Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)

Mozart was one of the culminating figures for the 18th century Italian style; also an important figure in movement to establish a German opera tradition

á      Biography: a child prodigy; every aspect of early life focused on achieving potential as musician; formal instruction on violin at age 5; father was violinist and composer; began composing at age 6, toured Europe during childhood, played at all the courts.  Travels were important in creating his international style

á      Family lived in Salzburg; Wolfgang and Leopold employed by Archbishop

á      Wolfgang moved to Vienna in 1781; this was musical capitol, but his problems with patronage worked against him.  Constant financial trouble, died age 35.

á      Mozart is NOT typical of late 18th Century opera composers: his operas exceed the standards so much as to be almost a different class. Mozart is considered to have surpassed others in several ways:

á      Beauty of music compared to contemporaries

á      Originality

á      Masterful use of counterpoint

á      Ability to portray dramatic aspects, make music fit dramatic situation

á      Climate was good for opera too:

á      Opera was popular, people were asking for new works; mostly just comic, though

á      Orchestra was very refined, partly thanks to Haydn

á      Singing was well developed due to Baroque traditions

á      Stereotypes of Baroque were on the decline (thanks to Gluck)

á      Mozart was less than successful in his own lifetime because

á      He abhorred the patronage system

á      The public didnŐt realize how good he was; they were willing to be content with second rate composers; their works were entertaining enough

á      Mozart's Italian operas: heŐs best known for his buffa operas. 

á      He wrote his first buffa at age 12 (La finta semplice [the pretended simpleton]); age 14 wrote his first opera seria.  Both are remarkable because of his age, but not wonderful examples of their genres.  DidnŐt yet have maturity to understand stories as an adult would, although he had mastered musical techniques

á      His greatest operas in Italian are Don Giovanni, Cosi fan Tutte and Marriage of Figaro; all had same librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838)

á      da Ponte created masterful characterizations: one of the big reasons for success

á      Mozart and da Ponte worked with intuitive understanding of human motivations to create deeper psychological depictions of characters

á      General Characteristics of Opera Buffa by 1780Ős (Mozart and others, including Paisiello)

á      Arias no longer predominate; Arias are shorter and simpler

á      Aria form and function change: special bass-voice comic aria with patter, leaps, repeated emphatic cadence figures

á      Recitative simplified and reduced; some action transferred to ensembles or arias

á      Marriage of Figaro (1786): adapted from a French play by Beaumarchais of 1778; it is the second play of a trilogy (first was Barber of Seville, the last was LŐautre Tartuffe, ou La mre coupable).  Play was controversial because of the deeper meaning of the story: on the surface story is about love between servant (Figaro) and maid (Susanna) in the home of a noble couple (Count and Countess Almaviva).  Under surface, it is about servant classes outwitting and rebelling against ruling classes.  Written on the eve of French Revolution, this is a pretty daring subject.

á      Mozart's German Language Operas

á      He had a goal of better establishing opera in German

á      His first effort at age 12 Bastien und Bastienne, a translation of a French opera comique

á      There were a few other efforts in German, some incomplete; his most important German operas were Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (Abduction from the Harem, 1782) and Die Zauberflšte (The Magic Flute, 1791). 

á      Die Entfuhrung is a Singspiel: action takes place almost entirely in spoken dialogue; musical selections a mixture of Italian style arias for main characters; more strophic ballads or German songs for servants. This was a much more sophisticated production than earlier Singspiels.  As he did with other genres, he assimilated the international possibilities (Italian comic and serious opera, French opera comique and also maintained some elements of German song).

á      Magic Flute: MozartŐs last German opera: he was already sick when writing it, died a few months later.  Project proposed by Emmanuel Schickaneder, impresario and actor who ran a theater outside Vienna.  Plots of these productions usually concentrated on fairy tales, magic, exotic settings.  This opera is exotic and uses magic, but is more serious; Mozart called it a Gro§e Oper rather than a Singspiel.

á      Much has been written about symbolism, esp. events symbolic of Freemasonry.  Mozart and Schickaneder were both Masons (also Frederick the Great, Voltaire, Goethe, Haydn).  This was a secret society: solemn rituals, initiation rituals etc.  Purpose of society was to promote brotherly love among members.  Events in opera are representative of those ideals

á      Opera contains very wide variety of types of music: simple folk songs, elaborate Italian style arias, ensembles, choruses; diversity of music is matched to diversity of characters (class distinctions); e.g. Bird-man Papageno gets mostly folk songs; Tamino, a prince, gets Italian style arias.  There are a few recits in this work but also spoken dialogue