[Sidenote: _Opera buffa._]

[Sidenote: _Opera seria._]

[Sidenote: _Recitative._]

Detailed study of the progress of opera from the first efforts of the
Florentines to Wagner's dramas would carry us too far afield to serve
the purposes of this book. My aim is to fix the attitude proper, or at
least useful, to the opera audience of to-day. The excursion into
history which I have made has but the purpose to give the art-form a
reputable standing in court, and to explain the motives which prompted
the revolution accomplished by Wagner. As to the elements which
compose an opera, only those need particular attention which are
illustrated in the current repertory. Unlike the opera audiences of
two centuries ago, we are not required to distinguish carefully
between the various styles of opera in order to understand why the
composer adopted a particular manner, and certain fixed forms in each.
The old distinctions between _Opera seria_, _Opera buffa_, and _Opera
semiseria_ perplex us no more. Only because of the perversion of the
time-honored Italian epithet _buffa_ by the French mongrel _Opera
bouffe_ is it necessary to explain that the classic _Opera buffa_ was
a polite comedy, whose musical integument did not of necessity differ
from that of _Opera seria_ except in this--that the dialogue was
carried on in "dry" recitative (_recitativo secco_, or _parlante_) in
the former, and a more measured declamation with orchestral
accompaniment (_recitativo stromentato_) in the latter. So far as
subject-matter was concerned the classic distinction between tragedy
and comedy served. The dry recitative was supported by chords played
by a double-bass and harpsichord or pianoforte. In London, at a later
period, for reasons of doubtful validity, these chords came to be
played on a double-bass and violoncello, as we occasionally hear them
to-day.

[Sidenote: _Opera semiseria._]

[Sidenote: _"Don Giovanni."_]

Shakespeare has taught us to accept an infusion of the comic element
in plays of a serious cast, but Shakespeare was an innovator, a
Romanticist, and, measured by old standards, his dramas are irregular.
The Italians, who followed classic models, for a reason amply
explained by the genesis of the art-form, rigorously excluded comedy
from serious operas, except as _intermezzi_, until they hit upon a
third classification, which they called _Opera semiseria_, in which a
serious subject was enlivened with comic episodes. Our drama