Bel Canto & Opera Buffa! Did you know that some operas can be BOTH bel canto and opera buffa? Some operas can be sung in the bel canto style, but the plots can be comedic, so it is also opera buffa! Let us explain...
La Cenerentola (Cinderella) is an example of Bel Canto opera. Bel canto is Italian for “beautiful singing.” In this case, the term refers to a particular style of operatic singing that emphasizes beautiful tone and brilliant technique over dramatic expression. Bel canto is associated with the Italian opera of the late 18thand early 19thcentury, particularly the works of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. Fast passages and high notes sparked the vocal fireworks audiences sought in opera during these time periods. Therefore the bel canto composers often placed more emphasis on singing than on plot development and story. Before Rossini, singers were expected to improvise their own ornamentations of simple vocal lines, adding the vocal fireworks that they felt were appropriate for the aria. Oftentimes singers could not remember what ornaments they had added in a previous performance, resulting in a different show each night! Rossini, however, tried to put an end to this practice by writing in the specific ornamentations that he wanted the singers to perform in his arias. Many singers, however, still chose to add additional ornaments to those that Rossini composed. There is a story that Rossini happened to be at a party where the famous diva Adelina Patti sang the aria “Una voce poco fa” (Rosina’s opening aria in The Barber of Seville). Yet Ms. Patti had added so many ornaments that Rossini remarked, “Very nice, my dear, and who wrote the piece that you have just sung?” La Cenerentola is also an example of Opera Buffa, an Italian term meaning “comic opera”. This term is mainly used for 18th century Italian comic operas. Opera buffa contrasts with opera seria (“serious opera”) in which the story was a tragedy. Like the opera seria, everything was sung, there was no spoken dialogue. This was different from comic opera in other countries. The story in opera buffa is told in recitative and there are arias for the characters to show their feelings and show off their voices. Opera buffa started in Naples and gradually spread to other parts of Italy. It was particularly popular at carnival time. Important composers of opera buffa include Goldoni, Mozart and Rossini. By the end of the 18th century it was not always possible to tell the difference between an opera buffa and an opera seria. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, for example, has a lot of comedy, but there is also a serious side. Opera buffa always includes a lot of caricature. The characters show human weaknesses such as stupidity, vanity, greed and affectation (people who were pretending to be wise and important). In opera buffa the acting is always very important. These are usually lively operas with a lot of action happening very quickly. At the end of each act all the main characters usually sing together in an ensemble (the French word for “together”).
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