1780 – 1803 Haydn and Mozart

1780 Death of Maria Theresa, Austria
1781 Mozart moved to Vienna
1786 Death of Frederick the Great, Prussia
1789 French Revolution

This was the generation of Mozart's maturity, Haydn's late style and Beethoven's first style period.

Opera seria

The mature operas of Mozart followed the established forms of his day and included two opera seria, Idomeneo (1781), considered his best in this form, and La Clemenza di Tito (1791) on a libretto by Metastasio.
 

Opera seria	Opera buffa	Opéra-comique & Singspiel	Reform opera
Secco and accompagnato recitative	Secco recitative	Spoken dialogue (melodrama)	Orchestral recitative
Arioso, da capo arias, ornamentation	Flexible arias	Popular songs	Flexible arias, less ornamentation
Little chorus or ensemble	Ensemble finales	Singspiel:  ensembles and choruses	chorus
No ballet	No ballet	No ballet	Ballet

This aria from La Clemenza di Tito is shockingly performed with spoken Italian dialog instead of recitative, something that is completely unheard of.

Opera buffa

Mozart composed his best operas in this form on librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838): Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), considered a dramma giocoso (including elements of both seria and buffa), and Cosi fan tutte (1790). Elements of his style included characterization through music, even in the complex ensemble finales, and elaborate orchestration which made the orchestra equal in importance to the voices. Other important opera buffe were Giovanni Paisiello's (1740-1816) Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1782), on the same libretto as Rossini's famous opera (Mozart's Figaro may be considered a sequel), and Il Matrimonio segreto (1792) by Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801).

Singspiel

This was the third type of opera composed by Mozart, including Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), Der Schauspieldirektor (1786), and Die Zauberflöte (1791). Except for the use of spoken dialogue, Mozart's style resembled his opera buffa. Other popular examples were Doktor und Apotheker (1786) by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-99) and Der Dorfbarbier (1796) by Johann Schenk (1753-1836).

French Opera

Operas in French continued in the heroic style of Gluck, including Piccinni's Atys (1780) and Didon (1783), Luigi Cherubini's (1760-1842) Lodoiska (1791), Médée (1797) which used melodrama, Les Deux Journées (1800), an early rescue opera, and Antonio Salieri's (1750-1825) Les Danaïdes
(1784). The first rescue opera was Richard Coeur de Lion (1784) by Gretry.
 

Oratorio

Influenced by Handel after trips to England in 1791-2 and 1794-6, Haydn composed the important oratorios The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1800) on texts translated into German by Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1737-1803). He used simpler arias than Handel, but added a symphonic overture and descriptive orchestral passages. At this time Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed his Christus am Ölberg (1800).

Second Berlin Song School

Influenced by Goethe and Klopstock, an important early collection was Lieder im Volkston (1782) by J.A.P. Schulz (1747-1800). The composers, including Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) and Carl Zelter (1758-1832), self-consciously imitated folk style in strophic songs with subordinate accompaniment. A new form was the ballade, usually through-composed songs on narrative poems by Johann Zumsteeg (1760-1802).

Opera Overture

Mozart's opera overtures were usually in first movement sonata-allegro form.