HINSON, DANIEL ROSS, DMA Are You Serious? - The University of ...

Goldoni combined character types from serious operas (parti serie), usually a pair
of noble lovers, with the ragtag of servants, peasants and others (parti buffi) who
populated his unalloyed comic librettos. Sometimes he also added roles that were
halfway between the two in character (di mezzo carattere). His name for such an
amalgam, applied fairly consistently from 1748 on, was dramma giocoso. 6
Goldoni’s collaborator, the composer Galuppi, who was considered equally
proficient at both buffa and seria composition, became the first internationally renowned
buffa composer, most especially because of the popularity of his Il filosofo di campagna
(1754) which was quickly disseminated throughout Europe. 7 Significantly, Galuppi’s
prior experience in writing opera seria, such as his popular works Demetrio (1748) and
Artaserse (1749), afforded him the opportunity to borrow from the more stylized form.
Thus, he became first composer to write arias in the seria style for the parti serie within a
comic opera. Such intermixing of both disparate social classes of characters and musical
materials made the earliest drammi giocosi true hodgepodges of the buffa and seria
styles.
By the 1780s, the role of ensemble singing increased, thus substantially
diminishing the importance (and sheer number) of arias in opera buffa. The arias that
remained underwent a great deal of change as well. “The two-tempo rondò was
borrowed from serious opera to show the skills of the leading soprano and tenor. A
special kind of writing for the comic bass evolved, alternating patter, leaps, drastic
gestures, and repeated emphatic cadence figures . . . . And in general arias grew simpler
6
Daniel Heartz, Mozart’s Operas, ed. Thomas Bauman (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1990), 195-196.
7
Dale E. Monson. "Galuppi, Baldassare." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/50020 (accessed November 8, 2009).
9