Introduction
Baroque opera involves two distinguished characteristics which can be acquired by its name. This includes baroque which can be described as an era in the history of art in Europe between the 1600 and 1750 years. This era was after the Renaissance period and was later followed Classical era thus marking the initial years in evolution of opera. An opera in a large scale drama characterized by instruments and delivered to the audience through singing, poetry and drama. The dramatically part of the opera involves poetry, captivating action and pantomime, different scenes and costumes. This combination offers a unified element thus attracting creativity and development in the music history.
Baroque opera was characterized by monody which involves there was a solo vocalist who directs the melody with the instrumentals being played to provide accompaniments. This differentiated it from the Renaissance period during which there were several singers presenting distinct melodic lines. This was polyphony-based music in which the vocalists converged their lines and sounds instead of having a single soloist (Wood, Caroline, and Graham Sadler, 105). The instruments which accompanied the singer formed a uniform basso continuo which included the cello, and harpsichord. The cello which is low pitched was essential in playing the bass line while the harpsichord added a high note to the opera with its notes played on the bass line. This combination completed the chord making it easy for the soloist to form the musical. This was interjected by the poetic and dramatically part of the opera which involved different actors in their costumes to match the words and message to be driven by the Baroque opera.
The baroque opera has different components which diversified it from other eras of music. The first component is the recitative which is a vocal style replicates the regular infections of speech with its rhythm of the language shaping its movement. The basso continuo assists in forming its secco which involves the repetition of similar notes making it difficult to present a musical line. Development of the recitative component led to the initiation of two standards namely secco and accompagnato. Secco, which represents dry in Italian, involves free movement accompanied by the instruments of bass continuo (Hoffer, 99). On the other hand, the accompagnato involves an even movement supplemented by the orchestra which makes it uniform. The uniform movement is accomplished by the ensembles practice to ensure they move evenly in accordance to the instruments.
The importance of the components of the baroque opera is their interrelation which makes them able to produce an admirable action. The recitative paves way for the second component which is the aria which is the rhythmical moments of the opera (Buelow, 89). Aria which represents air in Italian involves the release of the emotional tension held within the opera through an awesome melody. This involves a memorable song which indicates the emotions carried in the opera making it essential to the audience. The manner in which this aria is castrated affects the response of the audiences, their memory and desire to listen to the aria again. The tunefulness of the aria ensures that it acquires meaning and response from the audience even in situations of misrepresentation in the concert. It raises the expectations of the audience thus the dynamic changes in the tunes and music in the baroque tend to be sudden. This means that some parts of the opera will be high pitched while others the next might be soft following the colors of the orchestra.
The aria is presented in a ternary form of A-B-A known as the da capo aria. This form returns the first section of the melody with diverse flourishes initiated by the soloist. Its existence led to the development and fame of Barbra Strozzi, who as a soloist was able to embellish several improvisations increasing her rating among the audience (Buelow, 119). For any musical to be a success, it is, therefore, essential that an emphasis is laid on the aria as it determines the affection of the audience to the whole opera as it acts as the climax.
The other component of an opera is the ensemble which involves the characters who backup the soloist especially while presenting the chorus. The role of the characters is to present their respective feelings to the opera which is transferred to the audience making it possible for them to analyze the inner feelings of the presentation. The ensemble can have two people making it a duet, three characters for a trio or an even quartet which has four characters. An opera with more than four characters backing up the soloist during the chorus can be analyzed as a sung commentary which increases the accompagnato recitative of the opera due to the uniformity of the group. The chorus represented by the ensemble can also be incorporated into the action of the opera, or it can comment of the reflections of the action. The later was used in the Greek tragedy where the chorus was independent of the soloist.
The major role of the orchestra is to ensure the appropriate mood for the diverse scenes in the opera is set making it supportive to the action. It also assists in a performance of the overture which is the other component of the opera. The overture involves a number of instruments which introduces the opera at the beginning of the performance. The introduction number involves an overture presented at the introduction of the opera. There are also several interlude overtures known as sinfonias which are introduced within the opera mostly presented between scenes (Hoffer, 145). The instruments act as a diversion of the audience from the seriousness of the opera thus uprising their morale.
The libretto of any opera involves major piece of work done by the librettist who composes the opera. This is the script composed for the opera which involves different characters combined with dramatic insight in a bid to develop a storyline interesting to the audience. The fact that an opera involves both drama and music indicates that the libretto must be created in a manner which offers the composer a chance to write melodies for different numbers (Wood, Caroline, and Graham Sadler, 161). This indicates that sufficient cooperation between the composer of the music and the librettist who writes the libretto or script is highly essential to the outcome of the opera.
Conclusion
The existence of the Baroque was characterized by a combination of all the above components leading to the production of successful pieces. This, therefore, indicates an interaction of all the components of the opera as the libretto offers an opportunity to compose music for the recitatives and arias which are presented as the chorus by the ensembles. The music also forms the overtures which are either introductory or interludes depending on the time when the instruments are heard. The soloist is responsible for presenting an attractive aria in a ternary form which releases the emotions of the opera with assistance from the ensemble.
Work cited
Wood, Caroline, and Graham Sadler. French Baroque Opera: A Reader. Aldershot [u.a.: Ashgate, 2000. Print.
Hoffer, Charles R. Music Listening Today. Boson, MA: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Buelow, George J. A History of Baroque Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. Print.
