Opera buffa (Italian:[ˈɔːperaˈbuffa], "comic opera";pl.:opere buffe) is a genre ofopera. It was first used as an informal description of Italiancomic operas variously classified by their authors ascommedia in musica,commedia per musica,dramma bernesco,dramma comico,divertimento giocoso.
Especially associated with developments inNaples in the first half of the 18th century, whence its popularity spread toRome andnorthern Italy,buffa was at first characterized by everyday settings, local dialects, and simple vocal writing (thebasso buffo is the associated voice type), the main requirement being clear diction and facility withpatter.
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera considersLa Cilla (music byMichelangelo Faggioli, text byFrancesco Antonio Tullio [it], 1706) andLuigi andFederico Ricci'sCrispino e la comare (1850) to be the first and last appearances of the genre, although the term is still occasionally applied to newer work (for exampleErnst Krenek'sZeitoperSchwergewicht). High points in this history are the 80 or so libretti by Carlindo Grolo, Loran Glodici, Sogol Cardoni[1] and various other approximateanagrams ofCarlo Goldoni, the threeMozart/Da Ponte collaborations, and the comedies ofGioachino Rossini andGaetano Donizetti.
Similar foreign genres such as Frenchopéra comique, Englishballad opera, Spanishzarzuela or GermanSingspiel differed as well in having spoken dialogue in place ofrecitativo secco, although one of the most influential examples,Pergolesi'sLa serva padrona (which is anintermezzo, not opera buffa), sparked thequerelle des bouffons in Paris as an adaptation without sungrecitatives.
Opéra bouffon is the French term for the Italian genre of opera buffa (comic opera) performed in 18th-century France, either in the original language or in French translation. It was also applied to original Frenchopéras comiques having Italianate or near-farcical plots.[2]
The term was also later used byJacques Offenbach for five of hisoperettas (Orphée aux enfers,Le pont des soupirs,Geneviève de Brabant,Le roman comique [fr] andLe voyage de MM. Dunanan père et fils[3]), and is sometimes confused with the Frenchopéra comique andopéra bouffe.[4]
Comic characters had been a part of opera until the early 18th century, when opera buffa began to emerge as a separate genre, an early precursor having been the operatic comedy,Il Trespolo tutore, byAlessandro Stradella, in 1679. Opera buffa was a parallel development toopera seria, and arose in reaction to the so-called first reform ofApostolo Zeno andPietro Metastasio.[1] It was, in part, intended as a genre that the common man could relate to more easily. Whereasopera seria was an entertainment that was both made for and depicted kings and nobility, opera buffa was made for and depicted common people with more common problems. High-flown language was generally avoided in favor of dialogue that the lower class would relate to, often in the local dialect, and the stock characters were often derived from those of the Italiancommedia dell'arte. The 1701scherzo drammatico (dramatic jest),Il mondo abbattuto byNicola Sabini was particularly influential in Naples, creating a popular model due to its use of both Tuscan and Neapolitan dialects.[5]
In the early 18th century, comic operas often appeared as short, one-act interludes known asintermezzi that were performed in between acts of opera seria. There also existed, however, self-contained operatic comedies.La serva padrona (1733) byGiovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736), is the one intermezzo still performed with any regularity today, and provides an excellent example of the style.Lo frate 'nnamorato (1732) andIl Flaminio (1735), by Pergolesi as well, are examples of the three-actcommedia per musica.[6]
Apart from Pergolesi, the first major composers of opera buffa wereAlessandro Scarlatti (Il trionfo dell'onore, 1718),Nicola Logroscino (Il governatore, 1747) andBaldassare Galuppi (Il filosofo di campagna, 1754), all of them based inNaples orVenice. The work of these was then resumed and expanded byNiccolò Piccinni (La Cecchina, 1760),Giovanni Paisiello (Nina, 1789) andDomenico Cimarosa (Il matrimonio segreto, 1792). The genre declined in the mid-19th century, despiteGiuseppe Verdi'sFalstaff staged in 1893.
The importance of opera buffa diminished during theRomantic period. Here, the forms were freer and less extended than in the serious genre and the set numbers were linked by recitativo secco, the exception beingDonizetti'sDon Pasquale in 1843. With Rossini, a standard distribution of four characters is reached: a prima donna soubrette (soprano or mezzo); a light, amorous tenor; abasso cantante or baritone capable of lyrical, mostly ironical expression; and abasso buffo whose vocal skills, largely confined to clear articulation and the ability to "patter", must also extend to the baritone for the purposes of comic duets.[7]
The type of comedy could vary, and the range was great: fromRossini'sThe Barber of Seville in 1816 which was purely comedic, toMozart'sThe Marriage of Figaro in 1786 which added drama and pathos. Another example of Romantic opera buffa would be Donizetti'sThe Elixir of Love of 1832.
Whileopera seria deals with gods and ancient heroes and only occasionally contained comic scenes, opera buffa involves the predominant use of comic scenes, characters, and plot lines in a contemporary setting. The traditional model foropera seria had three acts, dealt with serious subjects in mythical settings, as stated above, and used high voices (bothsopranos andcastrati) for principal characters, often even for monarchs.
In contrast, the model that generally held for opera buffa was having two acts (as, for example,The Barber of Seville), presenting comic scenes and situations as earlier stated and using the lower male voices to the exclusion of thecastrati.[8] This led to the creation of the characteristic "basso buffo", a specialist inpatter who was the center of most of the comic action. (A well-known basso buffo role is Leporello inMozart'sDon Giovanni.)
