OVERT'YURA, overtures, female. (French ouverture, lit. discovery) (music). 1. Musical introduction to opera, operetta, ballet. 2. A short piece of music for orchestra. Concert overture. Dictionary Ushakova

What does the opera consist of: the overture. Photo – Yuri Martyanov

The opera is incomprehensible, ridiculous, absurd, unnatural.

In the age of TV series and YouTube, telling the viewer about mossy passions and ponderous ups and downs by singing - what could be stranger?

However, it is in vain to think that grounds for such a question have arisen only now. In the new Weekend project, Sergei Khodnev will tell what components an opera consists of, why they appeared and why they are interesting to the modern listener.

Even in the most, as it seems to us, most magnificent times for it, opera continued to circulate in strange phenomena that are unclear how they relate to life.

Intellectuals of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th centuries looked at the contemporary opera scene and shrugged their shoulders: what is this, why is this? And they repeated something like this in different ways:

“Whoever goes to the opera should leave common sense at home” (Johann Christoph Gottsched, 1730).

But precisely because of this shrug of the shoulders and the perplexed look, opera is not kabuki theater, not something frozen in the same aesthetic forms. Something is always happening to her, and what seems to us to be moments of her well-being, splendor, and massive demand are in fact periods of regular searches, disputes, and experiments.

Actually, she, which Derzhavin called “the reduction of the entire visible world,” was destined to display and concentrate everything relevant that was inherent Western culture at a certain point - while remaining not a hothouse arthouse, but an elegant pastime.

On the one hand, the current commonly used repertoire opera houses- the triumph of retrospection: in it, works of a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago coexist peacefully and on an equal footing with modern ones. On the other hand, this is not a museum, not a “gallery of old masters,” but an ever-renewing artistic reality: interpretation changes, theater changes.

These changes actually excite a surprisingly wide circle for such an absurd art. Few of the first people you meet will speak passionately about the state of affairs, for example, in modern academic music.

But on the other hand, many will willingly support the conversation that in opera today there are a lot of jokers who force the heroes of Verdi and Tchaikovsky to go on stage in jeans, in totalitarian overcoats, or completely naked.

And yet, a meeting with an opera, even one like this, continues to be perceived as something decorous, important, bon ton, still the stalls are elegant, and the boxes shine, still heads of state and other noble persons flock to the premieres in temples like Salzburg or Bayreuth.

This means that there is, after all, a completely understandable structure into which new combinations of tastes, expectations, and passions are built. How is this structure structured, what does it include, when and why did its individual elements appear?

Understanding the structure of an opera is a more feasible task than sitting through a four-hour performance out of habit, where they sing, sing, and sing incessantly. But, having figured it out, you can experience more conscious pleasure (or displeasure) from this action.

Overture

Overture is an instrumental introduction, music that sounds, according to the composer's plan, before the curtain rises. During the existence of the opera genre, it received different meanings and different names: in addition to the French term “overture,” which was established in the 17th century, it could also be called, for example, introduction, prelude, symphony (sinfonia - consonance) and the introduction itself.

From now on, only operas with a single kind of overture should be performed in the court theater - the “Italian overture” - such an order was issued in 1745 by Frederick II, King of Prussia.

This is still not the Duke from Zakharov’s “Munchausen”, but great commander, albeit a great lover of playing the flute; 1745 is the year of the turning point in the War of the Austrian Succession, and between battles and negotiations the king finds it necessary to speak out directly about which overture is better.

So what is it - an overture, why is it? If opera is “an action carried forward by singing,” then what is it like for music to act before this very action without singing?

Let's say right away: she is not so comfortable at this forefront, and debates about what the correct overture should be, in what form it is needed, statistically arose even more often than discussions about the essence of opera as such.

But only those first operatic prologues are almost always just scenes with singing, and not independent instrumental numbers. The priority of words and narrative seemed obvious; conventional characters like Tragedy, Harmony or Music in an elegant form announced to the public the plot of the upcoming action. And they reminded that it was from ancient times that this very idea was adopted - recitar cantando, “to talk by singing.”

Over time, this idea lost its sharp novelty and ceased to need such sublime apologetics, but the prologues did not disappear for decades. Often, in addition, they featured the glorification of one or another monarch: with the exception of the Venetian Republic, 17th-century opera remained primarily a court entertainment, closely associated with official festivities and ceremonies.

A full-fledged overture appears in the 1640s in France. The model of the so-called “French overture” introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully is a steel formula: a slow and pompous first part in a recognizable punctuated rhythm (a kind of jumping iambic), a fast second with a fugue beginning.

It is also connected in spirit with the strict order of the court of Louis XIV, but it became extremely popular throughout Europe - even where the French opera music In general, they were met with hostility.

The Italians eventually responded with their own formula: an overture in three parts, fast-slow-fast, less ceremonious, without scientific tricks like fugato - this is the same “Italian overture” that Frederick the Great demanded. The rivalry between these two overtures is actually very significant.

The French overture had fallen out of use by the middle of the 18th century, but before that it had outgrown its operatic context: Lully’s invention can be easily recognized in the introductions of Bach’s orchestral suites or Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks.”

The Italian overture (as a rule, it was called sinfonia) lived longer in the operatic context, but its completely different life is much more important - its transformation in the last third of the century from an operatic overture into an independent work, from a sinfonia into a symphony.

What is the opera left with? The opera, represented by Gluck and his contemporaries, meanwhile thought that it would be good for the overture to be thematically and emotionally, organically connected with the material of the drama itself; that it is not worth doing as before - when, according to the same scheme, riveted introductions were written for operas of any content.

And so one-movement overtures in sonata form appeared, and thus unprecedented quotations from the thematic material of the opera itself appeared.

The departure from rigid schemes made the 19th century a century of famous overtures. Colorful, ceremonial, presenting at once a bouquet of tenacious motifs - like “Force of Destiny” or “Carmen”. Lyrical, delicate, economical in quotation - like “Eugene Onegin” or “La Traviata”.

Symphonically abundant, complex, languid - like “Parsifal”. But, on the other hand, the overture of the era of romanticism is closely within the framework of a theatrical event - other overtures turn into important symphonic hits, and the genre of “concert overture” is established, no longer at all connected with opera.

And then, in the 20th century, the operatic overture insensitively turned into an anachronism: there are no overtures in Richard Strauss’s Salome, Berg’s Wozzeck, or Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district” by Shostakovich, nor in “War and Peace” by Prokofiev.

Being a kind of frame for the opera, the overture functionally embodies the idea of ​​order - that’s why the King of Prussia was so attentive to it. Order, firstly, in the etiquette sense, but also in a more sublime sense: it is a means of delineating the everyday human time and the time of the musical performance.

Just now it was just a crowd, a random collection of more or less well-dressed people. Once - and they are all already spectators and listeners. But this very moment of transition managed, in addition to all music, to acquire ritual prefaces - the dying light, the conductor's dignified exit, and so on - which were simply unthinkable in the time of Frederick II.

What is more important to today’s listener is not all these ritual or ideological considerations, but the performing side of the matter. Overture - business card conductor's interpretation of this or that opera: we have the opportunity, precisely in these first minutes, before the singers have yet appeared on stage, to try to understand how the conductor perceives the composer, era, aesthetics, what approaches to them he tries to find.

This is often enough to feel how enormous changes have occurred and continue to occur in our perception of music. Even though the overtures of Gluck or Mozart are themselves a constant value, the difference between the way they sounded with Furtwängler in the early 1940s and with modern conductors is impressive proof that the existence of opera scores in the field of culture and taste is not an ossified fact , but a living process.

Overture with ceremony. "Orpheus" by Claudio Monteverdi (1607)

Monteverdi preceded the prologue of his “Orpheus” with an independent instrumental “toccata”. With a jubilantly solemn spirit, it is simple and even archaic: in fact, it is a three-times repeated fanfare, which then accompanied ceremonial events (this is how the composer wanted to greet his main audience, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga).

Nevertheless, in fact, it can be called the first operatic overture, and for Monteverdi himself it was not just “music for the occasion,” judging by the fact that he later used it in his “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin.”

Overture with tragedy. Alceste by Christoph Willibald Gluck

In the preface to Alceste, Gluck wrote that the overture should prepare the viewer for the events of the opera. This was a revolution by the standards of not only the earlier 18th century, but also the reformer himself - the overture to his “Orpheus and Eurydice” (1762) in no way prepares the listener for the subsequent scene of Eurydice’s mourning.

But the darkly agitated D-minor overture to “Alceste,” an example of “storm and stress” in music, finally organically correlates with a specific opera, where everything, according to Rousseau, revolves “between two feelings - sorrow and fear.”

Overture with drums. "The Thieving Magpie" by Gioachino Rossini (1817)

For a long time, the first chord of the overture was supposed to be loud for signaling purposes, but the overture to “The Thieving Magpie” turned out to be one of the records in this sense. This is a lengthy sonata composition with typical Rossini insouciance, melodic affection and fiery crescendos, but it opens with a deafeningly effective march featuring two military drums.

The latter was such an unheard-of innovation that some of the first listeners, outraged by the “unmusical barbarity,” threatened to shoot the composer.

Overture with atonality. "Tristan and Isolde" by Richard Wagner (1865)

“Reminds me of an old Italian painting of a martyr whose intestines are slowly being wound around a roller.”

The poisonous Eduard Hanslick wrote about the introduction to “Tristan”.

The prelude, which opens with the famous “Tristan chord,” blatantly violates classical ideas about tonality.

But the point is not in transgression, but in the almost physical feeling of great longing, a deep, but unquenchable desire that is created as a result. It is not without reason that many conservative critics criticized “Tristan” not for purely musical rebellion, but for its intoxication with “animal passion.”

There are French and Italian overtures. They differ in sound tempo. The Italians have a fast intro, middle part plays slowly and the ending picks up the pace again. For the French it's the other way around.

Some authors played in the overture excerpts from an opera that the public had yet to hear. Johann Strauss Jr. and Richard Wagner used the technique summary or announcing a further musical composition. Composers of the 19th century created concert overtures. These were completely independent compositions, which were performed in a separate program. Berlioz, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Glazunov and Mendelssohn experimented in this field. They wrote overtures for celebrations, holidays, and receptions. Their creations were enthusiastically received by the public.

Overture in contemporary art

The first overtures were written and played only so that the audience could calmly take their seats in the hall. Mozart changed this tradition. He made the overture a full-fledged, significant part of the work.

Music during the credits is an integral part of any movie. It shapes the emotional perception of the picture even before the plot begins to develop. Music in the theater before the curtain opens helps the audience focus on the stage. Music before the speaker's appearance attracts interest in the person and creates excitement at the moment of his appearance in front of the public. An overture in honor of some significant event gives it greater importance and significance. In some cases, it can turn into the anthem of this event.

French ouverture, from Lat. apertura - opening, beginning

An instrumental introduction to a theatrical performance with music (opera, ballet, operetta, drama), to a vocal-instrumental work such as a cantata and oratorio, or to a series of instrumental plays such as a suite, in the 20th century. - also for movies. A special variety of U. - conc. a play with certain theater features. prototype. Two main type U. - a play that has an introduction. function, and are independent. prod. with definition figurative and compositional. properties - interact in the process of development of the genre (starting from the 19th century). Common feature is to one degree or another expressed theater. the nature of U., “the combination of the most characteristic features of the plan in their most vivid form” (B.V. Asafiev, “Selected Works,” vol. 1, p. 352).

The history of U. dates back to the initial stages of the development of opera (Italy, at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries), although the term itself was established in the 2nd half. 17th century in France and then became widespread. The toccata in the opera “Orpheus” by Monteverdi (1607) is considered to be the first style. The fanfare music reflected the old tradition of beginning performances with inviting fanfares. Later Italian. operatic introductions, which are a sequence of 3 sections - fast, slow and fast, called. “symphonies” (sinfonia) became established in the operas of the Neapolitan opera school (A. Stradella, A. Scarlatti). The extreme sections often include fugue formations, but the third more often has genre and everyday dance. character, while the average one is distinguished by melodiousness and lyricism. Such operatic symphonies are usually called Italian opera symphonies. At the same time, a different type of three-part opera, the classical one, developed in France. samples of the cut were created by J. B. Lully. For French U. typically follows a slow, stately introduction, a fast fugue part and a final slow construction, concisely repeating the material of the introduction or generally reminiscent of its character. In some later examples, the final section was omitted, replaced by a cadence structure at a slow tempo. In addition to French composers, French type U. used it. composers of the 1st half. 18th century (J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, G. F. Telemann, etc.), introducing it not only to operas, cantatas and oratorios, but also to instrumental. suites (in the latter case, the name U. sometimes extended to the entire suite cycle). Leading value preserved by operatic rules, the definition of its functions gave rise to many conflicting opinions. Some muses. figures (I. Matteson, I. A. Shaibe, F. Algarotti) put forward the demand for an ideological and musical connection between Ukraine and opera; in the department In some cases, composers made this kind of connection in their works (Handel, especially J. F. Rameau). The decisive turning point in U.'s development occurred in the 2nd half. 18th century thanks to the approval of the sonata-symphony. principles of development, as well as the reform activities of K. V. Gluck, who interpreted U. as “an overview of the content” of the opera. Cyclic. type gave way to a one-movement opera in sonata form (sometimes with a short slow introduction), which generally conveyed the dominant tone of the drama and the character of the main character. conflict ("Alceste" by Gluck), which in the department. cases is specified by the use of appropriate music in U. operas ("Iphigenia in Aulis" by Gluck, "The Abduction from the Seraglio", "Don Giovanni" by Mozart). Means. Composers of the Great French period contributed to the development of opera. revolution, primarily L. Cherubini.

Will exclude. The work of L. Beethoven played a role in the development of the genre. Strengthening the musical theme connection with opera in the two most striking versions of U. to “Fidelio”, he reflected in their music. development of the most important moments of dramaturgy (more straightforwardly in “Leonora No. 2”, taking into account the specifics of the symphonic form - in “Leonora No. 3”). A similar type of heroic drama. Beethoven consolidated the program overture in music for dramas (Coriolanus, Egmont). German Romantic composers, developing the traditions of Beethoven, imbued Ukraine with the themes of opera. When selecting the most important muses for U. images of the opera (often leitmotifs) and, in accordance with its symphonies. development of the general course of the operatic plot, U. becomes a relatively independent “instrumental drama” (for example, U. to the operas “Free Shooter” by Weber, “ Flying Dutchman" and "Tannhäuser" by Wagner). In Italian music, including in G. Rossini, the old type of composition is mainly preserved - without direct connection with the thematic and plot development of the opera; the exception is the composition of Rossini's opera " William Tell" (1829) with its combined suite composition and generalization of the most important musical moments of the opera.

European achievements symphonism in general and, in particular, the growth of independence and conceptual completeness of operatic compositions contributed to the emergence of its special genre variety - the concert program composition (the works of G. Berlioz and F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy played an important role in this process). In the sonata form of such songs there is a noticeable tendency towards an extended symphony. development (previously opera songs were often written in sonata form without development), which later led to the emergence of the genre symphonic poem in the works of F. Liszt; later this genre is found in B. Smetana, R. Strauss and others. In the 19th century. Ornaments of an applied nature are becoming widespread - “solemn”, “welcome”, “anniversary” (one of the first examples is Beethoven’s “Birthday” Overture, 1815). The U. genre was the most important source of symphonism in Russian. music before M. I. Glinka (in the 18th century, overtures by D. S. Bortnyansky, E. I. Fomin, V. A. Pashkevich, in the early 19 century - by O. A. Kozlovsky, S. I. Davydov) . Valuable contribution to the development of various. types of U. were introduced by M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. A. Balakirev and others, who created a special type of national characteristic U., often using folk themes (for example, Glinka’s “Spanish” overtures, "Overture on the themes of three Russian songs" by Balakirev and others). This variety continues to develop in the works of Soviet composers.

In the 2nd half. 19th century Composers turn to the U. genre much less often. In opera it is gradually replaced by a shorter introduction, not based on sonata principles. It is usually sustained in one character, associated with the image of one of the heroes of the opera (Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”) or, in a purely expositional sense, introduces several leading images (Wise’s “Carmen”); similar phenomena are observed in ballets (Coppelia by Delibes, Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky). Will join. a part in opera and ballet of this time is often called an introduction, introduction, prelude, etc. The idea of ​​​​preparing for the perception of an opera replaces the idea of ​​symphonies. retelling its contents, R. Wagner repeatedly wrote about this, who gradually moved away in his work from the principle of an expanded programmatic teaching. However, along with short introductions, dept. Vivid examples of sonata style continue to appear in music. theater 2nd floor 19th century ("Die Meistersinger" by Wagner, "Force of Destiny" by Verdi, "The Woman of Pskov" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "Prince Igor" by Borodin). Based on the laws of sonata form, U. turns into a more or less free fantasy on the themes of opera, sometimes like a medley (the latter is more typical for operetta; the classic example is Strauss's Die Fledermaus). Occasionally, symptoms arise on their own. thematic material (ballet "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky). At the end The U. stage is increasingly giving way to symphonies. a poem, a symphonic picture or a fantasy, but even here the specific features of the plan sometimes bring to life a close theater. varieties of the U. genre ("Motherland" by Bizet, U.-fantasy "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" by Tchaikovsky).

In the 20th century U. in sonata form are rare (for example, J. Barber's overture to Sheridan's "School of Scandal"). Conc. varieties, however, continue to gravitate towards sonatas. Among them, the most common ones are national-characteristic. (on folk themes) and solemn songs (an example of the latter is Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture”, 1954).

Literature: Seroff A., Der Thcmatismus der Leonoren-Ouvertеre. Eine Beethoven-Studie, "NZfM", 1861, Bd 54, No. 10-13 (Russian translation - Thematismus) of the overture to the opera "Leonora". Study about Beethoven, in the book: Serov A.N., Critical articles, vol. 3, St. Petersburg, 1895, the same, in the book: Serov A.N., Izbr. articles, vol. 1, M.-L., 1950); Igor Glebov (B.V. Asafiev), Overture “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Glinka, in the book: Musical Chronicle, collection. 2, P., 1923, the same, in the book: Asafiev B.V., Izbr. works, vol. 1, M., 1952; by him, On the French classical overture and in particular on the overtures of Cherubini, in the book: Asafiev B.V., Glinka, M., 1947, the same, in the book: Asafiev B.V., Izbr. works, vol. 1, M., 1952; Koenigsberg A., Mendelssohn's Overtures, M., 1961; Krauklis G.V., Opera overtures by R. Wagner, M., 1964; Tsendrovsky V., Overtures and introductions to the operas of Rimsky-Korsakov, M., 1974; Wagner R., De l'ouverture, "Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris", 1841, Janvier, Ks 3-5 (Russian translation - Wagner R., About the overture, "Repertoire of the Russian Theater", 1841, No. 5; the same, in the book: Richard Wagner. Articles and materials, M., 1974).

G. V. Krauklis

Overture. When this word is pronounced, many understand that it is associated with music. However, not everyone knows its exact meaning. What is an overture? What is its origin and scope of use?

The word “overture” came into our language from France, a country in which XVIII-XIX centuries there was a heyday musical art- and it means “introduction”.

Meanings of the word "overture"

This is a piece that is performed before the start of any musical performance, for example, opera, ballet.

• Example: Before the start of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s ballet, the overture sounded, and all the spectators froze in anticipation of a musical miracle.

A short piece for orchestra is also called an overture.

• Example: Wagner's Overture for orchestra was highly appreciated by the audience.

In a figurative sense, this word is used colloquially to mean the beginning of something. Often this meaning has a sarcastic connotation.

• Example: This was just an overture; the main audit of the company’s work will be carried out in a week.

From the history of the appearance of the overture

Overture as a beginning, introduction to piece of music, did not appear immediately. For many centuries, musicians did not attach importance to this part of the work. Mozart was one of the first to write overtures to his creations, after which the overture took its rightful place in music.

Types of overtures

• Overture as the mood of the audience at the beginning of the performance. It allows you to concentrate and prepare for listening to music. Often such an overture used melodies from the main work.
• Overture containing short story the entire work, allowing the audience to understand the main ideas and thoughts of the author (for example, the overtures of J. Strauss and W. Wagner).

You can find out the meanings of other unknown words from the articles in the section