Opera buffa always included a lot of caricature. The characters showed human weaknesses such as , , and (people who were pretending to be wise and important). They often poked fun at the ruling classes.
In opera buffa the acting was always very important. It was a very lively show, with a lot happening very quickly. At the end of each act all the main characters sang together: this is called an “ensemble” (the French word for “together”).
Opera buffa started in Naples and gradually spread to other parts of Italy. It was particularly popular at carnival time. Important composers of opera buffa include Carlo Goldoni and Baldassare Galuppi.
By the end of the 18th century it was not always possible to tell the difference between an opera buffa and an opera seria. Mozart’s opera "Don Giovanni", for example, has a lot of comedy, but there is also a serious side.
Opera seria
Opera seria is an Italian term which refers to the "serious" style of Italian opera in the 18th century. It was different from opera buffa which was a musical comedy. Opera seria was supposed to be about serious tragedy. The term “opera seria” only started to be used after the time when it was popular in order to talk about the historic period.
Italian "opera seria" was always in the Italian language, even when it was composed or performed in other countries such as Germany, Austria, England and Spain. In France the opera seria was not so popular. They had their own forms of opera.
Popular composers of opera seria included Hasse, Vinci, Jommelli, George Frideric Handel, Piccinni, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Gluck, and Mozart.
"Opera seria" was often called "dramma per musica" ("drama through music"). The story was told in recitative, a quick-flowing music with simple accompaniment. Then there were arias which were the big songs where the singers could show off their skills. They were normally in "da capo" form (a main section, a middle section, and the main section repeated). The opera would start with an overture and there would also be some ensembles where several characters sung at once.
The stories of opera seria were usually about the ancient Greek and Roman gods or kings. This was in contrast to opera buffa, which was about ordinary people and often made fun of kings and nobility.
The main singers in opera seria were mostly castrati, male singers who had been castrated when they were young so that they still sang with high voices. Gradually during the 18th century the female singers got more of the main roles (the “prima donna” or “first lady”).
One of the first composers of opera seria was Alessandro Scarlatti. In England George Frideric Handel wrote many great opera seria. The most important man in the development of mid-18th century opera seria was Metastasio who wrote libretti. His words were set by the greatest composers in Europe: Hasse, Porpora and, especially, Mozart.
In the later part of the 18th century Christoph Willibald Gluck changed a lot of traditions in opera. He did not want opera to be just a way for singers to show off their voices. He wanted the story to be important. He did not use dry recitative but tried to make the drama, dance and music all important, especially the chorus. "Orfeo ed Euridice" was his first important opera, followed by others such as "Alceste".
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was influenced by Gluck’s reforms. His two great opera seria were "Idomeneo" (1780) and "La clemenza di Tito" (1791). Mostly, however, Mozart was not so interested in writing about the old Greek gods and kings. His other great Italian operas: "Cosi fan tutte", "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" are something between opera seria and opera buffa. These were set to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte.
Other important "opera seria" composers were Luigi Cherubini and Gaspare Spontini, followed by Rossini whose musical style made further changes to opera seria.
Mosbach
Mosbach (South Franconian: "Mossbach") is a town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. About 25,000 people live there. It is between Heidelberg and Heilbronn. There are other big towns nearby: Sinsheim, Eberbach and Osterburken.
In Neckarelz, a suburb of Mosbach, is the most important train station. There are trains running from Mannheim - Heidelberg - Heilbronn, Stuttgart - Heilbronn - Neckarelz and Kaiserslautern - Mannheim - Heidelberg - Mosbach - Osterburken. There are also 2 other stations: Mosbach and Mosbach West. There are only trains from Kaiserslautern to Osterburken.
Mosbach has an area of . The postal codes are from "74801" to "74821", the old one was "6950". The telephone numbers start with "+49 6261", The cars have number plates with the letters "MOS".
Counties of Ireland
There are 32 historic counties on the island of Ireland. 26 are in the Republic of Ireland and 6 are in Northern Ireland.
The counties "in italics" do not have a county council, instead they are have two or more smaller administrative county councils (called districts, in Northern Ireland)
Several large towns are county boroughs. These councils have the same powers and duties of a county council.
Melk Abbey
Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is a Benedictine abbey. It lies on the Danube, near the city of Melk. It is located in Lower Austria. It is one of the distinguishing features of a region known as Wachau. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The abbey was almost totally destroyed in a fire, on 14 August 1297. It was rebuilt in Baroque style at the beginning of the 18th century.
Walenstadt
Walenstadt is a small city in east Switzerland. It is near Lake Walen and is divided in four part cities: Tscherlach, Berschis, Walenstadt and Walenstadtberg.
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism is a tendency some people have. These people derive pleasure from the fact that other people can see them naked, or while having sex. Exhibitionism is much more common in extraverts, especially people who have histrionic personality disorder.
Exhibitionism is more common in women than in men.
Enjoying watching other people have sex, or being naked, is called voyeurism.
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 - November 8, 1978) was an American painter. He was born in New York City. During 40 years Rockwell drew the cover pages of "The Saturday Evening Post". He died of emphysema in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge owns much of his work.
Well known are his paintings on the "Four Freedoms" of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, called: "Freedom of Speech", "Freedom of Worship", "Freedom from Want" and "Freedom from Fear".
Zuiderzee Works
The Zuiderzeewerken ("Zuiderzee Works") are a system of dams, land reclamation and water drainage works in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. Plans for the works date back to the 1600s, but it was not until a very bad flood in 1916, that the Dutch parliament finally agreed to pay for the works. Now it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
First some dams or dykes were built to separate the South Sea () from the North Sea. The biggest was the "Afsluitdijk" ('closure dyke'). It is long. When it was finished in 1932, the South Sea was completely cut off and from then on would become a lake called the "IJsselmeer".
Land reclamation meant building more dams and pumping out the water inside. The new land is called a polder. Polders make new land for agriculture and make flood protection better, because the lake is smaller.
There are gates and sluices at the ends of the Afsluitdijk. The gates, called locks, can be opened to let ships through. The sluices let water out of the IJsselmeer. If there were no sluices the lake would fill up and flood the countryside. This is because it is always being filled with water from rivers and the polders which are still being drained.
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (February 3, 1898 – May 11, 1976 ) was a Finnish architect who made many important contributions to architecture. Sometimes called the "Father of Modernism".