# Am I crazy to like recitativos?



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Here I am, listening to La clemenza di Tito for the 4th time in a week. It occurred to me that I enjoy hearing the recitativos! Dry, of course! I have no clue what's happening in the story...(I have read a summary of the libretto). Am I crazy?


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

I too take a kind of perverse pleasure in secco recitatives. Their musical value may be close to nil, but there's something oddly entertaining in their chirping perkiness.

Then again, I'm all about test patterns, so . . .


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

yes you are crazy


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'm not overly keen on the recitative but I suppose back in the day before through-composition it was the only device available to separate the proper stuff.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> I'm not overly keen on the recitative but I suppose back in the day before through-composition it was the only device available to separate the proper stuff.


Well, there's always _speaking_. Singspiel, opera comique, operetta and musicals do it. Mozart did it in _Die Zauberflote,_ Beethoven did it in _Fidelio,_ Cherubini did it in _Medea,_ Weber did it in _Der Freischutz_ and _Oberon,_ and Bizet did it in _Carmen_ (Medea and Carmen were later given recitatives, though not of the secco variety, by other composers.) Secco recitative is basically just speaking on pitch, so it's hard to see any advantage to it. I find it annoying when listening to recordings, but I imagine it's possible to enjoy it even if you're not crazy.

Accompanied recitative, in stricter rhythm with orchestral accompaniment, grades into through-composition, and composers chose it increasingly for its musical and dramatic potential. Mozart wrote some great examples, Beethoven too, and much of the vocal writing of Wagner, the later Verdi, and subsequent composers falls into this middle-ground between recitative and aria, at times completely supplanting both. It allows singers to exploit the full range of their dramatic abilities, and it gives the orchestra a more significant storytelling function. I like through-composed opera and don't have to worry about whether I'm crazy.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Razumovskymas said:


> yes you are crazy


A comment that doesn't sound as affirmatively nasty when presented, I suppose, to you folks to whom it is addressed, as a recitative!!!


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

..................................


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Razumovskymas said:


> yes you are crazy


I assume you mean in a funny way.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Rogerx said:


> I assume you mean in a funny way.


what kind of funny? Funny like a clown? (i would post the video but the f word is used way too much)


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

ldiat said:


> what kind of funny? Funny like a clown? (i would post the video but the f word is used way too much)


Definitely no sarcastic. :angel:


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I don't like recitatives too much when you get a sense that the singers are following a convention (which, of course, they are) but they can be fresh and can help give the drama a sense of continuity and life! One of the things I like about the Currentzis recordings of the da Ponte operas is that the recitatives don't hold up the action but, rather, help to drive it forward. He uses a piano continuo to accompany them and his pianist has annoyed some by being imaginative. Apparently there is a danger of finding the effect tiresome after several listens but that isn't happening to me. 

I do dislike spoken dialogue in a language I don't know. One of the advantages of Klemperer's Zauberflote is that the dialogue is excluded. I once bought a download of Il Seraglio in English simply so that I could understand the dialogue but the damn recording had had the dialogue removed!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Woodduck said:


> Well, there's always _speaking_. Singspiel, opera comique, operetta and musicals do it. Mozart did it in _Die Zauberflote,_ Beethoven did it in _Fidelio,_ Cherubini did it in _Medea,_ Weber did it in _Der Freischutz_ and _Oberon,_ and Bizet did it in _Carmen_.


Very true, Woodduck - I suppose I overlooked speech because I was focussing on the baroque era rather than later (I'm assuming speech wasn't used that early?).


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

And now serious;

Where are the days that I sat and listen to a whole Händel opera, booklet in my hand, following the whole story. It's only when you loose that dedication of wanting to spend 3 hours doing just that, that recitatives are beginning to get annoying. It's when you realize that your baroque opera-days are probably over and you turned into an aria-junk.......it's sad actually. It's only a matter of time for such a sad case before he starts buying best of Händel cd's.


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

I will NEVER buy a best of Händel though!!!


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

and I will end with my favorite recitative:






:tiphat:


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Here I am, listening to La clemenza di Tito for the 4th time in a week. It occurred to me that I enjoy hearing the recitativos! Dry, of course! I have no clue what's happening in the story...(I have read a summary of the libretto). Am I crazy?


I didn't used to like them at all. Now I love a beautiful and well-written recitativo. Bach and Mozart's, naturally enough, are incredible. I've developed an ear for them. That said, it's interesting that you picked La Clemenza di Tito, of all pieces. Mozart fobbed off the recitativos to another minor composer (pressed for time). And you know if Mozart had to fob off musical composition, time was dire. He was a genius who could write a symphony in a day. Can't recall who it was. Many modern recordings substitute Mozart's own from other sources I think.


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