Re: Questionable Program Notes about Recitative & Aria in Handel

Maureen Buja (mebuja@stagebill.com)
Mon, 12 Apr 1999 22:33:03 -0400

The exact line by Brian Trowell is:
"He [Handel] could adapt librettos much more easily to his will, truncating
the often long-winded fine sentiments of the recitatives in order to make
room for more and longer arias and, in spite of current misconceptions, it
is in the succession of arias, not in the recitatives, that the essential
continuity of the action lies." He then goes on to make a 4-page argument in
support of this statement, it doesn't stand by itself.

Maureen Buja

----- Original Message -----
From: Ted McIrvine <McIrvine@ix.netcom.com>
To: <MList@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 1999 10:45 PM
Subject: Questionable Program Notes about Recitative & Aria in Handel

> Dear Collective Wisdom:
>
> 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
>
>