Nineteenth-century French opera is renowned for its obsession with “the exotic”—that is, with lan... more Nineteenth-century French opera is renowned for its obsession with “the exotic”—that is, with lands and peoples either located far away from “us” Western Europeans or understood as being very different from us. One example: hyper-passionate Spaniards and “Gypsies” in Bizet’s Carmen. Most discussions of the role that the exotic plays in nineteenth-century French opera focus on a few standard-repertory works (mainly serious in nature), rather than looking at a wider range of significant works performed at the time in various theaters, including the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, and Offenbach’s Bouffes-Parisiens. The present article attempts to survey the repertory broadly. Part 1 examines various “different” (or Other) lands and peoples frequently represented on stage in French operas. Part 2 discusses typical plots and character types found in these operas (sometimes regardless of the particular exotic land that was chosen) and concludes by exploring the musical means that were often emp...
This article was intended for inclusion in my 2015 book _Music and the Exotic from the Renaissanc... more This article was intended for inclusion in my 2015 book _Music and the Exotic from the Renaissance to Mozart_ (Cambridge U Press), but I removed it for reasons of length. ABSTRACT: In Europe, during the Early Modern Period (ca. 1500-1800), lands and peoples that were located far away were often perceived, by inhabitants of a European land, as somehow exotic: that is, as different from “Here” and “Us.” Rarely mentioned in discussions of “music and the exotic” are certain important and highly formalized events that were put on by major European courts, that mainly occurred out of doors, and that often made use of horses: namely processions (often pageant-like), jousts, tournaments, and equestrian ballets. Several French and Italian courts represented the exotic Other in distinctive ways at such events. A notable series of events took place in 1565 during the politically fraught visit of the young French king Charles IX and his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, to Bayonne. Detailed accounts of the Bayonne séjour reveal instances in which foreigners were portrayed, including Turks, “Moors,” American “savages,” an Amazon warrior (from an unknown distant land), and legendary sorceresses from Syria and Cathay, and also rural French villagers (arguably a “foreign” group, from the viewpoint of Paris-based aristocrats and their Spanish guests). These portrayals reflected struggles among the major European powers over religion, territory, and overseas empire and struggles between Europe and the Ottoman Empire over control of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.
Festschrift for Prof. Kerala J. Snyder, ed. Joel Speerstra and Johan Norrback, with Ralph P. Locke. Published online in a "rolling" fashion, beginning in 2016, through University of Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden., 2016
A fascinating early example of a sacred opera—greatly indebted to traditions of Jesuit spoken the... more A fascinating early example of a sacred opera—greatly indebted to traditions of Jesuit spoken theater and of the non-religious danced and sung intermedi—is Giovanni Kapsberger’s Apotheosis sive Consecratio SS. Ignatii et Francisci. The work was composed for and first performed at the Jesuit College in Rome in 1622, on the occasion of the elaborate ceremonies that surrounded the raising to sainthood of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier (founders of the Jesuit missionary order). This important work is discussed in some detail—and from sharply different points of view as regards the ethical status of Jesuit missionary work—by T. Frank Kennedy and by Victor Coelho. More remains to be said, though, about how the work represents (portrays, etc.) the various nations or peoples that it puts on stage, especially “Palestine,” “India,” “Japan,” and “China.” The musical means employed are not those of later exotic works (e.g., Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail or Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), because the concept of characterizing a distant people by an “exotic musical style” was not yet widely practiced at the time (see Olivia Bloechl, 2009). Nonetheless, Kapsberger’s music assists the text, costumes, movement, and dancing in creating distinctive characterizations of these exotic peoples, the places in which they dwell, and their society and culture (e.g., limited technological development). A little-known series of etchings of the original 1622 production, by Johann Friedrich Greuter, is here reproduced in its entirety, showing the costumes employed and some stage movement. Since my article is being published online, the reader can examine Greuter’s illustrations closely, enlarging certain details--e.g., seeing the birds (real, but presumably stuffed) attached to the helmets of the archers from India.
Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-er... more Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-era serious operas that feature non-European characters. The present article studies an opera seria libretto whose plot occurs on the Indian Subcontinent — Metastasio’s Alessandro nell’Indie (1730) — and two operas (both from the year 1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto. The comic element in a scene for the two main Indian characters (Poro and Cleofide) contrasts sharply with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro). And a scene involving the secondary Indian couple (Erissena and Gandarte) shows how characters supposedly living “over there” could be used to comment on European customs. [Versions of this paper were also published in Italian and in German. Both lack the musical examples and the illustration. The Italian lacks the section on the "marriage quarrel" duet between Poro and Cleofide. The German lacks that section and another: on a comic scene between Erissena and Gandarte.
Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-er... more Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-era serious operas that feature non-European characters. The present article studies an opera seria libretto whose plot occurs on the Indian Subcontinent — Metastasio’s Alessandro nell’Indie (1730) — and two operas (both from the year 1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto and to contrast these with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro).
Page 1. Articles Page 2. Nineteenth-Century Music Quantity, Quality, Qualities Ralph P. Locke Eas... more Page 1. Articles Page 2. Nineteenth-Century Music Quantity, Quality, Qualities Ralph P. Locke Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (New York), USA Research on music and musical life in nineteenth-century Europe ...
Page 1. Ralph P. LOCKE Autour de la lettre a Duveyrier Berlioz et les Saint-Simoniens D ANS les a... more Page 1. Ralph P. LOCKE Autour de la lettre a Duveyrier Berlioz et les Saint-Simoniens D ANS les annes 195, la d'couverte d'une nouvelle lettre de Berlioz a tout "& la fois illumine et obscurci le ciel des cher-cheurs berlioziens. ...
Quodlibet Revista De Especializacion Musical, 2005
Información del artículo La música que escuchaba Chopin (y Mozart y otros): música folklórica, po... more Información del artículo La música que escuchaba Chopin (y Mozart y otros): música folklórica, popular, "funcional" y no occidentalizada en la enseñanza de la música clásico-romántica.
Various commentators on Aida express disappointment that the music for the opera’s main character... more Various commentators on Aida express disappointment that the music for the opera’s main characters is not more distinctive,i.e.,does not make much use of the exotic styles that mark the work’s ceremonial scenes and ballets. Others argue that exotic style is mostly confined to female, hence powerless, characters. Much of this commentary draws on the same limited selection of data and observations: the exotic style of those few numbers, the opera’s plot, and the circumstances of the work’s commissioning (by the Khedive of Egypt). The present study aims to broaden the discussion. Most unusually, it dwells on various aspects of words and music that are not in themselves ‘markers’ of exoticism or Orientalism but that nonetheless here manifestly announce traits of this or that character (or group) and thereby communicate indelible impressions of what Egyptians and Ethiopians supposedly ‘are like’ (or were like in an earlier era). For example, the music of the priests is mostly not, as commentators regularly claim, marked by imitative counterpoint; rather, it engages in several distinct archaicising tendencies, some of which characterise the priestly caste (and hence the Egyptian government) as rigid and menacing. In addition, this study calls on such varied evidence (rarely if ever examined in this regard) as costume designs, directions in the disposizione scenica for the opera’s first Italian production, relevant remarks by Verdi and early commentators (including two Egyptians writing in 1901 and a late interview with Verdi about European imperialism), some early sound recordings, and Western fears/knowledge of the Wahhabist strain of Islam then expanding across the Middle East. While such a multifaceted exploration certainly cannot be definitive, it can point to new possibilities for exploration.
... For reasons of space, I ended up not writing about Le martyre in the book. ... also give hint... more ... For reasons of space, I ended up not writing about Le martyre in the book. ... also give hints, in conjunction with some surviving verbal descriptions, of the dancing, miming, and ... The poet's seemingly idiosyncratic emphasis on regions beyond Europe was not without some basis in ...
Nineteenth-century French opera is renowned for its obsession with “the exotic”—that is, with lan... more Nineteenth-century French opera is renowned for its obsession with “the exotic”—that is, with lands and peoples either located far away from “us” Western Europeans or understood as being very different from us. One example: hyper-passionate Spaniards and “Gypsies” in Bizet’s Carmen. Most discussions of the role that the exotic plays in nineteenth-century French opera focus on a few standard-repertory works (mainly serious in nature), rather than looking at a wider range of significant works performed at the time in various theaters, including the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, and Offenbach’s Bouffes-Parisiens. The present article attempts to survey the repertory broadly. Part 1 examines various “different” (or Other) lands and peoples frequently represented on stage in French operas. Part 2 discusses typical plots and character types found in these operas (sometimes regardless of the particular exotic land that was chosen) and concludes by exploring the musical means that were often emp...
This article was intended for inclusion in my 2015 book _Music and the Exotic from the Renaissanc... more This article was intended for inclusion in my 2015 book _Music and the Exotic from the Renaissance to Mozart_ (Cambridge U Press), but I removed it for reasons of length. ABSTRACT: In Europe, during the Early Modern Period (ca. 1500-1800), lands and peoples that were located far away were often perceived, by inhabitants of a European land, as somehow exotic: that is, as different from “Here” and “Us.” Rarely mentioned in discussions of “music and the exotic” are certain important and highly formalized events that were put on by major European courts, that mainly occurred out of doors, and that often made use of horses: namely processions (often pageant-like), jousts, tournaments, and equestrian ballets. Several French and Italian courts represented the exotic Other in distinctive ways at such events. A notable series of events took place in 1565 during the politically fraught visit of the young French king Charles IX and his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, to Bayonne. Detailed accounts of the Bayonne séjour reveal instances in which foreigners were portrayed, including Turks, “Moors,” American “savages,” an Amazon warrior (from an unknown distant land), and legendary sorceresses from Syria and Cathay, and also rural French villagers (arguably a “foreign” group, from the viewpoint of Paris-based aristocrats and their Spanish guests). These portrayals reflected struggles among the major European powers over religion, territory, and overseas empire and struggles between Europe and the Ottoman Empire over control of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.
Festschrift for Prof. Kerala J. Snyder, ed. Joel Speerstra and Johan Norrback, with Ralph P. Locke. Published online in a "rolling" fashion, beginning in 2016, through University of Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden., 2016
A fascinating early example of a sacred opera—greatly indebted to traditions of Jesuit spoken the... more A fascinating early example of a sacred opera—greatly indebted to traditions of Jesuit spoken theater and of the non-religious danced and sung intermedi—is Giovanni Kapsberger’s Apotheosis sive Consecratio SS. Ignatii et Francisci. The work was composed for and first performed at the Jesuit College in Rome in 1622, on the occasion of the elaborate ceremonies that surrounded the raising to sainthood of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier (founders of the Jesuit missionary order). This important work is discussed in some detail—and from sharply different points of view as regards the ethical status of Jesuit missionary work—by T. Frank Kennedy and by Victor Coelho. More remains to be said, though, about how the work represents (portrays, etc.) the various nations or peoples that it puts on stage, especially “Palestine,” “India,” “Japan,” and “China.” The musical means employed are not those of later exotic works (e.g., Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail or Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), because the concept of characterizing a distant people by an “exotic musical style” was not yet widely practiced at the time (see Olivia Bloechl, 2009). Nonetheless, Kapsberger’s music assists the text, costumes, movement, and dancing in creating distinctive characterizations of these exotic peoples, the places in which they dwell, and their society and culture (e.g., limited technological development). A little-known series of etchings of the original 1622 production, by Johann Friedrich Greuter, is here reproduced in its entirety, showing the costumes employed and some stage movement. Since my article is being published online, the reader can examine Greuter’s illustrations closely, enlarging certain details--e.g., seeing the birds (real, but presumably stuffed) attached to the helmets of the archers from India.
Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-er... more Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-era serious operas that feature non-European characters. The present article studies an opera seria libretto whose plot occurs on the Indian Subcontinent — Metastasio’s Alessandro nell’Indie (1730) — and two operas (both from the year 1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto. The comic element in a scene for the two main Indian characters (Poro and Cleofide) contrasts sharply with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro). And a scene involving the secondary Indian couple (Erissena and Gandarte) shows how characters supposedly living “over there” could be used to comment on European customs. [Versions of this paper were also published in Italian and in German. Both lack the musical examples and the illustration. The Italian lacks the section on the "marriage quarrel" duet between Poro and Cleofide. The German lacks that section and another: on a comic scene between Erissena and Gandarte.
Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-er... more Discussions of how musical genres have evoked the exotic have largely omitted the many Baroque-era serious operas that feature non-European characters. The present article studies an opera seria libretto whose plot occurs on the Indian Subcontinent — Metastasio’s Alessandro nell’Indie (1730) — and two operas (both from the year 1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto and to contrast these with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro).
Page 1. Articles Page 2. Nineteenth-Century Music Quantity, Quality, Qualities Ralph P. Locke Eas... more Page 1. Articles Page 2. Nineteenth-Century Music Quantity, Quality, Qualities Ralph P. Locke Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (New York), USA Research on music and musical life in nineteenth-century Europe ...
Page 1. Ralph P. LOCKE Autour de la lettre a Duveyrier Berlioz et les Saint-Simoniens D ANS les a... more Page 1. Ralph P. LOCKE Autour de la lettre a Duveyrier Berlioz et les Saint-Simoniens D ANS les annes 195, la d'couverte d'une nouvelle lettre de Berlioz a tout "& la fois illumine et obscurci le ciel des cher-cheurs berlioziens. ...
Quodlibet Revista De Especializacion Musical, 2005
Información del artículo La música que escuchaba Chopin (y Mozart y otros): música folklórica, po... more Información del artículo La música que escuchaba Chopin (y Mozart y otros): música folklórica, popular, "funcional" y no occidentalizada en la enseñanza de la música clásico-romántica.
Various commentators on Aida express disappointment that the music for the opera’s main character... more Various commentators on Aida express disappointment that the music for the opera’s main characters is not more distinctive,i.e.,does not make much use of the exotic styles that mark the work’s ceremonial scenes and ballets. Others argue that exotic style is mostly confined to female, hence powerless, characters. Much of this commentary draws on the same limited selection of data and observations: the exotic style of those few numbers, the opera’s plot, and the circumstances of the work’s commissioning (by the Khedive of Egypt). The present study aims to broaden the discussion. Most unusually, it dwells on various aspects of words and music that are not in themselves ‘markers’ of exoticism or Orientalism but that nonetheless here manifestly announce traits of this or that character (or group) and thereby communicate indelible impressions of what Egyptians and Ethiopians supposedly ‘are like’ (or were like in an earlier era). For example, the music of the priests is mostly not, as commentators regularly claim, marked by imitative counterpoint; rather, it engages in several distinct archaicising tendencies, some of which characterise the priestly caste (and hence the Egyptian government) as rigid and menacing. In addition, this study calls on such varied evidence (rarely if ever examined in this regard) as costume designs, directions in the disposizione scenica for the opera’s first Italian production, relevant remarks by Verdi and early commentators (including two Egyptians writing in 1901 and a late interview with Verdi about European imperialism), some early sound recordings, and Western fears/knowledge of the Wahhabist strain of Islam then expanding across the Middle East. While such a multifaceted exploration certainly cannot be definitive, it can point to new possibilities for exploration.
... For reasons of space, I ended up not writing about Le martyre in the book. ... also give hint... more ... For reasons of space, I ended up not writing about Le martyre in the book. ... also give hints, in conjunction with some surviving verbal descriptions, of the dancing, miming, and ... The poet's seemingly idiosyncratic emphasis on regions beyond Europe was not without some basis in ...
This book (University of California Press, 1996) is now available online, password-free, at http... more This book (University of California Press, 1996) is now available online, password-free, at http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft838nb58v&brand=ucpress The inter-chapter Vignettes are not immediately apparent in the table of contents. They show up if you click on the + sign to the left of the chapter that the Vignette follows. For example, Vignette C (by Mary Natvig) follows Chapter 2.
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This important work is discussed in some detail—and from sharply different points of view as regards the ethical status of Jesuit missionary work—by T. Frank Kennedy and by Victor Coelho. More remains to be said, though, about how the work represents (portrays, etc.) the various nations or peoples that it puts on stage, especially “Palestine,” “India,” “Japan,” and “China.” The musical means employed are not those of later exotic works (e.g., Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail or Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), because the concept of characterizing a distant people by an “exotic musical style” was not yet widely practiced at the time (see Olivia Bloechl, 2009). Nonetheless, Kapsberger’s music assists the text, costumes, movement, and dancing in creating distinctive characterizations of these exotic peoples, the places in which they dwell, and their society and culture (e.g., limited technological development). A little-known series of etchings of the original 1622 production, by Johann Friedrich Greuter, is here reproduced in its entirety, showing the costumes employed and some stage movement. Since my article is being published online, the reader can examine Greuter’s illustrations closely, enlarging certain details--e.g., seeing the birds (real, but presumably stuffed) attached to the helmets of the archers from India.
Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic
Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people.
Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto. The comic element in a scene for the two main Indian characters (Poro and Cleofide) contrasts sharply
with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro). And a scene involving the secondary Indian couple (Erissena and Gandarte) shows how characters supposedly living “over there” could be used to comment on European customs.
[Versions of this paper were also published in Italian and in German. Both lack the musical examples and the illustration. The Italian lacks the section on the "marriage quarrel" duet between Poro and Cleofide. The German lacks that section and another: on a comic scene between Erissena and Gandarte.
1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic
Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes.
Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to
India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered
appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto and to contrast these with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro).
This important work is discussed in some detail—and from sharply different points of view as regards the ethical status of Jesuit missionary work—by T. Frank Kennedy and by Victor Coelho. More remains to be said, though, about how the work represents (portrays, etc.) the various nations or peoples that it puts on stage, especially “Palestine,” “India,” “Japan,” and “China.” The musical means employed are not those of later exotic works (e.g., Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail or Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), because the concept of characterizing a distant people by an “exotic musical style” was not yet widely practiced at the time (see Olivia Bloechl, 2009). Nonetheless, Kapsberger’s music assists the text, costumes, movement, and dancing in creating distinctive characterizations of these exotic peoples, the places in which they dwell, and their society and culture (e.g., limited technological development). A little-known series of etchings of the original 1622 production, by Johann Friedrich Greuter, is here reproduced in its entirety, showing the costumes employed and some stage movement. Since my article is being published online, the reader can examine Greuter’s illustrations closely, enlarging certain details--e.g., seeing the birds (real, but presumably stuffed) attached to the helmets of the archers from India.
Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic
Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes. Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people.
Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto. The comic element in a scene for the two main Indian characters (Poro and Cleofide) contrasts sharply
with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro). And a scene involving the secondary Indian couple (Erissena and Gandarte) shows how characters supposedly living “over there” could be used to comment on European customs.
[Versions of this paper were also published in Italian and in German. Both lack the musical examples and the illustration. The Italian lacks the section on the "marriage quarrel" duet between Poro and Cleofide. The German lacks that section and another: on a comic scene between Erissena and Gandarte.
1731) that were based on that libretto: Handel’s Poro re dell’Indie and Hasse’s Cleofide. Understanding how exoticism is manifest in serious Baroque opera is impossible using a narrowly stylistic approach (here called the “Exotic
Style Only” Paradigm). Much richer is a broader approach (the “All the Music in Full Context” Paradigm) that also considers sung text, staging, and cultural stereotypes.
Metastasio’s libretto contains previously undiscussed references to
India, its customs, and the (supposed) tendencies and behaviors of its leaders (male and female) and common people. Handel and Hasse enlisted various normative musical means of the day — e.g., musical devices that were considered
appropriate to an angry character or to a weak-willed one — to intensify the various “foreign” characterizations in the libretto and to contrast these with the dignified treatment that is consistently granted to Alexander the Great (Alessandro).
The inter-chapter Vignettes are not immediately apparent in the table of contents. They show up if you click on the + sign to the left of the chapter that the Vignette follows. For example, Vignette C (by Mary Natvig) follows Chapter 2.