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Chapter
28
Opera and Musical Theater in the Later Nineteenth Century
Outline
  1. The Late Nineteenth Century
    1. Industrialization
      1. Europe and the United States became industrial leaders.
      2. Railroads on both continents transported people and goods rapidly.
      3. New technologies, such as the electric lightbulb and telephone, altered daily life and created new industries.
      4. Life expectancy and population numbers rose dramatically.
      5. The modern corporation emerged.
      6. Mass consumption became a driving force for the economy.
    2. Revolutions of 1848
      1. France toppled King Louis Philippe and established the short-lived Second Republic (see HWM Figure 28.1).
      2. Revolts also took place in Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
      3. For the most part, these revolutions changed little.
    3. Political reforms
      1. Greater freedoms were granted to people in Europe and America.
      2. Russia abolished serfdom in 1861; the United States abolished slavery in 1865.
      3. Workers gained new rights, and women demanded equal treatment.
      4. Expanded exploration came at the expense of indigenous populations.
    4. Nationalism
      1. Germany united under Bismarck between 1864 and 1871.
      2. Italy unified under Victor Emmanuel II in 1859-61.
      3. While a common heritage helped unify Germany and Italy, the variety of ethnic groups worked against political unity in Austria-Hungary.
      4. Music played a role in promoting nationalism, and nationalism had a profound impact on all the arts (see HWM Figure 28.2).
    5. Other themes in the arts
      1. Realism was a strong movement in art and literature (see HWM Figure 28.3).
      2. Exoticism, fantasy, and the distant past provided escapes from modern city life.
      3. Impressionism depicted outdoor scenes.
    6. Opera
      1. Strong national schools continued in Italy, France, and Germany.
      2. Nationalism linked opera to political and cultural currents.
      3. A core repertory of operas developed.
        1. The number of new operas declined as composers took more time to write.
        2. Originality became more important than conventions.
      4. Singers had to have more powerful voices as opera houses became larger and orchestras louder.
      5. Melodies were more syllabic and less ornamented.
      6. Subjects ranged from fantastic to realistic.
      7. Electricity made it possible to dim the house lights.
      8. It gradually became unacceptable to talk during performances.
  2. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) (see HWM ­biography, page 690, and Figure 28.4)
    1. Wagner was a crucial figure in nineteenth-century culture and one of the most influential musicians of all times.
      1. He brought German Romantic opera to a new height.
      2. He created the music drama.
      3. His rich chromatic idiom influenced later composers.
    2. Biography
      1. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, the ninth child of a police actuary.
      2. Wagner began writing operas in the 1830s and held positions with several regional companies.
      3. He worked as a music journalist in Paris from 1839 to 1842.
      4. He was appointed second Kapellmeister for the king of Saxony in Dresden in 1843.
      5. Wagner supported the 1848-9 insurrection and had to flee.
      6. In Switzerland he wrote his most important essays.
      7. He received support from a new patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, in 1864.
      8. Although married to Minna (1836-66), he had relationships with other women, including Mathilde Wesendonck.
      9. In 1870, he married Cosima von Bülow, a child of Franz Liszt.
    3. Writings (see HWM Reading, page 692)
      1. In a series of essays, Wagner argued that music should serve dramatic expression. His essays include:
        1. The Artwork of the Future (1850)
        2. Opera and Drama (1851, revised 1868)
      2. Beethoven
        1. Wagner felt that Beethoven had exhausted instrumental music.
        2. The Ninth Symphony showed the path to the future with its union of music and words.
        3. He saw himself as the true successor to Beethoven.
      3. Gesamtkunstwerk
        1. Wagner felt that poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music should work together to create a Gesmatkunstwerk (total or collective artwork).
        2. The words related the events and situations, while the orchestra conveyed the inner drama.
      4. Anti-Semitism (see HWM Music in Context, page 694)
        1. Wagner wrote about politics and morals in several essays, including the anti-Semitic polemic Das Judentum in der Musik (Jewishness in Music).
        2. He attacked both Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn for being Jewish and lacking national roots, although he admired and was influenced by both.
    4. Operas
      1. Rienzi (1842), a five-act grand opera, was his first major success.
      2. Die fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman, 1843)
        1. A Romantic opera in the tradition of Weber, the work is based on a German legend.
        2. Wagner wrote the libretto.
        3. Themes from one of the vocal ballads appear in the overture and recur throughout the opera, functioning like reminiscence motives.
      3. Tannhäuser (1845)
        1. The story is also adopted from Germanic legends.
        2. Semi-declamatory vocal writing appears in this work, which would become Wagner's normal type of text-setting.
      4. Lohengrin (1850)
        1. Medieval legend and German folklore combine in a moralizing and symbolic plot.
        2. The declamatory style is expanded, and recurring themes are more fully developed.
    5. Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)
      1. Wagner composed four music dramas based on Teutonic and Nordic legends.
        1. Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold)
        2. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
        3. Siegfried
        4. Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods)
      2. Wagner wrote the first two operas and part of Siegfried by 1857; he completed the rest in 1874.
      3. Wagner built his own theater in Bayreuth, where he gave the first performance of the Ring cycle in 1876 (see HWM Figures 28.5 and 28.6).
    6. Stabreim
      1. Alliteration (the repetition of speech sounds)
      2. Wagner devised this kind of poetry from the medieval Nibelungenlied.
    7. The leitmotiv (leading motive)
      1. A leitmotiv is a musical theme or motive associated with a person, thing, emotion, or idea in the drama.
      2. All of the music dramas are organized around these themes.
      3. Use of leitmotives
        1. The meaning of the motive is usually established the first time it is heard.
        2. The leitmotiv recurs whenever its subject appears or when it is mentioned.
        3. A leitmotiv can be transformed and varied as the plot develops.
        4. Similarities among leitmotives may indicate connections between the subjects they portray.
      4. Leitmotives differ from reminiscence motives.
        1. Leitmotives are for the most part short and characterize their subjects at various levels, as seen in HWM Example 28.1.
        2. Leitmotives are the basic material of the score and are used constantly.
        3. The musical material surrounding the leitmotives and their developments creates a sense of an "endless melody."
    8. Other music dramas
      1. Tristan und Isolde (1857-59)
        1. Wagner wrote the libretto, basing it on a thirteenth-century romance by Gottfired von Strassburg.
        2. It became one of Wagner's most influential works.
      2. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Meistersingers of Nuremberg, 1862-67)
      3. Parsifal (1882), his last work, uses diatonic and chromatic music to suggest redemption and corruption respectively.
      4. Arthur Schopenhauer's influence
        1. Wrote World as Will and Representation
        2. Argued that "Will" (emotions) dominated "Appearance" (reason)
        3. Wagner depicts the raw, vital force of Will in the passion of the two lovers whose ardor can be consummated only in death.
    9. Tristan und Isolde, Prelude (see NAWM 141a and HWM Example 28.2)
      1. Chromatic harmony and delayed resolutions convey yearning.
      2. Our desires to hear the tonal resolution of dissonances are thwarted by delayed and evaded cadences and the introduction of new dissonances at the moment of resolution.
      3. The first chord (F-B-D-sharp-G-sharp) is heard through the opera and is known as the "Tristan chord."
      4. The opening motive suggests longing, as four successive dissonances resolve into another dissonance.
      5. Three dominant-seventh harmonies are followed by rests and left unresolved.
        1. These harmonies suggest the key areas of A, C, and E.
        2. Eventually, we hear all three of these key areas.
    10. Tristan und Isolde, Act I, scene 5 (NAWM 141b)
      1. The scene has a continuous musical flow.
        1. The orchestra maintains the continuity.
        2. The melodies vary from speechlike to soaring and passionate.
      2. The passage uses a number of leitmotives.
        1. Tristan's honor is introduced at measure 38 and is developed throughout the section.
        2. The melodic idea at measure 64 is associated with the love potion.
        3. Measures 66-69 contain the "Tristan chord," which was the first chord in the opera.
        4. The rising chromatic motive in measures 69-70 represents longing.
      3. A pantomime follows as the potion takes control; the actors move and gesture at specific moments in the music.
      4. A climax is reached at measures 102 with a deceptive cadence.
      5. A new melody begins in the violas at measure 103, joined by the voices calling to each other.
      6. Following interruptions from the sailors and Brangäne, the lovers' dialogue uses many of the above motives.
      7. A new leitmotiv appears at measure 160.
      8. The music hailing the king begins to penetrate the lovers' consciousness at measure 192.
    11. Wagner's influence
      1. More has been written about Wagner than any other musician.
      2. His view of the total artwork affected all later opera.
      3. His emphasis on musical continuity was also important.
      4. A master of orchestral color, he influenced many composers.
      5. Painters and poets found inspiration in Wagner.
      6. Unfortunately, Wagner's anti-Semitic writings also found followers, including the Nazis in Germany.
  3. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) (see HWM biography, page 703, and Figure 28.7)
    1. Verdi was the dominant opera composer in Italy for fifty years after Donizetti.
    2. Biography
      1. Verdi was born in northern Italy, the son of an innkeeper.
      2. He worked as a church organist at age nine and later became music director in Busseto.
      3. After the death of his first wife, he went to Milan to pursue a career as an opera composer.
      4. Verdi composed twenty-six operas, beginning when he was twenty-six and ending when he was eighty.
      5. Verdi's name became a patriotic rallying cry: "Viva Verdi" was an acronym for "Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re d'Italia" (Long live Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy)
      6. Although he supported the unification movement, nationalism was not an overt element of his operas.
    3. Opera characteristics
      1. He composed memorable melodies that captured the character and feeling of the drama.
      2. Verdi preferred stories that had been successful plays, including works by Shakespeare, Schiller, and Victor Hugo.
      3. Verdi built upon the conventions of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.
      4. Like Donizetti, Verdi often used reminiscence motives.
    4. Early operas
      1. Nabucco (1842) was his first triumph and launched his career.
      2. Luisa Miller (1849) reveals a keen sense of psychological portrayal.
      3. In the early 1850s, he entered a productive period that includes:
        1. Rigoletto (1851)
        2. Il trovatore (1853)
        3. La traviata (1853)
      4. In Il trovatore and La traviata, the overture is replaced by a briefer prelude.
      5. La traviata is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils.
        1. Unique among his operas, it is set in the mid-nineteenth century.
        2. The work is realistic in its characters, situations, and emotions.
    5. La traviata, Act III, excerpt (NAWM 142)
      1. The scene follows Rossini's standard structure for duets.
        1. Scene (recitative)
        2. Tempo d'attacco (opening section)
        3. Slow cantabile
        4. Tempo di mezzo
        5. Fast cabaletta
      2. Verdi focuses on three keys: E major (tempo d'attacco), A-flat major (cantabile), and C major (cabaletta).
      3. Opening scene
        1. The orchestra accompanies the recitative.
        2. The dialogue is set in short phrases above a continuous melodic flow in the orchestra.
      4. Tempo d'attacco (measure 35)
        1. A Rossiniesque crescendo builds to a climax as the lovers embrace.
        2. The ensuing dialogue features tuneful vocal melodies and a simple accompaniment.
      5. Cantabile (measure 75) (see HWM Example 28.3)
        1. The form is AABB with coda.
        2. In the A section, Alfredo and Violetta sing a simple and direct melody that resembles a slow waltz.
        3. In the B section, Alfredo sings grandly of the future, and Violetta sings a light chromatic melody of suffering and recovering.
      6. Tempo di mezzo (measure 177)
        1. Hope gives way to despair; Violetta will not recover.
        2. Stark contrasts of style capture the changing moods.
      7. Cabaletta (measure 227)
        1. The form is AABA' with coda.
        2. Violetta voices her desperation, and Alfredo tries to calm her.
        3. The coda builds to a climax of despair.
    6. Middle-period operas
      1. Verdi wrote only six new operas in the next two decades.
        1. The action becomes more continuous.
        2. Solos, ensembles, and choruses are freely combined.
        3. Harmonies are more daring.
        4. The orchestra is treated with great originality.
      2. Les vepres siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers, 1855), based on a libretto by Eugene Scribe, is a grand opera inspired by Meyerbeer that blends French and Italian characteristics.
      3. Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball, 1859) introduces comic roles.
      4. Aida (1871) was commissioned for the Cairo opera.
        1. Verdi chose an Egyptian subject, which allowed him to introduce exotic color and spectacle.
        2. Verdi officially retired after this opera.
    7. Late operas
      1. Giulio Ricordi persuaded him to compose two more operas, both on librettos by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918).
      2. Otello (1887)
        1. The flow of the music is unbroken in each of the acts.
        2. The traditional schemes are still present, but they are arranged in larger scene-complexes.
        3. The orchestra develops themes in a more symphonic manner.
      3. Falstaff (1893) (see HWM Figure 28.8)
        1. This pinnacle of opera buffa is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV.
        2. The final act ends in a fugue for the entire cast.
  4. Later Italian Composers
    1. Verismo
      1. This operatic movement parallels realism in literature.
        1. It presents everyday people, generally from the lower classes.
        2. The stories often depict brutal or sordid events.
      2. Two verismo operas have entered the permanent repertory.
        1. Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry, 1890) by Pietro Mascagni
        2. I Pagliacci (The Clowns, 1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo
    2. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
      1. Puccini is the most successful Italian opera composer after Verdi.
      2. Puccini blended Verdi's vocal style with Wagner's approach, including the use of leitmotives.
      3. Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, brought him international fame.
      4. Other major works
        1. La bohème (1896)
        2. Tosca (1900)
        3. Madama Butterfly (1904)
        4. Turandot (1926)
      5. Puccini's scenes are more fluid than in earlier operas.
      6. The distinction between aria and recitative is blurred.
      7. Madama Butterfly, Act I, excerpt (see NAWM 143 and HWM Figure 28.9)
        1. This scene shows Butterfly's marriage to Pinkerton.
        2. The music moves seamlessly between dialogue and brief aria-like moments.
        3. The orchestra carries many of the main melodies, but still supports the voice.
        4. The music balances exoticism with a warm portrait of Butterfly.
  5. France
    1. Although there was no dominant composer there, Paris remained a center for producing new works.
      1. Because of state subsidies, many of the works were by French composers, but nationalism was not reflected in their plots.
      2. Musical theaters presented a variety of musical entertainments.
    2. Grand opera
      1. The genre remained prominent through the 1860s.
        1. L'Africaine (1865) by Meyerbeer
        2. Don Carlos (1867) by Verdi
      2. The genre began to fade thereafter and blend with other types of serious opera.
    3. Ballet
      1. Ballet had long been a part of grand opera, but it became popular as an independent genre.
      2. Leo Delibes (1836-91) was the leading composer for ballet.
        1. Coppélia (1870)
        2. Sylvia (1876)
    4. Lyric opera
      1. A new operatic genre called lyric opera grew out of the romantic type of opéra comique.
      2. The genre is named after the Théatre Lyrique, founded in 1851.
      3. Like opéra comique, its main appeal is through melody.
      4. The subject matter is usually romantic drama or fantasy.
      5. The scale is larger than opéra comique, but smaller than grand opera.
      6. Faust by Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
        1. This lyric opera was the most frequently performed opera in Europe and the Americas in the last third of the nineteenth century.
        2. It was first performed as an opéra comique, with spoken dialogue, and was later arranged with recitatives.
      7. Other popular lyric operas include:
        1. Roméo and Juliette by Gounod (1867)
        2. Works by Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
          1. Manon (1884)
          2. Werther (1892)
          3. Thaïs (1894)
    5. Carmen by Bizet (1875)
      1. The opera was originally an opéra comique with spoken dialogue.
      2. The dialogue was later set to recitative.
      3. Set in Spain, the opera combines exoticism and realism.
      4. The plot is a dark tale of seduction and murder.
      5. Carmen, a gypsy, works in a cigarette factory and lives for pleasure (see HWM Figure 28.10).
      6. Bizet created a Spanish character with his music.
        1. He borrowed three Spanish melodies, including the famous habanera.
        2. Bizet added other elements of gypsy and Spanish music.
        3. The augmented second in the fate motive suggests a gypsy origin (see HWM Example 28.4).
      7. Carmen seduces Don Jose by singing a seguidilla (NAWM 144).
        1. The seguidilla is a type of Spanish song in a fast triple meter.
        2. A recurring refrain frames the song.
        3. The accompaniment imitates the strumming of a guitar.
        4. The melody contains melismas and grace notes.
        5. The harmony suggests the Phrygian mode, a feature of Spanish music.
      8. The opera provoked outrage because of Carmen's lack of morality, but it eventually became one of the most beloved of all operas.
    6. Opéra bouffe
      1. A new genre called opéra bouffe emerged in the 1850s.
      2. The genre emphasized the smart, witty, and satirical elements of comic opera.
      3. Its composers used their freedom from government control to satirize French society.
      4. The founder was Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880).
        1. Ofphée aus enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld, 1858) introduced a can-can dance for the gods.
        2. Offenbach influenced comic opera in England, Vienna, and the United States.
        3. His music has a deceptively naïve quality that satirizes opera and society.
    7. Popular music theaters
      1. Cabarets, such as the Chat Noir (Black Cat, opened 1881)
        1. These nightclubs offered a variety of serious and comic entertainment.
        2. They promoted innovation and brought together artists and the public.
      2. Café-concerts featured food, beverage, and musical entertainment (see HWM Figure 28.11).
      3. Music halls, such as the Folies-Bergère and Moulin Rouge, offered revues, featuring a series of dances, songs, comedies, and other acts, usually with some common theme.
  6. Russia
    1. Czar Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861 and sought to modernize Russia.
      1. Russia became split.
        1. Nationalists, or "Slavophiles," idealized Russia's distinctiveness.
        2. Internationalists, or "westernizers," sought to adapt Western technology and education.
      2. The split affected composers, although all were in debt to Western traditions.
      3. The nationalists rejected formal Western training.
      4. Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), a virtuoso pianist and founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1866), was a leading internationalist.
    2. Piotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) (see HWM biography, page 713, and HWM Figure 28.12)
      1. Tchaikovsky studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and taught at the Moscow conservatory.
      2. His patron was a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck.
      3. He sought to reconcile nationalist and internationalist tendencies.
      4. Eugene Onegin (1879) is based on a Pushkin story.
        1. A germ motive in the prelude generates numerous themes.
        2. The chorus has folklike music, and the soloists sing in a Russian style.
      5. The Queen of Spades (1890) is also based on a Pushkin story.
      6. Tchaikovsky's ballets combine hummable melodies with colorful orchestrations, which are well suited to his fairy-tale subjects.
        1. Swan Lake (1876)
        2. The Sleeping Beauty (1889)
        3. The Nutcracker (1892)
    3. The Mighty Five
      1. A group of five composers stood against the professionalism of the conservatories.
        1. Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
        2. Aleksander Borodin (1833-1887)
        3. César Cui (1835-1918)
        4. Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881)
        5. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
      2. Only Balakirev had conventional training in music, but they all studied Western music on their own (see HWM Source Reading, page 715).
      3. They incorporated aspects of Russian folk song, modal and exotic scales, and folk polyphony.
      4. Balakirev, the leader of the circle, wrote little for the stage.
      5. Cui composed fourteen operas, but none entered the permanent repertory.
      6. Prince Igor is the major work of Borodin, a professional chemist who had little time to compose.
        1. It was completed after his death by Rimsky-Korsakov.
        2. Russian characters in the opera are given folk song material.
        3. The Polovtsians, from central Asia, have an exotic vocal style with melismas, chromatics, and augmented seconds.
        4. The Polovtsian Dances from Act II are frequently performed separately.
    4. Modest Musorgsky (see HWM Figure 28.13)
      1. Musorgsky, who studied with Balakirev, was the most original of the Mighty Five.
      2. He worked as a clerk in the civil service.
      3. Principal stageworks
        1. Boris Godunov was based on a Pushkin play.
        2. Khovanshchina (The Khovansky Affair) was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov.
      4. The realism of Russian literature is reflected in Boris Godunov.
    5. Coronation scene from Boris Godunov (see NAWM 145, HWM Figure 28.14, and Example 28.5)
      1. The vocal melody is sometimes speechlike.
        1. The text is treated syllabically, and the music follows the natural accents.
        2. The melody sometimes recites on one or two notes (measures 40-42 and 94-97).
        3. Operatic recitative appears in measures 134-136.
      2. Much of the singing is a fluid arioso similar to Russian folk songs.
        1. Narrow range
        2. Repetition of short motives
        3. Tendency to rise at beginnings of phrases and slowly sink to a cadence
      3. The opera is built from large blocks of material.
      4. The scene opens with alternating dominant seventh chords with roots a tritone apart.
        1. Ostinatos in winds and strings overlay the harmonies.
        2. The passage is repeated with the pealing of bells (measure 21).
      5. After Prince Shuisky's cheer, the people sing one of the few genuine folk melodies ever used by Musorgsky.
      6. The tune is developed and contrasted with other material.
      7. Musorgsky's treatment of harmony was influential.
        1. The music is tonal, but his progressions are novel.
        2. The principal key of the scene is C.
        3. The chords accompanying Prince Shuisky do not function as a normal harmonic progression.
        4. The folk song harmonization (measure 50) is the first functional progression in the scene.
    6. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
      1. Rimsky-Korsakov studied with Balakirev and other private teachers.
      2. He had a career in the Russian Navy, and became a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1871.
      3. He was an active orchestra conductor and a master of orchestration.
      4. As professor and conductor, he championed the works of Glinka and other Russian nationalists.
      5. He wrote a harmony treatise and taught some important students, including Glazunov and Stravinsky.
      6. He edited two collections of folk songs and incorporated folk tunes into his own compositions.
      7. Rimsky-Korsakov completed fifteen operas.
        1. Sadko (1895-97)
        2. Tsar Saltan (1899-1900)
        3. The Golden Cockerel (1906-7) alternates diatonic music for the real world with chromatic music for the supernatural world.
      8. Rimsky-Korsakov used both whole-tone and octatonic scale systems (see HWM Example 28.6).
        1. Both systems have a limited number of transpositions.
        2. Both lack a strong leading tone, which creates an ethereal quality.
      9. The octatonic scale and folklike melody can be seen in the second scene of Sadko (see HWM Example 28.7).
  7. Opera in Other Nations
    1. Bohemia (now the Czech Republic)
      1. Bohemia was an Austrian crown land, and German was the official language.
      2. Mainstream opera was performed in Prague, including the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
      3. A movement to promote Czech language in the theater began in the 1860s.
      4. Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)
        1. Smetana composed eight operas in Czech.
        2. Smetana created a Czech national style with folklike tunes and dance rhythms, while avoiding Italian and Germanic operatic conventions.
        3. The Bartered Bride (1866) was an international sensation.
      5. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
        1. Dvo§ák composed twelve operas, some of which are based on Czech legends and Slavic history.
        2. Dmitrij (1882, revised 1894) is a historical drama influenced by Meyerbeer and Wagner.
        3. Rusalka (1900) is a fairy-tale opera that alternates between a diatonic style for world of humans and a fantastic style for the supernatural.
    2. Poland
      1. Poland was ruled by Russia, and opera was part of its national cultural revival.
      2. Halka (1848), by Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872), inaugurated the movement.
    3. Spain
      1. Although politically independent, Spain adopted the musical styles of France, Italy, and Germany.
      2. Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922) sparked a nationalist revival with editions of sixteenth-century Spanish composers and with his operas, such as Los Pirineos (The Pyrenees, 1891).
    4. Britain
      1. Britain was dominated by foreign opera, despite numerous nationalist movements.
      2. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) composed six operas, including The Wreckers (1904).
    5. The New World
      1. The New York Metropolitan Opera Company opened in 1883 and performed European opera.
      2. Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896)
        1. A Brazilian, he was the first internationally recognized opera composer from the Americas.
        2. His operas in Portuguese were not successful, but his later works in Italian, including his masterwork Il Guarany (1870), were highly acclaimed.
    6. Operetta
      1. Lighter forms of musical theater flourished in nearly every country.
      2. Operetta was a type of light opera with spoken dialogue.
      3. Modeled after the opéra bouffe of Offenbach, it could be both funny and romantic.
      4. Johann Strauss the Younger (1825-1899) from Vienna created the popular Die Fledermaus (The Bat, 1874).
      5. In England, Gilbert (librettist) and Sullivan (composer, 1842-1900) created a string of popular successes.
        1. HMS Pinafore (1878)
        2. The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
        3. The Mikado (1885)
      6. When the foeman bares his steel from The Pirates of Penzance (NAWM 146) illustrates the satirical humor of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
        1. The police, given martial dotted rhythms, pretend their clubs are trumpets, singing "Tarantara!" like boys playing at soldiers.
        2. The melodies of Mabel and the sergeant and many of the later actions and singing mock the traditions of tragic opera.
    7. Other types of musical theater
      1. Diverse musical entertainments could be found throughout Europe.
      2. The United States also featured a variety of musical theater.
        1. European opera was heard in several major cities.
        2. Minstrel shows continued, including all-black troupes.
        3. Operettas were imported from Europe, and Americans composed new operettas, such as El Capitan by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932).
        4. The Black Crook (1866), a pastiche that combined melodrama with a visiting French ballet troupe, was a tremendous success.
        5. Evangeline (1874) by Edward E. Rice has been described as the first musical comedy.
    8. Variety shows became more respectable, and vaudeville, created by Tony Pastor, became a dominant type of theatrical entertainment.
  8. Music for the Stage and Its Audiences
    1. Standard opera repertory
      1. Verdi and Wagner created works that were never surpassed.
      2. Their operas have achieved a permanent place in opera repertory.
      3. Excerpts from Wagner's operas have also become part of the standard repertory of orchestral concerts.
      4. Puccini is the only Italian after Verdi to maintain an international reputation.
      5. Traditional operas by a number of other composers have entered the permanent repertory.
    2. Nationalism
      1. Wagner obscured his nationalism with his claim to universality.
      2. Composers from "peripheral" countries used nationalism that was effective in their own countries, but generally did not win international recognition.
    3. Audiences began to split between elite and popular musical theater.
      1. Verdi's operas appealed both to the elite and to the general public.
      2. Wagner aimed at only the elite.
      3. Popular genres, such as operetta and vaudeville, became increasingly more important.
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