How (not) to produce an opera in 1720s Venice

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Created by Elam Rotem
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Special thanks to Lisandro Abadie and Anne Smith.
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[@CoucouMachinchouette]

Many thanks for the useful hints, I'm about to produce an opera in 1720s Venice myself.

[@enriquesanchez2001]

@Divergent_Integral

[@oliviu-dorianconstantinesc288]

What a visionary Marcello was. Nothing has changed in 300 years.

[@erzsblasfantaven3334]

I did not expect this level of savageness from Marcello 😂

[@doricdream498]

not even 10 minutes in and im nearly in tears laughing

[@Monrealese]

Oh my, I can't breathe.....! I don't dare to read the original text, I might not survive.....

[@JLMoriart]

After all, the greek writers never read the modern authors XDDDD

[@rogermoore27]

That was hilarious to me

[@boltzee5122]

Composer: "You are the one with whom the opera wil stand" Earthquake: "ok" *shakes the stage making everyone fall down*

[@amyniu939]

Pergolesi: why...

[@stevenottomanyi154]

This is about the funniest thing I have seen. Woke up the whole house laughing. Thanks for the laugh. In quarantine I needed it.

[@michaweinst3774]

This is just incredible. A wonderful satire of the workings of early 18th century opera. If you liked this, you'll definitely love Berlioz's Evenings with the Orchestra, which is basically "how (not) to produce an opera in 1840s Paris". Now it's absolutely great there's an 18th century counterpart to that funny book, and a good one at that. Thanks!

[@yuvalne]

I laughed out loud at that Netflix joke @ 2:55

[@monteverdi1567]

Yuval Nehemia 😁

[@filipefrancoafonso]

Totally agree Netflix roasting. It's a disgrace.

[@1685Violin]

I don't even understand the joke against Netflix though.

[@ankavoskuilen1725]

I know Marcello's music, I play some of it myself and I like it but I never knew he was so funny. I think I will try to read the original text. Thank you for this video.

[@oderalon]

A bear! That's what is missing in modern music! It all makes sense now.

[@francescoborghini7669]

Davvero ben detto!!

[@monicacall7532]

As a professional musician who has played her fair share of operas all I can say is that the more things change the more they stay the same. Hilarious but oh so true take on the “real” world of opera!

[@scarlocnebelwandler1253]

This satirical text could as well have been written regarding 21st century pop music...

[@dankmemesdeaddreams2309]

Yea this is perpetual, people will always hate new stuff

[@classicalmusful]

@@dankmemesdeaddreams2309 Not so much about "new stuff," the quality of opera productions seems to have declined in some ways during the early 18th century because of the demands of singers and the structure of the companies involved. Gluck and other composers of the early Classical period famously attempted to reform opera performance by addressing the very things mentioned in this satirical text.

[@kaloarepo288]

@@classicalmusful Someone once said of Gluck's reforms -he took the fun out of opera!

[@LucaRicciComposer]

Singer: "I'm basically HALF DEAD!" The plague doctors: "Allow us to introduce ourselves"

[@mafuaqua]

Part 2 please, with the rest of the instructions!

[@dextrodemon]

matches up so closely to my experience working on low budget movie sets, lol. though the impresario is just an additional prima donna instead, the director.

[@No-pm4ss]

Satire is probably my favorite type of writing ;). Very interesting and funny video, well made as well!

[@MaHa-um5sv]

This is gold!

[@jcortese3300]

"This Is Spinal Tap" for the 1700s, basically.

[@AlexandraZernerRocks]

Benedetto Marcello is my new hero! And nothing has changed for all this time... Thank you so much for this video!

[@WerIstWieJesus]

Marcello was a prophet. He describes the modern music! (... and the new mass).

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

Thank you for the links to the sources - I've red the original volume and it's hilarious!

[@zepewto901]

I get so happy whenever I see a new video from this channel

[@DrLogical987]

An excellent Christmas gift for us! Thanks

[@MeetMozart]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing how much has changed, and yet…nothing has changed

[@paulbombardier8722]

I love this! As so many have already stated it is as true today as then. Thank you so much. I enjoy all of the videos that you have already uploaded.

[@danielintheantipodes6741]

I need to read this book! Thank you for the video!

[@fredhoupt4078]

Very funny. I loved the humour.

[@DavidMaurand]

here, in these bad times, i find myself laughing out loud. thanks, Elam.

[@paulmartinez594]

according to this I am a good composer 🤠 ahrre

[@Wermen]

Jajaja

[@AllenGarvin]

I read an excerpt of that years ago, in translation, and have wondered multiple times over the years the original source. Thanks describing the full satire!

[@Timrath]

All, and I mean ALL of that applies to today's pop music. - Singers being treated as more important than composers: Check - Composers having to write huge quantities of low quality music in short time: Check - "Noise is what counts in modern music": Check - Singers using sickness as an exuse for performing badly, or not performing at all: Check

[@melissarainchild]

True artists are hard to find...

[@tomhejda6450]

- Knowledge of counterpoint is overrated. Check - Random use of accidentals. Check

[@petermikulski6651]

Awesome video

[@jennylea8687]

Love it!

[@stellario82]

Amazing!

[@LazlosPlane]

Fabulous!

[@patrickcunningham618]

fantastic!

[@ruudvanveen428]

This Item is a master-peace which I recognized im -'media'- tely !! Thank You!!

[@agabrielhegartygaby9203]

Hilarious! Thank you.

[@elchatismiquin6445]

Wow! Buenísimo!

[@adriepram]

Marcello is my spirit animal now. Edit: 15:43-15:45 in, and as a string player, I lol'd hard 🤣

[@filippozaccaria6944]

Very interesting

[@Whatismusic123]

This a great commentary on 21st century contemporary music

[@wafsinc]

So basically Terrible Writing Advice 1700's edition.

[@brendahaggerty9467]

Was about to say that myself 😆

[@ratboygenius]

Bravo! Great presentation. What a treat to hear such rich and 'modern' satire from centuries ago. Certainly we still struggle with 'spectacle versus art' in opera and musical theater. This could have been written about much of Broadway today. (Violins should never get the pitch from the harpsichord! How terrible it must have sounded to our modern trained ears.)

[@monteverdi1567]

“The more things change, the more they stay the same...”

[@TheLuteChannelGuilhermeBarroso]

Amazing! 🤣🤣🤣

[@BoganTheLastard]

Go off king

[@divinodayacap3313]

Lmao that netflix shade

[@TheVickenStudios]

Right now, I am working on an electronic-opera for the hire, as a composer, and I feel completely called out I guess some things never change, am I right? ;O

[@PiersHudsonComposer]

5:02 Nice Ghibli reference (Laputa: Castle in the Sky); I wasn't expecting that!

[@ornleifs]

Ha Ha - this is wonderful.

[@christianwouters6764]

An even more vicious satire could easily be written about nowadays opera practice. Especially concerning the power of directors who disfigure the operas in order to exhibit their own postmodernistic obsessions.

[@senna6773]

Well, to be fair, most opera productions (especially singers) would benefit if stage directors went totally absent. And audiences would be thankful too.

[@iopvixens]

This sounds familiar. Is this basically the traps that everyone fall into about any movies, anime, novels, manga, cartoons production, singers, poet, musicians, composer, voice actors etc.

[@emanuelevacca91]

From what the author says, one can deduct that the ancient modes collapsed into just two, major and minor, just because composers didn't know them or how to use them. I wonder if there is some truth in this deduction.

[@aldolopez9564]

This is gold! Hahaha

[@leif-erikhallmann]

I see some parallels between the 1720's Venice and the modern mainstream composers lol

[@marcopagani7808]

Well done 😂

[@ellenbakulina6997]

Major and minor viewed as a bad thing as late as 1720, wow!

[@francescoborghini7669]

Se Marcello tornasse oggi... scriverebbe un'altra Satira: "Il Filologo alla Moda"!...

[@keicommon521]

🤣 Köstlich!

[@alessandropalazzani]

Macarena😂😂😂

Neste calendário, o dia 4 é um sábado e 12 um Domingo, ou seja teria que dirigir a liturgia de 2 Domingos enquanto compunha e estreava uma ópera!

[@Hist_da_Musica]

So true Historically Informed Performances happen when people do everything extremely bad

[@charpnatl]

Whales, crabs and violets on my!

[@ChristianJiang]

I want to hear some of these trashy operas now though!! I’m so curious

[@SilvaMorasten]

:D :D :D :D :D excellent

[@rogermoore27]

HAHAHAHA! Bitter! Beast mode!

[@lukas_koe]

marcello salty af

[@erniegross4780]

Contractual demands of a certain pop singer soloist: water bottles-specific brand, specific size, specific amount, all at a specific temperature plus only blue M & Ms!

[@rogermoore27]

No wonder he released it anonymously

[@shircohen5647]

the lascia ch'io pianga ornaments gave me genuine anxiety

[@mamascarlatti]

Me too and I'm not even a singer or a musician

[@AbnerIMAlvarado]

I was singing them while watching hahahaha I heard once a V'Adoro Pupille in that fashion and it was disturbing

[@paulsmith5752]

I wonder how Marcello would react to Regietheater... :O

[@kyle-silver]

Does an English version exist?

[@lduc63]

is there a french translation ?

[@MrAluminox]

@@eyvye Merci.

[@FernieCanto]

The biggest conclusion to take here is that complaining about "music getting worse" is about as old as humanity itself. ... but nah, the music of *TODAY* is truly worse! Everything was perfect in the past.

[@ankavoskuilen1725]

Even the old Egyptians knew that in 2000 something bc 😉

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

No it wasn’t perfect in the past. It was flawed then too.

[@ankavoskuilen1725]

In every age there was good music AND bad music. That is what always stays the same. Comparing is useless.

[@karlesmcquade2863]

18th century CinemaSins. OperaSins?

[@natasza.mroczek]

Hahahaha thank you

[@turnipsociety706]

Since then, we have only played with bears

[@derkanal876]

Thank you so much, now I feel sufficiently prepared to not write my first own opera

[@__________Troll__________]

*I honestly don't know anything about this type of music. Most of this is beyond over my head, yet I sense I'm being trolled*

[@uhoh007]

if the audience had the slightest clue about all this, I can see why they were so popular.

[@richardsanchez5444]

Is this like The Producers but operatic?

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

Sadly many singers and voice teachers were so arrogant and cocky back then and sometimes would ruin works. There are still many who are.

[@armandosaldanamora9821]

"The more things change..." am I right?

[@alexandergray6107]

Opera for dummies, but worse!

[@Ottavio_Farnese]

😂

[@el_raqa]

Polémico

[@baxter5431]

Inspiration for "At the Opera" with the Marx Brothers??? Seems so.

[@gervaisfrykman266]

It is always the same. Now he could say to the singer Make sure you dominate, never mind the crudity of tone, intonation and articulation that necessarily goes with it. You are going to be recorded. Make sure you are miked so that only you can be heard. Mozart took far too much trouble with the orchestra, as if they were telling the story! Only you must be heard, with perhaps a feathery twittering from the orchestra as backing for your self. I don't know whether there are any tunes in Fidelio. The last production I saw had the heavy singing described above, with the result that it could have been Wagner.

[@AidanMmusic96]

And as for the timpanists...!!

[@enriquesanchez2001]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Baccatube79]

1720 or 2020... wind instrumentalists and the mothers of primedonne have not changed whatsoever. And no-one knows Latin, either.

[@y11971alex]

I wonder which opera was considered bad in those days

[@francescoborghini7669]

Secondo me, come succede anche a Galilei (c'è un bel video su di lui, in questo canale) o a Plinio il Vecchio, non si vuole veramente e unicamente criticare le Opere, ma un gusto che si ritiene fasullo e degradato... Nel caso di Marcello poi, ho idea che i veri obbiettivi della sua Satira, non fossero solo la Musica o l'Opera, ma la Società del tempo, che non si mostrava degna di salire sul Palco della Storia...

[@bifeldman]

Not much different from the current state of much music.

[@kurtisburtis]

“Read the original text ...” Hope your Italian is up to snuff

[@flamindigo]

No wonder that I don't like opera - ha ha

[@serteres32]

It seems opera has always been infused with pettiness and scandal... Born this way...

[@spencer.eccles]

1:00 disgrace