home › Brake system › Opera traditions. The origin and development of opera

Opera traditions. The origin and development of opera

In addition, the director, as, indeed, every person, must understand that his opinion and what he considers to be true is not necessarily true and his opinion will not necessarily convince everyone. In short, the real truth is not at all equal to what you now think. If this is not kept in mind, then you will never be able to be an accomplice in the conversation, you will be an inflated mentor.

Ideas are in the air, and there is no need to put them in a verbal formula, to look for a phraseological stamp. The idea of the performance is to a large extent formed in the course of the performance. Feeling, perception figurative system will give birth to what is most important in art - the spiritual understanding of life, its perception, its understanding. These are all the results of the commonality of the team creating the performance and co-creation in the process of the performance with the public.

And there is one more quality that an opera director should have: this is patience. We said that the owners singing voices do not often have a "happy complex", that is, all the qualities that we expect from an artist. Due to precocity, according to the circumstances of upbringing and training already known to us, opera artist does not always see the opportunity to independently develop his abilities, he does not always have an awakened need for this. It happens that this serves as a reason for limiting the development of the artist's talent and a small ability to consolidate what has been achieved. The director, in the name of the success of the theater and the artist himself, is forced to fill with his perseverance the quality of work capacity and self-demanding that the artist lacks. Develop professionalism in it.

Regarding this, I often tell artists examples from the biography famous singer Pauline Viardot. Main character of this story is the musician and singer Manuel Garcia, already known to you. He, as you remember, was the father of Polina. “Once he asked her (P. Viardot) to read from the sheet a play he had just written. Polina played distractedly and made a mistake twice. Her father scolded her, and she played everything flawlessly, for which she received a slap in the face. "Why didn't you pay attention right away? shouted Manuel. “You upset me, forcing me to slap, and you yourself were hurt.”

Often at the rehearsals of an opera performance, the artist is careless, not realizing how harmful it is for his profession and dangerous for the performance. Often everything is covered with small jokes, which in turn lead away from the main task of the rehearsal. A director who fails to make an actor work rarely succeeds.

You can not think that the director's work takes place in an atmosphere of common understanding, enthusiasm and diligence. Very often, the actor does not understand the director due to insufficient knowledge of the principles of opera art. Often an actor suffers while working with an "annoying director". Here the pedagogical skill of the director, the ability to captivate, interest and even deceive the actor should come into play. Experienced actors also try to deceive the director by setting aside an elusive directorial decision. These mutual deceptions, most often obvious to both sides, are sometimes the source of mutual artistic solutions, and sometimes form a wall between the director and the actor. This is where the endurance and patience of the director comes into play.

How an opera performance is staged

Perhaps you are wondering how an opera performance is staged? Imagine that the theater decides to put on an opera. Are there voices in the theater capable of singing this opera? If there are such votes, then the directorate issues an order determining the composition of the performers, directors and the timing of the release of the performance.

Work has begun. Pianists-concertmasters teach their parts with the artists. The director, the conductor and the artist are talking about the work, defining its main semantic features, and how the performance will be staged.

The choir learns its parts with the choirmaster. The artist draws sketches of scenery and costumes, makes a scenery layout with a layout designer; it is discussed and accepted by the artistic council and management, after which the production of scenery begins in the workshops. Meanwhile, the singers learned their parts and were received by the conductor. What does accepted mean? Checked the correctness, expressiveness of performance. Previously, some conductors worked out parts with the singer for quite a long time and in detail, now this is almost universally a thing of the past. (Apparently, the conductor now, feeling the growth of the director's function in an opera performance, delegates to him the concern for the expressiveness of singing.)

But now the musical preparation is over, and the singers go to the director in the rehearsal room, where the singers are given the appropriate actions for each episode, where the singer must turn into an actor. In the rehearsal room, rehearsals take place in stage spaces that are precisely fenced off like future scenery. Then the choir joins in the action, rehearsals go on stage, to the piano, but in the scenery.

At this time, the orchestra and the conductor prepared for general rehearsals. After a series of rehearsals, when the costumes and make-up, and the props of this performance are gradually included, a dress rehearsal is scheduled (everything is supposed to be on it, as in a future performance) and the premiere.

Such a scheme for preparing an opera performance is generally accepted, it is a tradition developed over decades. However, the new aesthetic patterns of the opera performance require some significant changes. Let's try to make these adjustments.

If there are voices in the theater that can perform a given score, it is necessary to see how the owners of these voices correspond in their psychophysical characteristics to the character whose role the given artist is entrusted to perform. It is necessary to find out whether compromises are possible here and what these compromises will bring to the performance. For example, maybe the director's decision of the play will justify the too large thickness of the future Duke of Mantua or reconcile with total absence youth of the actress who plays Gilda.

The study of parts by the actors is preferable after conversations with the director about the work, the tasks of the future performance, its features, and concept. Of course, this can only be done in general terms, given that the work of the conductor, the artist, and the actors themselves will affect the implementation of the concept; with an eye on the ultimate goal, musical material should be taught.

Further. From time to time, the director is recommended to attend lessons on learning the parts by the actors in order to make the singer need to search for the appropriate intonations - the coloring of the sound in one place or another of the part, telling the stage situations of the future performance. So the formal learning of music can be contrasted with the work of the actor's imagination. Uncreative memorization of notes in the future will be very difficult to overcome.

In the past, all stage situations and expressive colors of the voice seemed to be glued, attached to formally learned notes, and if they could, they evoked soul and meaning in them. But this retraining is not always possible for everyone. It is better to learn the game not mechanically, but meaningfully, that is, taking into account where, when and what this character does, with what attitude, what his character is. Here, in the classroom, the so-called musical-vocal image is born, which is then naturally combined with the actions, deeds and living person.

The previously mentioned mise-en-scene rehearsals expand their functions; this is not the assimilation of a number of positions and actions of the character in the performance - this is the search for the artist's organic behavior in the events that take place in the performance. This is the interaction of many characters with different attitudes and assessments of what is happening. This is a collective performance.

However, this does not mean that each participant in the rehearsal pulls in his direction and crushes the concept of the director, but a common interest in the manifestation of a through action and the execution of every detail not only with the participation, but under the direction of the director.

Difficult period - the unification of all teams to perform a single task.

The organization of a large modern opera house provides for, in its very original order, the administrative division of a large team into separate parts: soloists, choir, orchestra, ballet, mimic ensemble. This administrative division exacerbates professional characteristics, asserts the boundaries of creative techniques.

Sections: General pedagogical technologies

The Bolshoi Theatre, the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the leading Russian theater, has played an outstanding role in the formation and development of the national tradition of opera and ballet art. Its origin is associated with the flourishing of Russian culture in the second half of the 18th century, with the emergence and development of professional theater.

The theater was founded in 1776 by the Moscow philanthropist Prince P. V. Urusov and the entrepreneur M. Medoks, who received a government privilege for the development of theatrical business. The troupe was formed on the basis of the Moscow theater troupe of N. Titov, theater artists of the Moscow University and serf actors P. Urusov.

In 1780, Medox built in Moscow on the corner of Petrovka, a building that became known as the Petrovsky Theater. It was the first permanent professional theatre.

The Petrovsky Theater of Medox stood for 25 years - on October 8, 1805, the building burned down. The new building was built by K. I. Rossi on Arbat Square. However, it, being wooden, burned down in 1812, during the invasion of Napoleon.

In 1821, the construction of a new theater began, the project was led by the architect Osip Bove.

The construction of the Bolshoi Theater was one of the most significant work Bove, who brought him fame and glory.

Bove Osip Ivanovich (1784-1834) - Russian architect, representative of the Empire style. Born in the family of an artist, Italian by birth. He was a subtle artist who knew how to combine the simplicity and expediency of a compositional solution with the sophistication and beauty of architectural forms and decor. The architect had a deep understanding of Russian architecture, a creative attitude to national traditions, which determined many of the progressive features of his work.

The construction of the theater was completed in 1824; on January 6, 1825, the first performance took place in the new building.

The Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre, which eventually became known simply as the Bolshoi, hosted the premiere of Mikhail Glinka's operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila, and the ballets La Sylphide, Giselle and Esmeralda were staged almost immediately after for European premieres.

The tragedy interrupted the work of the Bolshoi Theater for a while: in 1853, the majestic building, designed by the architect Beauvais, burned to the ground. Scenery, costumes, rare instruments, music library were lost.

The new building of the theater in neoclassical style was built by the architect Albert Kavos, the opening took place on August 20, 1856 with V. Bellini's opera "The Puritani".

Kavos made significant changes to the decor of the main facade of the building, replacing the Ionic order of the columns of the portico with a composite one. The upper part of the main facade also underwent significant changes: another pediment appeared above the main portico; above the pediment of the portico, the alabaster quadriga of Apollo, completely lost in the fire, was replaced by a sculpture made of a metal alloy covered with red copper.

Russian choreographic art has inherited the traditions of Russian classical ballet, the main features of which are realistic orientation, democracy and humanism. A great merit in the preservation and development of traditions belongs to the choreographers and artists of the Bolshoi Theater.

By the end of the 18th century, ballet in Russia had taken its place in the art and life of Russian society, its main features were determined, combining the features of Western schools (French and Italian) and Russian dance plasticity. The Russian school of classical ballet began its formation, which includes the following traditions: realistic orientation, democracy and humanism, as well as expressiveness and spirituality of performance.

The Bolshoi Theater troupe occupies a special place in the history of Russian ballet. One of the two in the Imperial Theatres, it was always in the background, deprived of both attention and financial subsidies, was revered as "provincial". Meanwhile, the Moscow ballet had its own face, its own, which began to take shape back in late XVII 1st century tradition. It was formed in the cultural environment of the ancient Russian capital, depended on the life of the city, where national roots were always strong. In contrast to the state official and court Petersburg, in Moscow the old Russian nobility and merchants set the tone, and at a certain stage the influence of university circles closely connected with the theater was great.

A special predilection for national themes has long been noted here. Invariably, as soon as the first dance performances appeared on the stage, performers of folk dances had a huge success. The audience was attracted by melodramatic plots, and acting in ballet was valued above pure dance. Comedies were very popular.

E. Ya Surits writes that the traditions of the Bolshoi Ballet evolved over the course of the 19th century in the bowels of the Moscow theater, which had its own characteristics, including the choreographic one. The dramatic beginning here always took precedence over the lyrical, external action was given more attention than internal. Comedy easily turned into buffoonery, tragedy into melodrama.

Moscow ballet was characterized by bright colors, dynamic change of events, individualization of characters. The dance has always been tinged with dramatic play. In relation to the classical canons, liberties were easily allowed: the polished abstract form of academic dance was broken here for the sake of revealing emotions, the dance lost its virtuosity, gaining character. Moscow has always been more democratic and open - this affected the theatrical repertoire, and subsequently - the manner of performance. Dryish, official, restrained Petersburg preferred ballets of tragic or mythological content, cheerful, noisy, emotional Moscow preferred melodramatic and comedic ballet performances. Petersburg ballet is still distinguished by classical rigor, academicism, cantileverness of the dance, while Moscow ballet is distinguished by bravura, powerful leaps, and athleticism.

The difference in the demands of the St. Petersburg and Moscow audiences, as well as the difference in performing styles, has long been felt by choreographers who worked in both capitals. Back in the 1820s, the performances of Sh. L. Didlo, when they were transferred to Moscow, were criticized for their excessive naturalness and "simplification" to which they were subjected here. And in 1869, when Marius Petipa created his most joyful, mischievous, realistic performance Don Quixote at the Bolshoi Theater, he considered it necessary, two years later, in St. Petersburg, to radically rework it. The first "Don Quixote" was built almost entirely on Spanish dances, in the second edition, democratic motives faded into the background: in the center of the ballet was the spectacular classical part of the ballerina. Examples of this kind are found throughout the history of the Moscow ballet.

The formation of the traditions of the Russian national ballet on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater is associated with the activities of choreographer Adam Pavlovich Glushkovsky, later - ballerinas Ekaterina Sankovskaya, Nadezhda Bogdanova, Praskovya Lebedeva, at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries - Lyubov Roslavleva, Adelaide Juri, Ekaterina Geltser, Vasily Tikhomirov, choreographer Alexander Gorsky.

V. M. Pasyutinskaya believes that A. P. Glushkovsky is a talented dancer, choreographer and teacher. He did a lot for the development of romantic and realistic traditions in the Russian ballet theatre, staged several performances on the themes of Russian literature, widely began to introduce elements into the dance score of the ballet. folk dance. He devoted his whole life to the art of ballet, left the most valuable memories of the days of the "youth" of the Moscow ballet.

Bibliography

Bakhrushin, Yu.A. History of Russian ballet. - M.: Enlightenment, 1977. - 287p.
Bogdanov-Berezovsky, V.M. G.S. Ulanova. - M.: Art, 1961. - 179s
Vanslov, V.V. Articles about the ballet. - L .: Music, 1980. - 191s.
Krasovskaya, V.M. History of Russian ballet. - Doe: 2008. - 312s.
Levinson, A. Masters of the ballet. Essays on the history and theory of dance. - St. Petersburg, 2001. - 190s.
Pasyutinskaya, V.M. Magic world dance. - M.: Enlightenment, 1985. - 223p.
Roslavtseva, N.P. Maya Plisetskaya. - M.: Art, 1968 - 183p.
Surits, E. Ya. Ballet dancer Mikhail Mikhailovich Mordkin. - M.: Vlados, - 2006. 256 p.
Khudekov, S. N. General history of dance. - Eksmo, 2009. - 608s.

Lecture

opera genres.

What does the word " opera"? Translated from Italian - "work", "composition".

In the earliest experiments of Italian composers, the musical performance was called "tale in music" or "musical story", and to this modestly added - opera, that is, the work of such and such a composer.

Opera - kind of musical-dramatic work.

The opera is based on the synthesis of words, theatricality of action and music. Unlike other types drama theater where music performs auxiliary, applied functions, in opera music becomes the main carrier and driving force actions. An opera needs a holistic, consistently developing musical and dramatic concept.

The most important, indispensable element opera - singing, conveying a rich range of human experiences in the finest shades. Through a different system of vocal intonations in the opera, the individual mental warehouse of each character is revealed, the features of his character and temperament are transmitted,

Opera uses various genres household music - song, dance, march.

Known:

Operas built on the alternation of complete or relatively complete vocal forms (aria, arioso, cavatina, various types of ensembles, choirs),

Operas of an acceptable recitative warehouse, in which the action develops continuously, without dividing into separate episodes,

Operas with a predominance of the solo beginning

Operas with developed ensembles or choirs.

pen" remained in the theater as the name of a new genre - musical drama.

The origin and development of opera

So opera was born in Italy. The first public performance was given in Florence in October 1600 at a wedding celebration in the Medici Palace. A group of educated music lovers brought to the judgment of distinguished guests the fruit of their long-standing and persistent quest - "The Legend in Music" about Orpheus and Eurydice.

The text of the performance belonged to the poet Ottavio Rinuccini, the music - to Jacopo Peri, an excellent organist and singer who played the main role in the performance. Both of them belonged to a circle of art lovers who gathered in the house of Count Giovanni Bardi, "the organizer of entertainment" at the court of the Duke of Medici. An energetic and talented person, Bardi managed to group many representatives around him. artistic world Florence. His "camerata" united not only musicians, but also writers and scientists who were interested in the theory of art and sought to promote its development.

In their aesthetics, they were guided by the high humanistic ideals of the Renaissance, and it is characteristic that even then, on the threshold of the 17th century, the creators of the opera faced the problem of embodying the spiritual world of man as a primary task. It was she who directed their search along the path of convergence of musical and performing arts.

In Italy, as elsewhere in Europe, music accompanied theatrical spectacles: singing, dancing, and playing instruments were widely used in mass, square, and exquisite palace performances. Music was put into action improvisationally in order to enhance the emotional effect, change impressions, entertain the audience and more vividly perceive the stage events. She did not carry a dramatic load.

The music was created by professional composers and performed by court musicians-performers. They wrote freely, without avoiding technical difficulties and striving to impart theatrical expressiveness to music. In a number of moments they succeeded, but a genuine dramatic connection between the music and the stage still did not arise.

In many ways, it limited composers to the general manifestation of interest to polyphony - polyphonic letter, dominated the professional art for several centuries. And now, in the 16th century, the richness of shades, the fullness and dynamics of sound, due to the interweaving of many singing and instrumental voices, was an indisputable artistic conquest of the era. However, in the conditions of the opera, excessive enthusiasm for polyphony often turned out to be the other side: the meaning of the text, repeated many times in the choir in different voices and at different times, most often eluded the listener; in monologues or dialogues that revealed the personal relationships of the characters, the choral performance with their remarks came into glaring contradiction, and even the most expressive pantomime did not save here.

The desire to overcome this contradiction led the members of the Bardi circle to the discovery that formed the basis of opera art - to the creation monody- so called in ancient Greece expressive melody performed by a soloist, accompanied by an instrument.

The common dream of the members of the circle was to revive Greek tragedy, that is, to create a performance that, like ancient performances, would organically combine drama, music and dance. At that time, the progressive Italian intelligentsia was fascinated by the art of Hellas: everyone admired the democracy and humanity of ancient images. Imitating Greek models, Renaissance humanists sought to overcome outdated ascetic traditions and give art a full-blooded reflection of reality.

Musicians found themselves in a more difficult position than painters, sculptors or poets. Those who had the opportunity to study the works of the ancients, the composers only speculated about the music of Hellas, based on the statements of ancient philosophers and poets. They did not have documentary material: the few surviving recordings of Greek music were very fragmentary and imperfect, no one knew how to decipher them.

Studying the techniques of ancient versification, the musicians tried to imagine how such speech should have sounded in singing. They knew that in Greek tragedy the rhythm of the melody depended on the rhythm of the verse, and the intonation reflected the feelings conveyed in the text that the very manner of vocal performance among the ancients was something between singing and ordinary speech. This connection between vocal melody and human speech seemed especially tempting to the progressively inclined members of the Bardi circle, and they zealously tried to revive the principle of ancient playwrights in their works.

After long searches and experiments on the "voicing" of Italian speech, the members of the circle learned not only to convey its various intonations in the melody - angry, interrogative, affectionate, invocative, pleading, but also freely connect them with each other.

So a new type of vocal melody was born - semi-chanting, semi-declamatory character intended for solo performances accompanied by instruments. Members of the circle gave her a name "recitative" which in translation means "speech melody". Now they had the opportunity, like the Greeks, to flexibly follow the text, conveying its various shades, and could fulfill their dream - to set to music the dramatic monologues that attracted them in ancient texts. The success of this kind of dramatization inspired the members of the Bardi circle with the idea of creating musical performances with soloist and choir. This is how the first opera "Eurydice" (composer J. Peri) appeared, staged in 1600 at the wedding celebration of the Dukes of the Medici.

At the celebration at the Medici attended Claudio Monteverdi- an outstanding Italian composer of that time, the author of remarkable instrumental and vocal compositions. He himself, like the members of the Bardi circle, had long been looking for new means of expression capable of embodying strong human feelings in music. Therefore, the achievements of the Florentines interested him especially vividly: he understood what prospects this new type of stage music opens up for the composer. Upon his return to Mantua (Monteverdi was there as a court composer to the Duke of Gonzago), he decided to continue the experiment begun by amateurs. Two of his operas, one in 1607, the other in 1608, also relied on Greek mythology. The first of these, "Orpheus", was even written on a plot already used by Peri.

But Monteverdi did not stop at a simple imitation of the Greeks. Rejecting measured speech, he created a truly dramatic recitative with a sudden change in tempo and rhythm, with expressive pauses, with emphatically pathetic intonations that accompany an excited state of mind. Not only that: at the climax of the performance, Monteverdi introduced arias, that is musical monologues in which the melody, having lost speech character, became melodious and rounded, as in a song. At the same time, the drama of the situation gave her a purely theatrical breadth and emotionality. Such monologues had to be performed by skillful singers who had excellent command of voice and breath. Hence the very name "aria", which literally means breath, air.

Mass scenes also gained a different scope; Monteverdi boldly used here the virtuosic techniques of the church choral music and the music of exquisite court vocal ensembles, giving the opera choirs the dynamism necessary for the stage.

The orchestra acquired even greater expressiveness from him. The Florentine performances were accompanied by a luten ensemble playing behind the scenes. Monteverdi also involved in the performance all the instruments that existed in his time - strings, woodwinds, brass, up to trombones (which had previously been used in the church), several types of organs, harpsichord. These new colors and new dramatic touches allowed the author to more vividly describe the characters and their surroundings. For the first time, something like an overture appeared here: Monteverdi prefaced his "Orpheus" with an orchestral "symphony" - this is how he called a small instrumental introduction, in which he contrasted two themes, as if anticipating the contrasting situations of the drama. One of them - a bright, idyllic character - anticipated a cheerful picture of the wedding of Orpheus with Eurydice in the circle of nymphs, shepherds and shepherdesses; the other - gloomy, choral warehouse - embodied the path of Orpheus in the mysterious world underworld
(the word "symphony" at that time meant the consonant sound of many instruments. Only later, in the 18th century, did it begin to denote a concert piece for the orchestra, and the French word "overture" was assigned to the opera introduction, which means "music that opens the action") .

So, "Orpheus" was no longer a prototype of the opera, but a masterful work of a new genre. However, in terms of the stage, it was still fettered: the story of the event still dominated Monteverdi's plan over the direct transmission of the action.

The increased interest of composers in action appeared when the operatic genre began to democratize, that is, to serve a wide and diverse circle of listeners. The opera needed more and more catchy and accessible plots, more and more visual action and impressive stage techniques.

The strength of the influence of the new genre on the masses was able to appreciate many far-sighted figures, and during the 17th century the opera was in different hands - first with the Roman clerics, who made it an instrument of religious agitation, then with enterprising Venetian merchants, and finally, with the spoiled Neapolitan nobility, pursuing entertainment goals. . But no matter how different tastes and tasks theater directors, the process of democratization of the opera developed steadily.

It started in the 20s in Rome, where Cardinal Barberini, delighted with the new spectacle, built the first specially Opera theatre. In accordance with the pious tradition of Rome, ancient pagan stories were replaced by Christian ones: the lives of saints and moralizing stories about repentant sinners. But in order for such performances to be successful with the masses, the owners of the theater had to go for a number of innovations. Achieving an impressive spectacle, they spared no expense: the performing musicians, singers, choir and orchestra amazed the audience with their virtuosity, and the scenery with their colorfulness; all kinds of theatrical miracles, the flights of angels and demons, were carried out with such technical thoroughness that there was a feeling of a magical illusion. But even more important was the fact that, meeting the tastes of ordinary listeners, Roman composers began to introduce everyday comic scenes into pious subjects; sometimes they built whole small performances in this plan. This is how ordinary heroes and everyday situations penetrated into the opera - the living grain of the future realistic theater.

In Venice- the capital of a lively commercial republic, the opera in the 40s fell into completely different conditions. The leading role in its development belonged not to high-ranking philanthropists, but to energetic entrepreneurs who, above all, had to take into account the tastes of the mass audience. True, theater buildings (and their a short time several were built here) became much more modest. The inside was crowded and so poorly lit that visitors had to bring their own candles. But the entrepreneurs tried to make the spectacle as clear as possible. It was in Venice that they first began to produce printed texts summarizing the content of operas. They were published in the form of small books that easily fit in a pocket and made it possible for viewers to follow the course of action on them. Hence the name of the opera texts - "libretto" (in translation - "little book"), forever strengthened behind them.

Ancient literature was little known to ordinary Venetians, so historical figures began to appear in the opera along with the heroes of Ancient Greece; the main thing was the dramatic development of the plots - they now abounded in stormy adventures and ingeniously woven intrigue. None other than Monteverdi, who moved to Venice in 1640, turned out to be the creator of the first opera of its kind - The Coronation of Pompeii.

The very structure of opera performances is changing significantly in Venice: it was more profitable for entrepreneurs to invite several outstanding singers than to maintain an expensive choir, so crowd scenes gradually lost their meaning. The size of the orchestra has been reduced. But the solo parts have become even more expressive, and the interest of composers in the aria, the most emotional form of vocal art, has noticeably increased. The farther, the simpler and more accessible its outlines became, the more often the intonations of Venetian folk songs penetrated into it. The followers and students of Monteverdi - the young Venetians Cavalli and Honor - due to the growing connection with vernacular managed to give their stage images captivating drama and make their pathos understandable to the average listener. However, the greatest love of the public was still enjoyed by comedic episodes, which richly saturate the action. The composers drew the stage material for them directly from local life; the actors here were servants, maids, barbers, artisans, merchants, who daily filled the markets and squares of Venice with their lively voice and song. Thus, Venice took a decisive step towards the democratization of not only plots and images, but also the language and forms of opera.

The final role in the development of these forms belongs to Naples. The theater here was built much later, only in the 60s. It was a luxurious building, where best places were given to the nobility (mezzanine and boxes), and the stalls were intended for the urban public. At first, Florentine, Roman, Venetian operas were staged here. However, very soon, its own creative school was formed in Naples.

Personnel of local composers and performers were supplied "conservatories"- so called at that time orphanages at large churches. Previously, children were taught crafts here, but over time, the church took into account that it was more profitable for her to use pupils as singers and musicians. Therefore, teaching music has taken a leading place in the practice of conservatories. Despite the poor living conditions in which the pupils were kept, the requirements for them were very high: they were taught singing, music theory, playing various instruments, and the most gifted - composition. The best students who completed the course became the teachers of their younger comrades.

Pupils of conservatories, as a rule, had a free technique of writing; they knew the secrets of vocal art especially well, since from childhood they sang in the choir and solo. It is not surprising that it was the Neapolitans who approved the type of operatic singing that went down in history under the name "belcanto" that is beautiful singing. This meant the ability to smoothly play wide melodious melodies, designed for a large range of voice and mastery of registers and breathing. Melodies usually abounded in virtuosic embellishments, in which, with fluency, the same smoothness of execution was to be maintained.

The bel canto style further contributed to the development of the aria, which by that time had received a clear preponderance over the recitative. The Neapolitans used the experience
predecessors, but gave this favorite form of vocal monologue complete independence and melodic completeness. They developed and put into practice several contrasting types of arias. So there were arias pathetic who embodied anger, jealousy, despair, passion; bravura arias- jubilant, militant, invocative, heroic; arias mournful- dying, plaintive, pleading; arias idyllic- amorous, friendly, dreamy, pastoral; finally, household arias- drinking, marching, dancing, comic. Each type had its own expressive techniques.

So, pathetic arias, differed rapidly, wide strokes of the voice, stormy, long rolls; for all the difference in shades, their melody was characterized by an exaggerated pathetic intonation.

Sorrowful arias - distinguished by noble restraint and song simplicity of intonation; they were characterized by special melodic moves that imitated “sobbing”.

Arias of love and friendship most often had a soft, sincere character, brighter coloration of the sound, decorated with small, transparent graces.

Household arias are closely connected with folk song and dance music and due to this they stood out with a clear, elastic rhythmic structure.

In mass scenes, especially in festive, solemn opera performances, the Neapolitans willingly used choir. But his role was more decorative than dramatic: the participation of the masses in the development of the action was insignificant; moreover, the presentation of choral parts was often so simple that several soloists could well replace the choral group.

On the other hand, the orchestra was distinguished by an extremely fine and mobile interpretation of the parts. Not without reason, in Naples, the form of the Italian opera overture finally took shape. The further the scope of the opera was expanded, the more it needed such a preliminary introduction, which prepared the listener for the perception of the performance.

So , what was the structure of Italian opera after the first century?

In essence, it was aria chain, vividly and fully embodying strong human feelings, but by no means conveying the process of development of events. The very concept of stage action was different at that time than it is now: the opera was motley succession of paintings and phenomena that did not have a strict logical connection. It was this diversity, the rapid change of scenery, time, and the enchanting spectacle that affected the viewer. In the music of the opera, composers also did not strive for the coherence of the whole, being content with the fact that they created a series of complete, contrasting musical episodes in content. This also explains the fact that recitatives, which were the mainstay of dramaturgy among the Florentines, began to lose their significance in Naples. At the beginning of the 18th century, prominent opera singers they didn’t even consider it necessary to perform “secco” recitatives: they entrusted them to extras, while they themselves walked around the stage at that time, responding to the enthusiastic greetings of the fans.

Thus, the singer's dictatorship gradually established itself in the honor, having the right to demand from the composer any alterations and any inserts at will. Not to the credit of the singers, they often abused this right:

some insisted that the opera, and which they sing, must necessarily include a scene in a dungeon, where one could perform a mournful aria, kneeling and stretching out fettered hands to the sky;

others preferred to perform their exit monologue on horseback;

still others demanded that trills and passages be inserted into any aria, which they were especially good at.

The composer had to satisfy all such requirements. In addition, singers, who at that time, as a rule, had a solid theoretical background, began to arbitrarily make changes to the last section of the aria (the so-called reprise) and equipped it with coloratura, sometimes so plentiful that it was difficult to recognize the composer's melody.

So, the highest skill singing "bel canto"- the work of the composers themselves, eventually turned against them; the synthesis of drama and music, which the founders of the genre, the Florentines, aspired to, was never achieved.

An opera performance at the beginning of the 18th century was more like "concert in costumes" than a coherent dramatic spectacle.

Nevertheless, even in this imperfect form, the combination of several types of arts had such an effect on the viewer. emotional impact that the opera received a preponderant importance among all other kinds of dramatic art. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, she was the recognized queen of the theater stage, not only in Italy, but also in other European countries. The fact is that the Italian opera very soon spread its influence far beyond the borders of its homeland.

Already in the 40s of the 17th century (1647), the troupe of the Roman Opera toured in Paris. Is it true , in France- a country with strong national - artistic traditions It wasn't easy for her to win. The French already had a well-established dramatic theater, in which the tragedies of Corneille and Racine dominated, and the magnificent comedy theater of Molière; Starting from the 16th century, ballets were staged at the court, and the enthusiasm for them among the aristocracy was so great that the king himself willingly performed in ballet productions. In contrast to the Italian opera, French spectacles were distinguished by a strict sequence in the development of the plot, and the manner and behavior of the actors were subject to the strictest court ceremonial. It is not surprising that the Italian performances seemed chaotic to the Parisians, and the operatic recitatives were unimpressive - the French were accustomed to more catchy

and the exaggeratedly pathetic acting style of its dramatic actors. In a word, the Italian theater failed here; but the new genre nevertheless interested the Parisians, and soon after the departure of foreign artists, attempts arose to create their own opera. Already the first experiments were successful; When Lully, an outstanding court composer who enjoyed the absolute confidence of the king, took matters into his own hands, a national opera house arose in France in a few years.

In Lyrical Tragedies by Lully (as he called his operas), the French aesthetics of that time found a wonderful embodiment: the harmony and logic of the development of the plot and music were combined here with a truly royal luxury of the production. The choir and ballet were almost the main pillar of the performance. The orchestra became famous throughout Europe for its expressiveness and discipline of performance. Singers-soloists excelled even famous actors dramatic scene, which served as a model for them (Lully himself took recitation lessons from best actress that time Chanmele. and, creating recitatives and arias, first recited them, and then looked for the appropriate expression in music).

All this gave the French opera features that are in many respects different from the Italian, despite the general themes and plots (heroics based on ancient mythology and chivalric epic). Thus, the high culture of the stage word, characteristic of French drama, is reflected here in the predominant role of operatic recitative, somewhat stiff, sometimes even unnecessarily endowed with vivid theatrical expressiveness. The aria, which played a dominant role in Italian opera, occupied a more modest position, serving as a short conclusion to a recitative monologue.

Virtuoso coloratura and passion of Italians for high voices The castrati also turned out to be alien to the artistic requirements of the French. Lully wrote only for natural male voices, and in female parts he did not resort to extremely high sounds. He achieved similar sound effects in the opera with the help of orchestral instruments, the timbres of which he used more widely and more ingeniously than the Italians. In singing, he most of all appreciated its dramatic meaningfulness.

"Low" comedy moments - characters, situations, sideshows so popular in Italy - were not allowed in this strictly ordered world. The entertaining side of the spectacle was the abundance of dancing. They were introduced into any act, for any reason, joyful or mournful, solemn or purely lyrical (for example, in love scenes), without violating the sublime structure of the performance, but introducing diversity and lightness into it. This active role of choreography in the dramaturgy of French opera soon led to the emergence of a special kind of musical performance: opera-ballet, where vocal-stage and dance art interacted on equal terms.

Thus, Italian performances, which did not meet with a sympathetic response in Paris, played the role of a stimulus here, stimulating the growth of the national opera culture.

The situation was different in other countries:

Austria, for example, she got acquainted with the works of Italian composers almost simultaneously with France (early 40s). Italian architects, composers, singers were invited to Vienna, and soon a court opera house with a magnificent troupe and luxuriously furnished scenery appeared on the territory of the imperial palace. These productions often involved the Viennese nobility, and even members of the imperial family. Sometimes ceremonial performances were taken out to the square so that the townspeople could also join the new exquisite art.

Later (at the end of the 17th century) Neapolitan troupes were just as firmly established in England, Germany, Spain- wherever court life gave them the opportunity to seize a new foothold. Occupying, thus, a dominant position in European courts, the Italian opera played a dual role: it undoubtedly hampered the development of an original national culture, sometimes even suppressed its sprouts for a long time; at the same time, awakening interest in the new genre and the skill of her performers, she everywhere contributed to the development of musical tastes and love for the opera house.

In such a large country as Austria, the interaction of Italian and domestic cultures led at first to rapprochement and mutual enrichment of theatrical traditions. In the face of the Austrian nobility, the Italian composers who worked in Vienna found a receptive, musically educated audience that easily assimilated foreign innovations, but at the same time protected its own authority and the original way of the country's artistic life. Even at the time of the greatest passion for Italian opera, Vienna, with the same priority, treated the choral polyphony of the Austrian masters. She preferred national dances to other varieties of choreographic art and, along with the high-society equestrian ballet - the beauty and pride of the imperial court - she was, as of old, not indifferent to the public performances of the people, especially to farces with their cheerful, mischievous witticisms and buffoonish tricks.

In order to master such an audience, it was necessary to reckon with the originality of its tastes, and Italian composers showed sufficient flexibility in this regard. Counting on the Viennese, they willingly deepened the polyphonic development of choral scenes and major instrumental episodes in the opera (paying much more attention to them than in their homeland); ballet music, as a rule, was entrusted to their Viennese colleagues - experts in local dance folklore; in comedy interludes, they widely resorted to the experience of the Austrian folk theater, borrowing witty plot moves and techniques from it. Establishing, thus, contact with various areas of national art, they provided the Italian, or rather "Italian" opera, with the recognition of the most broad circles population of the capital. For Austria, such an initiative had other, more significant consequences: the involvement of local forces in the activities of the capital opera stage, was a prerequisite for the further independent growth of national opera personnel.

From the very beginning of the 60s, the Italian opera began its triumphal procession across the German lands. This stage was marked by the opening of several opera houses - in Dresden (1660), Hamburg (1671), Leipzig (1685), Braunschweig (1690) and the difficult, unequal struggle of German composers with foreign competition.

The Dresden theater became its permanent stronghold, where the Elector of Saxony invited an excellent Italian troupe. The brilliant success of the Dresden performances made it easier for Italians to access other German courts as well. However, their pressure was counteracted by the energy of supporters of national culture, among whom were both high-ranking officials and educated burghers, and advanced professional musicians. But the common misfortune of the patriots was the lack of opera personnel in the country: Germany was famous for its choral culture and excellent instrumentalists, but it did not have solo singers with specific operatic training and the ability to stay on stage, so it was not an easy, sometimes insoluble task to assemble a full-fledged troupe. The Duke of Brunswick had to "borrow" singers in Weissenfels to stage the performance, and even attract amateur students from Graz.

Only the Hamburg theater, financed by the wealthy Hanseatic merchants, was in a better position: There was a motley and poorly prepared, but nevertheless permanent troupe, and this made it possible to establish a regular theatrical life in the city. Not surprisingly, Hamburg has become a center of attraction for many German musicians.

So, we see that already at the dawn of its development, opera in each country tried to find its own ways and express the taste and artistic inclinations of this or that people.

Opera is one of the most important musical and theatrical genres. She is a mixture of music, vocals, painting and acting, and is highly regarded by devotees. classical art. It is not surprising that in music lessons the child is first given a report on this topic.

In contact with

Where does it start

It begins with an overture. This is the introduction played by the symphony orchestra. Designed to set the mood and atmosphere of the play.

What goes on

The overture is followed by the main part of the performance. This is a grandiose action, divided into acts - completed parts of the performance, between which intermissions lie. Intermissions can be long, so that the audience and the participants of the production can rest, or short, when the curtain is lowered, just to change the scenery.

The main body, the driving force of the whole are solo arias. They are performed by actors - the characters of the story. Arias reveal the plot, character and feelings of the characters. Sometimes recitatives are inserted between arias - melodious rhythmic remarks - or ordinary colloquial speech.

The literary part is based on the libretto. It's kind of a script summary works . In rare cases, poems are written by the composers themselves. like, for example, Wagner. But most often the words for the opera are written by the librettist.

Where does it end

The finale of the operatic performance is the epilogue. This part performs the same function as the literary epilogue. It could be a story about future fate heroes, or summarizing and defining morality.

Opera history

Wikipedia has a wealth of information on the subject, but this article provides a concise history of the music genre mentioned.

Ancient Tragedy and the Florentine Camerata

Opera is from Italy. However, this genre has its roots in Ancient Greece, where for the first time they began to combine stage and vocal art. Unlike modern opera, where the main emphasis is on music, in ancient Greek tragedy only alternated between normal speech and singing. This art form continued to develop among the Romans. In ancient Roman tragedies, solo parts gained weight, and musical inserts began to be used more often.

The ancient tragedy received a second life at the end of the 16th century. The community of poets and musicians, the Florentine Camerata, decided to revive the ancient tradition. They created a new genre called "drama through music". In contrast to the polyphony popular at that time, the works of the camerata were monophonic melodic recitations. theatrical performance and musical accompaniment were intended only to emphasize the expressiveness and sensuality of poetry.

It is believed that the first opera performance was released in 1598. Unfortunately, from the work "Daphne", written by the composer Jacopo Peri and the poet Ottavio Rinuccini, in our time only the title remains. . But their own pen belongs to "Eurydice", which is the earliest surviving opera. However, this glorious work for modern society is just an echo of the past. But the opera Orpheus, written by the famous Claudio Monteverdi in 1607 for the Mantua court, can still be seen in theaters to this day. The Gonzaga family, who ruled in those days in Mantua, made a significant contribution to the birth of the opera genre.

Drama Theater

The members of the Florentine Camerata can be called the "rebels" of their time. After all, in an era when the fashion for music is dictated by the church, they turned to the pagan myths and legends of Greece, renouncing the aesthetic norms accepted in society, and created something new. However, even earlier, their unusual solutions were introduced by the drama theater. This direction fluttered in the Renaissance.

Experimenting and focusing on the audience's reaction, this genre developed its own style. Representatives of the drama theater used music and dance in their productions. The new art form was very popular. It was the influence of the dramatic theater that helped "drama through music" to reach a new level of expressiveness.

Opera continued develop and gain popularity. However, this is really musical genre flourished in Venice when, in 1637, Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli opened the first public opera house, San Cassiano. Thanks to this event, musical works of this type ceased to be entertainment for the courtiers and entered the commercial level. At this time, the reign of castrati and prima donnas in the world of music begins.

Distribution abroad

By the middle of the 17th century, operatic art, with the support of the aristocracy, had developed into a separate independent genre and affordable entertainment for the masses. Thanks to traveling troupes, this type of performance spread throughout Italy, and began to win over audiences abroad.

The first Italian representative of the genre, presented abroad, was called "Galatea". It was performed in 1628 in the city of Warsaw. Not long after, another work was performed at the court - "La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina" by Francesca Caccini. This work is also the earliest extant opera written by women.

Jason by Francesco Cavalli was the most popular opera of the 17th century.. In this regard, in 1660 he was invited to France for the wedding of Louis XIV. However, his "Xerxes" and "Hercules in Love" were not successful with the French public.

Antonio Chesti, who was asked to write an opera for the Austrian Habsburg family, was more successful. His grand performance "Golden Apple" lasted two days. Unprecedented success noted the rise of the Italian operatic tradition in European music.

Seria and buffa

In the 18th century, such genres of opera as seria and buffa gained particular popularity. Although both originated in Naples, the two genres represent fundamental opposites. Opera Seria literally means "serious opera". This is a product of the era of classicism, which encouraged the purity of the genre and typification in art. The series has the following features:

historical or mythological subjects;
the predominance of recitatives over arias;
separation of the role of music and text;
minimal character customization;
static action.

The most successful and famous librettist in this genre was Pietro Metastasio. The best of his librettos were written by dozens of operas by different composers.

At the same time, the buffa comedy genre developed in parallel and independently. If the series tells the stories of the past, then the buffa devotes its plots to modern and everyday situations. This genre emerged from short comedy scenes that were staged during the intermissions of the main performance and were separate works. Gradually this kind of art gained popularity and was realized as full-fledged independent representations.

Gluck's reform

The German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck has firmly stamped his name on the history of music. When the opera seria dominated the stages of Europe, he stubbornly promoted his own vision of operatic art. He believed that drama should rule in the performance, and the task of music, vocals and choreography should be to promote and emphasize it. Gluck argued that composers should abandon showy performances in favor of "simple beauty". That all elements of the opera should be a continuation of each other and form a single coherent plot.

He began his reform in 1762 in Vienna. Together with the librettist Ranieri de Calzabidgi, he staged three plays, but they did not receive a response. Then in 1773 he went to Paris. His reform activity lasted until 1779, and caused a lot of controversy and unrest among music lovers . Gluck's ideas had a great impact to the development of the genre of opera. They were also reflected in the reforms of the 19th century.

Opera types

Over more than four centuries of history, the opera genre has undergone many changes and brought a lot to the musical world. During this time, several types of opera stood out:

Preview:

Municipal Autonomous General Educational Institution

"Gymnasium No. 5" of the city of Almetyevsk of the Republic of Tatarstan

Music lesson in the 7th grade “Opera. Tradition and innovation.

deputy director for educational work,

music teacher

Material Description: The material can be used in music lessons. Target audience - children 13-14 years old. The lesson plan uses Singaporean teaching methods.

The purpose of the lesson – to see the relationship between tradition and innovation, which contributed to the emergence of ingenious designs contemporary music on the example of the rock opera "Mozart".

Tasks:

To generalize knowledge on the topic "Polyphony", on the structure of classical opera;
get acquainted with the new genre and draw a parallel to the traditional structure of classical opera based on the elements of a meaningful analysis of musical fragments from a rock opera.
Contribute to the expansion of the information space.

Lesson type - combined.

Methods – retrospectives, elements of the method of meaningful analysis piece of music, the method of emotional dramaturgy (D.B. Kabalevsky), the method of intonation-stylistic comprehension of music (E.D. Kritskaya), the method of concentricity of the organization of musical material, the method of modeling the image of a musical work.

Forms of work - group, frontal, independent individual.

Work structures- timed - round - robin, timed - pea - shea, hey - ar - guide, zoom - in, coners, model freer.

Types of muses activities
The selection criterion for music performances was their artistic value and educational orientation.

During the classes.

Organizing time.

Teacher: guys, let's give each other a smile as a guarantee of our good mood.

Before we continue talking about music, I would like to hear what you learned from the previous lesson. The structure will help me with this.

timed - round - robin for discussion for each for 20 seconds, starting with student number 1 (CLOCK.)

And now let's sum up.Responsible table number ...others may fill in the missing information.