These three articles describe how opera changed in 18th century from two aspect, social and musical.
The first article Opera as Social Duty talks about the opera in 1750s. In the time, opera is the place for socialization. Aristocrats attended opera to show off their wealth and social power, to have secret gatherings, or to discuss and learn politics. Enjoying the work itself was the least interest for audiences. King also used operas for show his power map by making the free-admission list, and specters tried to show their nobility and respect to king by sympathizing the response to opera.
However, as shown in the third article Tears and the New Attentiveness, the social duty of opera changed in mid- to late-18th century. Although there were still people who attended opera for socialization, not for music, it was obvious that more audiences paid much more attention to operas. People started to enjoy the story and music as much as they were interested in observing others.
The second article Expression as Imitation is focused on music, especially on word-painting. People in mid 18th century considered music as an expression of poetry and nature (36). The majority of the era thought that music should express directly by using sound imitation or imitating the images. The paintings were mostly in melodic line. It was after 1770s when people started to think harmony as another tool to evoke scenes and feeling.
Question:
1. As I mentioned above, the attitude of audience changed a lot during the era. What made audiences to get interested in opera itself?
2. The third article tells that aristocrats, Marie Antoinette for instance, moved their box to the place where it’s harder to see opera and where a lot of civilians are. Why do you think?
3. The second article says that “the only expression was in imitation” and “paints everything, even those things that are only visible” (43). Do you think that only audible or visible thing can be imitated? For example, sadness is neither audible nor visible. Expressing sadness by using minor chord, is this imitation?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You have done something that is not easy: you boiled each chapter down to a few sentences. The question of "imitation" seems to have captured your attention. Your question #3 is especially helpful when we compare our response to that of the 18th-century listener. Why did they hear music in terms of imitation, and what was the long-term result? You might want to have a look at Sam's post and my comment.
ReplyDelete