Class 3: "Opera Buffa"

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3. Opera Buffa. The acknowledged master of Italian operatic farce, or opera buffa, was Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), but his final comedy, Le Comte Ory (Count Ory, 1828) was unusual in his oeuvre. It was written in French, in Paris, where Rossini was to spend the rest of his life. It is based upon a play by the master craftsman of the French theatre, Eugène Scribe (1791–1861). But unlike native French opéra comique, it was a fully-developed score, containing no spoken dialogue.

Le Comte Ory is a farcical story of failed seduction; it has no deeper qualities whatever. The plot tells how Ory, the bachelor son of some medieval Duke, tries to seduce the Countess Adèle, whose brother and protector is off fighting the Crusades. To do this, Ory disguises himself first as a holy Hermit, then as the leader of a group of nuns on pilgrimage. His rival for Adèle’s affections is none other than his own page, Isolier—a young man’s role performed by a mezzo-soprano like Cherubino from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. But unlike Figaro, Ory ends with a scene in a darkened bedroom, where the double dose of gender confusion—a male character disguised as a woman, and a female singer portraying a male one—adds a titillation to the otherwise conventional form that is unique and very, very funny. rb.

The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.

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Q AND A

I have trouble using the links
This question was actually asked by somebody in another course, but it made me realize that what worked best for me on a Windows desktop computer might not be ideal for other devices. So I have changed the way that links work. Instead of opening in a new window, they now take over from the current page. So just use the back button or arrow to return to it.

What other approaches to the bedroom scene are there?
The two full productions other than the Met that I list below (one of which has the same tenor) also use a degree of physical foreplay: here is the scene at Pesaro in 2024, and (albeit in poor video) at Glyndebourne in 1997. Two that try slightly less explicit approaches are an earlier one from Pesaro in 2009 and a 2010 production in Hungary. It occurs to me, incidentally, that this scene would be impossible if the role of Isolier were sung by a man: making him a travesty role ensures that as a male character, he can make love to Adele, while the casting with a female singer takes the sting out of Ory making love to her!

What is the history of the "pants-role"?
I was wrong in suggesting that it goes back to Monteverdi; in Poppea (1642), for example, he uses a tenor for the role of the page. But that was because the tenor was not yet the big heroic voice it became in Romantic opera. In Handel's Giulio Cesare (1724), for example, the heroic male roles such as Julius Caesar were taken by the big stars—castrati—while the young man's role of Sesto was indeed sung by a woman. The first iconic pants-role is probably Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (1786), a teenager in total thrall to his hormones. The largest trouser role of all is surely Octavian, the title character in Der Rosekavalier (1911), by Richard Strauss; the role of the Composer in his Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) is equally important, but figures only in the first act. The title role of the Child in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges (1925), which we will be hearing later in the semester, is also written for a mezzo-soprano, though it is relatively small.

When was the last castrato?
The last operatic castrato role ever written was Armando in Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto of 1824. The last castrato to survive was Alessandro Moreschi, who sang in the Sistine Chapel choir. He is also the only one to make a solo recording; you should realize, however, that (a) in 1902, recording technique was still in its infancy; (b) Moreschi would have been 46 and past his prime; and (c) that he was never an opera singer. Nowadays, such roles are taken by countertenors, normally virile men who have developed the upper register, to such an extent that many modern composers now write specifically for the countertenor voice. But they do not have the unique combination of soprano voice and tenor physique that made the voice so extraordinary. For the film Farinelli, the voice of American countertenor Derek Lee Ragin (briefly a student of mine) was blended electronically with that of a dramatic soprano to create some spproximation of the sound; you can hear the result here.

VIDEO LINKS

The good news: the 2011 Metropolitan Opera production of Le Comte Ory is available on YouTube, both complete and in several shorter excerpts. The bad news: the video quality is not great, and only one scene has English titles. So I also include a link to where you may buy the DVD set on Amazon; it is about $27, which is not bad for a 2-disc set.

I also include links to two other complete productions (though neither with English titles), almost diametrically opposite in approach. One comes from the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and is modern, sparkling, and clear. It is well worth a look for its quite unusual design inspired by Heironmyus Bosch, and inventive approach to staging throughout; it features the same tenor, Juan Diego Flórez. For comparison purposes, I have given cues to the equivalent sections we watched in class.

The other is a production from my own alma mater, Glyndebourne, which I think was the first company to mount a modern revival of the opera. Unfortunately, this version has little of the sparkle of that 1956 production; this one has old-fashioned costumes and scenery, and singers who (at least in close-up) make little attempt to hide their age. But it is musically excellent, and I wonder (though without proof) if it was actually devised as a return to what the premiere might have looked like in 1828. So I have included it for that reason, as a straight performance that puts the emphasis where it belongs: on the music.

METROPOLITAN OPERA, 2011
	Complete	YouTube video (no titles) Amazon purchase (about $27)
	Scenes	Ory's entrance as the Hermit Act I finale (this has titles!) Bedroom scene

OTHER PRODUCTIONS
	Pesaro, 2024	Complete (see note above and image below) — Ory's entrance as the Hermit — Isolier/Ory duet — Adèle's Act I entrance — Adèle/Ory Act II duet — drinking song — bedroom scene
	Glyndebourne, 1997	Complete (see note above)

The bedroom scene at Pesaro (see link above)


IMAGES
The thumbnails below cover the slides shown in class, though there may be a few small discrepancies. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image. Click on the right or left of the larger picture to go forward or back, or outside it to close.

Here are brief bios of the composers and writers considered in the class, listed in order of birth.

	Eugène Scribe, 1791–1861. French dramatist. Scribe wrote between 300 and 500 works for the stage. Although his spoken plays are seldom revived, his formula of the "well-made play" remained as a standard principle for at least a century. His opera libretti include the first French grand opéra, Auber's La Muette de Portici, Rossini's Le Comte Ory (both 1828), numerous works for Meyerbeer, a couple for Offenbach, and Verdi's Sicilian Vespers (1855).
	Gioacchino Rossini, 1792–1868. Italian composer. Rossini's fame rests on his 39 operas, especially the comedies, all written while he was still in his thirties. In 1829, after writing Guillaume Tell, one of the foundation stones of French grand opéra, he essentially retired, settling in Paris, and writing only occasional pieces plus his masterpieces of sacred music, the Stabat Mater of 1842 and Petite Messe solennelle of 1864.
	Gaetano Donizetti, 1797–1848. Italian composer. One of the leading composers of historical and romantic operas in the bel canto era, including a trilogy featuring Queen Elizabeth I, plus comedies in both Italian and French, Donizetti nonetheless began his career with a mythological scene, Pygmalion.
	Vincenzo Bellini, 1801–35. Italian composer. The short-lived Bellini, who was born in Sicily, trained in Naples, and finally achieved success in Milan and Paris, with his operas La sonnambula, Norma, and I puritani. Renowned for his long melodic lines and psychological acumen, he was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera.