdi and Wilhelm Tell Rossini.

Opera festivals.

An important element of Wagner's concept of opera is the summer pilgrimage to Bayreuth. The idea was picked up: in the 1920s, the Austrian city of Salzburg organized a festival dedicated mainly to Mozart's operas and invited such talented people as director M. Reinhardt and conductor A. Toscanini to implement the project. Since the mid-1930s, Mozart's operatic work has shaped the English festival in Glyndebourne. After World War II, a festival appeared in Munich, dedicated mainly to the work of R. Strauss. Florence hosts the "Florentine Musical May", where a very wide repertoire is performed, covering both early and modern operas.

HISTORY

The origins of the opera.

The first example of the opera genre that has come down to us is Eurydice J. Peri (1600) is a modest work created in Florence on the occasion of the wedding of King Henry IV of France and Maria de Medici. As expected, a young singer and madrigalist who was close to the court was ordered to music for this solemn event. But Peri did not present an ordinary madrigal cycle on a pastoral theme, but something completely different. The musician was a member of the Florentine Camerata - a circle of scientists, poets and music lovers. For twenty years, members of the Camerata have investigated the question of how ancient Greek tragedies were performed. They concluded that the Greek actors pronounced the text in a special declamatory manner, which was a cross between speech and real singing. But the real result of these experiments on the revival of a forgotten art was a new type of solo singing, called "monody": the monody was performed in a free rhythm with the simplest accompaniment. Therefore, Peri and his librettist O. Rinuccini presented the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in a recitative, which was supported by the chords of a small orchestra, rather an ensemble of seven instruments, and presented the piece in the Florentine Palazzo Pitti. This was the second opera of the Camerata; first score, Daphne Peri (1598), has not survived.

The early opera had predecessors. For seven centuries, the church has cultivated liturgical dramas such as Daniel game, where solo singing was accompanied by the accompaniment of a variety of instruments. In the 16th century. other composers, in particular A. Gabrieli and O. Vecchi, united secular choirs or madrigals in plot cycles. But still, before Peri and Rinuccini, there was no monodic secular musical-dramatic form. Their work did not become a revival of ancient Greek tragedy. It brought something more - a new viable theatrical genre was born.

However, the full disclosure of the possibilities of the genre of dramma per musica, put forward by the Florentine Camerata, occurred in the work of another musician. Like Peri, C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) was an educated man from a noble family, but unlike Peri, he was a professional musician. A native of Cremona, Monteverdi became famous at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua and until the end of his life led the choir of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice. Seven years after Eurydice Peri he composed his own version of the legend of Orpheus - The Legend of Orpheus... These works differ from each other in the same way that an interesting experiment differs from a masterpiece. Monteverdi increased the composition of the orchestra fivefold, giving each character its own group of instruments, and prefaced the opera with an overture. His recitative not only voiced the text of A. Strigio, but lived his own artistic life. The harmonious language of Monteverdi is full of dramatic contrasts and even today impresses with its boldness and picturesqueness.

Among the subsequent surviving operas of Monteverdi are Duel of Tancred and Clorinda(1624) based on a scene from Liberated Jerusalem Torquato Tasso - an epic poem about the crusaders; Return of Ulysses to his homeland(1641) on a plot dating back to the ancient Greek legend of Odysseus; Coronation of Poppea(1642), from the time of the Roman emperor Nero. The last work was created by the composer just a year before his death. This opera became the pinnacle of his work - partly due to the virtuosity of the vocal parts, partly due to the splendor of the instrumental writing.

The spread of the opera.

During the Monteverdi era, opera rapidly conquered the major cities of Italy. Rome gave the opera author L. Rossi (1598-1653), who staged his opera in Paris in 1647 Orpheus and Eurydice conquering the French light. F. Cavalli (1602-1676), who sang at Monteverdi in Venice, created about 30 operas; Together with MA Chesti (1623-1669), Cavalli became the founder of the Venetian school, which played a major role in Italian opera in the second half of the 17th century. In the Venetian school, the monodic style, which came from Florence, opened the way for the development of recitative and aria. Arias gradually became more extended and more complex, and virtuoso singers, as a rule, castrates, began to dominate the opera stage. The plots of Venetian operas were still based on mythology or romanticized historical episodes, but now decorated with burlesque interludes that had nothing to do with the main action, and spectacular episodes in which the singers demonstrated their virtuosity. At the Opera of Honor Golden Apple(1668), one of the most difficult of that era, there are 50 characters, 67 scenes and 23 changes of scenery.

Italian influence even reached England. At the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, composers and librettists began to create the so-called. masks - court performances, combining recitatives, singing, dancing and based on fantastic plots. This new genre took a large place in the work of H. Laws, who in 1643 set to music Comus Milton, and in 1656 created the first real English opera - Siege of Rhodes... After the restoration of the Stuarts, opera began to gradually gain a foothold in English soil. J. Blow (1649-1708), organist of Westminster Cathedral, composed an opera in 1684 Venus and Adonis, but the work was nevertheless called a mask. The only truly great opera created by an Englishman was Dido and Aeneas G. Purcell (1659-1695), a student and successor of Blow. First performed at a women's college around 1689, this little opera is noted for its astonishing beauty. Purcell was proficient in both French and Italian technique, but his opera is a typically English work. Libretto Dido, owned by N. Tate, but the composer revived with his music, marked by the mastery of dramatic characteristics, extraordinary grace and content of arias and choirs.

Early French opera.

Like early Italian opera, French opera of the mid-16th century. proceeded from the desire to revive the ancient Greek theatrical aesthetics. The difference was that the Italian opera focused on singing, while the French grew out of ballet, the favorite theater genre in the French court of that time. A capable and ambitious dancer who came from Italy, JB Lully (1632-1687) became the founder of French opera. He received his musical education, including the basics of composing technique, at the court of Louis XIV and then was appointed court composer. He perfectly understood the stage, which manifested itself in his music for a number of Molière's comedies, especially for To the tradesman in the nobility(1670). Impressed by the success of the opera troupes who came to France, Lully decided to create his own troupe. Lully's operas, which he called "lyrical tragedies" (tragédies lyriques) , demonstrate a specifically French musical and theatrical style. The plots are taken from ancient mythology or from Italian poems, and the librettos, with their solemn verses in strictly defined sizes, are guided by the style of Lully's great contemporary, the playwright J. Racin. The development of the plot of Lully is interspersed with long discourses on love and fame, and in the prologues and other points of the plot he inserts divertissements - scenes with dances, choirs and magnificent scenery. The true scale of the composer's work becomes clear today, when the performances of his operas are resumed - Alcesta (1674), Hatisa(1676) and Armids (1686).

"Czech opera" is a conventional term, which means two contrasting artistic directions: pro-Russian in Slovakia and pro-German in the Czech Republic. A recognized figure in Czech music is Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), although only one of his operas is imbued with deep pathos Mermaid- has become entrenched in the world repertoire. In Prague, the capital of Czech culture, Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) was the main figure in the opera world. The sold bride(1866) quickly entered the repertoire, usually translated into German. The comic and uncomplicated plot made this work the most accessible in Smetana's legacy, although he is the author of two more fiery-patriotic operas - a dynamic "opera of salvation" Dalibor(1868) and picturesque-epic Libusha(1872, staged in 1881), which depicts the unification of the Czech people under the rule of a wise queen.

The unofficial center of the Slovak school was the city of Brno, where Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) lived and worked, another ardent supporter of the reproduction of natural recitative intonations in music - in the spirit of Mussorgsky and Debussy. Janáček's diaries contain many musical notations of speech and natural sound rhythms. After several early and unsuccessful experiments in the genre of opera, Janáček first turned to the stunning tragedy of the life of the Moravian peasants in the opera Yenufa(1904, the most popular opera by the composer). In subsequent operas, he developed different plots: the drama of a young woman who, out of protest against family oppression, enters into an illegal love affair ( Katya Kabanova, 1921), the life of nature ( Chanterelle cheat, 1924), supernatural incident ( Means Makropulos, 1926) and Dostoevsky's account of the years he spent in hard labor ( Notes from a dead house, 1930).

Janáček dreamed of success in Prague, but his "enlightened" colleagues treated his operas with disdain - both during the composer's life and after his death. Like Rimsky-Korsakov, who edited Mussorgsky, Janacek's colleagues believed that they knew better than the author how his scores should sound. Janacek's international recognition came later as a result of the restoration efforts of John Tyrrell and Australian conductor Charles McKeras.

Operas of the 20th century

The First World War put an end to the romantic era: the elevation of feelings characteristic of romanticism could not survive the shocks of the war years. The established operatic forms also tended to decline, it was a time of uncertainty and experiment. The craving for the Middle Ages, with special force expressed in Parsifale and Pellease, gave the last flashes in works such as Love of three kings(1913) Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952), Ekebu Knights(1925) Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944), Semirama(1910) and Flame(1934) Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). Austrian post-romanticism represented by Franz Schrecker (1878-1933; Distant sound, 1912; Stigmatized, 1918), Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942; Florentine tragedy;Dwarf- 1922) and Erik Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957; Dead city, 1920; Miracle of Heliana, 1927) used medieval motives for the artistic study of spiritualistic ideas or pathological mental phenomena.

Wagner's legacy, taken up by Richard Strauss, then passed on to the so-called. the new Viennese school, in particular to A. Schoenberg (1874-1951) and A. Berg (1885-1935), whose operas are a kind of anti-romantic reaction: this is expressed both in a conscious departure from the traditional musical language, especially harmonious, and in the choice "Cruel" plots. Berg's first opera Wozzeck(1925) - The story of an unhappy, oppressed soldier - is a breathtakingly powerful drama, despite its unusually complex, highly intellectual form; second opera by the composer, Lulu(1937, completed after the death of the author F. Cerchoi) is an equally expressive musical drama about a dissolute woman. After a series of small acute psychological operas, among which the most famous is Expectation(1909), Schoenberg worked on the plot all his life Moses and Aaron(1954, the opera remained unfinished) - based on the biblical story of the conflict between the tongue-tied prophet Moses and the eloquent Aaron, who seduced the Israelites to worship the golden calf. Scenes of orgy, destruction and human sacrifice, which can outrage any theatrical censorship, as well as the extreme complexity of the composition, hinder its popularity in the opera house.

Composers of various national schools began to emerge from the influence of Wagner. Thus, Debussy's symbolism served as an impetus for the Hungarian composer B.Bartók (1881-1945) to create his psychological parable Duke Bluebeard's Castle(1918); another Hungarian author, Z. Kodai, at the opera Hari Janos(1926) turned to folklore sources. In Berlin, F. Busoni reinterpreted old plots in operas Harlequin(1917) and Doctor Faust(1928, remained unfinished). In all the works mentioned, the all-pervading symphony of Wagner and his followers gives way to a much more laconic style, up to the predominance of monody. However, the operatic heritage of this generation of composers is relatively small, and this circumstance, together with the list of unfinished works, testifies to the difficulties that the opera genre experienced in the era of expressionism and impending fascism.

At the same time, new currents began to emerge in war-ravaged Europe. Italian comic opera gave its last escape in a small masterpiece by G. Puccini Gianni Schicchi(1918). But in Paris, M. Ravel raised a dying torch and created his wonderful Spanish hour(1911) and then Child and magic(1925, to libretto by Collet). Opera also appeared in Spain - Short life(1913) and The show of maestro Pedro(1923) Manuel de Falla.

In England, opera was experiencing a true renaissance - for the first time in centuries. The earliest examples are Immortal hour(1914) Rutland Boughton (1878-1960) on a plot from Celtic mythology, Traitors(1906) and Boatswain's wife(1916) Ethel Smith (1858-1944). The first is a bucolic love story, while the second is about pirates settling in a poor English coastal village. Smith's operas enjoyed some popularity in Europe as well as those of Frederick Delius (1862-1934), especially Village of Romeo and Juliet(1907). Delius, however, was inherently incapable of embodying conflict drama (both in text and in music), and therefore his static musical dramas rarely appear on stage.

The burning problem for English composers was the search for a competitive plot. Savitri Gustav Holst was written based on one of the episodes of the Indian epic Mahabharata(1916), and Hugh the driver R. Voan-Williams (1924) is a pastoral richly filled with folk songs; the same is the case in Vaughan Williams' opera Sir John in love according to Shakespeare Falstaff.

B. Britten (1913-1976) managed to raise the English opera to new heights; his first opera turned out to be a success Peter Grimes(1945) - a drama taking place on the seashore, where the central character is a fisherman rejected by people, who is at the mercy of mystical experiences. The source of comedy-satire Albert Herring(1947) became a short story by Maupassant, and in Billy Budd the allegorical tale of Melville is used, treating about good and evil (the historical background is the era of the Napoleonic wars). This opera is generally recognized as Britten's masterpiece, although he later successfully worked in the genre of "grand opera" - examples include Gloriana(1951), which tells about the turbulent events of the reign of Elizabeth I, and A dream in a summer night(1960; the libretto based on Shakespeare was created by the composer's closest friend and collaborator - singer P. Pearce). In the 1960s, Britten paid a lot of attention to parable operas ( Woodcock river – 1964, Cave action – 1966, Prodigal son- 1968); he also created a television opera Owen Wingrave(1971) and chamber operas Turning the screw and Desecration of Lucretia... The absolute pinnacle of the composer's operatic creativity was his last work in this genre - Death in Venice(1973), where extraordinary ingenuity is combined with great sincerity.

So significant is Britten's operatic heritage that few of the English authors of the next generation were able to step out of his shadow, although the famous opera success of Peter Maxwell Davis (b.1934) is worth mentioning. Taverner(1972) and operas by Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934) Gawain(1991). As for composers from other countries, we can mention such works as Aniara(1951) by the Swede Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916-1968), where the action takes place on an interplanetary ship and uses electronic sounds, or an opera cycle Let there be light(1978–1979) by the German Karlheinz Stockhausen (the cycle has the subtitle Seven days of creation and is designed to be executed within a week). But, of course, such innovations are of a transient nature. More significant are the operas of the German composer Karl Orff (1895-1982) - for example, Antigone(1949), which is built on the model of ancient Greek tragedy using rhythmic declamation against the background of ascetic accompaniment (mainly percussion instruments). The brilliant French composer F. Poulenc (1899-1963) began with a humorous opera Breast Tiresias(1947), and then turned to an aesthetics that prioritizes natural speech intonation and rhythm. Two of his best operas are written in this vein: mono-opera Human voice by Jean Cocteau (1959; libretto constructed as a heroine's telephone conversation) and opera Carmelite Dialogues, which describes the suffering of the nuns of a Catholic order during the French Revolution. Poulenc's harmonies are deceptively simple and emotionally expressive at the same time. The international popularity of Poulenc's works was also aided by the composer's requirement that his operas be performed in local languages whenever possible.

Juggling like a magician in different styles, IF Stravinsky (1882–1971) created an impressive number of operas; among them - a romantic written for Diaghilev's entreprise Nightingale based on the tale by G.H. Andersen (1914), Mozartian The adventures of a rake based on engravings by Hogarth (1951), as well as static, reminiscent of antique friezes King Oedipus(1927), which is intended equally for the theater and for the concert stage. During the period of the German Weimar Republic, K. Weil (1900-1950) and B. Brecht (1898-1950), who remade Beggar's opera John Gay's even more popular Three penny opera(1928), composed a now forgotten opera on a poignantly satirical plot The rise and fall of the city of Mahagoni(1930). The rise of the Nazis to power put an end to this fruitful cooperation, and Weill, who emigrated to America, began working in the genre of the American musical.

Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) was in great fashion in the 1960s and 1970s when his expressionist and overtly erotic operas appeared Don Rodrigo (1964), Bomarzo(1967) and Beatrice Cenci(1971). German Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) gained fame in 1951 when his opera was staged Boulevard Loneliness on the libretto by Greta Weill based on the story of Manon Lescaut; the musical language of the work combines jazz, blues and 12-tone technique. Among the subsequent operas by Henze: Elegy for Young Lovers(1961; the action takes place in the snowy Alps; the sound of the xylophone, vibraphone, harp and celesta dominates in the score), Young lord infused with black humor (1965), Bassarids(1966; after Bacchae Euripides, English libretto by Charles Callman and W.H. Auden), anti-militarist We'll come to the river(1976), children's fairy tale opera Pollicino and Betrayed sea(1990). In Great Britain, Michael Tippett (1905-1998 ) : Wedding on Midsummer's Night(1955), Maze garden (1970), The ice has broken(1977) and sci-fi opera New Year(1989) - all on the composer's libretto. The avant-garde English composer Peter Maxwell Davis is the author of the aforementioned opera Taverner(1972; plot from the life of the 16th century composer John Taverner) and Sunday (1987).

Famous opera singers

Björling, Jussi (Johan Yunatan)(Björling, Jussi) (1911-1960), Swedish singer (tenor). He studied at the Royal Opera School in Stockholm and made his debut there in 1930 in a small role in Manon Lescaut... A month later, Ottavio sang in Don Juan... From 1938 to 1960, with the exception of the war years, he sang at the Metropolitan Opera and enjoyed particular success in the Italian and French repertoire.
Galli-Curchi Amelita .
Gobby, Tito(Gobbi, Tito) (1915-1984), Italian singer (baritone). He studied in Rome and made his debut there as Germont in La Traviate... He performed extensively in London and after 1950 in New York, Chicago and San Francisco - especially in Verdi's operas; continued to sing in major theaters in Italy. Gobby is considered the best performer of the Scarpia part, which he sang about 500 times. He has starred in opera films many times.
Domingo, Placido .
Callas, Maria .
Caruso, Enrico .
Corelli, Franco- (Corelli, Franco) (b. 1921-2003), Italian singer (tenor). At the age of 23 he studied for some time at the Conservatory of Pesaro. In 1952 he took part in the vocal competition of the Florentine Musical May festival, where the director of the Rome Opera invited him to take a test at the Experimental Theater of Spoletto. Soon he performed at this theater in the role of Don Jose in Carmen... At the opening of the La Scala season in 1954, he sang with Maria Callas in Vestal Spontini. In 1961 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Manrico in Troubadour... Among his most famous parties is Cavaradossi in Toske.
London, George(London, George) (1920-1985), Canadian singer (bass-baritone), real name George Bernstein. He studied in Los Angeles and made his Hollywood debut in 1942. In 1949 he was invited to the Vienna Opera, where he made his debut as Amonasro in Aide... He sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1951-1966), and also performed in Bayreuth from 1951 to 1959 as Amfortas and the Flying Dutchman. He performed superbly the parts of Don Juan, Scarpia and Boris Godunov.
Milnes, Cheryl .
Nilsson, Birgit(Nilsson, Birgit) (1918–2005), Swedish singer (soprano). She studied in Stockholm and made her debut there as Agatha in Free shooter Weber. Her international fame dates back to 1951, when she sang Electra in Idomenee Mozart at the Glyndebourne Festival. In the 1954/1955 season she sang Brunhilde and Salome at the Munich Opera. She made her debut as Brünnhilde in London's Covent Garden (1957) and as Isolde in the Metropolitan Opera (1959). She also succeeded in other parties, especially Turandot, Tosca and Aida. She died on December 25, 2005 in Stockholm.
Pavarotti, Luciano .
Patti, Adeline(Patti, Adelina) (1843–1919), Italian singer (coloratura soprano). She made her debut in New York in 1859 as Lucia di Lammermoor, in London in 1861 (as Amina in Somnambule). She sang at Covent Garden for 23 years. Possessing a magnificent voice and brilliant technique, Patti was one of the last representatives of the true bel canto style, but as a musician and as an actress she was much weaker.
Price, Leontina .
Sutherland, Joan .
Skipa, Tito(Schipa, Tito) (1888-1965), Italian singer (tenor). He studied in Milan and in 1911 made his debut in Vercelli in the role of Alfred ( La traviata). He performed regularly in Milan and Rome. In 1920–1932 he had an engagement at the Chicago Opera, and sang constantly in San Francisco from 1925 and at the Metropolitan Opera (1932–1935 and 1940–1941). He performed superbly the parts of Don Ottavio, Almaviva, Nemorino, Werther and Wilhelm Meister in Minion.
Scotto, Renata(Scotto, Renata) (b. 1935), Italian singer (soprano). She made her debut in 1954 at the Teatro New Naples as Violetta ( La traviata), in the same year she sang for the first time at La Scala. She specialized in the bel canto repertoire: Gilda, Amina, Norina, Linda de Chamouny, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda and Violetta. Her American debut as Mimi from Bohemians took place at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1960, first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Cio-cio-san in 1965. Her repertoire also includes the roles of Norma, La Gioconda, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Francesca da Rimini.
Siepi, Cesare(Siepi, Cesare) (b. 1923), Italian singer (bass). He made his debut in 1941 in Venice as Sparafucillo in Rigoletto... After the war he began performing at La Scala and other Italian opera houses. From 1950 to 1973 he was the leading bass performer at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang, in particular, Don Juan, Figaro, Boris, Gurnemanz and Philippe in Don Carlos.
Tebaldi, Renata(Tebaldi, Renata) (b. 1922), Italian singer (soprano). She studied in Parma and made her debut in 1944 in Rovigo as Elena ( Mephistopheles). Toscanini chose Tebaldi to speak at the post-war opening of La Scala (1946). In 1950 and 1955 she performed in London, in 1955 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Desdemona and sang in this theater until her retirement in 1975. Among her best roles are Tosca, Adriana Lecouvreur, Violetta, Leonora, Aida and other dramatic roles from operas by Verdi.
Farrar, Geraldine .
Chaliapin, Fedor Ivanovich .
Schwarzkopf, Elizabeth(Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth) (b. 1915), German singer (soprano). Studied in Berlin and made her debut at the Berlin Opera in 1938 as one of the flower maidens in Parsifale Wagner. After several performances at the Vienna Opera, she was invited to take the leading roles. Later she also sang at Covent Garden and La Scala. 1951 in Venice at the premiere of Stravinsky's opera The adventures of a rake sang the part of Anna, in 1953 at La Scala she participated in the premiere of Orff's stage cantata Triumph of Aphrodite... In 1964 she performed for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. She left the opera stage in 1973.

Literature:

Makhrova E.V. Opera House in the culture of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century... SPb, 1998
Simon G.W. One Hundred Great Operas and Their Plots... M., 1998