The Defenders of Baroque Opera-Harbingers of Modern Criticism

Abstract

TH HE DEFENDERS OF BAROQUE OPERA -HARBINGERS OF MODERN CRITICISM1 V BY M. G. FLAHERTY V Opera was a product of Renaissance desires to revive the art forms of classical antiquity. Originally intended as a restoration of Greek tragedy, it became something entirely different when Baroque longings for an artistic synthesis made it into a theatrical genre which employed several arts within a dramatic framework. Opera gained such wide acclaim that it developed into one of Europe's leading cultural institutions by the end of the seventeenth century. At the same time, however, its reception became one of the most controversial issues of the period. While theologically oriented adversaries objected to opera's power over the fancy of man and condemned its excessive emphasis on the senses, rationalistic literary men denounced its neglect of the dramatic rules and mocked what they considered its artistic inanities. These critics failed to see that opera was a modern theatrical form which tried to do justice to many divergent arts. Consequently they misinterpreted it as an unreal and foolish diversion seductive enough to deceive even the well-educated. In so doing, they helped to fashion the caricature of opera which is to this day given currency by people who believe that art must be comparable to real life. Their attacks against opera's melodramatic plots, continuous singing, and lack of theatrical probability-particularly in death scenes-did not succeed in abolishing it from the stage. They succeeded only in stimulating opera's numerous supporters to rise in its defense and to point out the erroneous assumptions of such objections. The most concentrated battle to abolish musical theater in Ger-