The catalog aria (ital. aria di catalogo) is one of the most characteristic forms in Italian comic opera. It was very popular in the second half of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. It is usually entrusted to a comic bass (ital. basso buffo), a type of deep male voice typical of this operatic genre. In the catalog aria, the singer lists certain persons, places or objects as if he was reading it from a catalog. Poetically, the texts are always full of words or sentences that are written without conjunctions. This adds a special rhythmical quality to a particular statement and creates an effect of accumulation or gradation. From a musical point of view, catalog arias are recognizable for their extremely humorous tone and swift declamation.
The most famous example of the catalog aria is Madamina, il catalogo è questo from Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni". The servant Leporello is telling Dona Elvira that his master Don Giovanni has been successful in seducing women from many countries. In addition, he describes what kind of women they were - beautiful or ugly, tall or short, big or small, blonde or brown. He didn't even make choice, he seduced them all.
This is a two-part - in the first part, after the introduction, Leporello recites the places in which his master conquered women; this affects the fast pace of the performance and many notes sung in a syllabic way; in the second part there is a change - the tempo is now slower, the melody is more song-like and the rhythm has a dance-like character; here the text brings information about Dom Giovanni's the taste in women. During this time, Donna Elvira listens in disbelief, on the verge of her nerves.
In Italia seicento e quaranta;
In Alemagna duecento e trentuna;
Cento in Francia, in Turchia novantuna;
Ma in Ispagna son già mille e tre.
...
Nella bionda egli ha l'usanza
Di lodar la gentilezza,
Nella bruna la costanza,
Nella bianca la dolcezza.
In his version of the story about this notorious lover, there is also an aria in which Don Giovanni's servant, here called Pasquariello, recounts successes of his master to Donna Elvira. Here, too, the countries in which Don Giovanni seduced women of different physical appearance and social status are comically enumerated.
We can often hear this aria on concerts as it is very entertaining for the audience and effective for the performer.
Just a few months before the premiere of Mozart's opera, there was another significant preimere, but in Italy. On February 5th 1787, the one-act opera "Don Giovanni Tenorio" by the Italian composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga was presented to the audience. The piece is considered to be a direct precursor to Mozart's "Don Giovanni". Gazzaniga studied music at the Naples Conservatory of Music, where his professors were Niccolò Piccini and Niccola Porpora. He has written about fifty operas and is considered one of the last representatives of Italian comic opera.
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| Giuseppe Gazzaniga (1743-1818) |
In his version of the story about this notorious lover, there is also an aria in which Don Giovanni's servant, here called Pasquariello, recounts successes of his master to Donna Elvira. Here, too, the countries in which Don Giovanni seduced women of different physical appearance and social status are comically enumerated.
Dell'Italia, ed Alemagna
ve ne ho scritte cento, e tante.
Della Francia, e della Spagna
ve ne sono non so quante...
He didn't care about what they were like or what social class they belonged to - it was enough that they were females and he was ready to conquer them.
...fra madame, cittadine,
artigiane, contadine,
cameriere, cuoche, e sguattere;
perché basta che sian femmine
per doverle amoreggiar.
Don Giovanni's insatiability is similarly described in Mozart's opera - it doesn't matter whether they were rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, if they wear a skirt, one knows what a great womanizer like Don Giovanni is doing to them.
A real masterpiece in this genre can be found in the score of Rossini's opera "Il viaggio a Reims", which premiered in Paris in 1825. Some of the greatest opera stars of the time participated, like Giuditta Pasta. Written on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X of France, the opera tells a story about European aristocrats, officers and a poet who have embarked on a journey to take part in the celebrations. In the second act of the opera, comic bass Don Profondo sings an aria Medaglie incomparabili, in which he jokingly lists all the valuables that his friends from different countries have.
A very nice example of a catalog aria can be heard in Haydn's opera "Orlando Paladino". It premiered in 1782 and it was written for the theatre built at the estate of Esterhazy family. Pasquale, a noble, traveled a great deal and he sings about it in his aria Ho viaggiato in Francia, in Spagnia.
Enumeration as a comic feature can also appear as a passage in individual arias. The most famous example is the aria of Dulcamara Udite, uditi, rustici from the opera "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti. He comes to the village where the love story between Adina and Nemorino takes place, presenting himself as a successful doctor who treats his patients with his miraculous remedies.
In Donizetti's one-act opera "Il Campanello", which premiered in Naples in 1836, Enrico wants to prevent Don Anibale, an old apothecary, from spending his first wedding night with his young wife Serafina. In an attempt to regain her affection, Enrico returns several time to the pharmacist's home seeking medical attention. During one of the visits, Enrico comes disguised as a blind man who begs for help for his sick wife. Listing as a feature of catalog arias is intended to create a comical effect through exaggeration, so in the text of this duet we read that Enrico's alleged wife is very ill - besides being blind and paralyzed, she suffers from a migraine, asthma, sciatica and more.
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