linguistic:translation
Neoclassicism

The neoclassicism was a return to the musical models of eighteenth-century classicism, characterized by restraint, balance and formal clarity. It developed especially in the interwar period (1920s and 1930s). Its models were basically the classicists, but also recovered baroque forms, as well as various expressive options such as dissonance. In general, more objective and defined musical forms were sought, with a more contrasted and diaphanous timbre, repetitive rhythms – with frequent use of ostinato — and a more diatonic harmony, far from Wagnerian chromaticism.

One of the countries where this style was most prevalent was the Soviet Union. Its main representative, Igor Stravinsky, was close to expressionism, although he can sometimes be described as neoclassical, but more than anything else he was an unclassifiable genius with a surprising palette of sounds of great variety; he himself never wanted to be associated with any particular style. In his beginnings, still influenced by Russian folklore, and with a certain influence of French impressionism, he enjoyed great success with his ballets, represented by the Ballets Russes of Sergey Diaghilev. After them, he began a new stage of a more sober musicality, reducing instrumental resources, which is evident in his first opera, Le rossignol (The Nightingale, 1914), based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, which combined neo-romantic and orientalist influences. His next stage work was Mavra (1922), a tribute to the Russian school of traditional opera. A more ambitious project was Œdipus Rex (1927), with a libretto by Jean Cocteau translated into Latin, in neoclassical style. After these works, all short, his only full-length opera was The Rake's Progress (The Rake's Progress, 1951), based on a series of etchings by William Hogarth that he saw at the Art Institute of Chicago, which were dramatized by the poet Wystan Hugh Auden.

Dmitri Shostakovich lived all his life under the censorship magnifying glass of the Soviet regime, but he achieved some of the best compositions of the century. His first opera was Nos (The Nose, 1928), a critique of the reign of Nicolas I. His masterpiece was Ledi Mákbet Mtsénskogo Uyezda (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, 1936), on a play by Nikolai Leskov, which enjoyed great success outside his country, but was disliked by the Soviet authorities for its dissonant style. A revised version with the title Katerina Ismailova was premiered in Moscow in 1963.

Sergey Prokofiev, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, combined traditional music with some experimental features. He composed his first opera, Maddalena (1911) at the age of twenty. During a tour of the United States, the Chicago Opera commissioned him an opera, The Love of the Three Oranges (The Love of the Three Oranges, 1919), based on a text by Carlo Gozzi, a comic work of surrealist tone. He lived a few years in Paris, time in which he made Ógnenny angel (The Angel of Fire, 1923). After returning to his country in 1933, he tackled Vojna i Mir (War and Peace, 1946), by Lev Tolstoy, which was not well received by the Soviet authorities, who branded him as unpatriotic. To congratulate himself with them he composed Póvest or nastoyáschem cheloveke (The Story of a Real Man, 1948), more adept to the regime.

Sergey Rakhmaninov was influenced by Tchaikovsky. He devoted himself mainly to symphonic and piano music, but tackled opera in works such as Aleko (1893), Skupój rýtsar (The Miserly Gentleman, 1906) and Francesca da Rimini (1907).

The Swedish-born British Gustav Theodor Holst premiered in 1916 Savitri, a chamber opera based on the Indian Mahābhārata, in which he employed bitonality. He subsequently composed The Perfect Fool (1923), At the Boar's Head (1925) and The Tale of the Wandering Scholar (1934).

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the author in 1924 of a ballad opera, Hugh the Drover (Hugh the Drover). In 1929 he premiered Sir John in Love, about the Shakespearian character of Falstaff. After the operetta The Poisoned Kiss (The Poisoned Kiss), he composed Riders to the Sea (Riders to the Sea), of veristic and Wagnerian affiliation. His last work was The Pilgrim's Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress, 1951).

The German Carl Orff was the author of the operas Der Mond (The Moon, 1939), Die Kluge (The Cunning One, 1943), Antigonae (1949) and Oedipus der Tyrann (Oedipus the King, 1959). His cantata Carmina Burana (1937), based on medieval goliardic poems, although not an opera, is often performed in opera houses.

In Italy, Gian Francesco Malipiero developed a style which, despite its modernity, denoted the weight of Italian musical tradition, especially Monteverdi and Vivaldi. He was the author of L'Orfeide (1925), Giulio Cesare (1936), I caprici di Callot (1942), Il figliuol prodigo (1953) and Il capitan Spavento (1963). Ildebrando Pizzetti also combined modernity and tradition, influenced by Renaissance and Baroque music. After several youthful works, in 1915 he premiered Fedra, based on a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio. It was followed by operas such as Debora e Jaele (1922), Fra Gherardo (1928) and Lo straniero (1930). In his following works he gave predominance to the arioso: Orseolo (1935), Vanna Lupa (1950) and Cagliostro (1953). One of his greatest successes was Assassino nella cattedrale (1958), on a play by T. S. Eliot. Ferruccio Busoni, based in Germany, evolved from a post-Romantic influenced by Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn to a young classicism – in his words – that gradually assumed contemporary novelties. He was the author of Die Brautwahl (The Bride's Choice, 1912), Arlecchino (1917), Turandot (1917) and Doktor Faust (1925); the latter, incomplete, was completed by his disciple Philipp Jarnach. Licinio Refice, who was a priest, made operas on religious themes: Santa Cecilia (1934) and Margherita da Cortona (1938).

The Czech Bohuslav Martinů was an eclectic musician who brought together neoclassicism with a certain neo-baroque tendency, impressionism and American popular music (jazz and gospel). Settled in Paris, he produced works such as Le Soldat et la danseuse (The Soldier and the Dancer, 1927), Les Trois Souhaits (The Three Wishes, 1929) and Hry or Marii (The Miracles of Mary, 1934). He later composed two operas for radio: Veselohra na mostě (Comedy on the Bridge, 1935) and Julietta (1937). His last works were Ariane (1958) and Řecké pašije (The Greek Passion, 1959).

Other exponents were: Werner Egk (Die Zaubergeige, 1935; Irische Legende, 1954; Der Revisor, 1957), Dmitri Kabalevsky (Breugnon Tails, 1938), Albert Roussel (Padmâvatî, 1923), Othmar Schoeck (Penthesilea, 1927), Heinrich Sutermeister (Die schwarze Spinne, 1936; Romeo und Julia, 1940; Die Zauberinsel, 1942; Raskolnikoff, 1948) and Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (Der Günstling, 1935; Die Bürger von Calais, 1939).