# Uncannily Similar Arias



## Tuoksu (Sep 3, 2015)

For example I find "Tacea La Notte Placida" to be a copycat of "Regnava Nel Silenzio", and in Abigaille's recitatives "ben io t'invenni" is exactly Lady macbeth's "Ambizioso spirto". 

Which arias do you find really similar? It could be by the same composer or from different composers.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

It was common practice in pre-electronic recording days, particularly among the seventeenth and eighteenth century opera composers. Cobbling together new operas with pieces from their older forgotten operas. Also, they were not above swiping material from each other.

Why? Lack of new ideas, lazyness. I tend to think it was from the pressure to continually come up with new works. When a composers livelyhood depended on patronage, often having to produce a new work at short notice for a patron who could chop off your head or your income at even shorter notice, recycling was something to fall back on.

I've been listening to Gluck's operas recently, so he's the first composer that pops into my mind on the subject of recycling.
I'm not knocking Gluck for this, he composed a lot of beautiful music.

By way of example -










Gluck used this chorus in (at least) three different operas -














Actually I don't mind, it's like bumping into old friends. Why waste a good tune.

Best wishes
Metairie road


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