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''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian
comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a n ...
s variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesco'', ''dramma comico'', ''divertimento giocoso''. Especially associated with developments in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
in the first half of the 18th century, whence its popularity spread to
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and northern Italy, ''buffa'' was at first characterized by everyday settings, local dialects, and simple vocal writing (the basso buffo is the associated voice type), the main requirement being clear diction and facility with patter. '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' considers ''La Cilla'' (music by Michelangelo Faggioli, text by , 1706) and Luigi and Federico Ricci's''
Crispino e la comare ''Crispino e la comare o Il medico e la morte'' (''The Cobbler and the Fairy or The Doctor and Death'') is an opera written collaboratively by Luigi Ricci and Federico Ricci with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Performance histor ...
'' (1850) to be the first and last appearances of the genre, although the term is still occasionally applied to newer work (for example Ernst Krenek's '' Zeitoper'' '' Schwergewicht''). High points in this history are the 80 or so libretti by Carlindo Grolo, Loran Glodici, Sogol CardoniPatrick J. Smith: ''The Tenth Muse'' (Schirmer 1970) p. 103. and various other approximate anagrams of Carlo Goldoni, the three Mozart/ Da Ponte collaborations, and the comedies of Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti. Similar foreign genres such as French '' opéra comique'', English '' ballad opera'', Spanish '' zarzuela'' or German '' singspiel'' differed as well in having spoken dialogue in place of '' recitativo secco'', although one of the most influential examples,
Pergolesi Pergolesi is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, (1710–1736), Italian composer, violinist, and organist *Michael Angelo Pergolesi Michael Angelo Pergolesi () was an Italian decorative artist from th ...
's '' La serva padrona'' (which is an intermezzo, not ''opera buffa''), sparked the '' querelle des bouffons'' in Paris as an adaptation without sung recitatives.


Opéra bouffon

Opéra bouffon is the French term for the Italian genre of opera buffa (comic opera) performed in 18th-century France, either in the original language or in French translation. It was also applied to original French opéras comiques having Italianate or near-farcical plots. The term was also later used by Jacques Offenbach for five of his operettas ('' Orphée aux enfers'', '' Le pont des soupirs'', '' Geneviève de Brabant'', ' and ''Le voyage de MM. Dunanan père et fils''), and is sometimes confused with the French opéra comique and opéra bouffe.


History

Comic characters had been a part of opera until the early 18th century, when ''opera buffa'' began to emerge as a separate genre, an early precursor having been the operatic comedy, '' Il Trespolo tutore'', by
Alessandro Stradella Antonio Alessandro Boncompagno Stradella ( Bologna, 3 July 1643 – Genoa, 25 February 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque period. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, and collaborating wi ...
, in 1679. ''Opera buffa'' was a parallel development to '' opera seria'', and arose in reaction to the so-called first reform of
Apostolo Zeno Apostolo Zeno (11 December 1668 in Venice – 11 November 1750 in Venice) was a Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters. Early life Apostolo Zeno was born in Venice to a colonial branch of the Zeno family, an ancient Ven ...
and Pietro Metastasio. It was, in part, intended as a genre that the common man could relate to more easily. Whereas ''opera seria'' was an entertainment that was both made for and depicted kings and nobility, ''opera buffa'' was made for and depicted common people with more common problems. High-flown language was generally avoided in favor of dialogue that the lower class would relate to, often in the local dialect, and the stock characters were often derived from those of the Italian '' commedia dell'arte''. The 1701 ''scherzo drammatico'' (dramatic jest), ''Il mondo abbattuto'' by Nicola Sabini was particularly influential in Naples, creating a popular model due to its use of both Tuscan and Neapolitan dialects. In the early 18th century, comic operas often appeared as short, one-act interludes known as intermezzi that were performed in between acts of opera seria. There also existed, however, self-contained operatic comedies. '' La serva padrona'' (1733) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736), is the one intermezzo still performed with any regularity today, and provides an excellent example of the style. '' Lo frate 'nnamorato'' (1732) and ''
Il Flaminio ''Il Flaminio'' is a 1735 opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a Neapolitan libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, first performed at the Teatro Nuovo, Naples. Untypically in Pergolesi's difficult and short career the opera was an immedia ...
'' (1735), by Pergolesi as well, are examples of the three-act ''commedia per musica''. Apart from Pergolesi, the first major composers of ''opera buffa'' were Alessandro Scarlatti ('' Il trionfo dell'onore'', 1718),
Nicola Logroscino Nicola Bonifacio Logroscino (1698 – c.1765) was an Italian composer who is best known for his operas. Biography He was born at Bitonto (Province of Bari) in the Apulia region and was a pupil of Giovanni Veneziano and Giuliano Perugino at ...
(''Il governatore'', 1747) and Baldassare Galuppi ('' Il filosofo di campagna'', 1754), all of them based in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
or
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
. The work of these was then resumed and expanded by Niccolò Piccinni ('' La Cecchina'', 1760), Giovanni Paisiello ('' Nina'', 1789) and Domenico Cimarosa ('' Il matrimonio segreto'', 1792). The genre declined in the mid-19th century, despite Giuseppe Verdi's '' Falstaff'' staged in 1893. The importance of ''opera buffa'' diminished during the
Romantic period Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
. Here, the forms were freer and less extended than in the serious genre and the set numbers were linked by recitativo secco, the exception being Donizetti's '' Don Pasquale'' in 1843. With Rossini, a standard distribution of four characters is reached: a prima donna soubrette (soprano or mezzo); a light, amorous tenor; a basso cantante or baritone capable of lyrical, mostly ironical expression; and a basso buffo whose vocal skills, largely confined to clear articulation and the ability to "patter", must also extend to the baritone for the purposes of comic duets. The type of comedy could vary, and the range was great: from Rossini's ''
The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an '' opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was ba ...
'' in 1816 which was purely comedic, to Mozart's '' The Marriage of Figaro'' in 1786 which added drama and pathos. Another example of Romantic ''opera buffa'' would be Donizetti's ''
The Elixir of Love ''L'elisir d'amore'' (''The Elixir of Love'', ) is a ' (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's ' (1831). The opera premiered ...
'' of 1832.


Relation to and differences from ''opera seria''

While opera seria deals with gods and ancient heroes and only occasionally contained comic scenes, ''opera buffa'' involves the predominant use of comic scenes, characters, and plot lines in a contemporary setting. The traditional model for opera seria had three acts, dealt with serious subjects in mythical settings, as stated above, and used high voices (both sopranos and
castrati A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to ...
) for principal characters, often even for monarchs. In contrast, the model that generally held for ''opera buffa'' was having two acts (as, for example, ''The Barber of Seville''), presenting comic scenes and situations as earlier stated and using the lower male voices to the exclusion of the
castrati A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to ...
.Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', This led to the creation of the characteristic " basso buffo", a specialist in patter who was the center of most of the comic action. (A well-known basso buffo role is Leporello in Mozart's '' Don Giovanni''.)


References


Notes


Sources

* Eisen, Cliff, et al
"Mozart" in ''Grove Music Online''
''Oxford Music Online'' sections 7–10. *Fisher, Burton D, ''The Barber of Seville'' (Opera Classics Library Series). Grand Rapids: Opera Journeys, 2005. * Grout, Donald, ''A Short History of Opera''. New York, Columbia University Press, 1965. *Hunter, Mary (1999), ''The Culture of ''opera buffa'' in Mozart's Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment''. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1999. (reviewed in: Stevens, Jane R. "Shifting Focus to Mozart's Operas." ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'', Vol. 35, No. 1 (Fall 2001) pp. 160–62.) *Opera buffa. ''World Book Online Reference Center''. 2008. * Parker, Roger, ''The Oxford illustrated History of Opera'' *Platoff, John (1992). "How Original Was Mozart? Evidence from "Opera Buffa"." ''Early Music'': Vol. 20, No. 1. Oxford University Press, Feb. 1992. pp. 105–17. * Weiss, Piero; Julian Budden
"Opera buffa"
Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. *Webster, James, Hunter, Mary (1997). ''Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 1997. (reviewed in: Baker, Nicole. "Untitled." Notes, Second Series, Vol. 56, No. 1 (September 1999) pp. 138–40.) * Weiss, Piero and
Budden, Julian Julian Medforth Budden (9 April 1924 in Hoylake, Wirral – 28 February 2007 in Florence, Italy) was a British opera scholar, radio producer and broadcaster. He is particularly known for his three volumes on the operas of Giuseppe Verdi (publis ...
(1992). "Opera buffa" in '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', ed. Stanley Sadie, London. {{DEFAULTSORT:Opera Buffa Italian opera terminology Opera genres