ABSTRACT
In introducing Baroque opera to an undergraduate survey class, this chapter focuses on the recitative/aria unit, which forms the foundation for most late-Baroque vocal music, opera, as well as oratorio and cantata. A composer of Baroque opera had two possibilities for such an emotional plummet: accompanied recitative or consecutive arias. Studying the vocal music of Johann Bach and Handel inevitably leads to the question of the reputations of these composers during their own lifetimes as compared with the reputations. Teaching undergraduate music history is a challenging, even exhausting experience. The late-Baroque music offers a familiar musical language to most undergraduate music majors, it also, somewhat paradoxically, presents the students with significant obstacles, especially in the vocal music. Baroque opera, in particular, is a foreign, perhaps even bizarre, art form, and this is understandable. For undergraduate music majors, especially for most voice or opera majors, the pacing of Baroque opera is slow, static, and formulaic.
