Baroque Vocal Music - Opera vs Oratorio

The Vocal Music of the Baroque Era

There were two main forms of Vocal Music to emerge in the Baroque era:

Opera and Oratorio.

Masses continued to be composed in the Baroque era, by composers such as J.S. Bach, and they continued to be in Latin, as Vatican II took place in 1962, and before then every single mass was performed in Latin. Remember, the Baroque era was in the 1600s!

This post shows you the difference between and Opera and an Oratorio.

Opera

Here is an excerpt from a Baroque Opera, "L'Orfeo". This Aria, is in fact the Prologue to the opera, and introduces the whole story. (It's in Italian, so you'll not know that unless you're fluent in Italian!)
The ensemble plays the Ritornello at the beginning, and then again between the verses of the song. See if you can also spot the Basso Continuo part running throughout.

As you can see, it is a staged production, like the Operas and Musicals we are used to. The woman singing this part is a Soprano. She sings in Italian, and she has a trained, "Operatic" voice. The accompaniment is provided by a Baroque Orchestra in the pit, beneath the stage.

Oratorio

This video is from an Oratorio - Handel's Messiah. Notice how there are no costumes and characters? That's because an Oratorio is simply a storytelling piece of music - the singers are accompanied by the orchestra as they are in an Opera, however they are singing stories from the Bible, and are not acting it out. To the listener, an Oratorio sounds like a "Holy Opera". But if you're watching it happen live, there is no theatre arts involved - simply singers and an orchestra. You'll still hear the Ritornello, the Basso Continuo and the "operatic" voice. Can you hear any Holy words that would suggest this from the Bible?

In another post, we will look in more detail at the associated concepts such as Aria, Da Capo Aria, Recitative and Chorus.