A rage aria is an operatic aria expressing the rage of the character performing it. Normally in da capo form, such arias emerged during the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period and are typically found in

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

. Rage arias were known by various terms in Italian, including ' and '. H. Rosenthal and John Warrack (1972), ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', London: Oxford University Press, p. 16. Typically, they display the musical characteristics of quick tempos and fast runs, and are short in length. Such arias have been written by, amongst other composers,

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

in the Baroque period and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Classical period.

History

According to the doctrine of the affections, a theory of aesthetics that dictates emotions based on outward visible and auditory signs, each aria in an opera must have a single emotion. According to the philosophy of affects, complex musical gestures are more easily suited to the emotions of hatred, retaliation, and fury than to those of gentle affects. Mattheson, Johann, and Hans Lenneberg. "Johann Mattheson on Affect and Rhetoric in Music (I)." ''

Journal of Music Theory The ''Journal of Music Theory'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established by David Kraehenbuehl (Yale University) in 1957. According to its website, " e ''Journal of Music Theory'' fosters c ...

'', vol. 2, no. 1, 1958, pp. 47–84. Retrieved 5 December 2017 Rage arias were amongst various types of aria which were employed in 18th century opera, including the more restrained ', the ' (lament), and the showy '. One of the best-known examples of the genre is the Queen of the Night's "

Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen "" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), commonly abbreviated "", is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute'' ('). It depicts a fit of vengeful rage in which the ...

", from '' Die Zauberflöte''. Others include "No, no, I'll take no less", from Handel's '' Semele'', "I am the wife of Mao Tse-Tung" from John Adams' '' Nixon in China'', "D'Oreste, d'Ajace" in Mozart's '' Idomeneo''.

History

References

Further reading