The Use of Greek Tragedy zn the History of Opera Ruth Zinar Throughout the history of music the ancient Greek tragedies have inspired composers of operas, ballets, oratorios, and symphonic works. The frequent use of Greek themes stems from many reasons, foremost of which are the power and force of these ancient legends, the philosophical problems they present, and the question of man's fate that lies within them. These myths are among the oldest sources of inspiration in Western art. Unlike the Bible, which composers have generally approached reverently, they have been subject to revision and varying attitudes depending on changes in outlook from one culture to the next. Each generation sees the legends in the light of its own experience and environment, and the subject matter of opera used by that generation reflects its own preoccupations, prejudices, and preferences. As a result, not only have the musical treatments and inter- pretations of plots and characterizations of the Greek tragedies varied in different periods,l but each age also appears to have its own attitudes as to which tragedies provide suitable material for operatic presentation. Thus, certain themes become favorites for a time, only to give way to others in a later age. This article presents a survey of these changing preferences and prejudices as they pertain to the use of Greek tragedy as subject matter for opera,2 as well as a tentative chronological listing of the operas based on certain themes from Greek tragedy. It is not known at which point the Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were no longer presented in their original form, but by the time of Plato dramatists were dealing with politics, war, love, and philosophy, as well as with the deeds of gods and ancestors. Rome borrowed the dramas, performance methods, and music from the Greek theater and then expanded, exaggerated, and distorted these borrow- ings. In the 3rd century A.D., Athenaeus, a Greek living in Rome, complained that "in ancient times the Greeks were music lovers, but later, with the breakdown of order, when practically all the ancient customs fell into decay, this devotion to principle ceased, and debased fashions in music came to light." In olden days, he continued, "it was the acts of heroes and the praise of gods that the poets put to song-music."3 In spite of the Romans' preference for sensational spectacle, violence, rhetoric, and sensuality, Greek tragedy in some form continued to be cultivat- ed at least into the 3rd century. After the general recognition and acceptance of Christianity, all arenas, including the theaters, were closed, and a new era in the history of music and its relationship to the theater began. Like the ancient Greeks, the early Christian fathers considered music 80 important in influencing the thoughts and emotions of men. Among the scholars and teachers of the time was Clement of Alexandria, who in his "Exhortation to the Greeks" (c. 200 A.D.) voiced the kind of opposition to the ancient tragedies which influenced the course of music throughout the medieval period: For my own part, mere legend though they are, I cannot bear the thought of all the calamities that are worked up into tragedy; yet in your hands the words of these evils have become dramas, and the actors of the dramas are a sight that gladdens your heart. But as for the dramas and the ... poets, who are altogether like drunken men, let us wreathe them, if you like, with ivy, while they are performing the mad revels of the Bacchic rite, and shut them up .... Under cover of music they have outraged human life, being influ- enced by daemons, through some artful sorcery, to compass man's ruin. By commemorating deeds of violence in their religious rites, and by bringing stories of sorrow into worship, they were the first to lead men by the hand to idolatry.4 This new doctrine of morality was foreign to the Greek doctrine of Fate, and the Greek tragedies were seen as tales of horror, parricide, incest, and violence. As a result of the activities of the Church, the theaters, with their music and drama, were abolished at the end of the Roman Empire, and liturgical dramas took their place. But although the tragedy and the theaters of the Greeks and Romans were not known to the masses during the Middle Ages, the great classical tragedies were studied in their Latin translations in the schools of Europe. During the Renaissance, the knowledge of the classics of antiquity spread. In 1423 the plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus were first brought to Italy by Giovanni Aurispa, a humanist and educator, and the study of Greek made rapid pro- gress. By the end of the century choruses in tragedies presented in the schools were sometimes set to music. During the 16th century Renaissance artists turned to Greek themes more often in spectacles characterized by a melange of gods, heroes, nymphs, satyrs, shepherds and shepherdesses, stupendous scenic effects, and a bringing together of song, dance, music, and costume. Some plays, written in imitation of the Greek originals, were performed as intermedii with solos, duets, madri- gals, instrumental pieces, and choruses. Among these was an Alkestis by Hans Sachs (1555), which has been lost. The Academie de poesie et de musique was founded in France by the poet Bail in 1570 during the reign of Charles IX. Its purpose was to restore the ancient drama, and towards the end of the reign of Henry III, the Academie was about to present "une piece de theatre en vers mesures a la farson des Grecs,"5 when political troubles interfered. In 1585 the first performance of a Greek tragedy with choruses set to music took place in a modern theater. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, translated into 81 Italian by the scholar and statesman Orsatto Giustiniani, with music by Andrea Gabrieli, was chosen to inaugurate the opening of Vicenza's Teatro Olimpico. Although the production became the 16th-century model for performance practices of musical dramas,6 Oedipus himself was banished, for it was apparently not until almost two hundred years later that an opera was based on his tragic story. Shortly after Gabrieli's Oedipus Rex the Florentine Camerata was formed with the aim of returning to the greatness of Greek tragedy, but the new Christian interpretations could not accept the Greek concept of Fate which was so intimately related to Greek religion and to the Greek theater. The first operas produced in Florence were really festivals to celebrate occasions at court, and this may account for the fact that Greek tragedies were not used as subject matter. Ottavio Rinuccini, as librettist, provided a happy ending for the opera Euridice (1600). In his preface to the work, he described the approval with which such representations as his were received; he wrote that "some may feel that I have been overly bold in changing the end of the fable of Orpheus; but so it seemed fitting to me at a time of such rejoicing."7 Several years later Striggio, the librettist for Monteverdi's Orfto (1607), intended to portray Orpheus' death at the hands of the Bacchantes but did not do so for fear of offending the court. Instead, he had Apollo lead Orpheus to heaven to seek Euridice in the beauty of the stars and the sun. These "happy endings" were typical of the period, and the operas of the early Baroque became a mixture of love story, pastorale, and fairy tale. In her study of the use of Alceste as subject matter in opera, Abert states that the Florentines would have thought it impossible to set a complete Greek drama to music.s It appears from Rinuccini's and Striggio's treatments of the Orpheus legend that one reason for the rejection of Greek tragedy as subject matter during a period in which the "restoration" of the ancient theater was an ideal was that Greek tragedies were, in fact, "tragic." Their themes-the anguish and suffering depicted, the portrayal of rulers with all too human weaknesses-were inappropriate for the festive court occasions for which opera was supposed to be written. Amid general corruption, political assassinations, and insecure conditions, the first public opera house, the Teatro San Cassiano, was opened in Venice in 1637, and the masses, with their taste for longer, more spectacular works, gained admittance to the world of opera. The genre became a craze, and all the earlier tendencies were amplified. Librettos caricatured the Greek myths, so that gods acted like characters in an intrigue-filled farce based, in part, on the life of the period. Tangled sub-plots, extraneous characters, mistaken identities, disguises, double triangles, casts of characters involving monsters, nymphs, and tritons, numerous stage machines for miracles, apparitions, transformations-all catered to the age's taste for spectacle and amusement and to the vanity of the absolute monarch (if there was one), the privileged nobility, or the wealthy middle class. Throughout the 17th century, Greek legend was a major source of librettos, and there were at least sixty-nine 82 operas based on ancient Greek mythology which provided subject matter for two-thirds of those written and produced up to 1650, for a little more than halffrom 1650 to 1675, and for a little less than halffrom 1675 to 1700.9 This, then, was the picture of the opera stage when in 1649, almost half a century after the Camerata, the first opera based on a classic Greek tragedy, Cavalli's Giasone, was produced. In 1660 Ziani's L'Antigona delusa da Alceste (with a libretto by Aureli), was presented in Venice. Like other operas of the time, it was a drama of love, hate, revenge, and jealousy. The libretto was a fantastic distortion of Euripides' original play, in which the old ideas of Fate and Friendship played no role. The Greek tragedy of Euripides contains a scene in which Alceste is veiled after being rescued from Death by Hercules, and another in which she expresses her fear that Admetos will take a new wife in her place after her self-sacrifice. These scenes (together with Alceste's devotion, Admetos' fatal illness, and the final rescue by Hercules) provided a better starting point for the favorite type of Baroque libretto than those of any other Greek tragedy. Aureli's libretto included mistaken identity, disguises, comic scenes, and two love stories ending with two happy couples, Alceste and Trasimedes (Ad- meto's brother) and Antigona (a foreign princess) and Admetos. Butler believes that this distortion and the preoccupation of Baroque librettos with infidelity were based on Christian ethics and constitute the hallmark of modernity.lO In the last years of the Baroque period, beauty and charm began to dominate opera as the works became more superficial. Machines were still popular, and the happy ending was mandatory. During this period a new heroine from the pages of Greek tragedy appeared on the stage in operas supposedly based on Euripides' Iphigenia. One such opera, Iphigenie en Tauride (1704) by Henri Desmarets, contained distortions of the plot, and ballet, pageantry, and elaborate stage settings. At least five more operas based on Iphigenia (in Tauris or in Aulis) appeared during the next fifteen years. At the close of the Baroque period, Alceste and Iphigenia were still the legendary figures upon whom most of the operas based on themes from Greek tragedy relied. During the Rococo, subjects were drawn more from classical history or legend than from mythology. A number of critics of contemporaneous opera, however, still saw in Greek tragedy the ideal subject matter. In It teatro alta moda (1720), Benedetto Marcello ridiculed the librettos of his time and gave ironic advice to poets: The librettist's subject matter need not be historically true. As a matter of fact, since all the Greek and Roman subjects have been treated ... the modern librettist is faced with the task of inventing a fable and adding to it all kinds of oracles, realistic shipwreck scenes, ... etc. All that is needed is to have an historical name or two on the public announcement of the work, the rest can then be freely invented and the 83 only further thing that matters is that the number of verses must not exceed twelve hundred, arias included.ll Francesco Algarotti also lamented this change in subject matter; he saw it as an economy measure and regretted that accounts of deities were renounced and historical themes used because they were less magnificent and hence less expensive. In 1755 he advised: The poet can conquer these difficulties [the expense of machines in production, the theme not suited for music, the story not familiar enough] only by choosing the subject of his libretto with the greatest care .... he should take his plots from events remote in time, or at least in place, that furnish occasion for marvelous happenings while at the same time being extremely simple and well-known.12 He went on to recommend especially the story of Iphigenia in Aulis, "where to the great variety of settings and machines is superadded the charm of ... Euripides' poetry .... The poet ... will be in a position to do with opera what has to be done with states which, in order to keep it alive, have to go back to their roots from time to time. "13 Diderot was another writer who mentioned the suitability of Iphigenia in Aulis as subject matter for opera. In his "Entretiens sur Le Fils Naturel" (1757), he said of Clytemnestra's despair over the impending sacrifice of Iphigenia, "I know of no verses ... that are more lyrical, nor of situations that are better suited to imitation by music. Clytemnestra's state of mind must wrest from her inmost heart the cry of nature, and the composer will convey it to my ear in its most subtle shades."14 Composers and librettists apparently responded either to these critics or to the same forces in society which elicited their recommendations. In the century prior to Marcello's criticisms, only about a half dozen operas had been based on the Iphigenia legends. In the little more than fifty years be- tween that time and Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide (1774), there were at least fifteen. But the tragedies of Agamemnon, The Choephores, The Eumenides (the Oresteia trilogy of Aeschylus, which contains the horror-ridden stories of Agamemnon's murder by his wife Clytemnestra and her subsequent murder by her own children, Electra and Orestes), and Oedipus Rex (who killed his own father) were almost completely ignored. Gebel wrote an opera based on the Oedipus legend in 1751, but otherwise the Greek tragedies which explored the deepest and most powerful elements of human conflict and passions were avoided, as the Rococo " ... presented the world with the most lighthearted, amoral, and beautiful entertainments ... a stage devoid of earnestness, pathos, and solemni ty. "15 The criticisms of the philosophers and intellectuals of the Rococo eventu- ally bore fruit in the next period of operatic history. In 1755, the same year in which Algarotti had urged the use of tragedy as a suitable subject for opera, Johann Winckelmann, the classical archeologist, published his Gedanken iiber 84 die Nachahmung griechischer Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst, a work which reawakened interest in antiquity. Gluck was undoubtedly familiar with the ideas ofWinckelmann, Algarotti, and Marcello, and with 18th-century aesthetic theory, which saw music as the handmaiden of poetry. In his operas based on the tragedies of Alceste (1767), Iphigenia in Aulis (1774), and Iphigenia in Tauris (1779), he attempted to carry out the ideals of "simplicity and naturalness," which, as he stated in his foreword to Alceste (the second opera of his collaboration with the poet Ranieri Calzabigi), "are the highest principles of beauty in all artistic creations."16 In Alceste, especially, Gluck found the "strong passions, grand images and tragic situations," elements which "stir the audience and provide such great harmonic effects."17 His version of Alceste, however, and others of the 18th century, concentrated on the character's nobility and her inner struggle between motherly and wifely love. The cowardice of Admetos and the friendship of Hercules played small parts. In Gluck's other tragedies lyriques, as well, the characters were "more noble" than in the Greek originals. In Iphigenie en Tauride, Pylades offers to die with Orestes solely out offriendship. In the Euripides play, how- ever, he was also motivated by his concern with what people would think if he did not die with his friend. "The current conceptions of the relations be- tween men and women were such that they were enamored of the sacrifice, thinking it ... right and proper ... in harmony with Christian religious ideals. "18 This need to stress the noble and self-sacrificing aspects of behavior was but one of the factors which limited the selection of Greek tragedies for the operatic stage. The aesthetic viewpoint which dominated the 18th century was expressed by Christoph Wieland, librettist of Anton Schweitzer's Alceste (1773): Music ceases to be music when it ceases to give pleasure .... Music must refrain from painting the fury of an Oedipus who ... gouges his eyes and curses the day of his birth .... The composer should never forget that ... when he makes us cry, the tears we shed must not be painful but . .. tears expressing ... the emotions of an overflowing heart. This consideration would seem to exclude Oedipus ... and perhaps the majority of the tragic heroes from the lyrical stage.19 La Harpe, an influential literary critic and playwright ofthe period, agreed with Wieland. Writing on what constituted suitable subject-matter for opera, he declared: "I do not wish to hear the cry of a man in pain. I expect from the musician ... that he will find accents of grief without making them unpleasant ... I wish the charm of the melody to mingle with the emotion I feel."20 Although Gluck challenged this viewpoint and wrote in reply, "If some wicked person should say ... that Sophocles in the finest of his tragedies ... 85 dared to show ... Oedipus with his bloody eyes, and that ... the unfortunate King ... must have expressed the deepest sorrow, I will retort that M. de La Harpe does not wish to hear the cry of a man in suffering,"21 he did not attempt an opera based on the Oedipus tragedy. There were a few operas using the Oedipus theme between 1770 and 1830. Of this group Sacchini's Oedipe a Colone (1786) was the most successful. Although it was cooly received in France, it was well liked in England and Italy and by 1844 had received 583 performances. The story of Electra was attempted in opera for the first time during the Classical period. In 1782 Electre by Lemoyne, with a libretto by Guillard, was produced, and it shocked audiences. Clytemnestra's murder was com- mitted on the stage, this action violating 18th-century aesthetic values and making the denouement even more terrible than in the original tragedy. Haffner wrote an Electra in 1787, and Champein composed music for a literal translation of Sophocles' Elektra in the 1790's. This work was rehearsed and received with great applause at the Opera, but at the last moment the authorities refused to permit it to be performed. La Harpe also reflected the conceptions of his era when he declared, "Agamemnon is a coldly atrocious piece ... As for [the character] of Clytemnestra, it seems to me that one cannot tolerate her at all: she is an atrocity which is revolting."22 Thus, Alceste, Antigone, and I phigenia remained the favorites. During the Classical period, the interest in Greek tragedy was evident in at least seventy-five operas based on the dramas of ancient Greece. Most of these, however, dealt with the noble, self-sacrificing heroines, and only a handful with the tragic, violent figures of Oedipus, Electra, and Orestes. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra were apparently still completely rejected as possible subject matter. By 1800 the peak of the worship of Antiquity had passed, and the Western world was entering a new century with changing values. Throughout the Romantic period, interest in Greek legend was super- seded by musical nationalism, Wagner's theories of the music drama, and the predominance of program music. In opera, favored subjects included modern history, fairy tale, folk legend, medieval history, and (later) every- day life. A marked decrease occurred in the number of operas based on the Greek tragedies. Writers were apparently bored with Alceste and Iphigenia, and Antigone also fell into disfavor. From 1830 to 1900 there were fewer than fifteen operas based on Greek tragedy. Of these, none seems to have been taken from the tragedy of Iphigenia. Several composers did turn to Aeschylus' dramas, however. "The Aga- memnon was ... particularly admired by Napoleon .... he had long desired to produce a Greek play-in a good French translation-in its initial integ- rity, with choruses, music, etc. The project did not materialize."23 The works based on Oresteia include Agamemnon (1847) by Treves, a "burlesque tragedy" by Herve (1856), and Taneev's trilogy Oresteia (1895). There were also 86 several operas about Medea, including two parodies of the Medea and Jason story. Then, in 1909, Richard Strauss shocked the musical world with Elektra which contained the most brutal and violent music of any opera written up to that time.24 Strauss was deeply interested in the writings of current philosophers and social critics and in psychological "analysis." The music drama, with a libretto by von Hofmannsthal, stresses Electra's pathological desire for vengeance and her exultation over the murders of her mother and her mother's lover Aegisthus. It is more a study and explanation of Electra's feelings than a drama, as it suggests Electra's unconscious erotic attachment to her father. Whether society was ready for works like those of Strauss, or whether Strauss paved the way for such works, there followed a marked change in the number of operas based on the Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and in the direction taken in the choice of subject matter. Since Strauss's Elektra, there have been at least thirty musical theater pieces on the tragic themes of Greek drama, and of these, more than half have dealt with the Orestes, Oedipus, Electra, and Agamemnon legends. One of these music dramas is Alkestis (1924) by Egon Wellesz, who saw the ancient legends as timeless: It is the nature of the stories which the Greek poets have left to us that many different facets are contained in them, so that every age can turn to that in which it may see its own experience ... each age has formed them afresh, and so filled them with its own life.25 His major concern was to restore the role of Fate in the drama, so that its "power ... is to be discerned in the events on the stage, instead of caprice and arbitrariness. "26 The libretto by von Hofmannsthal was completed by Wellesz and does stress the overriding power of Fate. Honegger's Antigone (1927) was written to Cocteau's abridgment of Sophocles' play and shows Man in the grip of the destiny he has created for himself. Carl Orff wrote two works based on Sophocles' tragedies, Antigone (1949) and Oedipus Tyrannus (1959). Both follow the original stories closely. Questioned concerning his choice of such dramas, Orff declared: Sometimes I am asked why in the main I choose old material for my stage works. I do not feel it to be old, but only valid. The dated elements are lost and the spiritual strength remains.27 One of the more important operas of the 20th century is Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (1927), a setting of Cocteau's version of the Sophocles drama. The goal of this work, Stravinsky said, is: ... to focus the drama not on Oedipus himself ... but on the 'fatal development' which ... is the meaning of the play .... Oedipus, the 87 man, is a subject for a ... symbolic treatment that depends upon the interpretation of experience and is principally psychological. The geometry of tragedy is what interested me, the inevitable inter- secting oflines.28 Stravinsky believed that his audience was "not indifferent to the fate of the person, but ... far more concerned with the person of the fate and the delineation of it which can be achieved uniquely in music ... [ where] the portrait of the individual as the victim of circumstances is made far more starkly effective by this static presence."29 This interpretation can be related to the composer's profound religious feeling and to his belief in a great order presiding over the universe. Stravinsky declared that "the music was com- posed during my strictest and most earnest period of Christian Orthodoxy" and that he most certainly believed "in a system beyond Nature."3o Cocteau's libretto for Oedipus Rex remains close to the original Greek tragedy in its por- trayal of the power of Fate in Oedipus' life. In 1952 Darius MiIhaud, composer ofthe trilogy Oresteia (Agamemnon, Les Choephores, and Les Eumenides), writing on the future of music, declared: One knows ... that there have always been catastrophes in the history of the world. And yet one can only confirm that these catastrophes have not prevented the world from continuing to exist .... Doubt seems to me to be not only superficial but ridiculous .... Courage !31 Milhaud worked for ten years to set the Oresteia trilogy to music. There are similarities, apparently, between the theme of Aeschylus' work, which deals with mankind's redemption and the furtherance of knowledge and progress through suffering and catastrophe, and Darius Milhaud's personal philosophy. The libretto of L'Orestie is by Claudel, whose version of the dramas follows that of Aeschylus and is close to the original tragedies in all facets, including the representation of Orestes' murder of his mother as being not a result of free choice, but on the injunction of a god. Other operas since the First World War have included Leoncavallo's Edipo Re (1920), a grand opera which follows the original story closely, Enesco's Oedipus (1936), which uses microtones, and Partch's "electronic" opera King Oedipus (1961), as well as Louise Talma's Alkestiade (1956), which is a setting of Thornton Wilder's play and does not depart from the original story by making Alceste's wifely devotion the only major theme. In 1965 Pizzetti's Clitemnestra was performed at Milan's La Scala. A critic said of this piece: "Musically, the work was ... somber, repetitive, un- necessarily difficult to sing. But as exciting theater, the blood-thirsty Agamemnon legend is hard to beat .... "32 The most recent of this series is Martin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra, which had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1968. A number of characteristics appear to be evident in all these works. There is a frequent choice of a text by an outstanding writer (Cocteau, Claudel, Wilder, H6lderIin, Hofmannsthal); less alteration of plot than in previous 88 eras (except in Krenek's deliberate distortion in Das Leben des Orestes, 1930); concern with dramatic values; use of such devices as choral singing, choral dancing, "quasi parlando," "speech chant"; frequent use ofthe chorus (some of the works are called "choral dramas"); and simple staging.33 All of these suggest the performance practices of ancient Greece. Above all, there is a seriousness in approach which seems to indicate an earnest searching for ways to express the Greek tragedy through modern idioms, and a re- awakened interest in and approval of the dramas dealing with profound inner conflicts and problems of humanity. The acceptance of these tragedies as suitable subject matter for opera may be the result of a certain affinity between some contemporary viewpoints and those of ancient Greece. Unlike the Classical period, with its optimism and faith in reasoned solutions, the Baroque period, with its protagonists domi- nated by one "affect" or feeling, or the Middle Ages, with its conception of sin and rejection of much of the subject matter of Greek tragedy as stage material, modern audiences, writers, and composers accept and explore the role of Fate in human life and the complexity of human emotions. Gone is the demand for happy endings-violence of emotions and action is accept- able on the stage. The modern age can understand Sophocles' ironic fatalism, Euripides' human realism, and Aeschylus' conflict-filled emotion-driven pro- tagonists. The appended listing of operas based on Greek tragedies has been com- piled from the bibliographical sources indicated on p. 94. Many of these volumes or studies refer to some works not mentioned elsewhere. None con- tains more than a small percentage of the total. Where different dates were given for the same opera in different sources, the writer has used the date given in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (5th edition, 1954). Where there is a discrepancy in dates in the works not listed in Grove's, the earliest date has been selected. OPERAS BASED ON SELECTED GREEK TRAGEDIES ALCESTE Date Composer Title of Opera 1660 Ziani, P. A. L' Antigona delusa da Alceste 1674 Lully, J. B. Alceste 1680 Franck, M. Alceste 1693 Strungk, N. A. Alceste 1699 Draghi, A. Alceste 1702 Magni, P. Admeto, Re di Tessaglia 1718 Porsi1e, G. Alceste (Festa teatrale) 1719 Schiirmann, G. C. Die getreue Alceste 1727 Handel, G. F. Admeto, Re di Tessag1ia 89 Date 1728 1744 1750 1758 1758 1767 1769 1773 1780 1786 1786 1793 1794 1806 1847 1852 1882 1922 1924 1956 Date 1718 1725 1745 1751 1752 1772 1774 1775 1782 1786 1787 1788 1789 Composer Dominique, ? Lampugnani, G. B. Handel, G. F. Favart, C. S. Raupach, H. F. Gluck, C. W. Guglielmi, P. Schweitzer, A. Wolf,E. Benda, F. W. H. Gresnick, A. F. Portugal, M. A. (Portogallo) Guglielmi, P. Mueller, W. Elwart, A. E. E. Staffa, G. Gambaro, A. Boughton, R. Wellesz, E. Talma, L. Title of OPera Alceste (parody of Lully's opera) Alceste Alceste (lost) La Noce interrompue (parody of Lully's opera) Alcesta Alceste Alceste Alceste Alceste Alceste Alceste Alceste Admeto Die neue Alceste (parody) Alcestis (incidental music to Euripides' work) Alceste Alceste Alkestis Alkestis Alkestiade ANTIGONE (or ANTIGONA)* Composer Date Composer Orlandini, G. M. 1790 Zingarelli, N. A. Gandini, A. 1791 Winter, P. von Bernasconi, A. 1796 Bianchi, Fr. Galuppi, B. 1800 Basili, F. Casali, G. B. 1808 Poissl, J. N. Traetta, T. 1824 Gardin, ? Myslivecek, J. 1841 Mendelssohn, F. (incidental music) Latilla, G. 1863 Weingartner, F. Mortellari, M. C. 1927 Honegger, A. Parenti, F. P. M. 1942 Pallantios, M. Hoszisky (Horzizky), F. 1949 Orff, C. Dutillieu, P. 1954 Joubert,J. Campobasso, A. V. * Antigono is the story concerned with Alexander the Great and should not be confused with the above listing. It was set to music by G. Porta (1724), G. B. Lampugnani (1738), J. A. Hasse (1743), B. Galuppi (1746), N. Conforto (1750), G. Santis (c. 1750), G. Wagenseil (1750), C. W. Gluck (1756), J. Duran (1760), V. L. Ciampi (1762), N. Piccinni (1762), T. Traetta (1764), F. Zannetti (1765), P. Guglielmi (1767), G. F. Maio (1768),J. G. Schwanberg (1769), P. Cafaro (1770), P. Anfossi (1773), T. Giordani (1774), G. Gazzaniga (1779), L. Gatti (1781), G. Paisiello (1785), N. A. Zingarelli (1786), L. Caruso (1788), V. Righini (1788), Lauro Rossi (c. 1790), and F. Ceracchini (1794). Date 1699 1704 90 IPHIGENIA Composer Keiser, R. Desmarets, H. and A. Campra Title of OPera Die wunderbar-errettete Iphigenia Iphigenie en Tauride Date Composer 1706 Coletti, A. B. 1713 Scarlatti, D. 1713 Scarlatti, D. 1718 Caldara, A. 1719 Orlandini, G. M. 1725 Vinci, L. 1735 Porpora, N. 1739 Aliprandi, B. 1745 Avossa, G. 1748 Graun, C. H. 1751 J ommelli, N. 1756 Mazzoni, A. M. 1762 Bertoni, F. G. 1763 Traetta, T. 1764 Maio (Majo), G. F. 1764 Maio (Majo), G. F. 1765 Agricola, J. F. 1765 Guglielmi, P. 1768 Galuppi, B. 1771 Jommelli, N. 1774 Gluck, C. W. 1777 Solari, G. 1777 Sarti, G. 1778 Despreaux, ? 1779 Anonymous 1779 Favart, C. F. and F. J. Prot 1779 Gluck, C. W. 1781 Piccinni, N. 1781 Solar, Martin y 1784 Monza, C. 1784 Prati, A. 1785 Pleyel, 1. 1785 Tarchi, A. 1785 Tarchi, A. 1786 Giordini, G.(?) 1787 Zingarelli, N. 1788 Cherubini, L. 1789 Campobasso, A. V. 1798 Mosca, G. 1798 Rossi, L. 1804 Trento, V. 1806 Mayer, ? 1807 Danzi, F. 1809 Federici, V. 1811 Mayr,J. S. 1817 Carafo, P. 1951 Pizzetti, 1. Title of Opera lfigenia lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauri [sic] lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide (some arias by Traetta in 1753 performance in Naples) lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Tauride Iphigenie in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia Momie (parody of Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide) Iphise aux Boulevards (parody of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride) Les Reveries renouvelees des Grecs (parody of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride; based on Favart's 1757 parody, La petite Iphigenie) Iphigenie en Tauride Iphigenie en Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide lfigenia in Aulide Iphigenia lfigenia in Aulide Il sacrificio d'Ifigenia lfigenia in Tauride lfigenia 91 Date 1649 1675 1692 1692 1713 1726 1727 1735 1744 1752 1772 1775 1786 1788 1789 1792 1797 1798 1805 1813 1813 1815 1822 1838 1843 1851 1866 1935 1939 Date 1751 1779 1786 1791 1797 1802 1874 1920 1927 1936 1959 1961 92 Composer Cavalli, F. Giannettini, A. Kusser,]. S. Charpentier, M. A. Salomon, ? Brusa, G. F. Dominique, ? Vinci, L. Perez, D. Gebel, G. Cannabich, C. Benda, F. Vogel,]. C. Naumann,]. G. Winter, P. von MarinelIi, G. Cherubini, L. Piticchio, F. Lang1e, H. F. M. FontenelIe, M. Granges Mayr,]. S. Coccia, C. MuelIer, W. Celli, F. Pacini, G. Mercadante, G. S. R. Krempelsetzer, G. Engel, L. Milhaud, D. Composer Gebel, G. Desaugiers, M.-A. Sacchini, A. M. G. Mereaux, N.]. (Le Froid de) Dibdin, C. ZingarelIi, N. A. Lassen, E. LeoncavalIo, R. Stravinsky, I. Enesco, G. Orff, C. Partch, H. MEDEA Title of Opera Giasone Medea in Atene Jason Medee Medee et] ason Medea e Giasone Medee et]ason (parody of Salomon opera) Medea riconoscinta Medea Medea Medee et] ason Medea (monodrama) Toison d'Or (Medee a Colchos) Medea in Colchide ossia II ritorno di in Grecia Medea und Jason La Vendetta di Medea Medee La Vendetta di Medea Medee Medee et] ason Medea in Corinto Medea e Giasone Die neue Medea (parody) Medea Medea Medea Medea (Das Orakel in Delphi) Medea Medee OEDIPUS Title of OPera Oedipe Le Petit Oedipe Oedipe a Colone Oedipe a Thebes (Oedipe et]ocaste) The Sphinx (?) Edipo a Colono Oedipus Edipo Re Oedipus Rex Oedipe Oedipus Tyrannus King Oedipus Giasone THE ORESTEIA (AGAMEMNON, THE CHOEPHORES, THE EUMENIDES, i.e., operas dealing with Electra, Orestes, Clytemnestra, or Agamemnon) Date 1681 1723 1734 1772 1780 1782 1783 1787 1789 179? 1800 1808 1818 1847 1856 1872 1895 19? 1902 1905 1909 1913-22 1924 1930 1950 1961 1965 1967 Date 19? 1915 1915 1915 1925 1931 1940 1941 1948 1951 1961 Composer Perti, G. A. Micheli, B. Handel, G. F. Agricola, J. F. Cannabich, C. Lemoyne, J. B. Cimarosa, D. Hiiffner, J. C. F. Hoszisky (Horzizky), F. Champein, S. Zingarelli, N. A. Morlacchi, F. Kreutzer, K. Treves, ? Herve (Florimond Ronger) Alberti, ? Taneev, S. I. Cuclin, D. Weingartner, F. Gnecchi, V. Strauss, R. Milhaud, D. Linstead, G. F. Ktenek, E. Demuth, N. Badings, H. Pizzetti, I. Levy, M. D. Title of Opera Oreste L'Oreste Orestes (mainly from other Handel works, with new overture) Oreste e Pilade Elektra (melodrama) Electra Orestes ("opera comique") Electra Orestes Electra Clitennestra Orestes Orestes Agamemnon Agamemnon ("tragedie burlesque") Orestes Oresteya (trilogy) Agamemnon Orestes Cassandra Elektra L'Orestie trilogy: Agamemnon (one scene set to music, 1913) Les Choephores, (1915) Les Eumenides (1917-22) Oresteia ( trilogy) Das Leben des Orest The Oresteia (trilogy) Orestes Clitemnestra Mourning Becomes Electra Other 20th Century Operas Based on Greek Tragedies Composer Gray, C. Pizzetti, I. Romani, R. Senilov, V. Roussel, A. Wellesz, E. Thomson, V. Thomson, V. Ghedini, G. F. Cortese, L. Mihalovici, M. Title of Opera Trojan Women Fedra Fedra Hippolytus La Naissance de la Lyre Bakchantinnen The Trojan Women (incidental music) Oedipus Tyrannus (incidental music) Le baccanti Prometeo Phaedre 93 BIBliOGRAPHY USED FOR THE PRECEDING LIST Abert, Anna Amalie. "Der Geschmackswandel auf der Opernbiihne am Alkestis-Stofl' dargestellt," Die Musiliforschung (1953) 6:214-35. Clement, Felix and Pierre Larousse. Dictionnaire des operas. Paris, 1910. Davidson, Gladys. The Barnes Book of the Opera. New York, 1962. Ewen, David. Enryclopedia rifthe OPera. New York, 1963. Grout, DonaldJ. A Short History of Opera. 2nd edition. New York, 1965. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Eric Blom. 5th edition. London, 1954. Huchzermeyer, Helmut. "Zur Auffiihrung antiker Tragodien auf der modernen Biihne," Neue Zeitschriflfur Musik (1962) 123:492-97. Kloiber, Rudolf. Handbuch der Oper. 6th edition. Regensburg, 1961. Loewenberg, Alfred. Annals of Opera, 1597-1910. Revised edition. Geneva, 1955. Machlis,Joseph. Introduction to Contemporary Music. New York, 1961. Martens, Frederick H. A Thousand and One Nights rif Opera. New York, 1926. Moore, Frank L. Crowell's Handbook of World Opera. New York, 1961. Riemann, Hugo. Opern-Handbuch. Repertorium der dramatisch-musikalischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1886. Rotondi, Joseph Ernileo. "Literary and Musical Aspects of Roman Opera-1600-1650." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1959. Teasdale, May Silva. 20th Century Opera at Home and Abroad. New York, 1938. Thompson, Oscar (ed.). The International Cyclopedia rif Music and Musicians. 9th edition. New York, 1964. Tower, John. Dictionary-Catalogue rif OPeras and Operettas Which Have Been Peiformed on the Public Stage. Morgantown, W. Va., 1910. NOTES 1 Several studies have dealt with interpretations of specific tragedies in operatic history. These include: Anna Amalie Abert, "Der Geschmackswandel auf der Opernbiihne, am Alkestis-Stoff dargestellt," Die Musiliforschung (1953) 6:214-35; Harold Edgar Johnson, "Iphigenia in Tauris as the Subject for French Opera," (unpublished Master's thesis, Cornell University, 1939). 2 This article stems in part from the writer's unpublished doctoral dissertation, "Greek Tragedy in the Theatre Pieces of Stravinsky and Milhaud" (New York University, 1968), which includes a survey of the musical treatments and changing interpretations of Greek tragedy in operatic history. 3 Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, trans. Charles Burton Gulick (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1937), VI, p. 417. 4 Clement rif Alexandria, trans. G. W. Butterworth (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 5-9. 5 Paul Henry Lang, "The Literary Aspects of the History of Opera in France," (un- published doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, 1934), p. 83, citing Balf, Oeuvres Complets. 6 Leo Schrade, La Representation d'Edipo Tiranno au Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza, 1585) (Paris, 1960), p. 32. 7 Ottavio Rinuccini, "Preface to Euridice," in The Essence rif Opera, ed. Ulrich Weisstein (London, 1964), p. 19. B Abert, op. cit., p. 216. 9 From the listing of "important operas" in Grove's Dictionary rif Music and Musicians (5th ed.; London and New York, 1954), VI, 233 ff. 10 E. M. Butler, "Alkestis in Modern Dress," Journal rifthe Warburg Institute (1937-38) 1: 59. 11 "II TeatroAlla Moda-Part I," trans. and annotated by Reinhard G. Pauly, The Musical Quarterly (1948) 34:375. 12 Francesco Algarotti, "Essay on Opera," in Weisstein, op. cit., pp. 72-73. 94 13 Ibid., pp. 73-74. 14 Denis Diderot, "Entretiens sur Le Fils Naturel," in Weisstein, op. cit., p. 94. 15 Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (New York, 1941), p. 532. 16 Gluck, "Dedication of Alceste," 1769, in Weisstein, op. cit., p. 107. 17 Gluck, "Dedication of Paride ed Elena," 1770, in Weisstein, op. cit., p. 108. 18 Butler, op. cit., p. 59. 19 Christoph Martin Wieland, "Essay concerning German Opera and a Few Related Subjects," in Weisstein, op. cit., p. 117. 20 La Harpe, letter to Journal de Poetique et de Litterature, October, 1777, in C. W. Gluck, The Collected Correspondence and Papers, ed. Hedwig and E. H. Mueller von Asow (London, 1962), p.103. 21 Gluck, open letter to La Harpe, 1777, ibid., p. lOI. 22 William H. Matheson, Claudel and Aeschylus (Ann Arbor [1965]), p. 6, citing La Harpe, Cours de litterature, I, p. 84. English translation by the author. 23 Ibid., p. 9. 24 See Michael Horwath's "Tebaldini, Gnecchi, and Strauss," Current Musicology (1970) 10: 74-81, for a discussion on whether Elektra was a plagiarism of Vittorio Gnecchi's Cassandra, which was first performed in Bologna in 1905. 25 Egon Wellesz, Essays on OPera (London, 1950), p. 146. 26 Ibid., p. 140. 27 Andreas Liess, Carl Orjf, trans. Adelheid and Herbert Parkin (London, 1966), p. 36. 28 Igor Stravinsky, "On Oedipus Rex," Encounter (1962) l8:30-3l. 29 Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Dialogues and a Diary (New York, 1963), p. 7. 30 Ibid., p. 9. 31 Darius Milhaud, "Ich glaube an die Zukunft," Melos (1952) 19:242-43. English transla- tion by the author. 32 "Music," Time (March 12, 1965), p. 50. 33 Helmut Huchzermeyer, "Zur Auffiihrung antiker Tragodien auf der modernen Biihne," Neue Zeitschriftfiir Musik (1962) 123:492-97. 95