Word: buffa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...shore. Straining the long arm of coincidence, Idomeneo steps on land-and meets his son Idamante. Such subject matter is a problem for 20th century audiences, but not the only one. Idomeneo is written in the style of opera seria, the stilted, ritualistic 18th century Italian counterpart to opera buffa. Even by the time Mozart came of age opera seria was under attack by the reformers...
...Godfather II has the ring of authenticity about it. Its mafiosi mix well with the shadier elements of our government--string-tie western senators up to their ears in corruption, concupiscent executives of multinational corporations, opera buffa, Chiquita-banana-republic dictators. Perhaps the perspective is a strange one for most Americans, brought up on The FBI and The Untouchable--seeing the Mafia and the FBI as merely two competing organizations, more like Macy's and Gimbel's than good and evil. But The Godfather II is not a morally subversive movie--nobody would want to be Michael Corleone after seeing...
Beyond such essentially show business concerns, Caldwell was operating on the premise that beneath the breast of the war horse beats the heart of a thoroughbred. The Barber ranks as a 19th century buffa masterpiece because its music is so innately ingratiating and so illustrative of both character and comic situation. Figaro's patter aria Largo al factotum ("Feeegaro! Feeegaro!") quickly defines him as one of the most likable hustlers in all opera. Rosina's Una voce poco fa is a song of such poise and bravura style as to remove all doubt that she will...
Ariadne was Strauss's way of allowing two rival traditions, opera seria and opera buffa, to interact with and define each other's strengths and weaknesses...
...stature. When Shakespeare boxes himself into a corner half way through, his personages cease to be rounded--if inconsistent--characters; he takes the Duke-Nixon outside the play and turns him into a sort of divine puppeteer who pulls his strings whimsically, and he winds up with an opera buffa finale that is in a different world altogether...