Page 137 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

CLASSICAL 1750–1820 135

See also: Orfeo ed Euridice 118–119 ■ C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in A major 120–121 ■ Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G
minor 128–131 ■ The Barber of Seville 148 ■ Der Freischütz 149 ■ Tosca 194–197

Mozart’s The Magic Flute remains Mozart’s Idomeneo (1781) and La songs. John Gay’s The Beggar’s
hugely popular. The opera drew more clemenza di Tito (1791)—often drew Opera (1728) was the most famous
than 400,000 spectators at Austria’s its stories from the mythology and ballad opera, but it was Gay’s
Bregenz Festival during a two-year history of ancient Greece and Irish contemporary Charles Coffey
run in 2013 and 2014.
Rome. Opera buffa was comic, who had the greatest impact in
with Mozart’s The Marriage of 18th-century Germany. His ballad ❯❯
has been abducted by Sarastro, Figaro (1786) an outstanding
high priest of the gods Isis and example of the genre.
Osiris. Tamino vows to rescue Singspiel had its roots in early
Pamina. He, his comic companion, 18th-century Vienna, where the
Papageno (the queen’s bird- imposing Theater am Kärntnertor
catcher), and Pamina undergo a specialized in popular musical
series of ordeals, armed only with dramas. Unlike the Italian operas I’ve just got back from the
a magic flute and magic chimes. performed for the court and nobility, opera; it was as full as ever …
Light eventually triumphs over these entertainments were for you can see [it] continuing to
darkness, bringing a happy ending. Viennese of all social backgrounds. rise in people’s estimation.
From Vienna, singspiels spread to Wolfgang
Popular appeal Germany, where in the mid-century Amadeus Mozart
Mozart wrote 20 operas in all, in they gained in popularity due to
three genres: opera seria, opera the influence of French opéra
buffa (both sung throughout), and comique and English ballad opera.
singspiel. Opera seria, the grandest Both these genres mingled spoken
form of opera—a style that includes dialogue, often satirical, with

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