Power point 23. The Romantic Era: Late Romantic Opera

1. Late Romantic Italian Opera
Verdi and Puccini

2. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
•Serious, dramatic operas
•bold, emotional subject matter, fast-
paced
•Verdi’s singers:
•male
•strong baritone
•lyric tenor
•basso cantate—lyric bass
•female
•heroine—soprano
•supporting female
•harmony:
•traditional tonal language, romantic
harmonies
•duets:
•dissimilar material
•reminiscence theme

3. Verdi’s four style periods
Heroism (1842-49)
bel canto operas
•Nabucco
Personal life
Reflect Verdi’s own
personal life
•Rigoletto“La
Donna è mobile”
“Caro nome”
La Traviata
French influence
Grand Opera
Spectacle
•Aïda—premiered in
Cairo
Shakespeare
•Otello
6-year break
•Falstaff (comic
opera)

4. Verdi’s opera plan
• Act I.
– principal character (not heroine) sings solo w/chorus
– 2ndor 3rd scene—heroine introduced in solo w/chorus
• Act II. or III.
– large duet
• Act II. and III.
– conclude w/ensemble finales (often containing stirring
duet)
• Act IV.
– begins w/prayer scene for heroine
– death scene for hero or rondo finale for heroine

5. (not so) fun facts about Verdi
• popular, but attacked by critics
• did not get into Milan conservatory
• Between Aug 1838 and June 1840, wife and both
children died while he was writing a comedy. It failed,
and he almost gave up composing, and didn’t write
another comic opera until his last opera, Falstaff
• later scandalous affair (which eventually became a
marriage)w/a famous opera singer. Lived together
over 10 yrs before getting married. No kids, lots of
pets.
• patriotism—served as member of Italian Parliament
(1861-5)
– VERDI—Viva vittorio Emanuele Re D’Italia

6. Giacomo
Puccini
• influenced by verismo
opera
• Manon Lescaut
• triptych
– Il tabarro
– Suor Angelica
– Gianni Schicchi
• La bohème
• Tosca
• Madama Butterfly
– excerpt from act 1
(start at 3:24)
– “Un bel di vedremo”
• Turandot

7. Late Romantic German Opera
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

8. Wagner’s life
• spent much of his life in various parts of Europe escaping
from debtors
• after death of his first wife, married Liszt’s daughter Cosima,
with whom he had been having an affair for several years—
they even had a few children. During the affair, Cosima was
married to Hans von Bülow, Wagner’s conductor. Bülow
continued to conduct Wagner’s works, even though he knew
about the affairs.
Hans von Bülow Cosima and Franz Liszt Richard Wagner

9. Wagner’s Operas

10. •Bayreuth
•opera house constructed solely for
performances of Wagner’s operas

11. characteristics
• gesamtkunstwerk
– “total art work”
– Wagner was involved in every step of creation of his
stage works
– text and music of equal importance
– voice and orchestra of equal importance
• semideclamatory arioso
• leitmotifs
– motives, themes, or musical ideas associated with
people, things, moods, or ideas
• large orchestra
• continuous melody

12. Rienzi (1837-40)
• first performed 1842
• first triumph
• grand opera

13. Der fliegende Hollander
(The Flying Dutchman) (1840-1)
• written in Paris
• Wagner had fled to
London, then Paris
to escape debt
• reminiscence
motives

14. Tannhäuser (1842-5)
• combined tale of
Tannhäuser in
Des Knaben
Wunderhorn with
a story of E.T.A.
Hoffman’s
(German
romanticism)
• redemption
opera
• elements of
Grand Opera

15. Lohengrin (1845-8)
• based on Wolfram
von Eschenbach’s
epic poem Parzivâl
and Grimm fairy
tale
• black and white
magic
• elements of Grand
Opera
• diatonic; keys
assigned to major
characters

16. Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848-1874)
• Four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried,
Götterdämmerung
• mythological events in lives of Germanic
gods/goddesses, humans, dwarfs, giants, etc.
chasing after gold ring

17. Das Rheingold
• intro

18. Die Walküre

19. Siegfried

20. Götterdämmerung

21. Tristan und Isolde (1857-9)
• Tristan und Isolde
– no spectacle
– human emotions
– based on medieval celtic poem
– “Tristan” chord—f-b-d#-g#
– breakdown of functional
harmony
• ambiguous chords
• stretches tonality to the brink
– scenes are distinguishable, but
music is continuous through
each act
– Prelude
– Act I finale (start at 0:30)

22. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(sketched 1845, completed 1861-7)
• numbers & scenes—traditional scene
structure
• acts conclude w/massed finale—grand opera
• diatonic—conventional harmonies
• utilized actual qualities of meistersinger
music:
– arias use aab structure (bar form) used
by medieval meistersingers
– some actual meistersinger music
– characters named after actual
meistersingers
• ideas of conflict between old and new styles
of music
– rules of guild considered antiquated
– Walther & Hans Sachs—new music
– Beckmesser—old music

23. Parsifal (1882, sketched 1857)
• Holy Grail
• self-redemption/sacrifice