Chapter 19. Performing Grief: Purcell and Early Opera
Why does Dido sing a lament at the end of Purcell's opera?
Aeneas left her
Which of the following dramatic works were composed Henry Purcell?
Correct Answer(s) Dido and Aeneas The Fairy Queen Incorrect Answer(s) Orfeo The Magic Flute
Which of the following correctly describes Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas?
Correct Answer(s) It is based on Virgil's Aeneid. The opera ends tragically. It was first performed at a girls' school in London. Incorrect Answer(s) The work is sung in Italian. Dido and Aeneas live happily ever after.
Which of the following operas were composed by Claudio Monteverdi?
Correct Answer(s) Orfeo The Coronation of Poppea Incorrect Answer(s) Dido and Aeneas Fairy Queen
Which of the following are purely instrumental sections that can be included in an opera?
Correct Answer(s) overture sinfonia Incorrect Answer(s) aria chorus recitative
How does Purcell musically depict Dido's grief in the aria "When I am laid in earth"?
Correct Answer(s) with a slow tempo with a descending, chromatic bass line Incorrect Answer(s) with a frenetic rhythmic pulse with an ascending bass line
Early opera was originally designed to reflect the manner in which seventeenth-century aristocrats sung their conversations to each other on a daily basis.
False
Italian opera was embraced in all western European countries.
False
Which of the following does not describe Henry Purcell's life and career?
He was born in Venice
The libretto for Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas is based on -.
The Aeneid
A descending ground bass helps underscore the sorrow in Dido's lament.
True
Monteverdi was one of the first great composers of opera.
True
Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas is based on an episode in Virgil's Aeneid.
True
The masque was an English form of entertainment that combined music, poetry, and dance.
True
What is "Thy hand, Belinda," as sung by Dido in Purcell's opera?
a recitative
An opera is a large-scale - that is -.
drama, sung
What is the structural basis for Dido's Lament in Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas?
ground brass
In composing -, a composer often works with a -, who supplies the text for the various recitatives, arias, and choruses and provides the story's main threads and subplots.
opera, librettist
At the time of Monteverdi's opera The Coronation of Poppea, what type of opera houses were beginning to open in Venice?
public
Match each definition to the genre it best describes.
recitative Correct label: a kind of musical declamation or speech libretto Correct label: the text/script of an opera overture Correct label: an orchestral introduction aria Correct label: a song, usually of a highly emotional nature
