Opera Buffa Essay

The term opera seria refers to the noble and ‘serious’ style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from 1710- 1770 however this term was rarely used during this time and only really attained common usage when it was becoming unfashionable. The phrase opera buffa was first used as an informal description of the Italian comic operas which were especially associated with developments in Naples during the first half of the eighteenth century. The development of the opera buffa was parallel with the development of opera seria and arose in response to the reforms of Zeno and Metastasio: comic characters had been part of opera until the early eighteenth century and comic operas appeared in the form of ‘intermezzi’ which were short one act interludes
The opera buffa was made for common people and therefore depicted common people with common problems in comic scenes and situations, as well as deriving stock characters from the commedia dell’arte: ‘the composer often fastened on some pet idiosyncrasy of the character portrayed in all his arias.’(Robinson) Robinson goes on to state that characters in opera seria were ‘never given such a mannerism.’; opera seria was intended as an entertainment for kings and nobility which is reflected in its characters; opera seria often depicted royals, gods and ancient heroes in mythical settings, very different to the contemporary settings of the opera buffa. However, although opera seria was often set in mythical settings, the subject matter covered was serious and comic scenes were sparse in this
Opera buffa only started to become an opera in its own right later on the eighteenth century and its importance diminished during the Romantic period at the start of the nineteenth century. During its peak, the musical style of opera seria followed a fairly unified, although constantly developing, course. This is mainly due to the influence of the Neapolitan school of composers as a majority of famous Italian composers, such as Leonardo Vinci, were educated there and also down to the desire of composers to maintain popularity by writing in the modern fashion. Early opera seria was dominated by the influence of Metastasio who wrote many librettos drawing on dramas featuring classical characters and their conflicts between love, honour and duty using ornate and elegant language: ‘the trend was towards greater diversity of mood and texture between phrase and phrase.’ (Robinson) This style of libretto was customary for Metastasio and his contemporaries during the first half of the eighteenth century. This Metastasian model peaked during the 1750’s however opera began to give way to new trends popularized by Niccolo Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta during the 1740s-60s who favoured ideas from French operatic traditions as opposed to the Italianate pattern of alternating, sharply-contrasted recitative and aria. Jommelli favoured accompanied recitative and a greater dynamic contrast