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Megan Gunnerson

Dr. Breedon

History of Western Music

April 27, 2024

Opera Seria vs. Opera Buffa

When the term “opera” is brought up, it is typically associated with prima donnas in

massive, extravagant wigs and rococo style skirt with hundreds of petticoats, and who sing the

most dramatic aria at the top of the staff, or the sequence of high staccato notes in “Queen of the

Night” aria from The Magic Flute. However, as true as these two examples are, there are many

more forms of opera, which fall into the categories of opera buffa (comic opera) or opera seria

(serious opera). The first of these is the more recent therefore more popular side of opera

whereas the opera seria is the earlier version of opera and was the metaphorical sandbox to play

in to figure out what opera was going to look like and become. However, as people changed,

their taste in music changed and it became more accessible to the general public and catered to

their entertainment tastes which is where opera buffa was created and became a hit because of its

musical pilgrim parent, opera seria.

Opera seria, sometimes called dramma per musica or melodramma, is the origin of opera

and began in 1597 with Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, an opera about the Greek gods, specifically Apollo

and Daphne, written for the Florentine Camerata, which was a society of humanists in Florence,

Italy around the time of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Notable members of this society

include the Medici family, who had a large part in governing Florence, and they enjoyed this

dramatic musical performance of the story of the gods that it quickly caught popularity.

Unfortunately, despite the popularity of this opera, there are few remaining copies of any of the
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music from this opera. Soon after this performance, Peri wrote Euridice, also about the Greek

mythology figures Eurydice and Orpheus, in 1600, which is the first opera to survive through the

test of time and is still performed frequently today. These two models of opera and the popularity

it was gaining from the higher class paved the way for Monteverdi when he wrote L’Orfeo, also

about Eurydice and Orpheus, in 1607, which is now considered a masterpiece and the most

successful and is also still performed today. A very common theme of these operas, and most of

the operas of this time, were about characters from Greek mythology and the tragedies they faced

in these myths. These tragedies would be expressed in the music as the melodies and harmonies

would carry the emotions of the characters. For example, in L’Orfeo, when Orpheus finds out

that Eurydice has been killed by a snakebite in “Tu se’ morta, mia vita”, the music is slow and

rarely ornamented in the accompaniment, which is utilizes chromaticism and dissonances to

emphasize the despair that Orpheus is feeling. The melodic line, which also has pain-inducing

chromatics, has rests where there would not usually be rests, but it is incredibly speech-like as it

acts as the lack of breath Orpheus has after finding out that his love has died while he is still

living. Slowly, as his plan comes together to go to the Underworld, the rhythms begin to speed

up and become more connected, like formed thoughts. This, like many other arias of this time,

were arranged with simplicity, with not very much going on in the orchestra. This style of opera

slowly diminished as it was accessible only to the higher classes who could afford to watch them

and were educated enough to understand and appreciate them.

Soon after the rise of opera seria, the general, lower-class public was craving a form of

entertainment they could afford and understand as music itself was becoming even more

accessible and more of the lower classes could begin to take part in making music. This was

called opera buffa, which stems from the English word “buffoon”. These comedic operas
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featured more common and relatable characters with more common and relatable problems, and

sometimes would include characters from popular stories and the commedia dell’arte. No longer

were the mythological Greek entities with their larger-than-life issues like going through the

obstacles of the Underworld to bring back one’s wife, there were stories about marital mix-ups,

maids trying to marry their lords, lovers in disguise, and more. These were typically in a

burlesque nature, as it was more appealing to the lower classes, and often utilized a “slapstick”

sort of comedy, accents and dialects, disguises and trickery, or ribaldry. The operas also used

language that the general public would use so that the lower classes could better understand the

lyrics and could therefore also relate to the characters better. The music was also much more

accessible and was suited more for the general public as it was simpler and lighter compared to

the complex dissonances of the opera seria. There were more simple melodies and harmonies to

listen to as well as rhythms that were not too complicated or difficult to understand. This

simplicity in the musical writing also emphasized the comedy of the opera as dense textures

would weigh down any humor in the

An example of this genre of opera is La Serva Padrona, or The Maid Turned Mistress by

Giovanni Pergolesi, written in 1733. It is considered an intermezzo more than opera buffa, which

can be defined as a comedic, short opera that would be performed between the acts of a separate

Pergolesi opera, traditionally Il prigionier superbo, which was more serious in nature. The

purpose of this was to bring some lightheartedness to the audience so that they would not be

dragged through a serious and depressing opera for almost three hours, but instead they could

have some comedy to break it up a bit, which could end up lasting around four hours for those

who decided to stay in their seats for the entire time. The intermezzo is a very small cast of three

characters, Serpina, who is the maid, Uberto, who is the old bachelor of the house, and Vespone,
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the servant of the house and is also a silent actor, which is not completely uncommon for this

time and these kinds of operas.

The opera itself is about Serpina, who is trying to persuade Uberto, the bachelor of the

house, to marry her. She is convinced that she actually runs the house and uses that to her

advantage over Uberto, forbidding him to leave the house when he gives her orders, even after

she has not done her daily task of bringing him his chocolate. He then orders a colleague,

Vespone, to find her a husband so that she will be gone, however, she convinces Vespone to trick

Uberto into marrying her. This works after she tells Uberto that she will be marrying a military

man and she apologizes for her behavior. At this point, Vespone enters and is disguised as the

military man, whose name is Tempesta, and he immediately demands 4,000 crowns for Serpina

from Uberto, who declines. “Tempesta” argues that Uberto pay or marry Serpina, and Uberto

agrees to marry his maidservant. However, Serpina and Vespone reveal this to Uberto, but

Uberto realizes he loves Serpina and has since the beginning. They marry and Serpina is finally

able to rule the house as she intended all along. This plot is much more comedic and light

hearted than any opera seria, especially compared to those of the Greek gods. It was so

approachable and accessible for the general public that it became very popular and was

performed outside of Il prigioniero superbo, which did not do as well as its intermezzo. La serva

padrona was so popular that it gradually became an inspiration and model for what future opera

buffa should look like and become.

Musically, La serva padrona is much more simple and also accessible for general

audiences to listen to and comprehend. The melodies stay relatively tonal and do not explore

chromaticism or dissonance to emphasize the light-hearted nature of this opera. The harmonies

are the same in that they stay very relative to the key and do not stray into chromaticism or
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dissonances. This would ensure that the music was easy for the audience to listen to and they

would not have to think too deeply about the music itself and they could focus on and enjoy the

performance and the storyline. The rhythms, at least in the arias also stay very simple and there

is not much syncopation or complex time signatures. The recitative is a little bit more complex

rhythmically, but this was common for this era, and was the same as the opera seria. However,

this recitative is very speechlike and easy to comprehend, which is good for the lower class and

those who are less educated about music. Another interesting aspect of the composition of this

opera is that in each act, the arias and recitatives are in a ABABABC order, if the aria is “A” and

the recitative is “B”, and there is a duetto “C” at the end of each of the two acts. From an

instrumental standpoint, in the arias, the performers are accompanied by a larger and more

complex orchestra as musical accessibility and popularity of more instruments became more

widespread. Additionally, the accompaniment follows the light-hearted nature of the vocal

melodies as much of the instrumentation, though it has a dense texture, it is primarily full of

staccato rhythms and therefore has a light and bouncy feel, which was more entertaining and

easier to understand for the lower classes than complex dissonances and complicated

instrumental textures.

After the establishment of these two genres of opera, many more operas would be written

for entertainment, but would include all sorts of mixtures of both types. Both opera seria and

opera buffa paved the way for the operas that came after in the later 18th and 19th centuries like

Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s La Bohème, and even became inspiration for the 20th and

21st century musicals like Gershwin’s Showboat or Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of

Penzance, and even some very modern musicals, like Hadestown or Falsettos, all of which draw

inspiration from the dramatic and comedic aspects of both opera seria and opera buffa in terms
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of musical writing, staging, and instrumentation. It is interesting and fascinating that musical

theatre, which is supposed to be live entertainment for the general public, stems directly from

these operas that came a few hundred years before them, and yet they still pay homage to their

original source.
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Works Cited

A brief history of opera. San Francisco Opera. (n.d.-a). https://www.sfopera.com/learn/about-

opera/a-brief-history-of-opera/#:~:text=In%20Florence%2C%20a%20small%20group,to
%20be%20the%20first%20opera.

A timeline of opera history. San Francisco Opera. (n.d.-b). https://www.sfopera.com/learn/about-

opera/a-timeline-of-opera-history/#:~:text=However%2C%20Euridice%20is%20not%20
actually,first%20masterpiece%20of%20the%20genre.

Whitney, S. (2021, September 15). What is opera buffa?. Opera Colorado.

https://www.operacolorado.org/blog/what-is-opera-buffa/#:~:text=These%20plot%20
elements%20and%20the,and%20even%20to%20Donizetti’s%20Don

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, July 26). Opera seria. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_seria

Wikimedia Foundation. (2024a, January 6). Opera buffa. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_buffa

Wikimedia Foundation. (2024b, March 5). La Serva padrona. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_serva_padrona