Gluck the Reformer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GHTzc9TF5M

But who actually reformed the opera?
Distinguished conductors repeat the stereotype about Gluck.

Conductor's William Christie & John Eliot Gardiner feature in this documentary on the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck and the timely reforms to opera that they comprised.

[deutsche untertitel, sous-titres français, subtitles en espanol]

I find most extras on DVDs to be pointless and/or self-indulgent, this however I found reasonably interesting.

The forms of French and Italian opera contemporary with C. W. Gluck are discussed and his Operas "Echo et Narcisse", "Iphigénie en Tauride", "Orfeo ed Euridice", "Orphée et Euridice" and "Alceste" all feature.

Features:

William Christie Interview

Rodney Gilfry interview

Juliette Galstian interview

John Eliot Gardiner interview

Claus Guth interview

***

Comment:

But who actually reformed the opera?
Distinguished conductors repeat the stereotype about Gluck.

Kometar: 

Ali ko je zapravo reformisao operu?
Istaknuti dirigenti ponavljaju stereotip o Gluku.

Opera reform was performed by  Tommaso Traetta (1727 – 1779)

Ippolito i Aricia 1759. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOk0JBUiZyE&list=OLAK5uy_naO5mqiKy1TBoqntDQ8odwpFMv-4BoqYQ  
Sofonisba 1761. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqIHdJCWQnc

To judge from the general stylistic influence in terms of grand scenic effects, and from some specific musical borrowings, Traetta had access in Parma to copies and reports of Rameau's operas. To their influence, Traetta added some ingredients of his own, especially a feeling for dramatic colour, in the shape of his melodies and his use of the orchestra. The result was a combination of Italian, French and German elements, which even anticipate the Sturm und Drang movement that was to flourish a few years later, further North. The first fruit of this francophilia was the opera Traetta wrote in 1759. Ippolito ed Aricia owes a lot to Rameau's great tragédie lyrique of 1733, Hippolyte et Aricie. But Traetta's is no mere translation of Rameau. Thomas Arne treats the text Pietro Metastasio "Artaxerxes" (2 February 1762) similarly. Real modern opera (non-baroque), we hear the future of Mozart, Haydn ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6A-lIsLjhs&list=OLAK5uy_lavnq8XOELkcAyEESe8c-VyoEADPWEibg&index=1

Thomas Arne "Artaxerxes" 

Equipped with the highest degree of dramatic genius, full of vigor in the expression of passionate feelings, daring in the modulations and more inclined of the Italian musicians of his time to make use of the chromatic harmony of the German school, Traetta seems to have conceived theater music from the point of view from which Gluck arose a few years later, apart from the diversity in the melodic tendencies which are more evident in the works of the Italian composer. In the pathetic, Traetta sometimes reaches the sublime, as can be seen in the air of Semiramide which was inserted in the Methode de chant du conservatoire de Paris. Sometimes he forgot that the taste of his compatriots then rejected these energetic accents, and that they preferred pure melody to divide their attention between melody and harmony, but when he perceived in his audience the fatigue of this attention, during the first masses on stage, in which he sat at the harpsichord, he used to turn to the spectators saying: "Gentlemen, take care of this step", and the audience almost always applauded this naive expression of pride of the artist.

Ps. "take care of this step" overture Ippolito i Aricia 1759. Wolfganga Amadeusa Mozarta "Zauberflöte" The Magic Flute 1791. !

Reformu opere izveo je Tommaso Traetta (1727 - 1779) Ippolito i Aricia 1759. Sofonisba 1761.

Sudeći po opštem stilskom uticaju u pogledu grandioznih scenskih efekata i nekih specifičnih muzičkih pozajmica, Traetta je u Parmi imao pristup partiturama opera Ramoa. Traetta je dodao neke svoje sastojke, posebno osećaj za dramatičnu boju, u obliku svojih melodija i upotrebe orkestra. Rezultat je bila kombinacija italijanskih, francuskih i nemačkih elemenata, koji čak predviđaju pokret Sturm und Drang koji će procvetati nekoliko godina kasnije, dalje na severu. Prvi plod ove frankofilije bila je opera koju je Traetta napisao 1759. godine. Ippolito i Aricia puno duguje Rameauovoj velikoj lirskoj tragediji iz 1733. godine, Hippolite et Aricie. Ali Traetta nije puki prevod Rameau-a. Opremljen najvišim stepenom dramatične genijalnosti, prepun živahnosti u izražavanju strastvenih osećanja, odvažnosti u modulacijama i skloniji italijanskim muzičarima svog vremena da iskoriste hromatsku harmoniju nemačke škole, izgleda da je Traetta zamislio opersku muziku sa tačke gledišta iz koje je Gluck nastao nekoliko godina kasnije, osim raznolikosti melodičnih tendencija koje su vidljivije u delima italijanskog kompozitora. Patetično, Traetta ponekad doseže uzvišeno, što se može videti u vazduhu Semiramide koji je bio umetnut u parizki konzervatorij Methode de chant du. Ponekad je zaboravio da je ukus njegovih sunarodnika odbacio te energične akcente i da su više voleli da čista melodija podeli njihovu pažnju između melodije i harmonije, ali kada je u svojoj publici opazio umor te pažnje  svirajući čembalo, obraćao se gledaocima rekavši: "Gospodo, pazite na ovaj korak", a publika je gotovo uvek aplaudirala ovom naivnom izrazu ponosa umetnika.

Ps. "obratite pažnju" uvertira Ippolito i Aricia 1759. (uvodni taktovi) su se našli u Mocartovoj uvertiri za "Čarobnu frulu"!

Zoran Stokić

01. 06. 2020.