I was very surprised, while reading the program notes for Handel's
"Guilio Cesare" at the Metropolitan Opera last night, to read a comment
about a "current misconception" concerning arias and recitatives --- the
program annotator stated that people mistakenly believe that the
recitative conveys the essential dramatic action. The author seems to
believe the core of the dramatic narrative in opera seria is through
arias. Unfortunately he neither cited a source nor amplified what I
consider a dubious belief.
Does anyone on the list support this point of view? I haven't seen
anything in the literature that contradicts what I learned in Grout,
Kerman, Palisca, Bukofzer et al, and I think these four sources are
neither "current" nor a "misconception."
Ted McIrvine
-- McIrvine@Ix.Netcom.Com College of Staten Island/CUNY http://www.csi.cuny.edu/academia/programs/mus.html