Music and Opera in Italy
Before Italy’s Unification, particularly during the 17th and 18th centuries, each major city had its own tradition of music-making. Rome, as the papal city had musical traditions less hedonistic than elsewhere, and avoided opera. Florence had its day at the turn of the 16th century, with its celebrated camerata (groups set on reviving the traditions of Ancient Greek spectacle). Venice fostered church music on a grand scale, and Naples, during the 18th century, was renowned for comic opera. In the 19th century, Milan became the undisputed centre of Italian Opera, centred on La Scala.
The Medieval and Renaissance Periods
Through Boccacio, among others, it is known that singing, dancing and poetry often went hand in hand in medieval and Renaissance Italy. Italy concentrated on music as part of spectacle rather than as a pure art form. Important contributors to the music of these periods include Guido d’Arezzo (c. 995-1050), a monk who perfected musical notation, and Francesco Landini (1325-97), one of the first known composers whose songs displayed a distinct concern for lyricism. The next 150 years were to be characterized by the Ars Perfecta style subjected dissonance to strict control, and it was employed for most church music. Madrigals (vocal settings of poems by Petrarch and other poets) were also popular. The early 17th century saw Italian composers such as Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1561- 1613) and Claudio Monteverdi challenge these traditions by introducing more declamation and more of the unexpected.
The Baroque Era
Claudio Monteverdi’s music straddled the transition from the Renaissance period to 17th-century Baroque. The word “baroque” means highly ornamented, even bizarre and embellishment was rife. Monteverdi’s madrigals began as standard pieces for four voices but ended up as mini-operas. This was due to the popularity of an individual instrumental style and the development of the basso continuo (a supporting organ, harpsichord or lute that unleashed the possibility for solos and duets). At this point, the beginnings of the string orchestra were in place. A new fashion for declamation meant that various emotional states were in place. A new fashion for declamation meant that various emotional states were being represented with sighs and sobs rather than just description. Monteverdi’s Vespers followed others in exexploiting the stereophonic possibilities of San Mrco in Venice by contrasting different forces in different parts the building. In the 1680s, Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) turned to classicism. Corelli was famous for the Concerto Grosso, a style that contrasted the solo string group with the full ensemble. He was followed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), who concentrated his efforts on developing the solo form of the Concerto Grosso. He used wind and plucked instruments as well as violins.
The Emergence of Opera
Opera first emerged during the wedding celebrations of Italy’s wealthy 16th century families. Monteverdi was the first composer to establish his work firmly in the opera repertoire. During the 17th century, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) formulated a model which consisted of an orchestral overture followed by a sequence of narrative, set as recitative, and interrupted by da capo (three part) arias. Themes for the weightier opera series were largely drawn from mythology, while the lighter opera buffa had stock scenes that sometimes owed a large debt to the traditions of Commedia dell’ Arte. Famous for his comic operas, such as The Barber Of Sevilla , was the composer Gioachino Rossini. Among other contributors, Vincenzo Bellini ( 1801-35) and Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) developed bel canto singing, a style stressing fine tone and ornamentation. The two most prominent opera composers of the latter half of the 19th century were Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). Verdi often turned to the works of Shakespeare as well as to more recent subjects in order to from a basis for his work, while many composers, like Puccini, turned to the new trend of verismo (slices of contemporary realism). La Bohème is one of the most refined examples of this style.
The 20Th Century
In the early 20th century, Puccini’s La Fanciulla del west (the girl of the west) brought cowboys into opera, Turandot looked towards the Orient and Tosca brought torture and murder. Some composer have attempted to emulate French and German music, and only a few Italian pieces, such as those by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), have been regularly performed. The most important name in Italian music today is Luciano Berio n(born 1925), who developed Music Theatre, a relatively new art form lying somewhere between drama,and opera. Recently, however, Berio has continued the tradition of Grand Opera with his elaborate production of Un re in Ascolto. But it is perhaps Luciano Pavorotti who must be credited with renewing an international interest in opera. In the 1990s his often televised performances with “Three Tenors” stars José Carreras and Placido Domingo secured a massive world audience for opera. Another star of Opera and classical music is internationally renowned conductor Riccardo Muti, director of La Scala.
