IMBROGLIO
The comic ensemble is another area in which comparison with Paisiello will help us take the measure of the Code Rossini. As in Mozart's operas, the comic ensemble finale was the site where composers could experiment with ways of suffusing fully composed music, formerly the province of the static or “freeze-time” aria, with real dramatic action, the more frenetic the better. Audiences loved the effect, and librettists began seeking opportunities to contrive dramatically active ensembles, often based on slapstick gimmicks, in other spots besides finales. As the opera buffa became more musically antic, it reverted once again to purely comic type, reversing the trend toward mixing dramatic genres that characterized Mozart's later comic operas on librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte, with their occasional serious characters and their attendant vocal genres. The Countess in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro is a seria character, despite the nature of the opera as a whole. Rosina, the same character (albeit not yet a countess) in Il barbiere, is a pure buffa ingenue (or, if more knowingly played, a “soubrette”).
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Real Worlds, and Better Ones." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2023. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-001004.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 1 Real Worlds, and Better Ones. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Nineteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 6 Dec. 2023, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-001004.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Real Worlds, and Better Ones." In Music in the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 6 Dec. 2023, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-001004.xml
