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Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts £hm it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiek may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. THE METASTASiAN ORATORIO AND OPERA SERL4: A COMPARATIVE STUDY Wade Kenneth Wright Graduate Progam in Music Submitted in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Graduate Studies The University of Western Ontario London. Ontario Janii;ur 3000 6 Wade K. Wright 2000 ABSTRACT Contemporary accounts of the oratorios of Pieho Metastasio frequently lead to comparisons with the theatrical genres, particularly the opera seria. Yet. apart fiom these brief observations. the Metastasian oratorio has never been compared with the Metastasian opera seriu. thus prompting and justifj4ng this investigation. Since Metastasio's libretti were set repeatedly. the oratorio La passione di Gesù Cristo (1730) and the opera L 'Olimpiadr ( 1 73 3 ). written by Metastasio and set by Antonio Caldara for the Viemese court. will sme as the principal vehicles for cornparison. In chapter one. the political. econornic. and social environment in which these works were witten is established and an account of the Viennese sepolcro is provided, prirnarily because La passione is a product of this nadition. Chapters two and three consist. respectively. of a comparative study of the libretti and their musical settings. Finally. the conclusions assess the resuits of these comparisons in light of subsequent adaptations. Krywords: Metastasio. Caldara oratorio. opera seria. La pussionr. L 'Olimpiade. sepolcro, Habsburgs. Vienna. Aha. To my grandmother. Laurena Carrothers. for being such an integrai part of my support network. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks is extended. first md foremost, to my principal advisor, Dr. Don Neville. for his patience. his interest. his kindness. and his time. Thanks are also due to Dr. Richard Sernrnrns. for providing valuable suggestions. and to Lisa Philpott, Gayle Fluter. and the rest of the staff of the Music Library at the University of Western Ontario. While this project has been dedicated to one person in particular. 1 would be remiss if 1 did not acknowledge the role played by al1 of my family (particularly rny parents) and friends. For your support. encouragement. tolerance. patience. and listening ears. I extend to you my wholehearted &gratitude. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Certificate of Examination .*.11 Abstract 111 Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents vi List of Tables vii List of Appendices viii Introduction Chapter 1 Pan 1: Historical Context- The Austro-Italian Baroque Pm II: The Viennese Sepolcro- A Review of the Secondary Source Literature Chapter 2 The Librettos Compared Chapter 3 The Musical Settings Compared Conciusions Vita LIST OF TABLES Table Description O. 1 Summary of Metastasio's Operas and Oratorios; 1 730- 1736. Including Composer and Performance Date The Sepoicro: The Pnmary Sources The Sepolcro: An Assessrnent of Relevant Secondary Sources ( In C hronological Order) The Evolution from the Sepoicro to the Oratorio ul Sam issirno Sepoicro Prevalent Rhyme-Scheme Examples: La passione and L 'Olimpiude .4na and Ensemble Distribution The Structure of the Du cupo Aria The Structure of the Da capo Aria With Vocal Motto Vocal Soloists who Premiered La passione and L 'Olimpiade in Vienna Vocal Ranges of La passione and L 'Olimpiacie Distribution of Mode between La passione and L 'Ofimpiade Distribution of Tempo between La passione and L 'Olimpiude La parsione: Structural Organization L 'Olimpiade: Structural Organization Summq of Similarities and Differences: Lu passione and L 'Olirnpiode LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Description Page Appendix 1 Plot Synopsis: Lü passione 103 Appendix II Plot Synopsis: L 'Olimpiade 105 Appendix III La passione and L 'Olimpiade: 1O9 S iructural Organization Summary of Sirnilarities and Differences: Lo parsione and L 'Olimpiade INTRODUCTION .As Imperia1 Court Poet in Vienna from 1730 to 1782. Pietro Metastasio was required to provide [ihretti for sacred and seculas dramatic performances and the Vke-Kapellmeister. Antonio Caldara (died 1736). was accountable for severai of their fiat musical settings. Givrn this mutual participation. investigations of the eighteenth-cenniry Metastasian opera and oratorio have tended to suggest that both genres. their most obvious differences aside, resmble each othrr in structure and style. Joyce Johnson. for example. states that "both the operas and the ontonos wrinen by Metastasio are structured along similar lines"' and Howard Srnither daims that "cornposers seem not to have distinguished stylistically between O~O~Oand serious opera."' Smither Mercontends that: ... the texts and the music [of the oratorio] are modelled on those of contemporary open. Thus. O~O~Oand open tend to exhibit the same kinds of stylization of "affections." or emotional states. in their poetry and music and the çame kinds of structural and stylistic changes during the course of the Baroque period. As opera changes frorn the flexible combination of recitative and aria of the mid-seventeenth century toward the more highly stylized and rationalistic structures of the eighteenth cenniry. oratorio changes with it- or in somr respects behind it: as opera abandons the strophic and other procedures identified with the aria of the mid-seventeenth century in favour of the da capo aria oratorio does so as well: as opera minimizes the use of the chorus. so does oratorio: indeed. as Zeno and Metastasio introduce changes in the Italian opera libretto. they do likewise in the Italian oratorio libretto. and dius they change certain aspects of the oratorio's gened structure.' ' JO -cc JO hnson. Romun Orarorio. 1 '-0- 1800: The Reperrto- at Sonfa Maria in bbllicello (Ann Arbor. hlich.: U.M.I. Research Press. 1987). 38. -Howard Smither. "Oratorio and Sacred Opera. 1700-1825: Terminology and Genre Distinction" Rojd .\fusicologicul .issociution Proceedings 106 ( 1979180): 89. 'Howard Sm ither. The Orarorio in the Barque Era: /ta&, bïenna Paris, 1. .4 HIStory of rhe Orazorio i Chapd Hill. N.C.:ne L'niversi'y of North Carolina Press. 1977). 13. While other scholars have alluded to this topic. typically in midies of one genre or the other and with a focus primarily upon music. no anempt has ken made to compare and contras1 the two in detail. thus prompting this investigation. A study aimed directly at a comparison of the libretto and score of an eighteenth- ccntury Metastasian oratorio and opera might well reveal similarities and differences that transcend those that have traditionally ken apparent to scholars concemed with either genre. It is. therefore. the intent of this snidy to augment conternporary understanding of this issue. not only by outlining the textual and musical similarities and differences that are easily identitiable. but also to seek hrther for those that are not- Sincc it is impossible. within the scope of this study. to compare ail musical settings of cvrp Metastasian O~O~Oand opera libretto. this investigation will focus upon a single representative exarnple of each genre. ïhus. the oratorio. La parsione di Gesù Cristo (1730). and the open. L 'Olimpiude (1 733). witten by Metastasio and set by Caldara for the Virnncse court around the same time. will serve as the principle vehicles for comparison. By drtrmining the various similarities and differencrs that exist between these two works. it will bc: possible to reveal elements that assist in Further defining the genres that they represent. The proposed study. however. has a secondary aim. From approximately 1660 to 1 710. in addition to the oratorio. librettists and composers at the Habsburg court cultivated the .sepolcro. a genre of sacred drarnatic music virtually unknown in other centres. An account of this genre is essential. not only because a cornprehensive overview of this genre is lacking. but aiso because the Metastasian oratorio chosen for examination is a product of this tradition. While detailed investigations of the Viennese opera4 and oratorio (including 4 Herbert Siekn's study of the opera at the Viennese court fiom its beginning to 1705 is, as of yet un su rpassed : S ie fert, Die Opera am Wiener Kaiserhof im I 7 Jahrhundert. Wiener Ver6ffent i ichungen zur blusikgeschichte, ed. Othmar Wessel-y. vol. 25 (Tutzing: Ham Schneider. 1 985). See also Seifert, Der Sig- prungende Hockeir-Gort: Hochzeirfeste am Wiender Kaiserhof 1 622- 16 99. Dramma per mus ica. Vol 2. (Vienna: Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag. 1988). The most comprehensive snidy of Fuu's Viennese operas is: J. H. Van der Meer.Jo)wnn Josef Fia ais Opernkompnîsr (Bilthoven, A. B. Cpghton, 196 1). See further. however, Seifert -The Secular-Dramatic Compositions of Fux: A Genefal Survey," in Johann Joseph Fm and the! .\tusic of rhr .-furrro-lralianBaroque, ed. Harry White (Aldershot. U.K.: Scolar Press, 1W), 138-152. Caldan's Viennese operas are discussed in Robert Freeman, "Opera Without Drarna: Cunents of Change in the sepolcro)' have been done. examinations of the sepolcro in panicular await assembly into a comprehensive whole. Within the limits of this thesis. therefore. an attempt will be made to provide a succinct account of this genre by bnnging together a disparate body of research.