Tommaso Traetta and the fusion of Italian and French opera in Parma / George W. Loomis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Loomis, George W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opera--18th century.

Opera.

Italy--Parma.

Traetta, Tommaso, 1727-1779.

Traetta, Tommaso.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : Academica Press, [2022]

Summary:

In 1759 the court of the Italian Duchy of Parma adopted the inspiration of cultural creators who recommended a reform of Italian opera along French lines. These writers favored combining Italian-style music with the wider range of musical genres and scenic variety of French opera. As the prize-winning music critic and commentator George W. Loomis shows in this groundbreaking volume, the young composer Tommaso Traetta was engaged to create new operas responding to these demands.As Loomis deftly demonstrates, Traettas operas were largely oriented toward the formal aria, a byproduct of making Italian music an essential component of this cross-cultural fusion. Nevertheless, they were strikingly innovative in their use of chorus, integrated dance, and accompanied recitative. Structurally, the operas reflect the French distinction between scenes of action and divertissements. After a brief flowering in the 1760s, the project was abandoned, primarily for lack of interest, but Traettas Parma operas deserve a previously unrecognized place in the history of Western music for their stimulation of opera seria in Italy and beyond. This included the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose genre-defining Idomeneo (1781) proved a turning point in the development of opera.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781680538083

168053808X