28. Classical-era Opera—The Rise of Opera Buffa

Overview

The magnificent opera seria of the Baroque Era was, by the 1730s, increasingly perceived as being elitist and socially irrelevant. In France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau spearheaded the support of a new type of opera (opera buffa), which had emerged in Italy, as the ideal opera for the new Age of Enlightenment. Opera buffa was inspired by the Italian commedia dell’arte, with its more realistic plots, smaller casts, and more tuneful music that focused more on everyday people than on the upper class. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s opera La serva padrona of 1733 was embraced by Rousseau in the early 1750s as a model for the opera of the future.

Cast