Opera Synthesis Essay

This week's material was light, all of it relating to the rise of opera.

To help understand the influences that allowed for opera to emerge, two late madrigals were presented. Monteverdi's Cruda Amarilli highlighted how the harmonic language of seconda practica broke existing harmonic rules to express the text. Most of the expression presents itself through dissonances on words such as "amaramente" and "l'aspido," all relating to the feelings of discord or distress. The second piece was Caccini's Vedrò 'l mio sol, classified as a solo madrigal because of its monody. This piece highlights the change from having multi-voice madrigals to one in which there is one vocal line accompanied by a chordal instrument realizing a figured bass line. Also attached to this piece are ornamentations the solo singer can employ to color the melody, such as the gruppo, intonazione, esclamazione, and trillo. The harmonic language, solo singing, and ornamentations become ingredients in making an opera, along with pastoral dramas, madrigal cycles, and intermedios.

The focus then shifted to the parts that make up an opera and how they are defined. In early opera, there are five distinct parts: the recitative, which is intended to be speech-like and through-composed; the aria,
For parts of the opera, the emphasize was on differentiating between an aria and recitative, specifically the changes in harmonic accompaniment. For writing styles, the main suggestions included simplifying the amount of words used, presenting the claim first and then the evidence, and to watch for any repetitions that are common in analysis papers. Also included with the writing styles, what are the best sources to base the paper on and how to verify that it is a good source. This week I do not have any questions, all is pretty