Accompanied Recitative and Alessandro Stradella: Experiments in Expression

Abstract

The intent topeffect a reform of Eighteenth-Century opera expressed by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the preface to his tragedy Alceste published in 1769, an intent not his alone but also that of his librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi and of the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini (as well as of the impresario and “directeur des spectacles” in Vienna, Count Giacomo Durazzo), regarded several aspects of opera seria including recitative. On the latter subject he wrote: “I have felt […] that the concerted instruments should be introduced in proportion to the interest and the intensity of the words, and not leave that sharp contrast between the aria and the recitative in the dialogue, so as not to break a period unreasonably nor wantonly disturb the force and heat of the action.”¹ Gluck thereby proposed to eliminate recitative accompanied by basso continuo alone and, instead, to accompany all recitative with instruments other than just the continuo: in other words he advised writing only “recitativo obbligato” (called also accompanied recitative) and never “recitativo semplice” (also known as secco recitative).