Recitative/ spoken in Mozart's operas
Davmia
The Magic Flute is the only Mozart opera (I think) where the non-aria parts are
spoken, not done recitative-style. What was the reason for this change? The
MF is my favorite of his operas, primarily because I do not particularly like
recitatives.
Donald Patterson
It is a German Singspiel (a singing play meant for light
entertainment). The Abduction from the Seraglio is also
of this genre and with spoken dialogue. Also the early
Bastien und Bastienne.
Mozart took this "light entertainment" to its highest level
and invested in it a depth unheard of up to that time.
Prior to Mozart, the Singspiel could *roughly* be compared
to operetta. In the movie "Amadeus", it was translated
as "vaudeville". I think this not even close, but it made
it a little more understanding for the general movie
going public.
--
Don Patterson <don...@erols.com>
"The President's Own"
United States Marine Band
Concerned about the state of the Mac?
Visit: http://www.MacMarines.com
The views expressed are my own and in no way reflect
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Christopher M. Smith
Davmia wrote:
>
> The Magic Flute is the only Mozart opera (I think) where the non-aria parts are
> spoken, not done recitative-style. What was the reason for this change? The
> MF is my favorite of his operas, primarily because I do not particularly like
> recitatives.
This probably has to do with the differences between German opera
tradition at the time vs. Italian opera tradition. Mozart's other
German operas (AFAIK, at least Seraglio) also have this trait.
As opera was developing in Germany, the idea of the Singspiel
caught on, which was sort of halfway between opera and theater, but
closer to opera (because of the importance of the music). Singspiel
typically contains spoken parts depicting the action and
accompanied arias to convey emotion, dramatic tension, etc. Part
of this also has to do with the German language. Italian has a lot
more open-throated vowels, especially at the ends of words. It was
for this reason that some Italian composers considered German
unsingable (the same was said about English). Since at the time,
opera was often structured by arias (rather than scenes and acts, a
holdover from the Baroque opera which didn't really end until the
early ninteenth century), the drama was usually contained in the
arias and the linking passages were for the action. Since the `plot'
happened in these sections, the audience needed to understand them,
so there was a tendency, especially outside of Italy, to clarify
things by having these passages spoken without accompaniment. This
is also found in French opera comique and in what was going on in
England (although the English tended to prefer straight plays to
English opera). As the nineteenth century wore on, the score played
a larger and larger role in the long-range structure of operas. In
Donizetti, scenes become more important than arias. In Wagner,
everything is unified by the music, and each act is like a single
movement.
There are many books on the development of opera. An interesting
recent intro book is _Bravo: A Guide to Opera for the Perplexed_ by
Barry Scherer.
Hope this helps...
Chris Smith
Simon Roberts
Davmia (dav...@aol.com) wrote:
: The Magic Flute is the only Mozart opera (I think) where the non-aria parts are
: spoken, not done recitative-style. What was the reason for this change? The
: MF is my favorite of his operas, primarily because I do not particularly like
: recitatives.
It's not a "change"; rather it reflects different traditions. Mozart's
German operas fall in the Singspiel tradition and use dialog rather than
sung recitatives. The same is true of Zaide and Entfuehrung (and
Beethoven's Leonore/Fidelio, Weber's Freischuetz, etc.); so you should
perhaps try them too (especially Entfuehrung).
Simon
Brian Newhouse
In article <19971204224...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, dav...@aol.com
(Davmia) wrote:
> The Magic Flute is the only Mozart opera (I think) where the non-aria
parts are
> spoken, not done recitative-style. What was the reason for this change? The
> MF is my favorite of his operas, primarily because I do not particularly like
> recitatives.
The Magic Flute has spoken dialogue instead of recitative because the
theater it was written for performed pieces with spoken dialogue instead
of recitatives. This was common practice in German-language theaters of
Mozart's time; *Die Entfuehrung aus der Serail*, written much earlier,
also has spoken dialogue. For that matter, when *La finta giardiniera*
first made the rounds of German opera houses as *Die Gaertnerin aus
Liebe*, the recitatives were replaced by spoken dialogue. I believe this
had something to do with German-language operas of the time often being
performed by companies that did both operas and spoken plays, at least in
Northern Germany (though Mozart was Austrian) ; musicologist Thomas Bauman
wrote a thorough account of such practices in his *North German opera in
the age of Goethe*. In Vienna, this may also have been inspired by French
opera-comique, in which the dialogue is also spoken instead of sung, and
which was successfully introduced to Vienna in the 1750s and 1760s with
the help of Gluck.
--
Brian Newhouse
newh...@mail.crisp.net
Ross Mandell
On 5 Dec 1997 00:07:07 GMT, si...@dept.english.upenn.edu (Simon
Roberts) wrote:
>Davmia (dav...@aol.com) wrote:
>: The Magic Flute is the only Mozart opera (I think) where the non-aria parts are
>: spoken, not done recitative-style. What was the reason for this change? The
>: MF is my favorite of his operas, primarily because I do not particularly like
>: recitatives.
>
>It's not a "change"; rather it reflects different traditions. Mozart's
>German operas fall in the Singspiel tradition and use dialog rather than
>sung recitatives. The same is true of Zaide and Entfuehrung (and
>Beethoven's Leonore/Fidelio, Weber's Freischuetz, etc.); so you should
>perhaps try them too (especially Entfuehrung).
>
>Simon
Zaide contains many of Mozart's most beautiful melodies. Yet it is an
almost unknown work. It is worth seeking out.
Brian Newhouse
In article <348761...@erols.com>, Donald Patterson
<*NOSPAM*@erols.com> wrote:
[snip]
> Mozart took this "light entertainment" to its highest level
> and invested in it a depth unheard of up to that time.
> Prior to Mozart, the Singspiel could *roughly* be compared
> to operetta. In the movie "Amadeus", it was translated
> as "vaudeville". I think this not even close, but it made
> it a little more understanding for the general movie
> going public.
>
> --
On the contrary (I say, having blessedly banished *Amadeus* from my all
too retentive memory). "Vaudeville", which refers to the
turn-of-the-century ancestor of the variety show, would mislead rather
than inform the general-purpose moviegoer. "Musical" would have been a
much closer equivalent for contemporary English speakers, questions of
vocal style and amplification aside.
--
Brian Newhouse
newh...@mail.crisp.net
Ross Mandell
This
>is also found in French opera comique and in what was going on in
>England (although the English tended to prefer straight plays to
>English opera).
Origionally Bizet had spoken dialogue for Carmen. After his death a
composer friend of his set the dialogue to music.
The answers to the question about spoken dialogue in opera have been
enlighening to me and it is postings like these that make me read
every post in this newsgroup.
Keep up the good work
Ross