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Hogarth, "Scene from the Beggar's Opera" (1728).
Is that licentious hand-holding I see going on there?
For shame!
Why did J. S. Bach never write an opera?
I suppose some might say that it makes no difference, that he was a
great composer and that is that. But for me, that's not enough. Over the
past months I've been giving some thought as to what reason or reasons
there could be for Bach never producing an opera. And I've come up with
some theories — admittedly most playing devil's advocate.
Didn't have the talent for opera.
Absolutely not the case. His hundreds of cantatas, sacred and secular,
are clear indicators of that. Not to mention works like the Matthauspassion,
which includes pretty much all elements needed to write an opera.
Didn't have the time.
Doubtful. Bach was no doubt a very busy man. But we are talking about a
composer who could probably write a movement from a cantata just sitting
a few minutes in the water closet. Difficult to imagine that he couldn't
have spent some time here and there working on an opera. Besides, many
other composers held busy positions similar to Bach, but managed to write
operas nonetheless.
Didn't have a venue for such.
Irrelevant. Composers back in that day often wrote operas on a "if I build
it they will come" basis, hoping they could sell their idea and get it
staged.
A lot of Baroque composers never wrote operas.
Actually, pretty much all Baroque composers I have looked at have written
operas. As far as I can determine all of Bach's more famous German contemp-
oraries made at least made some attempt at it. Telemann wrote about 50 of
them. Heinrich Schutz wrote two operas (now lost) and which are considered
to be the first German operas. Even Heinrich Biber wrote one (again now lost).
As for the great Handel, he started out as a composer of Italian operas and
considered himself an opera composer throughout his life.
He didn't like opera.
Well in the "he just didn't feel like it" line of thinking, it is hard to argue
with that one.
Too conservative.
This is my current though admittedly speculative view. Back in Bach's
day the worlds of opera and theater were considered to be rather sleazy,
institutions populated by people of low moral character. Bach might
simply have rejected opera for those reasons. But it should be added
that there were many composers who were religious who wrote opera —
Vivaldi was a Roman Catholic priest. So either this theory is incorrect
or Bach must have been a very conservative Lutheran indeed.
I think the latter.
In any case it seems that Bach did come pretty damn close to writing an
opera once — a secular stage production written for a birthday celebration
of the Duke of Saxony in 1733, a work known today as Cantata No. 213, or
at the time of its production as "Hercules auf dem Scheidewege."
Hmmm. Sounds kind of French. :p
Fascinating post, Ed. :yes:I suspect your reasoning about the rather 'low' character of opera, as was the popular prejudice of the time, is indeed a significant reason. I would add that he had plenty of opportunity to write for voice and instrument in the cantatas and as for a grand statement, the Passions provided him with probably all the dramatic material he needed. Plus, with a contemporary, highly accomplished and extremely successful opera composer in Handel, there was no void in that particular style of composition that Bach might be tempted to fill. Furthermore, staging an opera requires a supportive environment to do it. The more social and cosmopolitan Handel found these with ease – Bach, employed as essentially a church composer, would have had to rock the boat considerably to move himself out of that setting and that does not seem to have been in his character.
@ Richard.All good thoughts on the matter. I think the one about not having the supportive environment is especially a very good point — it took (takes) a lot of work and connections to get operas out there. He didn't have the right networking going on — :lol:I also think your comment on his artistic inclinations being quite filled by cantatas and sacred works is a good one. Perhaps that is one where the "He just didn't feel like it" argument is valid. Also your comment about there being no void to fill — see the above ADDENDA for that one.
ADDENDA.This was not really pertainant to the post, but as opposed to Bach's "Hercules" listen to an excerpt from La Fida Ninfa by Vivaldi, written around the same time as Bach's stage work. The Vivaldi blows him out of the water.
Yeah. A quarterback may be a great football player, but know absolutely nothing about being a halfback or a noseguard. Just might not have the talent for it.:heart:
He may have just felt no "talent" for it. People who are extremely talented in certain areas may feel completely inept in others, however related or similar those areas may appear to be.:smile:
:lol::heart:
@ Star.Well, that's a possibility also. You take some great quarterback in football for example, he may be great at everything to do with being a quarterback EXCEPT for maybe something like memorizing the plays, where he may be a total dufus and really have to work at it. So following your reasoning anyone who has a great talent may not be perfect in all areas, there may be a few holes.Bach with holes. Aha, another title for a new album! :p:heart:
I thought you wrote "Why Did Bach Never Write on Opera?" :doh: 😆
Originally posted by gdare:
:lol:He must have been using Blogspot. Because he felt like it. :pOkay, that's it. We start a new blog here on Opera for Bach to do posts on. We could call it "J.S. Bach's Big Bad Futuristic Blog".
😆
Didn't have the time. 20 children… :whistle:
@ San.Yeah, sounds like Bach had plenty of exercise at night to get rid of those excess pounds from the sausages and beer. :p
David Fillingham writes:JSB was not commissioned to write an opera, so he never wrote one that we know of. A lot of his works are lost, so he may very well have written something related to opera. He did recycle a lot of material from previously written music, so he could cobble together a singing drama easily, it seems to me, if it were required or requested.
Originally posted by anonymous:
Well yeah, but that's exactly what I address in my 3rd observation above in terms of venue — many composers wrote operas without commissions just hoping they could get it performed. Originally posted by anonymous:
True. But I address that in my 1st observation. But this post is about why he DIDN'T write one. Not that he COULDN'T have written one. Originally posted by anonymous:
Granted. But it is best not to argue from negatives. And of all the Baroque composers, Bach's works have been the most cataloged over the years. Every once in a while you hear of some new work being discovered somewhere. But it is becoming increasingly unlikely that there are major works by Bach out there that we don't know of. The same can not be said of other Baroque composers, unfortunately. :(David thank you very much for your comments. I hope that you will take my response in the manner it was intended — as a discussion among fans of the Baroque. Thanks for visiting. :up:
Siegfried writes:Maybe Bach could have been the "Baroque Wagner".
Originally posted by anonymous:
😆 Good one. Thanks for stopping by the blog and your Comment. :up: