Opera part. Opera part Morphie

Opera role Morphy is a famous chess game played in 1858 between the American chess player Paul Morphy and two amateurs, Duke Charles of Brunswick (deposed in Brunswick in 1830 and since then living in Paris) and the French aristocrat Count Izouard, who played in consultation with each other . Morphy won the game in instructive fashion. The game is often used by chess teachers to demonstrate the importance of quickly developing one's own pieces, as well as for other lessons.

Story

The Duke often invited Morphy to the Teatro Italien Opera in Paris, where he had a private box that was so close to the stage that "anyone could kiss the prima donna without any problem", and where there was always a chessboard, as the Duke was equally a chess enthusiast and operas.

Morphy was very interested in music and opera. He was looking forward to the opera Norma, which was played on his first visit. The Duke had already seen "Norma" countless times and convinced Morphy to play chess, despite the fact that his back was to the stage.

During the game, the two allies conferred so loudly, discussing their moves against the American genius, that they attracted the attention of the opera singers. Singer Rozina Penko, who performed the role of the Druid priestess in the opera Norma, constantly looked into the Duke's box to understand what was happening there. According to Morphy's secretary F. Edge, the chorus of Druids calling fire and blood on the heads of their Roman enemies seemed to be addressed to those in the ducal box.

It is doubtful that the distracted opera singers could clearly see what was happening. But it's funny that Morphy played this brilliant role, trying to get a little glimpse of the opera, sitting with his back to the stage, while the performers were trying to get a little glimpse of what was happening in the Duke's box, behind Morphy's back.

Moves

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6

Whites prefer fast development material advantage. They give up winning a pawn by 8. Q:b7 Qb4+ ( the only way save the rook) 9. Q:b4, or even two pawns by 8. B:f7+ Kd8 (or 8. ... Q:f7 9. Q:b7 and black cannot avoid losing the rook) 9. Q:b7, preferring concentrate your strength to deliver a quick checkmate and return to the opera.

8. ... c6 9. Bg5 b5?

Although this supposedly drives away the bishop and seizes the initiative, Morphy retains the initiative with a spectacular knight sacrifice.

Black's move 9...b5 loses, but it's hard to find anything better; for example 9... Na6 10.B:f6 gf 11.B:a6 ba 12.Qa4 Qb7 and black is in an awkward position.

Another option requires White to play accurately 9... b6 10.0-0-0 Kbd7 11.Qa4 Qc5 12.Be3 b5 13.C:b5 cb 14.K:b5 Qc8 15.Qa5 and Black has a difficult choice - to lose the rook or lose castling, as Nc7+ threatens. On the 13th move, you can take the pawn with the knight 13.K:b5 cb 14.C:b5 Qc7 15.Rd3 Rd8 16.Rd1, continuing the attack on the king.

The option 9... Qc7 is also possible, getting rid of the pin and opening the way for the bishop. Then the threat b5 would be more effective, for example 10.0-0-0 b5 or 10.B:f6 gf 11.0-0-0 b5, but then White has a sharp move 12. Nd5. Although Black still brings out the bishop with check 12...Bh6+ 13.Kb1 cd 14.C:b5+, White's next move takes the key d5 pawn and continues the attack. To even out the game, Black literally lacks one tempo.

10. Nxb5!

Morphy prefers not to retreat with his bishop, which will give black time to develop.

10. ...cb?

Black could play 10...Qb4+, forcing Morphy to exchange queens, although White's position is clearly advantageous.

11. B:b5+ Nbd7 12. 0-0-0

The peculiarities of the position in the form of a knight tied by the bishop and an open file for the white rook will lead Black to defeat.

12...Rd8(diagram) 13. R:d7 R:d7

Destroying another defender.

14. Rd1

Compare the activity of the white pieces with the inaction of the black ones. In this position, the black rook can no longer be saved, because it is pinned by the bishop and attacked by the rook, and although the knight protects it, it itself covers the queen, so White can gain a material advantage right now.

14...Qe6

This is a useless attempt to untie the knight, allowing him to fully defend the rook, and a proposal to exchange queens in order to reduce the pressure of White's attack. If Morphy had not played his next decisive move, he could have traded the bishop for a knight and taken the rook.

15. B:d7+ N:d7

If... Q:d7, then 16. Qb8+ Ke7 17. Q:e5+ Kd8 18. B:f6+ gf 19. Q:f6+ Kc8 20. R:d7 K:d7 21. Q:h8 and White wins. If the king moves, then this leads to checkmate: 15... Kd8 16. Qb8+ Ke7 17. Qe8× or 15... Ke7 16. Qb4+ Qd6 (if 16... Kd8, then see above) 17. Q:d6+ Kd8 18. Qb8+ Ke7 19. Qe8×

16. Qb8+!

Morphy ends the game with an elegant queen sacrifice.

16. ... N:b8 17. Rd8×

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Literature

• The Exploits & Triumphs in Europe of Paul Morphy the Chess Champion by Frederick Milne Edge, with a new introduction by David Lawson. Dover 1973; 203 pages. ISBN 0-486-22882-7
• Learn Chess In A Weekend by Ken Whyld, (1994) p. 87. ISBN 0-7513-0292-9

Links

• Edward Winter
• (in French), variations of the game's final in other chessproblems and games, 2 July 2008

An excerpt characterizing the operatic role of Morphy

Kutuzov, like all old people, slept little at night. He often dozed off unexpectedly during the day; but at night, without undressing, lying on his bed, he mostly did not sleep and thought.
So he lay now on his bed, leaning his heavy, large, disfigured head on his plump arm, and thought, with one eye open, peering into the darkness.
Since Bennigsen, who corresponded with the sovereign and had the most power in the headquarters, avoided him, Kutuzov was calmer in the sense that he and his troops would not be forced to again participate in useless offensive actions. The lesson of the Tarutino battle and its eve, painfully memorable for Kutuzov, should also have had an effect, he thought.
“They must understand that we can only lose by acting offensively. Patience and time, these are my heroes!” – thought Kutuzov. He knew not to pick an apple while it was green. It will fall on its own when it is ripe, but if you pick it green, you will spoil the apple and the tree, and you will set your teeth on edge. He, as an experienced hunter, knew that the animal was wounded, wounded as only the entire Russian force could wound, but whether it was fatal or not was a question that had not yet been clarified. Now, according to the dispatches of Lauriston and Berthelemy and according to the reports of the partisans, Kutuzov almost knew that he was mortally wounded. But more evidence was needed, we had to wait.
“They want to run and see how they killed him. Wait and see. All maneuvers, all attacks! - he thought. - For what? Everyone will excel. There's definitely something fun about fighting. They are like children from whom you can’t get any sense, as was the case, because everyone wants to prove how they can fight. That's not the point now.
And what skillful maneuvers all these offer me! It seems to them that when they invented two or three accidents (he remembered in general terms from St. Petersburg), they invented them all. And they all have no number!”
The unresolved question of whether the wound inflicted in Borodino was fatal or not fatal had been hanging over Kutuzov’s head for a whole month. On the one hand, the French occupied Moscow. On the other hand, undoubtedly with his whole being Kutuzov felt that that terrible blow, in which he, together with all the Russian people, strained all his strength, should have been fatal. But in any case, proof was needed, and he had been waiting for it for a month, and the more time passed, the more impatient he became. Lying on his bed on his sleepless nights, he did the very thing that these young generals did, the very thing for which he reproached them. He came up with all possible contingencies in which this certain, already accomplished death of Napoleon would be expressed. He came up with these contingencies in the same way as young people, but with the only difference that he did not base anything on these assumptions and that he saw not two or three, but thousands. The further he thought, the more of them appeared. He came up with all kinds of movements of the Napoleonic army, all or parts of it - towards St. Petersburg, against it, bypassing it, he came up with (which he was most afraid of) and the chance that Napoleon would fight against him with his own weapons, that he would remain in Moscow , waiting for him. Kutuzov even dreamed up the movement of Napoleon’s army back to Medyn and Yukhnov, but one thing he could not foresee was what happened, that crazy, convulsive rushing of Napoleon’s army during the first eleven days of his speech from Moscow - the throwing that made it possible something that Kutuzov still did not dare to think about even then: the complete extermination of the French. Dorokhov's reports about Broussier's division, news from the partisans about the disasters of Napoleon's army, rumors about preparations for departure from Moscow - everything confirmed the assumption that the French army was defeated and was about to flee; but these were only assumptions that seemed important to young people, but not to Kutuzov. With his sixty years of experience, he knew what weight should be attributed to rumors, he knew how capable people who want something are of grouping all the news so that they seem to confirm what they want, and he knew how in this case they willingly miss everything that contradicts. And the more Kutuzov wanted this, the less he allowed himself to believe it. This question occupied all his mental strength. Everything else was for him just the usual fulfillment of life. Such habitual fulfillment and subordination of life were his conversations with staff, letters to m me Stael, which he wrote from Tarutin, reading novels, distributing awards, correspondence with St. Petersburg, etc. n. But the death of the French, foreseen by him alone, was his spiritual, only desire.

Italian opera singer was born on October 28, 1798. She had an amazing voice range: from high soprano to contralto, with a range of 2.5 octaves. We decided to figure out how opera voices differ from each other.

Giudita Pasta. Reproduction from a portrait

Soprano

The highest female voice, usually the first and second octaves are subject to it. Moreover, the second one is often not completely. There are different sopranos: there is coloratura (bearers of such a voice easily make complex passages in the entire second octave and even reach the middle of the third), dramatic (a dense, heavy voice that easily takes notes up to the middle of the second octave), lyrical (soft, soulful, tender , silver on high notes).

Parts for soprano are among the most common. The main heroines of the operas are young girls and young women with certain life experiences. The most striking examples: the role of Tatiana from P. I. Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” (lyrical), The Snow Maiden from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera of the same name (coloratura), Lisa from Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” (dramatic).

One of the best soprano singers in the world - Anna Netrebko.

The Snow Maiden’s aria “Walking for berries with friends” from the opera by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. Performs

Mezzo-soprano

A beautiful velvety, rich voice. The operating range is from the middle of the small octave to the middle of the second (of course, not in all cases). Singers with such a voice often perform parts for contralto and can also replace soprano. The parts for mezzo-soprano are passionate, rich, and sometimes somewhat ponderous, which in no way detracts from their beauty. Mezzo is divided into three subtypes, like soprano: coloratura, lyric and dramatic.

Famous roles: Amneris in “Aida” by G. Verdi, Carmen in Bizet’s opera, Marina Mnishek from “Boris Godunov” by M. P. Mussorgsky.

One of the most striking Russian examples of mezzo-soprano is Elena Obraztsova, for many years the former prima singer of the Bolshoi Theater.

Habanera from the opera “Carmen” by J. Bizet. Performed by Svetlana Lanskaya

Contralto

The rarest and deepest female voice. Unfortunately, even in large theaters there is not always a contralto singer. Such singers work in a low chest register, in the range from F of the small octave to the first notes of the second octave. It is the low notes that are most beautiful when performed by a contralto; the upper ones sound short and tense. In operas, the parts of boys and young men are often written for contralto. For example, Orpheus from the opera “Orpheus and Eurydice” by K. V. Gluck, Lel from “The Snow Maiden” by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, but there are also female characters, of course: Olga from “Eugene Onegin” by P. I. Tchaikovsky.

Unfortunately, contralto singers are rare and not very well known. But as an example, we can recall the voices of pop singers: Tina Turner, Sofia Rotaru, Edita Piekha.

Olga's scene and aria from the opera “Eugene Onegin” by P. I. Tchaikovsky. Performed by Tamara Sinyavskaya

Countertenor

A very rare voice. The highest of male operatic voices, ranging from the beginning of the small octave to (sometimes) the end of the second. The art of such singing was revived in the middle of the 20th century. And as a rule, countertenor singers perform parts written for castrati singers in the Baroque era (boys were subjected to castration surgery before their voices broke and they reached puberty, due to which their voices remained high, and they performed female parts in operas, and initially in sacred works, in choirs).

Examples of such roles can be cited both from baroque and modern opera; now the countertenor is becoming more and more popular, although it has not yet lost its exoticism, which shocks the audience. You can listen to Handel’s opera “Julius Caesar,” where the title role is written for a countertenor, or you can listen to the opera “Zurich 1916” by Christopher Butterfield, where V. I. Lenin sings as a countertenor.

Tenor

Male high singing voice. Its range is from the beginning of the minor to the beginning of the second octave. The ability to play the top notes is especially valued. If the highs are weak, then such a tenor is unlikely to become a famous soloist. Like female voices, like sopranos, tenors are divided into lyric and dramatic voices. There is also an altino tenor, which is distinguished by particularly high and sonorous notes.

There are a lot of famous and beautiful tenors. For example, Luciano Pavarotti(lyric tenor) or Placido Domingo(lyric-dramatic tenor).

A lot of parts have been written for tenors. Often the main character in Italian operas sings as a tenor. The Duke in Verdi's opera "Rigoletto", Faust in Gounod's opera of the same name, from the Russians: Lensky in "Eugene Onegin", Don Juan in Dargomyzhsky's "The Stone Guest".

The Duke's song from G. Verdi's opera “Rigoletto”. Performed by Alexander Bogdanov

Baritone

Average male voice, range from A major octave to the middle of the first octave. This voice is strong, rich, velvety, it can be softer and more mobile, it can be close to a tenor, in which case it is called a tenor-baritone. If a baritone is stronger on low notes, but has fairly free upper notes, then it is more of a bass-baritone. Like other voices, there are also lyrical and dramatic varieties of this voice.

Perhaps the most famous baritone in the world - Dmitry Hvorostovsky, in Moscow it makes sense to listen Vasily Ladyuka from the New Opera.

There are a lot of parts for baritone; composers often entrust them with the most important characters in the work. For example, written for baritone Mozart's Don Juan, Mizgir in The Snow Maiden, Tchaikovsky's Mazepa.

Aria of Georges Germont from the opera La Traviata by G. Verdi, performed by Vasily Ladyuk

Bass

Low, deep, strong, bewitching voice. The range can range from E-F of the major octave to F-sharp of the first octave. Bass varies both in pitch and timbre. There is a high bass cantanto, and the lowest bass is profundo; it can be used in choirs even up to the counteroctave. In terms of timbre, along with the deep profundo bass, comic bass and bass buffo are also distinguished.

The bass is an extremely expressive and rich voice; unfortunately, there are not many singers, as well as parts. The roles of Bartolo in “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini, Kochubey from “Mazepa” by Tchaikovsky, and Ruslan in M. Glinka’s opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” were written for bass.

Mephistopheles' aria from the opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod, performed by Fyodor Chaliapin

Other varieties are coloratura soprano, dramatic tenor, bass-baritone, bass buffo, bass profundo. There is a category of male singers who sing in the range of the female voice. This type of voice is rare, but is still used mainly in opera. In Baroque music, many roles were written for castrati - male singers who, as boys, underwent castration surgery to preserve a high, female-like voice. In modern vocal performance, these roles can be performed by a singer who has a developed falsetto singing technique. Singers of this type are called countertenors (aka male alto).

Soprano(Italian soprano from sopra - above, beyond) - a high female voice. Operating range: up to the first octave - up to the third octave.

In the Russian musical tradition, the following classification of varieties of soprano voice is accepted:

* coloratura soprano

* lyric coloratura soprano

* lyric soprano

* lyric-dramatic soprano

* dramatic soprano

Classical operatic soprano roles

* Bellini: Imogene (“Somnabula”, “Pirate”) Norma (“Norma”)

* Bizet: Michaela (“Carmen”)

* Borodin: Yaroslavna (“Prince Igor”)

* Wagner: Isolde (“Tristan und Isolde”), Sieglinde and Brünnhilde (“Walkyrie”)

* Verdi: Gilda (Rigoletto), Violetta (La Traviata), Aida (Aida), Desdemona (Othello)

* Glinka: Antonida (“Ivan Susanin”, aka “Life for the Tsar”), Lyudmila (“Ruslan and Lyudmila”)

* Gounod: Marguerite (Faust), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

* Dargomyzhsky: Natasha (“Rusalka”)

* Donizetti: Anne Boleyn (“Anne Boleyn”), Lucia (“Lucia di Lammermoor”), Mary Stuart (“Mary Stuart”)

* Mozart: Susanna (“The Marriage of Figaro”), Zerlina (“Don Giovanni”), Amina, Queen of the Night (“The Magic Flute”), Despina (“That’s What All Women Do”)

* Prokofiev: Natasha Rostova (“War and Peace”)

* Puccini: Manon (“Manon Lescaut”), Mimi (“La Bohème”), Tosca (“Tosca”), Cio-chio-san (“Madama Butterfly”), Turandot (“Turandot”)

* Rimsky-Korsakov: Snegurochka (“The Snow Maiden”), Volkhova (“Sadko”), The Swan Princess (“The Tale of Tsar Saltan”), Fevronia (“The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh”), Queen of Shemakha (“The Golden Cockerel”) , Martha (“The Tsar’s Bride”)

* Rubinstein: Tamara (“Demon”)

* Tchaikovsky: Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Lisa (The Queen of Spades), Iolanta (Iolanta).

* Chilea: Andrienne Lecouvreur Andrienne Lecouvreur

* R. Strauss: Salome (“Salome”), Electra (“Electra”).

Outstanding soprano singers

* Montserrat Caballe

* Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya

* Astrid Varnay

* Leonie Rizanek

* Kirsten Flagstad

* Birgit Nilsson

* Zinka Milanova

* Martha Mödl

* Renata Tebaldi

* Maria Callas

* Magda Olivero

* Joan Sutherland

* Adelina Patti

* Leontyne Price

* Mirella Freni

* Lara Fabian ( Lara Fabian)

Alto(Italian alto, French hautecontre; from Latin altus - high) - originally called the voice that was higher than the tenor (performing the main melody: cantus formus, otherwise falsetto. Later it denotes a low voice in women and boys. Alto clef is called o key "before".

Contralto(Italian contralto) - the lowest female voice with a deep chesty velvety timbre. Working range: E of the small octave - F of the second octave. In opera, composers often wrote parts for teenage boys and young men for contralto.

Classical operatic contralto parts

* A. P. Borodin: Konchakovna (“Prince Igor”)

* M. I. Glinka: Vanya (“Ivan Susanin”, aka “Life for the Tsar”), Ratmir (“Ruslan and Lyudmila”)

* C. Gounod: Siebel (“Faust”)

* N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov: Nezhata (“Sadko”), Lel (“Snow Maiden”)

* P. I. Tchaikovsky: Olga (“Eugene Onegin”), Countess (“Queen of Spades”)

Contralto parts in operas

*Angelina, La Cenerentola (Rossini)*

* Art Banker, Facing Goya (Michael Nyman)

*Auntie, landlady of The Boar, Peter Grimes (Britten)*

* Azucena, Il Trovatore (Verdi)*

* The Baroness, Vanessa (Barber)

* La Cieca, La Gioconda (Ponchielli)

* Erda, Das Rheingold, Siegfried (Wagner)

* Madame Flora, The Medium (Gian-Carlo Menotti)

* Katisha, The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan)

* Clytemnestra, Elektra (Strauss)*

* Maddalena, Rigoletto (Verdi)*

* Mama Lucia, Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni)

*Malcolm, La donna del lago (Rossini)*

* Margret, Wozzeck (Berg)

* Mary, Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner)

*Erda, Das Rheingold/Siegfried (Wagner)*

* Mother Goose, The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky)

* Olga, Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)*

* Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) - trouser role

* Lel, “The Snow Maiden” (N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov)

* Nezhata, “Sadko” (N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov)

*Little Buttercup, H.M.S. Pinafore (Gilbert and Sullivan)

* Didone, Egisto (Cavalli)

* Pauline, The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)

* La Principessa, Suor Angelica (Puccini)

*Rosina, The Barber of Seville (Rossini)*

* Ruth The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert and Sullivan)

* Ulrica, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)

*Widow Begbick, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Kurt Weill)*

*Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd (Sondheim)*

*: Indicates a role that can also be performed by a mezzo-soprano.

	EUGENE ONEGIN
	ZHADAN IVAN DANILOVYCH
	IVAN SUSANIN IOLANTA
	NETREBKO ANNA
	OBRAZTSOVA ELENA OTHELLO
	CLOWNS Queen of Spades
	SADKO THE WEDDING OF FIGARO THE BARBER OF SEVILLE
	TEBALDI RENATA TRAVIATA
	KHOVANSHCHINA
	THE ROYAL BRIDE

AUTOPHONY (from the Greek autos - itself and phone - sound) - the singer’s hearing of his own voice; The performer perceives his own voice not only through the air, but also through the tissues of the head, which introduces significant distortions into the sound of the voice. Therefore, a singer who hears his voice for the first time in a sound recording, as a rule, does not recognize it by its timbre.

A CAPELLA (acapella singing) (Italian a cappella, “as in a chapel”) - polyphonic choral singing without instrumental accompaniment.

ACCENT (lat. accentus - emphasis) - highlighting, emphasizing a sound or chord: dynamic, rhythmic, timbre; in the wok. music also emphasizes the most significant word or syllable when pronouncing a text.

ALT (from Latin Alto-high) - a low female singing voice, as well as a low children's voice.

ARIETTA (Italian arietta - small aria, breeze) is a small aria in opera, as well as a small piece for any song instrument.

ARIOSO (Italian: arioso - like an aria) is a small aria of free construction.

ARIA (Italian Aria - song, air, wind) is a completed episode in an opera (cantata, oratorio), performed by a singer accompanied by an orchestra, in which the hero (soloist) conveys deep personal experiences.

ARTICULATORY APPARATUS - a system of organs, thanks to the work of which speech sounds are formed. These include: vocal folds, tongue, lips, soft palate, pharynx, lower jaw (active organs); teeth, hard palate, upper jaw (passive organs).

ARTICULATION - the work of the speech organs necessary to pronounce speech sounds.

ATTACK (Italian attaccare - to attack) - in singing - the beginning of sound. The attack can be hard (in which the vocal cords close tightly before the start of exhalation), soft (the cords close less tightly, with the start of exhalation), and aspirated (the cords close loosely, after the start of exhalation). Depending on the text (the sound that begins the word), on the stroke, and also for expressive purposes, different types of attack are used. In exercises, most vocalists prefer a soft attack, but for pedagogical purposes both hard (for example, with sluggish singing) and aspirated (with the so-called “closing” of ligaments, with a “throat” sound) are used.

BARITONE (Greek - heavy-sounding) - a man of medium height. voice; A-flat (G) range is large. Oct. - A-flat 1st Oct.; transitional registers. note D-sharp (D) 1st Oct.

BAS (Italian basso - low) - the lowest husband. voice; the fa range is large. Oct. - F 1st Oct., transitional register note C-sharp (C) 1st Oct.

FLUENCY is a technique of singing in fast motion.

WHITE SOUND is a term common in vocal practice to designate the so-called open sound of the voice. In the academic style of singing, such a sound is not allowed. White sound is used in classical singing as an expressive means.

BEL CANTO - (Italian belcanto - beautiful singing) - a style of singing that developed in Italy by the middle of the 17th century. and dominated until the 1st half of the 19th century. (bel canto era). IN modern understanding- emotionally rich, beautiful, melodious, sonorous vocal performance.

BLUES (English blues from blue devils) is a musical form and musical genre that originated in the late 19th century in the African-American community of the Southeastern United States.

VOCALISE - (Latin vocalis - vowel) - a piece of music for voice without text, written with the aim of developing certain vocal and technical skills or for concert performance.

VOCALIZATION - (from Italian vocalizzazione) - playing a melody on vowel sounds or singing individual syllables of a word.

VOCAL HEARING - a specific complex perception of sound through the muscular sense of sound along with other sensations accompanying singing (vibration, sensations of subglottic pressure, “column” of air).

VIBRATO, vibration (Italian vibrato, Latin vibratio - vibration) - periodic change in sound in pitch, strength and timbre. A distinction is made between the speed of vibration (the frequency of alternating periods per second) and its range (the degree of extreme deviations of sound). The speed of Vibration in 6-7 periods enriches the timbre of the sound, gives it emotionality and dynamism, and is an indispensable sign of a good singing voice. With a higher Vibrato speed, tremolation (“lamb”) appears in the voice; at a lower speed, accompanied by a larger swing, there is instability of intonation, “swinging” of the sound. To correct the shortcomings of Vibration, the following techniques are useful: a) exercises with melodic movement, b) exercises in quiet singing (as the sound increases, the scope of Vibrato increases, so it is more difficult to build a choir on forte), c) exercises in closed vowels (o, u), and also singing with your mouth closed.

VILLANELLA (Italian - village song) - Italian. song of the 15th-16th centuries, mainly 3-voice, with parallel. movement of voices, lively character, lyrical or humorous content.

SOUND PITCH is a property of musical sound that depends on the vibration frequency of the sounding body; in acoustics it is measured in hertz (the number of vibrations per second). IN musical performance distinguish between absolute height (tuning instruments and singers according to the standard of height - the tuning fork) and relative height, determined by the interval relationship of musical sounds.

GAMMA is a progressive sequence of sounds of a particular mode. Each scale is based on the first degree - the tonic, from which the name comes: scale C major, D minor, etc. Scales are commonly used to practice playing an instrument or singing.

VOICE HYGIENE - compliance by the singer with certain rules of behavior, singing regime. Before singing, you should not eat anything that irritates the throat: spicy, salty, hot, cold, seeds, nuts. Cold, heat, dust, as well as tobacco and especially beer and alcoholic drinks have a harmful effect on the vocal apparatus. Food should be taken no later than 2 hours before singing. In the cold season, when coming from the street, you need to warm up before singing, and when leaving after singing, you need to cool down first. In the morning it is useful to gargle with room water. Excessive talking tires the voice, so during choir classes every minute not spent singing should be used for rest. Forced (shouty) singing and loud speech, abuse of uncomfortable (high, low) tessitura, and performance of an overly complex repertoire weaken the voice. General fatigue and nervous shock have a negative effect on the voice. Women should not sing during monthly ill health (3 days); violation of this rule leads to unclean intonation and can cause disease of the vocal cords. In case of diseases of the vocal apparatus as a result of overwork, the singer’s presence in classes is also harmful, since under these conditions he is not at rest. In the process of learning to sing, one should be gradual in overcoming technical difficulties and alternate classes with rest. Works with high tessitura must be transposed downwards when learning and repeating them many times. Strengthening health, hardening the body against colds, proper organization of nutrition and rest increase vitality and have a positive effect on the voice; in turn, a good sounding voice has a beneficial effect on the singer’s well-being. To monitor the condition of the vocal apparatus, it is necessary to periodically conduct phoniatric examinations; Every singer should know the basic rules of singing hygiene.

HYMN (Greek hymnos) is a solemn, laudatory song. There are state, revolutionary, in honor of some event, religious, etc. State G., being musical. emblem of the state, are available in all countries.

SINGING VOICE - a set of singing sounds produced using the vocal apparatus. The singing sound is characterized by definiteness of pitch, clarity of vowels, greater or lesser length. The ability to sing is also called the singing voice (they talk, for example, about “voice production”); Sometimes the voice refers to the vocal apparatus (“voice protection”). Most people have the makings of a singing voice, but good voices are quite rare (M. I. Glinka defined a good voice as “faithful, sonorous, pleasant”). One of the best ways to help develop the voice (and the associated ear for music) is singing.

VOICE APPARATUS - organ of voice functioning, consisting of traces. parts: a) the larynx with vocal cords (two muscle folds) - the place of origin of sound; b) respiratory apparatus - nasal and oral cavities, nasopharynx, larynx, respiratory tract. throat-trachea, lungs; muscles that control breathing (diaphragm, inspiratory and expiratory muscles); c) resonators that enhance and color the chanter that occurs during the interaction of ligaments and breathing. sound (see Timbre); d) articulatory apparatus that forms vowels and consonants: lower. jaw, lips, tongue, soft palate. In the process of singing, all parts of the Voice Apparatus, controlled by the brain, act simultaneously and interconnectedly.

THROAT SOUND - a specific sound of the voice, resulting from the fact that the vocal folds work in the “overlapping” mode, i.e. during the process of oscillation, the phase of their closed state prevails over the open one, and the larynx itself is tense.

GLISSANDO (Italian glissando from the French glisser - to slide) is a musical term, a stroke, meaning a smooth slide from one sound to another; gives a coloristic effect. Glissando involves a smooth transition from one sound to another through all the sounds lying between them that can be played on a given instrument. In some cases, glissando differs from continuous portamento.

RANGE (from the Greek dia pason (chordon) - through all the strings) - the sound volume of the voice (instrument) from the lowest to the highest sound. The vocal range of a soloist (professional) must be at least 2 octaves, which allows him to perform leading opera roles and chamber repertoire. The requirements for the range of a professional choir singer are the same, significantly lower for a member of an amateur choir, where there is a lack of good high or low sounds one singer is compensated at the expense of the other. The range of singers in amateur choirs rarely exceeds the volume of the so-called working (most commonly used) range - one and a half octaves. When learning to sing, the range, as a rule, expands (in both directions), but it is necessary to ensure that the singer does not lose a good natural timbre.

DICTION (lat. dictio - pronunciation of speech) - clarity, legibility of text pronunciation. Good Diction is an indispensable condition for vocal, including choral performance; in a choir depends on the quality of pronunciation of each singer and on the uniformity and simultaneity of pronunciation by the entire choral part. Clear pronunciation of consonants is especially important. For clarity of diction, meaningful pronunciation and singing by heart are also important (the famous expression of vocalists: “The sound follows the sight”). Diction must correspond to the nature of the work.

JAZZ is a type of music that developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of the fusion of European and African musical cultures (initially among blacks in the USA). The characteristic features of jazz are improvisation, rhythmic sophistication, and increased emotionality of performance.

DETONATION (from the French detonner - to sing out of tune) - singing with a low, or less often with an increased intonation.

DYNAMICS (Greek dynamis - strength) - a set of phenomena associated with volume - the strength of sound.

DISTONATION (Greek dis - negative prefix "not", tonos - tone, tension, stress) is a term that sometimes refers to false intonation in the direction of increasing.

BREATH (singing) one of the main factors in voice formation, the energy source of the voice, the most important element singing process; to some extent subordinated to the will of the singer (choice of the type of breathing, holding the breath before the sound attack, dosage of inhalation and exhalation). In modern vocal technique mixed or lower costal-diaphragmatic (thoraco-abdominal, costo-abdominal) breathing is adopted, when with a deep inhalation the lower ribs move apart, the diaphragm lowers (as a result of which the abdominal wall protrudes); shoulders and top part breasts are motionless. When exhaling, active inhibition of the diaphragm occurs, the ribs and abdominal wall gradually return to their original position (“singing on a support”). With incorrect, clavicular breathing, the chest and shoulders rise; Due to the overfilling of the lungs with air and its excessive pressure on the vocal cords, forcing, swinging of the sound, and unclean intonation occur. Since the types of breathing can vary somewhat and are related to other components of sound production, the main indicator of correct breathing should be the quality of the singing sound. Inhalation when singing is done quickly, silently, through the nose or through the mouth at the same time. The volume and nature of inhalation depend on the length, dynamics, nature of the musical phrase, and tempo. Exhalation from inhalation is separated by a greater or lesser pause—breath holding, the purpose of which is to activate and organize the vocal apparatus. Exhalation should be economical, without “leakage” of breath (causing noise); the air taken is used only to reproduce the supported sound. The choir uses simultaneous and so-called chain breathing. Teaching singers proper singing breathing is an important part of vocal work in a choir. The conductor's gesture has a direct impact on the singers' breathing.

CLOSED SOUND - the sound produced when singing with a closed mouth.

SOLO - the beginning of a song, performed by one or more singers (leaders), after which the choir enters; usually (in folk songs) the first phrase or part of the melody, sometimes the first half of the verse.

SOUND STUDY is a term denoting various types of voice guidance based on the sounds of a melody (for example, cantilena, portamento, marcato, etc.).

SOUND PRODUCTION (phonation, from the Greek phone - sound) - the extraction of singing and speech sound, the result of the action of the vocal apparatus. The singing sound, arising as a result of vibrations of the vocal cords, is amplified and enriched in timbre thanks to resonators.

IMPEDANCE (from Latin impeditio - obstacle) is the reverse acoustic resistance experienced by the vocal folds from the oropharyngeal canal.

INTERPRETATION - interpretation of a piece of music in creative process execution (from Latin interpretatio - explanation, interpretation). Unlike other types of arts, music certainly needs a performer, an interpreter of the musical text.

INTONATION (from Latin intono - I pronounce it loudly) - 1) Incarnation artistic image V musical sounds. 2) A small, relatively independent melodic turn. 3) Accurate reproduction of pitch during musical performance.

YODL (German: Jodel) is a genre of folk songs among the Alpine mountaineers (in Austria, Southern Bavaria and Switzerland). The performance is characterized by a sharp change in the head (falsetto) and chest sound without a mix at wide intervals and the sounds of a decomposed chord.

CAVATINA -opera aria, characterized by a simple song structure.

CHAMBER SINGING (from Latin camera - room) - performance of chamber vocal music. Vocal chamber music(in the genres of song, romance, ensemble) from the end of the 18th century. and especially in the 19th century. took a prominent place in the art of music. Gradually, a chamber performing style corresponding to the genre emerged, based on the maximum identification of intonation and semantic details of the music. Chamber singing has great potential for conveying the finest lyrical emotions. It requires the performer to have high musical and general culture, a flexible, nuanced voice that does not necessarily have to be powerful.

CANTILENA - (lat. cantilena - singing) 1) Melodious, coherent performance of a melody, the main type of sound engineering, built on the legato technique. 2) A melodious melody, vocal or instrumental.

CANON (Greek canon - norm, rule) - polyphonic. music form, basic on a strict continuous simulation, in which. the voices repeat the melody of the leading voice, entering before the previous one ends. The melody that sounds from the very beginning of the canon is called proposta, and the voices that enter later are called rispostas.

CANTATA (Italian cantare - to sing) - prod. for solo singers, choir and orchestra, solemn or lyrical-epic. character. Concerts can be choral (without soloists), chamber (without choir), with accompaniment. or without it...

COMPRIMARIO - an opera singer who performs minor roles.

CLIMAX - an episode of a musical work where the highest tension, intensity of feelings and, most often, the greatest strength of sound are achieved.

MASK is a term for vocal practice that means the sensation of vibrations in the upper part of the face that occurs during singing as a result of resonance of the nasal and paranasal cavities.

MEDIUM - (from Latin medius - middle) a term used in vocal pedagogy to designate the middle part of the range of female voices.

MELISM - (from the Greek melisma - song, melody) 1) Melodic passages (coloraturas, roulades, passages and other vocal embellishments) and entire melodies performed on one syllable of the text (hence the expression “melismatic singing”). 2) Melodic decorations in vocal and instrumental music (foreshlag, mordent, gruppetto, trill).

MELODECLAMATION - (from Greek melos - melody and from Latin declamation - recitation) - artistic reading poetry or prose against the background of musical accompaniment, as well as works based on such a combination of text and music.

MELODY - (Greek melodia - singing, song, melody) - music. a thought expressed in one voice. M. is the main expressive means of music, in which the muses are united. elements: pitch and rhythmic relationships of sounds, timbre, dynamics, articulation.

METER (Greek metron - measure) - sequential alternation of strong and weak beats (pulsations) in rhythmic movement. The strong beat forms a metrical accent, with the help of which the muses. the piece is divided into measures.

METRONOME (Greek metron - measure, nomos - law) - a device for determining tempo; improved by I. N. Meltsel (1816), hence sometimes the designation (M. M. - Meltsel's metronome).

MEZZA VOCE - (Italian mezza voce - in an undertone) - singing in the dynamics of a mezza piano, preserving all the qualities of supported mixed sound production, but with a predominance of falsetto work of the vocal folds.

Mezzo-Soprano (Italian mezzo - average) - average female. voice. The A range is small. Oct. - la² (rarely higher). There are high (lyrical) M.-s., whose sound character is close to soprano, and low, which is close to contralto.

MIXT - (from Latin mixtus - mixed) - a register of a singing voice in which the chest and head resonances are mixed.

FAMILY - movements of the facial muscles as an expression of mentality. states. M. plays a significant role in the color (timbre) of the singing sound (the expression of the French teacher-vocalist F. Delsarte is known: “Timbre is rooted in facial expressions, and facial expressions are rooted in the psyche”).

MONODY (Greek monodia - song of one) - single-voice or group singing in unison or octave.

MALE CHOIR - a choir consisting of men. voices: tenors (sometimes altino tenors), baritones, basses (including octavists). Thanks to the range of up to 3 octaves or more, M. x. has significant performing abilities.

MUTATION - (from lat. mutation - change, change) - transition child's voice in the voice of an adult.

HUNT - a small vocal melody.

FOLK MANNER OF SINGING - a style of singing characterized by a sharp separation of registers and greater openness of sound.

Nasal overtone - an overtone that occurs in the timbre of the voice when the soft palate is lowered, when part sound waves directly enters the nasal cavity.

OVERTONES (from German Obertone - upper tones) - harmonic consonances, partial tones, overtones that are part of the fundamental tone, arising from vibrations of parts of the sounding body (strings, column of air). Overtones are always higher than the fundamental tone. The frequency of vibrations is an integer number of times (2, 3, 4, etc.) greater than the frequency of vibrations of the fundamental tone; for example, 1/2 of the sounding string (twice the number of vibrations) gives an octave from the fundamental tone (denoted by the number 2), 1/3 of the string - a fifth through the octave (denoted by 3), 1/4 - the 2nd octave and a quart from the 3rd O., 1/5 part - a third through 2 octaves, etc. The sequence of overtones in ascending order forms the so-called natural scale ("overtone series"), expressed by a series of numbers (starting from one - the fundamental tone) . Overtones sound much weaker than the main tone, but with different volumes, forming one or another timbre of the voice or instrument. The predominance of low overtones gives the sound fullness and softness, while the upper ones give it sonority and sharpness. The natural scale provides a physical basis for many musical phenomena (intervals, major triads, consonance, etc.).

OPORA is a term used in vocal art to characterize a stable, correctly formed singing sound (“supported sound”) and manner of voice formation (“singing on a support”).

ORTHOEPIA (from the Greek orthos - correct, epos - speech) - the correct literary pronunciation of the text.

OPEN SOUND - transferring the speech sound of vowels into singing. Used in folk singing.

Score (Italian partitura - division, distribution) - musical notation of ensemble music in which. the parts of all voices have been combined (instrumental). There is a more or less constant order of arrangement of parties (votes) in the P.

SINGING INSTALLATION - the position that the singer must take before starting phonation (sound production). Singing position in a standing position: straight, collected position of the body (not loose, but not “extended”); equal support on both legs; arms are freely lowered to the sides or connected with hands in front of the chest or behind the back; the chest is turned out, the shoulders are slightly pulled back; The head is held straight, not tense. When sitting, the same position of the body and head is maintained; your legs are placed at a right angle (you cannot tuck them under you or sit with your legs crossed, as this interferes with proper breathing). It is very important to train singers to adopt the singing attitude at the right time, as this helps them acquire proper singing skills.

SINGING SENSATIONS - sensations that help the singer control his voice formation.

TRANSITIONAL SOUNDS - sounds that lie on the border of the natural registers of the voice.

SONG is the most common wok genre. music, combining a poetic image with a musical one. Characteristic of a song is the presence of a complete, independent melodious melody, simplicity of structure (usually a period or 2-3-part form, most often in the form of a lead and a chorus).

SOUND POSITION is a term used in vocal pedagogy to express the influence of timbre on the perception of pitch. There are high and low positions.

PORTAMENTO (from Italian portare la voce - to transfer the voice) - in solo singing, a sliding transition from one melody sound to another. One of the means of expressiveness in singing.

VOICE PRODUCTION is the process of developing qualities in the voice necessary for its professional use; consists in developing in the student reflex movements of the vocal apparatus that contribute to the correct sound. The concept of a well-produced voice includes its evenness over the entire range (smoothness of registers), sonority, closeness of vowels, beauty of timbre, and flexibility. A well-produced voice is characterized by the presence in its sound of so-called singing formants.

COVERING THE SOUND is a vocal technique used in the formation of the upper part of the vocal range above transitional sounds, tuning the vocal apparatus (mainly due to the expansion of the lower part of the pharynx and the corresponding formation of the oral cavity), giving the singing sound some darkness, softness, and depth. The covering of a sound is acoustically related to the presence of the so-called lower formant in it. Covering the sound is used in vocal pedagogy to smooth out registers, which results in a seemingly homogeneous voice over the entire range. In academic singing, only a covered sound is used (the open sound is used as an exception, for special performance purposes). However, one should be wary of excessive darkening (“overlap”) of the sound, giving it a dull, dull timbre. The measure of sound coverage is set by the teacher and conductor, guided by his vocal hearing and aesthetic taste.

SINGING—vocal and auditory tuning of singers at the beginning of classes or before a concert; aims to prepare each singer and the entire choir to work on the repertoire and for concert performance.

REGISTER (Latin registrum - list, list) - part of the range of the voice (instrument), united by the similarity of timbre based on the uniformity of sound production. The voice differs in the lower, or chest register (with the predominant use of the chest resonator), the upper, or head register (falsetto), mixed, or mixed. Male voices have two natural registers: chest and head; for women - three: chest, mixed, head. In the voice of an untrained singer, the registers are sharply distinguishable; their boundaries are determined by the so-called transitional (turning point) sounds, more or less constant for each type of voice: for bass C-sharp1 (C1), for baritone D-sharp1 (D1), for tenor F-sharp1 (F1), for soprano E1 - F1 (when moving to a mixed register) and F-sharp2 (F2) (when moving to the head register), for mezzo-soprano and contralto F-sharp1 (F1) (when moving to a mixed register) and D-sharp2 (D2) (when moving to the head register). The “produced” voice is distinguished by the smoothness of the registers, the gradual transition from the lower sounds of the range to the upper ones. The use of "clean" registers by trained singers, unlike folk singers, is used sporadically, like vocal coloring. The execution of transitional (to the upper resonator) sounds requires some darkening of them - “covering”.

REPERTOIRE (from Latin repertorium - list, inventory) - a set of works performed at a concert or studied during classes. Correct selection performance is an important condition for the successful functioning of the choir.

RESONANCE (from the French resonance, from the Latin resono - I sound in response, I respond) is a phenomenon in which oscillations of the same frequency arise in a body called a resonator under the influence of external vibrations.

RESONATORS (from the Latin resono - I respond) are a part of the vocal apparatus that gives the weak sound arising on the vocal cords strength, sonority, and a characteristic timbre. Resonators are divided into upper (head, located above the ligaments - the pharynx, mouth, nose and accessory cavities) and lower (chest - trachea, bronchi). In addition, resonators are divided into movable (capable of changing their shape and volume, controllable - the cavities of the pharynx and mouth) and fixed (the functioning of which can only be influenced indirectly).

RECITATIVE (from Italian recitare - read aloud, recite) - a type of vocal music that intonationally and rhythmically reproduces everyday or declamatory speech; In addition to solo music, it is also used in choral music, opera scenes, etc. horah...

RULADA (from the French rouler - to roll back and forth) - a fast virtuoso passage in singing, a type of coloratura.

SERENADE is a widely used name in Italy and Spain for welcoming plays, usually performed in the evening hours in front of the beloved’s house (the name of the term comes from the Italian expression al sereno - in the open air).

SYNCOPE (Greek syncope - abbreviation) - a discrepancy between a rhythmic or dynamic accent and a metric one; occurs due to the shortening of the strong beat or a pause on it and the lengthening of the weak beat (as a result of which it becomes heavier) ...

SOLFEGING (solfege) - singing with the names of notes; widely used in choirs. When learning parts, solfeges are often started, since this highlights the pitch and rhythmic aspects of the melody for study...

SOPRANO (from Italian sopra - above, above) - 1) The highest female, children's (also treble) voice. The range is up to ¹ - up to ³, occasionally higher (sol³) and low (A small oct.) sounds are found.

TIMBRE (French timbre - mark, distinctive sign) - color of sound; depends on various combinations of overtones, highlighting some and masking others. Voice timbre is largely an innate quality, but under the influence of training and practice it can change. Beautiful timbre is the most valuable property of a voice. Timbre affects the perception of intonation: with poor timbre, intonation also seems unclean. Timbre serves as an important means of musical expression, including in choral performance. Voice timbre is associated with facial expressions. Deep penetration into the content of the work, revealing one’s attitude towards what is being performed is reflected in the singers’ facial expressions, and hence in the color of the sound. Work on the beauty and expressiveness of timbre is an integral part of the vocal education of singers and should be carried out from the first stage of choral training.

Musical TEMP (from Latin tempus - time) - speed of performance, expressed in the frequency of alternation of metric beats. Tempo determines the absolute speed of a piece, as opposed to the relative speed associated with rhythmic relationships...Tempo in music is denoted in Italian terms.

TENOR (Italian, from Latin teneo - I hold) - 1) In the middle. centuries (from the 12th century) the main voice of a contrapuntal composition, setting out the main melody (cantus firmus); At first he was the lower voice, with the addition of the bass he became the middle one. 2) High male singing voice.

TESSITURA (Italian tessitura - fabric) - the pitch position of the melody in relation to the range of a particular voice, without taking into account the extremely low and high sounds of the voice. Tessitura can be high, medium (most convenient for singing, favorable for intonation), low. The use of tessitura conditions is one of the means of expressiveness.

TRILL (Italian trillo, from trillare - to rattle) is a melodic decoration consisting of two rapidly alternating adjacent sounds, of which the lower one is the main one, determining the height of the trill, and the upper one is auxiliary.

Troubadours (French troubadours, Ox. trobador) are medieval poets-singers, songwriters, often called minstrels. Their work covers the period of the 11th-13th centuries, its heyday occurred in the 12th - early 13th centuries.

TRUVERE is a French medieval wandering poet and singer (from the French trouvère - to invent, to find). The early Trouvères (XI-XII centuries) were close to folk art

UNISON (from Latin unus - one and sonus - sound) - the simultaneous sound of 2 or several sounds of the same height (octave U. - a combination of identical sounds in different octaves).

Falsetto (lat. falsetto, from falso - false) - a method of forming high sounds, as well as the upper register of the male singing voice, characterized by a weak sound and poor timbre.

FERMATA (from Italian fermata, lit. - stop) - prolongation of a sound (chord) or pause for an indefinite time, prompted by the music. the feeling of the performer (the greater the shorter the duration; large durations with F. are sometimes even shortened).

FILLING, FILLING - (from the French filer un son - to pull a sound) - the ability to smoothly change the dynamics of a drawn sound from forte to piano and vice versa.

FIORITURA - (Italian fioritura - flowering) - various kinds of melodic decorations.

FORMANT (lat. formans - forming) - a group of amplified overtones that form a specific timbre of the voice. In acoustics, overtones of a certain frequency give the sound of a voice and instrument a characteristic timbre (as well as the sounds of speech, thanks to which they are recognized). They arise mainly as a result of one or another functioning of the upper resonators. A good (natural or cultivated) singing voice is characterized by two characteristic formants: high (approx. 3000 hertz), which gives it sonority, flight, and low (approx. 500 hertz), imparting depth and cover to the voice. There is a device - a spectrograph, which clearly shows the presence of formants in a singer.

PHONASTENIA (Greek phone - voice, stenos - narrow, cramped) - a nervous functional disease of the voice, without visible changes in the voice. apparatus. It is expressed in rapid fatigue, false intonation (mainly in the low and middle register), tremulousness...

PHONIATRICS is a branch of medicine that deals with the functioning of the vocal apparatus and its diseases.

FORCING (from the French force - strength) - singing with excessive tension of the vocal apparatus, violating the timbre qualities of the voice and the naturalness of the sound.

PHRASING - a clear artistic and semantic highlighting of music. phrases and other constructions when performing music. works. Phrasing uses differentiation through caesuras, unification through leagues, articulation, and nuance.

CHORUSMaster - conductor of a choir. Typically, a choirmaster is the name of the choir leader who works with the group when learning the repertoire. Responsible manager choir group in the opera house is also called a choirmaster.

CHROMATIC GAMMA - sequential movement of sounds in semitones from the original sound (tonic) to its octave. As a rule, X. is built on the basis of a major and minor scale by filling whole tones with higher and lower degrees.

CAESURA (from Latin caesura - dissection) - the line between parts of music. the piece is performed in the form of a short, barely noticeable pause, often accompanied (in singing) by a change in breathing.

Kochneva, I. Vocal dictionary / I. Kochneva, A. Yakovleva. - Leningrad: Music, 1986. Kruntyaeva, T. S. Dictionary of foreign musical terms / T. S. Kruntyaeva, N. V. Molokova - Moscow; St. Petersburg: Music, 1996. Lamperti, F. The Art of Singing / F. Lamperti. - St. Petersburg: PLANET OF MUSIC Publishing House, 2010. A brief musical dictionary-reference book / general edition by E. Leonov. - Moscow: Kifara, 2002. Terminological dictionary Chobit Olesya Valerievna

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OPERA, drama or comedy set to music. Dramatic texts are sung in opera; singing and stage action are almost always accompanied by instrumental (usually orchestral) accompaniment. Many operas are also characterized by the presence of orchestral interludes (introductions, conclusions, intermissions, etc.) and plot breaks filled with ballet scenes.

Opera was born as an aristocratic pastime, but soon became entertainment for the general public. The first public opera house was opened in Venice in 1637, just four decades after the birth of the genre itself. Then the opera quickly spread throughout Europe. As a public entertainment it reached its greatest development in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Throughout its history, opera has had a powerful influence on other musical genres. The symphony grew out of the instrumental introduction to Italian operas of the 18th century. The virtuosic passages and cadenzas of the piano concerto are largely the fruit of an attempt to reflect operatic vocal virtuosity in the texture of the keyboard instrument. In the 19th century R. Wagner's harmonic and orchestral writing, which he created for the grandiose “musical drama,” determined the further development of a number of musical forms, and even in the 20th century. Many musicians considered liberation from Wagner's influence as the main direction of the movement towards new music.

Opera form.

In the so-called In grand opera, the most widespread type of operatic genre today, the entire text is sung. In comic opera, singing usually alternates with spoken scenes. The name “comic opera” (opéra comique in France, opera buffa in Italy, Singspiel in Germany) is to a large extent arbitrary, since not all works of this type have a comic content ( characteristic feature“comic opera” – the presence of spoken dialogues). The type of light, sentimental comic opera, which became widespread in Paris and Vienna, began to be called operetta; in America it is called musical comedy. Plays with music (musicals) that have gained fame on Broadway are usually more serious in content than European operettas.

All these varieties of opera are based on the belief that music and especially singing enhance the dramatic expressiveness of the text. True, at times other elements played in the opera no less important role. Thus, in French opera of certain periods (and in Russian opera in the 19th century), dance and the entertainment side acquired very significant importance; German authors often considered the orchestral part not as an accompanying one, but as equivalent to the vocal one. But on the scale of the entire history of opera, singing still played a dominant role.

If the singers are the leads in an opera performance, then the orchestral part forms the frame, the foundation of the action, moves it forward and prepares the audience for future events. The orchestra supports the singers, emphasizes the climaxes, fills gaps in the libretto or moments of scenery changes with its sound, and finally performs at the conclusion of the opera when the curtain falls.

Most operas have instrumental introductions that help set the stage for the audience. In the 17th–19th centuries. such an introduction was called an overture. Overtures were laconic and independent concert pieces, thematically unrelated to the opera and therefore easily replaceable. For example, an overture to a tragedy Aurelian in Palmyra Rossini later developed into an overture to a comedy Barber of Seville. But in the second half of the 19th century. composers began to pay much more attention to the unity of mood and thematic connection between the overture and the opera. A form of introduction (Vorspiel) arose, which, for example in Wagner's late musical dramas, includes the main themes (leitmotifs) of the opera and directly introduces the action. The form of the "autonomous" operatic overture had declined, and by the time Tosca Puccini (1900), the overture could be replaced by just a few opening chords. In a number of operas of the 20th century. There are no musical preparations whatsoever for the stage action.

So, the operatic action develops within the orchestral frame. But since the essence of opera is singing, the highest moments of the drama are reflected in the completed forms of aria, duet and other conventional forms where music comes to the fore. An aria is like a monologue, a duet is like a dialogue; a trio usually embodies the conflicting feelings of one of the characters in relation to the other two participants. With further complication, different ensemble forms arise - such as a quartet in Rigoletto Verdi or sextet in Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti. The introduction of such forms usually stops the action to allow room for the development of one (or more) emotions. Only a group of singers, united in an ensemble, can express several points of view on current events. Sometimes the choir acts as a commentator on the actions of opera characters. In general, the text in opera choirs is spoken relatively slowly, and phrases are often repeated to make the content understandable to the listener.

The arias themselves do not constitute an opera. In the classical type of opera, the main means of conveying the plot and developing the action to the audience is the recitative: fast, melodic declamation in free meter, supported by simple chords and based on natural speech intonations. In comic operas, recitative is often replaced by dialogue. Recitative may seem boring to listeners who do not understand the meaning of the spoken text, but it is often indispensable in the meaningful structure of the opera.

Not all operas can draw a clear line between recitative and aria. Wagner, for example, abandoned completed vocal forms, aiming at the continuous development of musical action. This innovation was taken up, with various modifications, by a number of composers. On Russian soil, the idea of ​​a continuous “musical drama” was, independently of Wagner, first tested by A.S. Dargomyzhsky in Stone Guest and M.P. Mussorgsky in Marriage- they called this form“conversational opera”, opera dialogue.

Opera as drama.

The dramatic content of the opera is embodied not only in the libretto, but also in the music itself. The creators of the opera genre called their works dramma per musica - “drama expressed in music.” Opera is more than a play with songs and dances. The dramatic play is self-sufficient; opera without music is only part of the dramatic unity. This even applies to operas with spoken scenes. In works of this type - for example, in Manon Lescaut J. Massenet – musical numbers still retain a key role.

It is extremely rare that an opera libretto can be staged as a dramatic play. Although the content of the drama is expressed in words and characteristic stage techniques are present, without music something important is lost - something that can only be expressed by music. For the same reason, only occasionally can dramatic plays be used as librettos, without first reducing the number of characters, simplifying the plot and main characters. We must leave room for the music to breathe; it must repeat itself, form orchestral episodes, change mood and color depending on dramatic situations. And since singing still makes it difficult to understand the meaning of the words, the text of the libretto must be so clear that it can be perceived while singing.

Thus, opera subjugates the lexical richness and refinement of the form of good dramatic play, but compensates for this damage with the capabilities of its own language, which is addressed directly to the feelings of the listeners. So, literary source Madame Butterfly Puccini - D. Belasco's play about a geisha and an American naval officer is hopelessly outdated, and the tragedy of love and betrayal expressed in Puccini's music has not faded with time.

When composing opera music most composers followed some conventions. For example, the use of high registers of voices or instruments meant "passion", dissonant harmonies expressed "fear". Such conventions were not arbitrary: people generally raise their voices when excited, and the physical sensation of fear is disharmonious. But experienced opera composers used more subtle means to express dramatic content in music. The melodic line had to organically correspond to the words on which it lay; harmonic writing was supposed to reflect the ebb and flow of emotions. It was necessary to create different rhythmic models for rapid declamatory scenes, ceremonial ensembles, love duets and arias. The expressive capabilities of the orchestra, including timbres and other characteristics associated with different instruments, were also put at the service of dramatic purposes.

However, dramatic expressiveness is not the only function of music in opera. An opera composer solves two contradictory tasks: to express the content of the drama and to give pleasure to the audience. According to the first objective, music serves drama; according to the second, music is self-sufficient. Many great opera composers - Gluck, Wagner, Mussorgsky, R. Strauss, Puccini, Debussy, Berg - emphasized the expressive, dramatic element in opera. From other authors, the opera acquired a more poetic, restrained, chamber appearance. Their art is marked by the subtlety of halftones and is less dependent on changes in public tastes. Lyricist composers are loved by singers, because although an opera singer must be to a certain extent an actor, his main task is purely musical: he must accurately reproduce the musical text, give the sound the necessary coloring, and phrase beautifully. Lyrical authors include the Neapolitans of the 18th century, Handel, Haydn, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Weber, Gounod, Masne, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Rare authors achieved an almost absolute balance of dramatic and lyrical elements, among them Monteverdi, Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Janacek and Britten.

Opera repertoire.

Traditional opera repertoire consists mainly of works from the 19th century. and a number of operas from the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Romanticism, with its attraction to sublime deeds and distant lands, contributed to the development of opera throughout Europe; the growth of the middle class led to the penetration of folk elements into the operatic language and provided opera with a large and appreciative audience.

The traditional repertoire tends to reduce the entire genre diversity of opera to two very capacious categories - “tragedy” and “comedy”. The first is usually represented more widely than the second. The basis of the repertoire today is made up of Italian and German operas, especially “tragedies”. In the field of “comedy,” Italian opera predominates, or at least Italian(for example, Mozart's operas). There are few French operas in the traditional repertoire, and those are usually performed in the Italian style. Several Russian and Czech operas occupy their place in the repertoire, almost always performed in translation. In general, large opera companies adhere to the tradition of performing works in the original language.

The main regulator of the repertoire is popularity and fashion. Famous role plays into the prevalence and cultivation of certain types of voices, although some operas (like Aide Verdi) are often performed without taking into account whether the necessary voices are available or not (the latter is more common). In an era when operas with virtuoso coloratura roles and allegorical plots went out of fashion, few cared about the appropriate style of their production. Handel's operas, for example, were neglected until famous singer Joan Sutherland and others did not start performing them. And the point here is not only in the “new” public, which discovered the beauty of these operas, but also in the emergence of a large number of singers with high vocal culture who can cope with sophisticated operatic roles. In the same way, the revival of the work of Cherubini and Bellini was inspired by the brilliant performances of their operas and the discovery of the “newness” of old works. The composers of the early Baroque, especially Monteverdi, but also Peri and Scarlatti, were likewise brought out of obscurity.

All such revivals require commented editions, especially the works of 17th century authors, about the instrumentation and dynamic principles of which we do not have accurate information. Endless repetitions in the so-called. arias da capo in the operas of the Neapolitan school and Handel are quite tiresome in our time - the time of digests. A modern listener is unlikely to be able to share the passion of listeners even of the French grand opera of the 19th century. (Rossini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Halévy) to entertainment that took up the whole evening (so, the complete score of the opera Fernando Cortes Spontini plays for 5 hours, not counting intermissions). There are often cases when dark places in the score and its dimensions lead the conductor or director into the temptation to cut, rearrange numbers, make insertions and even write in new pieces, often so clumsily that only a distant relative of the work that appears in the program appears before the public.

Singers.

Opera singers are usually divided into six types according to their voice range. Three female voice types, from high to low - soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (the latter is rare these days); three male - tenor, baritone, bass. Within each type there may be several subtypes depending on the quality of the voice and singing style. The lyric-coloratura soprano is distinguished by a light and exceptionally agile voice; such singers are able to perform virtuosic passages, fast scales, trills and other embellishments. Lyric-dramatic (lirico spinto) soprano is a voice of great brightness and beauty. The timbre of a dramatic soprano is rich and strong. The distinction between lyric and dramatic voices also applies to tenors. There are two main types of basses: the “singing bass” (basso cantante) for “serious” parts and the comic bass (basso buffo).

Gradually, rules for choosing a singing timbre for a certain role were formed. The parts of the main characters and heroines were usually assigned to tenors and sopranos. In general, the older and more experienced the character, the lower his voice should be. An innocent young girl - such as Gilda in Rigoletto Verdi is a lyric soprano, and the insidious seductress Delilah in Saint-Saëns' opera Samson and Delilah– mezzo-soprano. The role of Figaro, the energetic and witty hero of Mozart's Weddings of Figaro and Rossinievsky Barber of Seville written by both composers for the baritone, although as the part of the main character, the part of Figaro should have been intended for the first tenor. Party of peasants, wizards, people mature age, rulers and old men were usually created for bass-baritones (for example, Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera) or basses (Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky).

Changes in public tastes played a role in the formation of operatic vocal styles. The technique of sound production, the technique of vibrato (“sob”) has changed over the centuries. J. Peri (1561–1633), singer and author of the earliest partially preserved opera ( Daphne), presumably sang with a so-called white voice - in a relatively even, unchanging style, with little or no vibrato - in accordance with the interpretation of the voice as an instrument, which was in fashion until the end of the Renaissance.

During the 18th century. The cult of the virtuoso singer developed - first in Naples, then throughout Europe. At this time, the role of the main character in the opera was performed by a male soprano - a castrato, that is, a timbre whose natural change was stopped by castration. Castrati singers pushed the range and mobility of their voices to the limits of what was possible. Opera stars such as castrato Farinelli (C. Broschi, 1705–1782), whose soprano was said to be superior in strength to the sound of the trumpet, or mezzo-soprano F. Bordoni, about whom it was said that she could sustain the sound longer than any singer in the world, completely subordinated to their mastery those composers whose music they performed. Some of them composed operas themselves and directed opera troupes (Farinelli). It was taken for granted that singers decorated melodies composed by the composer with their own improvised ornaments, without paying attention to whether such decorations suited plot situation opera or not. The owner of any type of voice must be trained to perform fast passages and trills. In Rossini's operas, for example, the tenor must master the coloratura technique no worse than the soprano. The revival of such art in the 20th century. allowed to give new life Rossini's diverse operatic creativity.

Only one singing style of the 18th century. Almost unchanged to this day is the style of the comic bass, because simple effects and fast chatter leave little room for individual interpretations, musical or stage; perhaps the square comedies of D. Pergolesi (1749–1801) are performed now no less often than 200 years ago. The talkative, hot-tempered old man is a highly revered figure in the operatic tradition, a favorite role for basses prone to vocal clowning.

The pure singing style of bel canto, shimmering with all colors, so beloved by Mozart, Rossini and other opera composers of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, in the second half of the 19th century. gradually gave way to a more powerful and dramatic style of singing. The development of modern harmonic and orchestral writing gradually changed the function of the orchestra in opera: from accompanist to protagonist, and consequently singers needed to sing louder so that their voices were not drowned out by the instruments. This trend originated in Germany, but influenced all European opera, including Italian. The German "heroic tenor" (Heldentenor) was clearly born of the need for a voice capable of dueling with Wagner's orchestra. The late works of Verdi and the operas of his followers require “strong” (di forza) tenors and energetic dramatic (spinto) sopranos. The demands of romantic opera sometimes even lead to interpretations that seem to run counter to the intentions expressed by the composer himself. Thus, R. Strauss thought of Salome in his opera of the same name as “a 16-year-old girl with the voice of Isolde.” However, the opera's instrumentation is so dense that mature matron singers are needed to perform the main role.

Among the legendary opera stars of the past are E. Caruso (1873–1921, perhaps the most popular singer in history), J. Farrar (1882–1967, who was always followed by a retinue of admirers in New York), F. I. Chaliapin (1873 –1938, powerful bass, master of Russian realism), K. Flagstad (1895–1962, heroic soprano from Norway) and many others. In the next generation they were replaced by M. Callas (1923–1977), B. Nilsson (b. 1918), R. Tebaldi (1922–2004), J. Sutherland (b. 1926), L. Price (b. 1927 ), B. Sills (b. 1929), C. Bartoli (1966), R. Tucker (1913–1975), T. Gobbi (1913–1984), F. Corelli (b. 1921), C. Siepi (b. . 1923), J. Vickers (b. 1926), L. Pavarotti (b. 1935), S. Milnes (b. 1935), P. Domingo (b. 1941), J. Carreras (b. 1946).

Opera houses.

Some opera house buildings are associated with a particular type of opera, and in some cases, indeed, the architecture of the theater was determined by one or another type of operatic performance. Thus, the Parisian “Opera” (in Russia the name “Grand Opera” stuck) was intended for a bright spectacle long before its current building was built in 1862–1874 (architect C. Garnier): the staircase and foyer of the palace were designed as would compete with the scenery of ballets and magnificent processions that took place on stage. The “House of Ceremonial Performances” (Festspielhaus) in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was created by Wagner in 1876 to stage his epic “musical dramas”. Its stage, modeled on the scenes of ancient Greek amphitheatres, has great depth, and the orchestra is located in the orchestra pit and hidden from the audience, due to which the sound is dispersed and the singer does not need to strain his voice. The original Metropolitan Opera building in New York (1883) was designed as a showcase for best singers peace and for respectable lodge subscribers. The hall is so deep that its diamond horseshoe boxes provide visitors with more opportunities to see each other than the relatively shallow stage.

The appearance of opera houses, like a mirror, reflects the history of opera as a phenomenon of social life. Its origins are in revival ancient Greek theater in aristocratic circles: the oldest surviving opera house, the Olimpico (1583), built by A. Palladio in Vicenza, corresponds to this period. Its architecture, a microcosm of Baroque society, is based on a distinctive horseshoe-shaped plan, with tiers of boxes fanning out from the center - the royal box. A similar plan is preserved in the buildings of the theaters La Scala (1788, Milan), La Fenice (1792, burned down in 1992, Venice), San Carlo (1737, Naples), Covent Garden (1858, London ). With fewer boxes, but with deeper tiers thanks to steel supports, this plan was used in such American opera houses as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1908), the San Francisco Opera House (1932) and the Chicago Opera House (1920). More modern solutions are demonstrated by the new Metropolitan Opera building at New York's Lincoln Center (1966) and the Sydney Opera House (1973, Australia).

The democratic approach is characteristic of Wagner. He demanded maximum concentration from the audience and built a theater where there are no boxes at all, and the seats are arranged in monotonous continuous rows. The austere Bayreuth interior was repeated only in the Munich Prinzregent Theater (1909); even German theaters, built after World War II, date back to earlier examples. However, Wagner's idea seems to have contributed to the movement towards the arena concept, i.e. theater without a proscenium, which is proposed by some modern architects (the prototype is the ancient Roman circus): the opera is left to adapt itself to these new conditions. The Roman amphitheater in Verona is well suited for staging such monumental opera performances as Aida Verdi and William Tell Rossini.

Opera festivals.

An important element of Wagner's concept of opera is the summer pilgrimage to Bayreuth. The idea was picked up: in the 1920s, the Austrian city of Salzburg organized a festival dedicated mainly to Mozart’s operas, and invited such talented people as director M. Reinhardt and conductor A. Toscanini to implement the project. Since the mid-1930s, Mozart's operatic work has determined the appearance of the English Glyndebourne Festival. After World War II, a festival appeared in Munich, dedicated mainly to the work of R. Strauss. Florence hosts the Florentine Musical May, where a very wide repertoire is performed, covering both early and modern operas.

STORY

The origins of opera.

The first example of the operatic genre that has come down to us is Eurydice J. Peri (1600) is a modest work created in Florence on the occasion of the wedding of the French king Henry IV and Marie de Medici. As expected, a young singer and madrigalist close to the court was commissioned to provide music for this solemn event. But Peri presented not the usual madrigal cycle on a pastoral theme, but something completely different. The musician was a member of the Florentine Camerata - a circle of scientists, poets and music lovers. For twenty years, members of the Camerata studied the question of how ancient Greek tragedies were performed. They came to the conclusion that the Greek actors pronounced the text in a special declamatory manner, which is something between speech and real singing. But the real result of these experiments in reviving a forgotten art was a new type of solo singing, called “monody”: monody was performed in a free rhythm with the simplest accompaniment. Therefore, Peri and his librettist O. Rinuccini told the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in a recitative, which was supported by the chords of a small orchestra, rather an ensemble of seven instruments, and presented the play in the Florentine Palazzo Pitti. This was Camerata's second opera; score first, Daphne Peri (1598), not preserved.

Early opera had predecessors. For seven centuries the church cultivated liturgical dramas such as Game about Daniel, where solo singing was accompanied by the accompaniment of various instruments. In the 16th century other composers, in particular A. Gabrieli and O. Vecchi, combined secular choruses or madrigals into plot cycles. But still, before Peri and Rinuccini, there was no monodic secular musical-dramatic form. Their work was not a revival of ancient Greek tragedy. It brought something more - a new viable theater genre was born.

However, the full disclosure of the possibilities of the genre of dramma per musica, put forward by the Florentine Camerata, occurred in the work of another musician. Like Peri, C. Monteverdi (1567–1643) was an educated man from a noble family, but unlike Peri, he was a professional musician. A native of Cremona, Monteverdi became famous at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua and until the end of his life he led the choir of the Cathedral of St. Stamp in Venice. Seven years after Eurydice Peri, he composed his own version of the legend of Orpheus - The Tale of Orpheus. These works differ from each other in the same way as an interesting experiment differs from a masterpiece. Monteverdi increased the size of the orchestra fivefold, giving each character his own group of instruments, and prefaced the opera with an overture. His recitative not only voiced the text of A. Stridzho, but lived its own artistic life. Monteverdi's harmonic language is full of dramatic contrasts and even today impresses with its boldness and picturesqueness.

Among Monteverdi's subsequent surviving operas are Duel of Tancred and Clorinda(1624), based on a scene from Liberated Jerusalem Torquato Tasso - an epic poem about the crusaders; Return of Ulysses to his homeland(1641) on a plot dating back to the ancient Greek legend of Odysseus; Coronation of Poppea(1642), from the time of the Roman Emperor Nero. The last work was created by the composer just a year before his death. This opera became the pinnacle of his work - partly due to the virtuosity of the vocal parts, partly due to the splendor of the instrumental writing.

Distribution of the opera.

During Monteverdi's era, opera rapidly conquered the major cities of Italy. Rome gave the opera author L. Rossi (1598–1653), who staged his opera in Paris in 1647 Orpheus and Eurydice, conquering the French world. F. Cavalli (1602–1676), who sang with Monteverdi in Venice, created about 30 operas; Together with M.A. Cesti (1623–1669), Cavalli became the founder of the Venetian school, which played a major role in Italian opera in the second half of the 17th century. In the Venetian school, the monodic style, which came from Florence, opened the way for the development of recitative and aria. The arias gradually became longer and more complex, and virtuoso singers, usually castrati, began to dominate the opera stage. The plots of Venetian operas were still based on mythology or romanticized historical episodes, but now embellished with burlesque interludes that had no relation to the main action and spectacular episodes in which the singers demonstrated their virtuosity. At the Opera of Honor Golden Apple(1668), one of the most complex of that era, there are 50 characters, as well as 67 scenes and 23 scenery changes.

Italian influence even reached England. At the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, composers and librettists began to create the so-called. masks - court performances that combined recitatives, singing, dance and were based on fantastic plots. This new genre occupied a large place in the work of G. Laws, who in 1643 set it to music Comus Milton, and in 1656 created the first real English opera - Siege of Rhodes. After the Stuart restoration, opera gradually began to gain a foothold on English soil. J. Blow (1649–1708), organist of Westminster Cathedral, composed an opera in 1684 Venus and Adonis, but the essay was still called a mask. The only truly great opera created by an Englishman was Dido and Aeneas G. Purcell (1659–1695), Blow's student and successor. First performed at a women's college around 1689, this little opera is noted for its astonishing beauty. Purcell mastered both French and Italian techniques, but his opera is a typically English work. Libretto Dido, owned by N. Tate, but the composer revived it with his music, marked by the mastery of dramatic characteristics, extraordinary grace and meaningfulness of arias and choruses.

Early French opera.

Like early Italian opera, French opera of the mid-16th century. came from the desire to revive ancient Greek theatrical aesthetics. The difference was that Italian opera emphasized singing, while French opera grew out of ballet, a favorite theatrical genre at the French court of that time. A capable and ambitious dancer who came from Italy, J.B. Lully (1632–1687) became the founder of French opera. He received his musical education, including studying the basics of compositional technique, at the court of Louis XIV and was then appointed court composer. He had an excellent understanding of the stage, which was evident in his music for a number of Moliere's comedies, especially To the tradesman in the nobility(1670). Impressed by the success of the opera troupes that came to France, Lully decided to create his own troupe. Lully's operas, which he called "lyrical tragedies" (tragédies lyriques) , demonstrate a specifically French musical and theatrical style. The plots are taken from ancient mythology or from Italian poems, and the libretto, with its solemn verses in strictly defined meters, is guided by the style of Lully’s great contemporary, the playwright J. Racine. Lully intersperses the development of the plot with long discussions about love and glory, and in prologues and other plot points he inserts divertissements - scenes with dances, choirs and magnificent scenery. True scale the composer’s creativity becomes clear these days, when productions of his operas are resumed - Alceste (1674), Atisa(1676) and Armids (1686).

“Czech Opera” is a conventional term that refers to two contrasting artistic movements: pro-Russian in Slovakia and pro-German in the Czech Republic. Recognized figure in Czech music - Antonin Dvorak (1841–1904), although only one of his operas is imbued with deep pathos Mermaid– has become entrenched in the world repertoire. In Prague, the capital of Czech culture, the main figure of the operatic world was Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884), whose The sold bride(1866) quickly entered the repertoire, usually translated into German. The comic and simple plot made this work the most accessible in Smetana’s legacy, although he is the author of two more fiery patriotic operas - the dynamic “opera of salvation” Dalibor(1868) and picture-epic Libusha(1872, staged in 1881), which depicts the unification of the Czech people under the rule of a wise queen.

The unofficial center of the Slovak school was the city of Brno, where Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), another ardent supporter of the reproduction of natural recitative intonations in music, in the spirit of Mussorgsky and Debussy, lived and worked. Janáček's diaries contain many musical notations of speech and natural sound rhythms. After several early and unsuccessful experiments in the opera genre, Janáček first turned to the stunning tragedy from the life of Moravian peasants in opera Jenufa(1904, the composer's most popular opera). In subsequent operas he developed different plots: the drama of a young woman who, out of protest against family oppression, enters into an illegal love affair (Katya Kabanova, 1921), life of nature ( Cheating fox, 1924), supernatural incident ( Makropoulos remedy, 1926) and Dostoevsky’s narrative about the years he spent in hard labor ( Notes from dead house , 1930).

Janacek dreamed of success in Prague, but his “enlightened” colleagues treated his operas with disdain - both during the composer’s lifetime and after his death. Like Rimsky-Korsakov, who edited Mussorgsky, Janacek's colleagues believed that they knew better than the author how his scores should sound. Janáček's international recognition came later as a result of the restoration efforts of John Tyrrell and the Australian conductor Charles Mackeras.

Operas of the 20th century.

The First World War put an end to the romantic era: the sublimity of feelings characteristic of romanticism could not survive the shocks of the war years. The established operatic forms were also declining; it was a time of uncertainty and experimentation. A craving for the Middle Ages, expressed with particular force in Parsifale And Pellease, gave last flashes in such works as Love of Three Kings(1913) Italo Montemezzi (1875–1952), Knights of Ekebu(1925) Riccardo Zandonai (1883–1944), Semirama(1910) and Flame(1934) Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936). Austrian post-Romanticism represented by Franz Schrecker (1878–1933; Distant sound, 1912; Stigmatized, 1918), Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871–1942; Florentine tragedy;Dwarf– 1922) and Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957; Dead city, 1920; Miracle of Heliana, 1927) used medieval motifs for artistic exploration of spiritualistic ideas or pathological mental phenomena.

The Wagnerian legacy, picked up by Richard Strauss, then passed on to the so-called. the new Viennese school, in particular to A. Schoenberg (1874–1951) and A. Berg (1885–1935), whose operas are a kind of anti-romantic reaction: this is expressed in a conscious departure from traditional musical language, especially harmonic, and in the choice "cruel" stories. Berg's first opera Wozzeck(1925) - the story of an unfortunate, oppressed soldier - is a grippingly powerful drama, despite its unusually complex, highly intellectual form; the composer's second opera, Lulu(1937, completed after the death of the author F. Tserkhoy) is an equally expressive musical drama about a dissolute woman. After a series of small acute psychological operas, among which the most famous is Expectation(1909), Schoenberg worked on the plot all his life Moses and Aaron(1954, the opera remained unfinished) - based on the biblical story about the conflict between the tongue-tied prophet Moses and the eloquent Aaron, who seduced the Israelites to worship the golden calf. Scenes of orgy, destruction and human sacrifice, which can outrage any theatrical censor, as well as the extreme complexity of the work, hinder its popularity in the opera house.

Composers of various national schools began to leave the influence of Wagner. Thus, the symbolism of Debussy served as the impetus for the Hungarian composer B. Bartok (1881–1945) to create his psychological parable Duke Bluebeard's Castle(1918); another Hungarian author, Z. Kodály, in opera Hari Janos(1926) turned to folklore sources. In Berlin, F. Busoni reinterpreted old plots in operas Harlequin(1917) and Doctor Faustus(1928, remained unfinished). In all the works mentioned, the all-pervasive symphonism of Wagner and his followers gives way to a much more laconic style, even to the point of predominance of monody. However, the operatic heritage of this generation of composers is relatively small, and this circumstance, together with the list of unfinished works, testifies to the difficulties that the operatic genre experienced in the era of expressionism and impending fascism.

At the same time, new trends began to emerge in war-ravaged Europe. Italian comic opera gave its last escape in G. Puccini's small masterpiece Gianni Schicchi(1918). But in Paris, M. Ravel picked up the dying torch and created his wonderful Spanish hour(1911) and then Child and magic(1925, libretto by Collet). The opera also appeared in Spain - Short life (1913) and Maestro Pedro's booth(1923) by Manuel de Falla.

In England, opera was experiencing a real revival for the first time in several centuries. The earliest examples are Immortal hour(1914) Rutland Boughton (1878–1960) on a subject from Celtic mythology, Traitors(1906) and Bosun's wife(1916) Ethel Smith (1858–1944). The first is a bucolic love story, while the second is about pirates settling in a poor English coastal village. Smith's operas enjoyed some popularity in Europe, as did the operas of Frederick Delius (1862–1934), especially Village of Romeo and Juliet(1907). Delius, however, was by nature incapable of embodying conflict dramaturgy (both in text and in music), and therefore his static musical dramas rarely appear on stage.

The burning problem for English composers was the search for a competitive plot. Savitri Gustav Holst, based on one of the episodes Indian epic Mahabharata(1916), and Driver Hugh R. Vaughan Williams (1924) is a pastoral richly enriched with folk songs; the same is true in Vaughan Williams' opera Sir John in Love according to Shakespearean Falstaff.

B. Britten (1913–1976) managed to raise English opera to new heights; His first opera was already a success Peter Grimes(1945) - a drama taking place on the seashore, where the central character is a fisherman rejected by people who is in the grip of mystical experiences. Source of comedy-satire Albert Herring(1947) became a short story by Maupassant, and in Billy Budde Melville's allegorical story is used, treating of good and evil (the historical background is the era of the Napoleonic wars). This opera is generally recognized as Britten's masterpiece, although he later worked successfully in the genre of "grand opera" - examples include Gloriana(1951), which tells about the turbulent events of the reign of Elizabeth I, and A dream in a summer night(1960; the libretto based on Shakespeare was created by the composer’s closest friend and collaborator, singer P. Pierce). In the 1960s, Britten devoted a lot of attention to parable operas ( Woodcock River – 1964, Cave action – 1966, Prodigal Son– 1968); he also created a television opera Owen Wingrave(1971) and chamber operas Turn the screw And The Desecration of Lucretia. The absolute pinnacle of the composer’s operatic creativity was his last work in this genre - Death in Venice(1973), where extraordinary ingenuity is combined with great sincerity.

Britten's operatic legacy is so significant that few English authors subsequent generations were able to emerge from its shadow, although it is worth mentioning the famous success of the opera by Peter Maxwell Davis (b. 1934) Taverner(1972) and operas by Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934) Gavan(1991). As for composers from other countries, we can note such works as Aniara(1951) by the Swede Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916–1968), where the action takes place on an interplanetary spacecraft and uses electronic sounds, or an opera cycle Let there be light(1978–1979) by the German Karlheinz Stockhausen (the cycle has the subtitle Seven days of creation and is designed to be completed within a week). But, of course, such innovations are fleeting. Operas are more significant German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) – for example, Antigone(1949), which is built on the model of ancient Greek tragedy using rhythmic recitation against the background of ascetic accompaniment (mainly percussion instruments). Brilliant French composer F. Poulenc (1899–1963) began with a humorous opera Breasts of Tiresias(1947), and then turned to an aesthetics that emphasized natural speech intonation and rhythm. Two of his best operas were written in this vein: mono-opera Human voice after Jean Cocteau (1959; libretto structured as phone conversation heroines) and opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, which describes the suffering of nuns of one Catholic order during the French Revolution. Poulenc's harmonies are deceptively simple and at the same time emotionally expressive. The international popularity of Poulenc's works was also facilitated by the composer's requirement that his operas be performed in local languages ​​whenever possible.

Juggling like a magician with different styles, I.F. Stravinsky (1882–1971) created an impressive number of operas; among them - a romantic written for Diaghilev’s enterprise Nightingale based on the fairy tale by H.H. Andersen (1914), Mozartian A Rake's Adventures based on Hogarth's engravings (1951), as well as static, reminiscent of ancient friezes Oedipus the King(1927), which is intended equally for the theater and the concert stage. During the period of the German Weimar Republic, K. Weil (1900–1950) and B. Brecht (1898–1950), remade Beggar's Opera John Gay into an even more popular The Threepenny Opera(1928), composed a now forgotten opera on a sharply satirical plot The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany(1930). The Nazis' rise to power put an end to this fruitful collaboration, and Weill, who emigrated to America, began working in the genre of the American musical.

Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983) was all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s with his expressionist and overtly erotic operas. Don Rodrigo (1964), Bomarzo(1967) and Beatrice Cenci(1971). The German Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) gained fame in 1951 when his opera was staged Boulevard Loneliness libretto by Greta Weil based on the story of Manon Lescaut; The musical language of the work combines jazz, blues and 12-tone technique. Henze's subsequent operas include: Elegy for Young Lovers(1961; set in the snowy Alps; the score is dominated by the sounds of xylophone, vibraphone, harp and celesta), Young Lord, imbued with black humor (1965), Bassarids(1966; by Bacchantes Euripides, English libretto by C. Kallman and W. H. Auden), anti-militaristic We'll come to the river(1976), children's fairy tale opera Pollicino And Betrayed Sea(1990). Michael Tippett (1905–1998) worked in the opera genre in Great Britain ) : Midsummer wedding(1955), Garden labyrinth (1970), The ice has broken(1977) and science fiction opera New Year(1989) - all based on the composer's libretto. Avant-garde English composer Peter Maxwell Davies is the author of the above-mentioned opera Taverner(1972; plot from the life of the 16th century composer John Taverner) and Resurrection (1987).

Famous opera singers

Björling, Jussi (Johan Jonathan)(Björling, Jussi) (1911–1960), Swedish singer (tenor). He studied at the Royal Opera School in Stockholm and made his debut there in 1930 in a small role in Manon Lescaut. A month later Ottavio sang in Don Juan. From 1938 to 1960, with the exception of the war years, he sang at the Metropolitan Opera and enjoyed particular success in the Italian and French repertoire.
Galli-Curci Amelita .
Gobbi, Tito(Gobbi, Tito) (1915–1984), Italian singer (baritone). He studied in Rome and made his debut there in the role of Germont in Traviata. He performed a lot in London and after 1950 in New York, Chicago and San Francisco - especially in Verdi's operas; continued to sing in largest theaters Italy. Gobbi is considered the best performer of the role of Scarpia, which he sang about 500 times. He starred in opera films many times.
Domingo, Placido .
Callas, Maria .
Caruso, Enrico .
Corelli, Franco-(Corelli, Franco) (b. 1921–2003), Italian singer (tenor). At the age of 23 he studied for some time at the Pesaro Conservatory. In 1952 he took part in the vocal competition of the Florence Musical May festival, where the director of the Rome Opera invited him to take a test at the Experimental Theater of Spoletto. Soon he performed in this theater as Don Jose in Carmen. At the opening of the La Scala season in 1954 he sang with Maria Callas in Vestal Spontini. In 1961 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Manrico in Troubadour. Among his most famous roles are Cavaradossi in Tosca.
London, George(London, George) (1920–1985), Canadian singer (bass-baritone), real name George Bernstein. He studied in Los Angeles and made his Hollywood debut in 1942. In 1949 he was invited to the Vienna Opera, where he made his debut as Amonasro in Aide. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera (1951–1966), and also performed in Bayreuth from 1951 to 1959 as Amfortas and the Flying Dutchman. He performed the roles of Don Giovanni, Scarpia and Boris Godunov superbly.
Milnes, Cheryl .
Nilsson, Birgit(Nilsson, Birgit) (1918–2005), Swedish singer (soprano). She studied in Stockholm and made her debut there as Agatha in Free shooter Weber. Her international fame dates back to 1951, when she sang Elektra in Idomeneo Mozart at the Glyndebourne Festival. In the 1954/1955 season she sang Brünnhilde and Salome at the Munich Opera. She made her debut as Brünnhilde at London's Covent Garden (1957) and as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera (1959). She was also successful in other roles, especially Turandot, Tosca and Aida. She died on December 25, 2005 in Stockholm.
Pavarotti, Luciano .
Patti, Adeline(Patti, Adelina) (1843–1919), Italian singer(coloratura soprano). She made her debut in New York in 1859 as Lucia di Lammermoor, in London in 1861 (as Amina in Somnambulist). She sang at Covent Garden for 23 years. Possessing a magnificent voice and brilliant technique, Patti was one of the last representatives of the true bel canto style, but as a musician and as an actress she was much weaker.
Price, Leontina .
Sutherland, Joan .
Skipa, Tito(Schipa, Tito) (1888–1965), Italian singer (tenor). He studied in Milan and in 1911 made his debut in Vercelli in the role of Alfredo ( Traviata). He performed regularly in Milan and Rome. In 1920–1932 he had an engagement with the Chicago Opera, and sang constantly in San Francisco from 1925 and at the Metropolitan Opera (1932–1935 and 1940–1941). Excellently performed the roles of Don Ottavio, Almaviva, Nemorino, Werther and Wilhelm Meister in Mignone.
Scotto, Renata(Scotto, Renata) (b. 1935), Italian singer (soprano). She made her debut in 1954 at the New Theater of Naples as Violetta ( Traviata), in the same year she sang for the first time at La Scala. She specialized in the bel canto repertoire: Gilda, Amina, Norina, Linda de Chamounix, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda and Violetta. Her American debut was as Mimi from Bohemians took place at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1960, and first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Cio-chio-san in 1965. Her repertoire also includes the roles of Norma, Gioconda, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Francesca da Rimini.
Siepi, Cesare(Siepi, Cesare) (b. 1923), Italian singer (bass). He made his debut in 1941 in Venice as Sparafucillo in Rigoletto. After the war he began performing at La Scala and other Italian opera houses. From 1950 to 1973 he was a leading bass singer at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang, in particular, Don Giovanni, Figaro, Boris, Gurnemanz and Philip in Don Carlos.
Tebaldi, Renata(Tebaldi, Renata) (b. 1922), Italian singer (soprano). She studied in Parma and made her debut in 1944 in Rovigo as Elena ( Mephistopheles). Toscanini chose Tebaldi to perform at the post-war opening of La Scala (1946). In 1950 and 1955 she performed in London, in 1955 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Desdemona and sang in this theater until her retirement in 1975. Among her best roles are Tosca, Adriana Lecouvreur, Violetta, Leonora, Aida and other dramatic roles. roles from Verdi's operas.
Farrar, Geraldine .
Shalyapin, Fedor Ivanovich .
Schwarzkopf, Elizabeth(Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth) (b. 1915), German singer (soprano). She studied with her in Berlin and made her debut at the Berlin Opera in 1938 as one of the flower maidens in Parsifale Wagner. After several performances at the Vienna Opera, she was invited to take leading roles. Later she also sang at Covent Garden and La Scala. In 1951 in Venice at the premiere of Stravinsky's opera A Rake's Adventures sang the role of Anna, in 1953 at La Scala she participated in the premiere of Orff’s stage cantata Triumph of Aphrodite. In 1964 she performed for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. She left the opera stage in 1973.

Literature:

Makhrova E.V. Opera house in the culture of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century. St. Petersburg, 1998
Simon G.W. One Hundred Great Operas and Their Plots. M., 1998