The “invention” of opera is the historic achievement of the Florentine “Camarata”, a group of aristocrats, artists, and scholars who in about 1580 came together with the common interest in a “Renaissance” of the ancient drama. Their theoretical preoccupation with the Greek tragedy, inspired by neo-Platonic humanism and by courtly pastoral drama, gave rise to the idea of a musical-poetic-scene overall art form, in which music – as the stylized declamation of the acting persons and of the ancient commenting chorus – was entirely subordinate to the word. From this theoretical conception, from the outset already at odds with the allegedly over-refined polyphony, a theatrical-musical practice evolved. This again, after many preliminary forms of instrumentally accompanied solo song, resulted in a musical declamation concentrated rigorously on text declamation and text expression: the “stile recitativo”.
The librettist of the first Florentine operas, Ottavio Rinuccini, as a Camarata member the most energetic pioneer of the neo-ancient drama, reduced the flowery lyricism of courtly favola pastorale to a language capable of composition, and aimed at economic, elegant simplicity and at clear uncomplicated dramaturgy, where the grand materials of rediscovered ancient tradition are represented as images of basic human situations. His “Dafne” (1594, composed by Jacopo Peri and Marco da Gagliano) still bears the generic title of favola pastorale – in “Euridice” (1600, composed by Peri and Giulio Caccini) the “tragedia” already appears as the prologue person, while “Arianna” (1608, composed by Peri and Monteverdi) is an ancient-style tragedy. The Medici court, however, adapted the new dramatic genre to suit its own purposes by making it the focal point of representative court festivities: “Dafne” was performed 1597-1599 in the house of Jacopo Corsi, head of the Camarata, then in 1600 went to the Palazzo Pitti. “Euridice” had its premiere in the same palace for the wedding of Maria de Medici and Henry IV of France on 6th October, 1600.
The composer members of the Camarata – Peri, Caccini, Gagliano, and Emilio de’ Cavalieri, who was active in Florence only until 1600 – approached their new tasks as laid down by the aesthetics of the Camarata and by Rinuccini’s texts, in very different ways. The fact that Peri was the most radical amongst them and the actual protagonist of the stile recitative is shown by “Euridice”, his only completely preserved opera. It also shows, however, that Peri’s radicalism was not an excuse born of musical inability, but the expression of a consistent stylization: the score – annotated only with the singing parts and ground bass, thus leaving harmonious completion by ground bass instruments and participation of melodic instruments to improvisation and arrangement – unfolds all the essential aspects of the drama in soloist monadic style, while choruses and enclosed numbers are restricted to a minimum. However, this speech-song is anything but monotonous; on the contrary it draws from the retracing of moderate pathetic and enhanced expressive declamation an astonishing degree of differentiation: the dramatic and emotional climaxes, in which voice intonations are emphatically super-elevated, contrast all the more effectively with the basic attitude of recitation, hardly marked by any melody above static chords. In such moments simplicity and strength of expression have a truly ancient grandness and the unused freshness of something entirely new. Not only the historical significance but also, and above all, the liveliness of “Euridice” rest precisely in this simple grandness and strength of expression, and in the freshness of its media.
The librettist of the first Florentine operas, Ottavio Rinuccini, as a Camarata member the most energetic pioneer of the neo-ancient drama, reduced the flowery lyricism of courtly favola pastorale to a language capable of composition, and aimed at economic, elegant simplicity and at clear uncomplicated dramaturgy, where the grand materials of rediscovered ancient tradition are represented as images of basic human situations. His “Dafne” (1594, composed by Jacopo Peri and Marco da Gagliano) still bears the generic title of favola pastorale – in “Euridice” (1600, composed by Peri and Giulio Caccini) the “tragedia” already appears as the prologue person, while “Arianna” (1608, composed by Peri and Monteverdi) is an ancient-style tragedy. The Medici court, however, adapted the new dramatic genre to suit its own purposes by making it the focal point of representative court festivities: “Dafne” was performed 1597-1599 in the house of Jacopo Corsi, head of the Camarata, then in 1600 went to the Palazzo Pitti. “Euridice” had its premiere in the same palace for the wedding of Maria de Medici and Henry IV of France on 6th October, 1600.
The composer members of the Camarata – Peri, Caccini, Gagliano, and Emilio de’ Cavalieri, who was active in Florence only until 1600 – approached their new tasks as laid down by the aesthetics of the Camarata and by Rinuccini’s texts, in very different ways. The fact that Peri was the most radical amongst them and the actual protagonist of the stile recitative is shown by “Euridice”, his only completely preserved opera. It also shows, however, that Peri’s radicalism was not an excuse born of musical inability, but the expression of a consistent stylization: the score – annotated only with the singing parts and ground bass, thus leaving harmonious completion by ground bass instruments and participation of melodic instruments to improvisation and arrangement – unfolds all the essential aspects of the drama in soloist monadic style, while choruses and enclosed numbers are restricted to a minimum. However, this speech-song is anything but monotonous; on the contrary it draws from the retracing of moderate pathetic and enhanced expressive declamation an astonishing degree of differentiation: the dramatic and emotional climaxes, in which voice intonations are emphatically super-elevated, contrast all the more effectively with the basic attitude of recitation, hardly marked by any melody above static chords. In such moments simplicity and strength of expression have a truly ancient grandness and the unused freshness of something entirely new. Not only the historical significance but also, and above all, the liveliness of “Euridice” rest precisely in this simple grandness and strength of expression, and in the freshness of its media.
Ludwig Finscher
Nice post