[MUSIC] A Guide Through The Jungle of Opera - Part 2 - The 18th Century Continued

Read the first part here

Let's pick up where we left off; in the Classicism of the late 1700s. It's usually said that the Baroque era ended with Bach's death in 1750, and that the music of composers such as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (one of Johan Sebastian's 20 children) and Christoph Willibald Gluck served as a transitional bridge between Baroque and Classicism. The highly ornamented, complicated, labyrinthine music of the Baroque became simplistic and graceful in the Classical period. 

11. The overture from Don Giovanni (1787) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Already the D minor chord of the overture heralds the arrival of the frightening stone statue and Don Giovanni's eventual downfall in the last act. Don Giovanni is Mozart's darkest opera, but it's nonetheless full of comedy and sensuality. A true pillar in the history of European music.

12. "Madamina, il catalogo è questo", also known as the Catalogue Aria, from the same opera. Leporello explains to Donna Elvira that she's neither the first nor the last of Don Giovanni's mistresses. He mercilessly reads from a catalog of conquests about how many women his master Don Giovanni has been with, to a shocked and distraught Donna Elvira. Peasants, waitresses, city girls, countesses, baronesses, marchionesses, princesses: women of all ranks, shapes and ages. In Spain alone he has slept with 1003 women.

13. "Vedrai carino", also from Don Giovanni. Zerlina tries her hardest to get her fiancé Masetto back after having fallen for Don Giovanni's irresistible charm.

14. "Don Giovanni! a cenar teco m'invitasti" - yes, we're still dealing with the horny Don Giovanni! But it's time for our promiscuous protagonists to finally descend into hell. It hardly gets any more dramatic and fateful than this.

15. "Soave si al vento" from Così fan tutte (1790) by Mozart. The name of the opera literally means "Thus do all women" and is one of the three Mozart operas with Lorenzo Da Ponte as librettist (the other two being The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni). The officers Ferrando and Guglielmo pretend they're heading out for war. Their girlfriends wave them goodbye and hope for mild winds. With them is the cunning Alfonso who helps the men stage a trial to test the fidelity of the girlfriends. Everything is set for yet another lewd Mozart opera.

16. March of the Priests from The Magic Flute (1791) by Mozart. Mozart wrote this one of his most beautiful marches for the clergy of Masons led by Sarastro. The same Masons that later subject Papageno and Tamino to severe trials by fire and water, but the two heroes save themselves using a magic flute and a glockenspiel.

17. "Der Hölle rache kocht in meinem Herzen", also known as the Queen of the Night's Aria from The Magic Flute. No respectable opera list would be complete without this breakneck aria. Queen of the Night is affected by holy wrath. She wants her daughter Pamina to kill Sarastro and expresses it with one of the most difficult (and the highest) coloratura arias in the opera literature (Sarastros arias contain some of the lowest notes). I chose the lovely and quirky French coloratura soprano Patricia Petibon for this aria, despite her not-so-perfect German pronunciation. Shivers await.

18. "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen" from The Magic Flute. This beautiful duet between Papageno and Pamina in which they reflect on the joys and sacred duties of marriage, captures the very essence of The Magic Flute and Mozart's humanism overall.

19. "Ach, Ich Fühl's" from The Magic Flute. Perhaps the most beautiful and melancholic of Mozart's arias. Tamino, just as Papageno, is sworn to silence to prove his love for Pamina, in one of Sarastro's cruel trials. A heartbroken Pamina takes Tamino's silence as a sign that he has no interest in her. If you've ever been unhappily in love, this aria will touch you significantly more.

20. Since this second list of the 18th century so far solely has consisted of Mozart operas, I thought I'd throw in yet another piece by french baroque composer Rameau. It's from the colorful and exuberant ballet héroïque (a mixture of opera and ballet) called Les Indes galantes (1735). How can you not fall in love with this? First a concert version and lastly the ballet version:

There are many more Mozart operas not to be missed, but the three Da Ponte operas together with The Magic Flute is an excellent start. I wouldn't for the world miss Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), for instance. And of course, there are a lot more Baroque operas that are more than worth hearing; not least Thésée by Lully, Médée by Charpentier, Orlando furioso by Vivaldi and literally all of the operas by Rameau.

In the two first articles, we have taken a journey from early baroque to late classicism (and back), and in the next article we'll continue into the ebullient romantic era of the 19th century!

 @SteemSwede