Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ğ1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - French Opera
  - Italy
  - Giuseppi Verdi (1813–1901)
  - Germany
  - Church Music
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century
French Opera
  1. Grand Opera

    1. The leading librettist was Eugène Scribe and the leading composer was Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864).
      1. Meyerbeer established the genre with Robert le Diable (Robert the Devil, 1831) and Les Huguenots (1836) (see etude, p. 427, in CHWM).
      2. The closing scenes of Les Huguenots exemplify Meyerbeer's ability to integrate solo, choral, and orchestral forces with effective drama.

    2. Rossini's Guillaume Tell is also an example of grand opera.

    3. Parisian grand opera would influence later composers such as Verdi,Wagner, Milhaud, Barber, and Corigliano

  2. Comic Opera in France

    1. Opéra Comique
      1. Used spoken dialogue instead of recitative
      2. Less pretentious than grand opera, using fewer singers and players
      3. Composed in a simpler musical idiom
      4. Comedic plots
      5. Daniel François Auber's Fra Diavolo (Brother Devil, 1830) and his other comic operas mingle humorous and romantic elements.

    2. When the Second French Empire (after 1851) censored serious opera, opéra bouffe could satirize the Empire freely.
      1. Opéra bouffe emphasized smart, witty, and satirical elements of comic opera.
      2. Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) founded opéra bouffe. His famous can-can dance is from his opéra bouffe, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld).
      3. Offenbach's works influenced composers in other countries, including Gilbert and Sullivan and Johann Strauss the Younger.

  3. French Lyric Opera

    1. The scale is larger than that of opéra comique but smaller than grand opera.

    2. The typical subject is romantic drama or fantasy.

    3. Faust (1859) by Charles Gounod (1818–1893) is the most famous example.
      1. First staged as an opéra comique, but later reworked with recitatives.
      2. Gounod used Part One of Goethe's drama, about Faust and Gretchen's tragic love affair.
      3. Melodies are attractive and expressive within the boundaries of good taste.

  4. Berlioz and French Opera

    1. Berlioz's operas do not fit neatly into operatic categories, and for this reason his works were overlooked until recently.

    2. La Damnation de Faust (1846) was not intended to be staged.
      1. Audiences were familiar with the plot, so Berlioz was free to use only those scenes most suitable for musical treatment.
      2. The form bears no resemblance to his symphonies and does not depend on recurring themes.

    3. Les Troyens, comprising Part I: La Prise de Troie (The Capture of Troy) and Part II: Les Troyens à Carthage (The Trojans at Carthage)
      1. Berlioz wrote the text himself, based on Vergil's Aeneid.
      2. Scene complexes present the action.
        1. Only the most important scenes are set.
        2. The narratives are condensed.
        3. Ballets are introduced at every opportunity.
      3. The passions and incidents are brought to life intensely and on a heroic scale.

  5. Georges Bizet (1838–1875)

    1. Carmen premiered in Paris in 1875.
      1. Contained spoken dialogue, so was classified as an opéra comique despite its realism.
      2. Its Spanish setting and melodies give it an exotic flavor, typical of many Romantic works.

    2. Bizet's harmonic vocabulary includes chromatic harmony and ninth chords, features he probably learned by performing the music of Chopin and Liszt.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits