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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > Opera insinceria?
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Author Topic: Opera insinceria?  (Read 712 times)
richard barrett
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« Reply #15 on: 00:43:11, 28-02-2007 »
... or is that false consciousness on my part? I think it's bedtime now, comrades - sleep well.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #16 on: 06:00:59, 28-02-2007 »
Ye're entirely right, Richard - I was delving back about 25 years there Smiley
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
Don Basilio
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Era solo un mio sospetto
« Reply #17 on: 10:20:49, 28-02-2007 »
George's mention of Mozart set me thinking.  When he is setting Da Ponte (like the libbretist of Agrippina, a catholic cleric) Mozart certainly indicates the ambiguity of the human heart big time. 

Zerlina singing Batti batti - is she just wheedling her lumpish fiancee, or is she expressing a genuine tenderness for him after her experience with some hunky toff who just wants a quick bonk?

Cosi fan tutte:

Soave sia il vento - the women are genuinely sorry to say farewell to the lads, slimy old Don Alfonso knows they are just around the corner, but sings the same (ravishing) music.

Come scoglio is always quoted as deliberately exaggerated, to express Fiordiligi's false romanticism, but from her point of view, she is being perfectly sincere.  (Just as sincere as when she sings Per pieta in Act 2 and is going to give way in the next number.)

I think harpy has hit on a point about opera seria which can support a number of PhDs.  The musical expression is far more straightforward of the emotions.  The conventions of opera buffa allowed far more subtlety, which is why they were incorporated into the development of romantic and tragic opera.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
harpy128
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« Reply #18 on: 13:57:11, 28-02-2007 »
I went to a talk about Cosi where the bloke observed that some of the girls' arias, including Come scoglio, are in a different and more high-falutin' genre from the rest of the music, which he said would be very noticeable to a contemporary audience.

He suggested that Mozart's idea might be that Fiordiligi and Dorabella had been spending too much time at the opera (which apparently was the place to go for Neapolitan tourists at the time). Not sure how plausible this is but it's quite a nice idea. Either way, it doesn't mean, of course, that the sentiments weren't sincerely meant by the characters.
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