A consideration of Monteverdi after L´Orfeo
In order to explore Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643) as a composer
after L´Orfeo, I will analyse some of
this opera to consider how he later matured in terms of use of text, structures,
instrumentation and expression as the main driving force, as well as analysing
the changing contexts of his time. I will look at two operas after L´Orfeo, these being Il Ritorno d´Ulisse in Patria and L´Incoronazione di Poppea. Not only
harmonies and pure musical terms will be explored but also aspects such as
changing styles, social demands, performance contexts and the philosophy behind
Monteverdi´s music.
In 1607 La Favola d´Orfeo
premiered for the first time as a “favola in musica” in collaboration with
Alessandro Striggio, librettist and chancellor at the court of the Duke of
Mantua.
At the time L´Orfeo premiered, Monteverdi was under
the protection of the Duke, which meant that opera was quickly used as a new tool in the
political mythology of Venice to emphasize greatness, magnificence and luxury. This opera has been considered the first real opera, and even
though Monteverdi had a long history composing madrigals, it was the starting
point to a great operatic career. The fact that it was considered as such is in
Monteverdi´s goal to approach music drama from the point of view of music; he
was concerned that his music should be properly structured. He encountered the
problem that monodic music proposed, for it could soon become a danger and
become shapeless. Monteverdi first encountered the problem of how to give
musical shape to developing narrative drama. Thus in order to achieve a
coherent and thoughtful whole, he invented the varied repetition, which is based on the ideas of Aristotle that
all art, including music and drama,
The libretto by Striggio was very well structured and no real
narrative begins until the middle of the II Act; meaning Monteverdi could
freely present ideas and characters before the plot became dramatically
meaningful. More importantly, as Striggio was the son of a composer, he
provided opportunities where Monteverdi could break up the recitative with
musically attractive relief; by using extended madrigalian choruses and
strophic solos such as Orfeo´s “Vi ricordo” in Act II (which is accompanied
only by continuo instruments). As well in the famous aria “Possente Spirto”,
accompanied by an organo di legno and
a chitarrone, we notice that in the four stanzas these compete with brilliant
concertante parts for two violini, then two cornetti, a double-harp, and
finally a string trio. The large orchestra does not only play the sinfonie and
ritornelli more substantially than Peri´s L´
Euridice, but they achieve a heightened dramatic effect, for these changes
in tone colour portray Orfeo fatally looking back.
The opera presents precise instrumentation, a large list of
instruments is put forth and which one plays where is also specified (L´Orfeo was the first opera to do this).
Monteverdi´s successful experiment with instrumentation led him to portray a
potentially new level within the orchestra, being the first composer to care
about the balance between instruments.
A reason as to why these experiments worked was because Monteverdi
was exploring with forms of tuning that eventually allowed instruments to have
a much freer contrast and a new instrumental sensibility. This, in combination
with the
harmonies[1],
creates a new world of sonorities more proper to the human expression.
L´Orfeo presents a great ability in vocal inflexions, reaching a chromatic
language of great harmonic freedom. The great achievement of Monteverdi as an
opera composer was that he combined the chromaticism of the Seconda Prattica
with the monodic style of vocal writing typical of Caccini and Peri, who were
continuing the practice. Monteverdi borrowed elements from the madrigal and
from the ornate Venetian church music.
Years after L´Orfeo had been
premiered, the first public opera house opened in Venice in 1637, conceiving
new ideas and interests in Monteverdi, who returned with his last two operas, Il Ritorno di Ulisses in Patria, and L´Incoronazione di Poppea; “He saw that
this new form of entertainment could make use of every resource that was
available.”[2]
A small comparison
can be made between the works written for the Gonzaga Court and Venice: both Il Ritorno and L´Incoronazione are scored for strings and continuo alone, whereas
the early works employ richer and more varied combinations. Even though he was
influenced by the cantata style, Monteverdi maintained a right balance in his
recitatives; these were not mere declamations, but rather rendered an
expressive and powerful spirit, with a well-organized structure.
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It is now interesting to see how he moved from a more divine,
god-like figure like Orfeo, to a more humanistic plot, Ulysses. Mythology, used
equally from both Christian and pagan patrons, provided extensive material for artistic
representations even after the triumph of Christianity. The resurrection of the
soul, the triumph of virtue over evil or hope for everlasting life were
subjects that concerned many. But humanism had by this time made its
point, and now the centre of all thought was the human being itself and the
belief of its power of expression; the idea of what purpose did music serve and
a return to the expressiveness of the ancient Greeks. But this humanistic approach proposed a musical problem for Monteverdi,
since realistic acts
and situations can be seen to accentuate the unreality of the medium in which
they are presented; librettos with more realistic or human characters, like
Ulysses, heighten the problem of verisimilitude. Thus Ulysses singing song,
which is often left for God-like figures and pastoral characters was out of the
dramatic context. But Tomlinson´s argument falls short of understanding; this
just meant an opportunity for Monteverdi to finally use all of his technical
devices; the fashionable
arietta, duets and ensembles, and how they could be combined with the
expressive and less fashionable recitative of the early part of the century. And as the Ulyisses librettist Badoaro stated in
a letter addressed to Monteverdi, he explained that Venetian audiences had been
deceived by mere appearances, for the emotions they had seen on stage left them
cold and unmoved. And so a warmer and a more humanistic approach to this new
genre was masterly put through Badoaro´s text and Monteverdi´s art of shifting
affections with a full range of pathos.
First presented in 1640,
Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria stands exactly at this early
point of early Venetian opera development and is a reflection of its time.
Monteverdi was of course not new to the genre and he brought the sum of his
experience when he returned to it in 1640. Il
ritorno combines the wide display of the master’s compositional practices.
In addition to musical forms used in Orfeo—dramatic and ornate
recitative, canzonettas, strophic variations, etc.—Monteverdi adds to his
palette the results of his Venetian experimentations. For example, the
relatively new concitato style, first developed in the Combatimenti di
Tancredi e Clorinda and explored further in the eighth madrigal book, is
used in Il Ritorno.
The Prologue
introduces Human Fragility (soprano), Time (bass), Fortune (soprano) and Love
(soprano) as if to remind us that there is still an underlying world of gods and
spirits strange to the human being; but only the last of them (Amor, Cupid) is
an established deity. Il Ritorno, in
terms of plot and text, stands between Orfeo´s pure mythical story and L´Incoronazione, the latter being an
allegorical and historical plot. Monteverdi achieves a balanced structure with
Human Fragility, which returns with strophic variations on a repeated bass: at
first, with repeated words; then again, with new words. The opening sinfonia
also serves as a ritornello. Love more than anything else is the prominent justification for singing
in Il ritorno. Throughout the opera the language of Love is clearly
identifiable because of its setting in ternary meter. Love will later be, in L´Incoronazione, an operatic tribute to its
power.
In terms of instrumentation,
Monteverdi does not specify here, like in L´Orfeo,
which instruments should be used. The
five-part ritornelli, as mentioned before, are certainly for strings,
with some other instruments possibly added at times for colour. For most of the
opera, the score gives only two staves of music: a vocal line and an instrumental
bass line below it:
It is left to the performers to decide how to ornate
the harmonic bass line and to decide which instruments should play it, this
also happens when more rhythmic music appears, probably to be set as a dance,
and thus percussion instruments are used at the discretion of the performer and
his own knowledge. The element of improvisation in these operas, creates not
only different instrumental colours with each performance, but a uniqueness
that will never be repeated in the same way; it creates its very own spatiality.
A possible choice of instrumentation would be to use a variety of continuo
instruments to vary the sonority according to the dramatic situation: two
harpsichords, an organ, two theorbos, cello and a dulcian (early bassoon), a practice Monteverdi would have been
familiar with, since the representation of L´Orfeo.
His last opera, L´Incoronazione
di Poppea, was first presented in 1642 on the stage of SS. Giovanni e
Paolo, written by the librettist Gian Francesco Busenello. As mentioned before,
this opera was not supposed to be an historical libretto, but rather an
allegoric depiction of history. “His last work for the
theatre, L´Incoronazione di Poppea… is without doubt the foundation of the
opera style that was soon to fascinate and engulf all of Italy.”[3]
One concludes that Ulisses is not yet, whereas Poppea is, altogether an opera in
the mid-seventeenth century Venetian idiom.
The plot is scandalous and amoral, starkly contrasting with L´Orfeo, which in its divine
justification, was meant to teach morality. Whereas Donington explains L´Incoronazione: “Yet it is not only
that we have perfectly untroubled conscience in thus identifying in the theatre
with characters who in history were human monsters, and who even in this
frankly romanticized scenario are not exactly scrupulous in their pursuit of
pleasure”. [4]
In some respects, this was the first `modern´ opera by virtue of its
treatment of human emotions and personalities and its anticipation of a
leitmotiv technique of composition. The aria became an important element, and
in L´incoronazione the insight shown
into the humanity of the character anticipates 19th century
developments. Arias are here organized strophically and make full use of the
expressive vocabulary developed by the madrigalists, but it is noticeable that
even where there was no strophic verse, Monteverdi still employed the aria
style.
The final love
duet in Act III is built on a ground bass (which mainly consists of a
descending four note pattern, from G to D) and is in ternary form, this being
ABBA. At section B we find that the pace increases tempo on the words “Io son
tua, tuo son io”, only to go back to the original tempo in “Pur ti miro, pur ti
godo” and end on a note of rapture. There is simplicity in the way Monteverdi
uses simple recitation for dialogue, but combines recitative passages with more
melodic, arioso styles.
Notice this
example below:
From an analytical point of view we come to terms that the harmonies
went from a starting diminished 7th, falling to a C chord with a
major seventh, moving to a D dominant chord and ending in G. The missing fifths
of the first diminished chord and the next chord in C, suggest an unstable
emotion; “peno”, (suffering) but Poppea and the basso continuo later fill up
these fifths by adding A and G, before moving to D5 and ending in G major.
In conclusion, we find that Monteverdi after L´Orfeo expanded several techniques; the use of text and word
painting, instrumentation, performance and use of tonal colour are some devices
that under a strongly structured whole, where social and artistic changes in
philosophy and art were key to his development, were able to portray emotions
in a much deeper way than any of his coetaneous, making him by the 1640s, one
of the first opera masters.
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