HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Opera is a form of
theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
in which
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by
singers Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a
librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...
and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting,
scenery Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether the item was custom-made or ...
,
costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...
, and sometimes dance or
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
. The performance is typically given in an
opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...
, accompanied by an
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional
number opera A number opera (; ) is an opera consisting of individual pieces of music ('numbers') which can be easily extracted from the larger work."Number opera" in ''New Grove''. They may be numbered consecutively in the score, and may be interspersed with r ...
, singers employ two styles of singing:
recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat ...
, a speech-inflected style, and self-contained
aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
s. The 19th century saw the rise of the continuous
music drama is a German word that means a unity of prose and music. Initially coined by Theodor Mundt in 1833, it was most notably used by Richard Wagner, along with Gesamtkunstwerk, to define his operas. Usage Mundt formulated his definition explicitly ...
. Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with
Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote th ...
's mostly
lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
''
Dafne ''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...
'', produced in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
in 1598) especially from works by Claudio Monteverdi, notably ''
L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...
'', and soon spread through the rest of Europe:
Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...
in Germany, Jean-Baptiste Lully in France, and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. In the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe (except France), attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. The most renowned figure of late 18th-century opera is
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian
comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
s, especially '' The Marriage of Figaro'' (''Le nozze di Figaro''), '' Don Giovanni'', and '' Così fan tutte'', as well as ''
Die Entführung aus dem Serail ' () ( K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's ''Belmont und Constanze, oder Di ...
'' (''The Abduction from the Seraglio''), and ''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...
'' (''Die Zauberflöte''), landmarks in the German tradition. The first third of the 19th century saw the high point of the bel canto style, with
Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...
, Gaetano Donizetti and
Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania". Many years later, in 1898, Gius ...
all creating signature works of that style. It also saw the advent of
grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...
typified by the works of
Daniel Auber Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire. Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when ...
and Giacomo Meyerbeer as well as
Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...
's introduction of German Romantische Oper (German Romantic Opera). The mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Giuseppe Verdi in Italy and Richard Wagner in Germany. The popularity of opera continued through the
verismo In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. ''Verismo'' as an ...
era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
and Richard Strauss in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, particularly in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism ( Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg), neoclassicism ( Igor Stravinsky), and minimalism ( Philip Glass and
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas became known to much wider audiences that went beyond the circle of opera fans. Since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on (and written for) these media. Beginning in 2006, a number of major opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. Since 2009, complete performances can be downloaded and are live streamed.


Operatic terminology

The words of an opera are known as the libretto (meaning "small book"). Some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti; others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e.g. Mozart with
Lorenzo Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...
. Traditional opera, often referred to as "
number opera A number opera (; ) is an opera consisting of individual pieces of music ('numbers') which can be easily extracted from the larger work."Number opera" in ''New Grove''. They may be numbered consecutively in the score, and may be interspersed with r ...
", consists of two modes of singing:
recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat ...
, the plot-driving passages sung in a style designed to imitate and emphasize the inflections of speech, and
aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
(an "air" or formal song) in which the characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic style. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. In some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and
semi-opera The terms "semi-opera", "dramatic opera" and "English opera" were all applied to Restoration entertainments that combined spoken plays with masque-like episodes employing singing and dancing characters. They usually included machines in the manne ...
, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as
arioso In classical music, arioso (also aria parlante ) is a category of solo vocal piece, usually occurring in an opera or oratorio, falling somewhere between recitative and aria in style. Literally, arioso means ''airy''. The term arose in the 16th ...
. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. During both the Baroque and Classical periods, recitative could appear in two basic forms, each of which was accompanied by a different instrumental ensemble: ''secco'' (dry) recitative, sung with a free rhythm dictated by the accent of the words, accompanied only by '' basso continuo'', which was usually a harpsichord and a cello; or ''accompagnato'' (also known as ''strumentato'') in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. Over the 18th century, arias were increasingly accompanied by the orchestra. By the 19th century, ''accompagnato'' had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Wagner revolutionized opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what Wagner termed "endless melody". Subsequent composers have tended to follow
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his ''
The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...
'' have bucked the trend. The changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below.


History


Origins

The Italian word ''opera'' means "work", both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin word ''
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
'', a singular noun meaning "work" and also the plural of the noun ''
opus ''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.). Opus or OPUS may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...
''. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
, the Italian word was first used in the sense "composition in which poetry, dance, and music are combined" in 1639; the first recorded English usage in this sense dates to 1648. ''
Dafne ''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...
'' by
Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote th ...
was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine
humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...
who gathered as the " Camerata de' Bardi". Significantly, ''Dafne'' was an attempt to revive the classical
Greek drama Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...
, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. ''Dafne,'' however, is lost. A later work by Peri, '' Euridice'', dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived until the present day. However, the honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed goes to Claudio Monteverdi's ''
L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...
'', composed for the court of
Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
in 1607. The Mantua court of the Gonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the
concerto delle donne The ''concerto delle donne'' (; also ''concerto di donne'' or ''concerto delle (or di) dame'') was a group of professional female singers in the late Italian Renaissance, primarily in the court of Ferrara, Italy. Renowned for their technical and ...
(till 1598), but also one of the first actual "opera singers",
Madama Europa Madama Europa was the nickname of Europa Rossi (fl. 1600), an opera singer, the first Jewish opera singer to achieve widespread fame outside of the Jewish community. She was the sister of the Jewish violinist and composer Salamone Rossi who is k ...
.


Italian opera


Baroque era

Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a "season" (often during the carnival) of publicly attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas, '' Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria'' and ''
L'incoronazione di Poppea ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' ( SV 308, ''The Coronation of Poppaea'') is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi. It was Monteverdi's last opera, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, and was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni ...
'', for the Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important follower Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy. In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by the
Arcadian Academy The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dell'Arcadia, "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. History F ...
, which came to be associated with the poet
Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Me ...
, whose
libretti A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...
helped crystallize the genre of opera seria, which became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the 18th century. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called
opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
. Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera". One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still not as cultured as the nobility, to the public
opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...
s. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte, a long-flourishing improvisatory stage tradition of Italy. Just as intermedi had once been performed in between the acts of stage plays, operas in the new comic genre of ''intermezzi'', which developed largely in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
in the 1710s and 1720s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They became so popular, however, that they were soon being offered as separate productions. Opera seria was elevated in tone and highly stylised in form, usually consisting of ''secco'' recitative interspersed with long ''da capo'' arias. These afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during the golden age of ''opera seria'' the singer really became the star. The role of the hero was usually written for the high-pitched male castrato voice, which was produced by
castration Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharma ...
of the singer before
puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a bo ...
, which prevented a boy's larynx from being transformed at puberty. Castrati such as Farinelli and Senesino, as well as female sopranos such as
Faustina Bordoni Faustina Bordoni (30 March 1697 – 4 November 1781) was an Italian mezzo-soprano. In Hamburg, Germany, the Johann Adolph Hasse Museum is dedicated to her husband and partly to Bordoni. Early career She was born in Venice and brought up unde ...
, became in great demand throughout Europe as ''opera seria'' ruled the stage in every country except France. Farinelli was one of the most famous singers of the 18th century. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handel found himself composing the likes of '' Rinaldo'' and ''
Giulio Cesare ''Giulio Cesare in Egitto'' (; , HWV 17), commonly known as ''Giulio Cesare'', is a dramma per musica (''opera seria'') in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nic ...
'' for London audiences. Italian
libretti A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...
remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in the operas of Mozart, who wrote in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
near the century's close. Leading Italian-born composers of opera seria include Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi and
Nicola Porpora Nicola (or Niccolò) Antonio Porpora (17 August 16863 March 1768) was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque music, Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli (castrato), Caffarel ...
.


Gluck's reforms and Mozart

Opera seria had its weaknesses and critics. The taste for embellishment on behalf of the superbly trained singers, and the use of spectacle as a replacement for dramatic purity and unity drew attacks.
Francesco Algarotti Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He was ...
's ''Essay on the Opera'' (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Christoph Willibald Gluck's reforms. He advocated that ''opera seria'' had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal),
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. In 1765
Melchior Grimm Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm (26 September 172319 December 1807) was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' ...
published "", an influential article for the
Encyclopédie ''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...
on lyric and opera librettos. Several composers of the period, including Niccolò Jommelli and
Tommaso Traetta Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic r ...
, attempted to put these ideals into practice. The first to succeed however, was Gluck.
Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
strove to achieve a "beautiful simplicity". This is evident in his first reform opera, '' Orfeo ed Euridice'', where his non-virtuosic vocal melodies are supported by simple harmonies and a richer orchestra presence throughout. Gluck's reforms have had resonance throughout operatic history. Weber, Mozart, and Wagner, in particular, were influenced by his ideals. Mozart, in many ways Gluck's successor, combined a superb sense of drama, harmony, melody, and counterpoint to write a series of comic operas with libretti by
Lorenzo Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...
, notably ''
Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'', '' Don Giovanni'', and '' Così fan tutte'', which remain among the most-loved, popular and well-known operas. But Mozart's contribution to ''opera seria'' was more mixed; by his time it was dying away, and in spite of such fine works as ''
Idomeneo ' (Italian for '' Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', K. 366) is an Italian language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a Frenc ...
'' and ''
La clemenza di Tito ' (''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an ''opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after most of ' (''The Magic Flute''), the last o ...
'', he would not succeed in bringing the art form back to life again.


Bel canto, Verdi and verismo

The bel canto opera movement flourished in the early 19th century and is exemplified by the operas of Rossini, Bellini,
Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style duri ...
, Pacini, Mercadante and many others. Literally "beautiful singing", ''bel canto'' opera derives from the Italian stylistic singing school of the same name. Bel canto lines are typically florid and intricate, requiring supreme agility and pitch control. Examples of famous operas in the bel canto style include Rossini's ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based ...
'' and ''
La Cenerentola ' ('' Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant'') is an operatic ''dramma giocoso'' in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the libretti written by Charles-Guillaume Étienne for the opera ''Cendrillon'' ...
'', as well as Bellini's ''
Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...
'', ''
La sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...
'' and ''
I puritani ' (''The Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto ...
'' and Donizetti's ''
Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...
'', '' L'elisir d'amore'' and ''
Don Pasquale ''Don Pasquale'' () is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's ...
''. Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized by Giuseppe Verdi, beginning with his biblical opera ''
Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, "Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, J ...
''. This opera, and the ones that would follow in Verdi's career, revolutionized Italian opera, changing it from merely a display of vocal fireworks, with Rossini's and Donizetti's works, to dramatic story-telling. Verdi's operas resonated with the growing spirit of
Italian nationalism Italian nationalism is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is ...
in the post-
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
ic era, and he quickly became an icon of the patriotic movement for a unified Italy. In the early 1850s, Verdi produced his three most popular operas: ''
Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...
'', ''
Il trovatore ''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
'' and '' La traviata''. The first of these, ''Rigoletto'', proved the most daring and revolutionary. In it, Verdi blurs the distinction between the aria and recitative as it never before was, leading the opera to be "an unending string of duets". ''La traviata'' was also novel. It tells the story of courtesan, and is often cited as one of the first "realistic" operas, because rather than featuring great kings and figures from literature, it focuses on the tragedies of ordinary life and society. After these, he continued to develop his style, composing perhaps the greatest French
grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...
, ''
Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...
'', and ending his career with two Shakespeare-inspired works, '' Otello'' and ''
Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
'', which reveal how far Italian opera had grown in sophistication since the early 19th century. These final two works showed Verdi at his most masterfully orchestrated, and are both incredibly influential, and modern. In ''Falstaff'', Verdi sets the preeminent standard for the form and style that would dominate opera throughout the twentieth century. Rather than long, suspended melodies, ''Falstaff'' contains many little motifs and mottos, that, rather than being expanded upon, are introduced and subsequently dropped, only to be brought up again later. These motifs never are expanded upon, and just as the audience expects a character to launch into a long melody, a new character speaks, introducing a new phrase. This fashion of opera directed opera from Verdi, onward, exercising tremendous influence on his successors
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
, Richard Strauss, and Benjamin Britten. After Verdi, the sentimental "realistic" melodrama of
verismo In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. ''Verismo'' as an ...
appeared in Italy. This was a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and Ruggero Leoncavallo's ''Pagliacci'' that came to dominate the world's opera stages with such popular works as
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
's ''La bohème'', ''Tosca'', and ''Madama Butterfly''. Later Italian composers, such as Luciano Berio, Berio and Luigi Nono, Nono, have experimented with modernism.


German-language opera

The first German opera was ''Dafne (Opitz-Schütz), Dafne'', composed by
Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...
in 1627, but the music score has not survived. Italian opera held a great sway over German-speaking countries until the late 18th century. Nevertheless, native forms would develop in spite of this influence. In 1644, Sigmund Theophil Staden, Sigmund Staden produced the first '' Singspiel'', ''Seelewig'', a popular form of German-language opera in which singing alternates with spoken dialogue. In the late 17th century and early 18th century, the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg presented German operas by Reinhard Keiser, Keiser, Georg Philipp Telemann, Telemann and Handel. Yet most of the major German composers of the time, including Handel himself, as well as Carl Heinrich Graun, Graun, Johann Adolph Hasse, Hasse and later
Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
, chose to write most of their operas in foreign languages, especially Italian. In contrast to Italian opera, which was generally composed for the aristocratic class, German opera was generally composed for the masses and tended to feature simple folk-like melodies, and it was not until the arrival of Mozart that German opera was able to match its Italian counterpart in musical sophistication. The theatre company of Abel Seyler pioneered serious German-language opera in the 1770s, marking a break with the previous simpler musical entertainment. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''Singspiele'', ''
Die Entführung aus dem Serail ' () ( K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's ''Belmont und Constanze, oder Di ...
'' (1782) and ''Die Zauberflöte'' (1791) were an important breakthrough in achieving international recognition for German opera. The tradition was developed in the 19th century by Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven with his ''Fidelio'' (1805), inspired by the climate of the French Revolution.
Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...
established German Romanticism, German Romantic opera in opposition to the dominance of Italian bel canto. His ''Der Freischütz'' (1821) shows his genius for creating a supernatural atmosphere. Other opera composers of the time include Heinrich Marschner, Marschner, Franz Schubert, Schubert and Albert Lortzing, Lortzing, but the most significant figure was undoubtedly
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
. Wagner was one of the most revolutionary and controversial composers in musical history. Starting under the influence of Carl Maria von Weber, Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Meyerbeer, he gradually evolved a new concept of opera as a ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (a "complete work of art"), a fusion of music, poetry and painting. He greatly increased the role and power of the orchestra, creating scores with a complex web of leitmotifs, recurring Theme (music), themes often associated with the characters and concepts of the drama, of which prototypes can be heard in his earlier operas such as ''Der fliegende Holländer'', ''Tannhäuser (opera), Tannhäuser'' and ''Lohengrin (opera), Lohengrin''; and he was prepared to violate accepted musical conventions, such as tonality, in his quest for greater expressivity. In his mature music dramas, ''Tristan und Isolde'', ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'', ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' and ''Parsifal'', he abolished the distinction between aria and recitative in favour of a seamless flow of "endless melody". Wagner also brought a new philosophical dimension to opera in his works, which were usually based on stories from Germanic paganism, Germanic or Arthurian legend. Finally, Wagner built Bayreuth Festspielhaus, his own opera house at Bayreuth with part of the patronage from Ludwig II of Bavaria, exclusively dedicated to performing his own works in the style he wanted. Opera would never be the same after Wagner and for many composers his legacy proved a heavy burden. On the other hand, Richard Strauss accepted Wagnerian ideas but took them in wholly new directions, along with incorporating the new form introduced by Verdi. He first won fame with the scandalous ''Salome (opera), Salome'' and the dark tragedy ''Elektra (opera), Elektra'', in which tonality was pushed to the limits. Then Strauss changed tack in his greatest success, ''Der Rosenkavalier'', where Mozart and Viennese waltzes became as important an influence as Wagner. Strauss continued to produce a highly varied body of operatic works, often with libretti by the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Other composers who made individual contributions to German opera in the early 20th century include Alexander von Zemlinsky, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Erich Korngold, Franz Schreker, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill and the Italian-born Ferruccio Busoni. The operatic innovations of Arnold Schoenberg and his successors are discussed in the section on #Modernism, modernism. During the late 19th century, the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, an admirer of the French language, French-language operettas composed by Jacques Offenbach, composed several German-language operettas, the most famous of which was ''Die Fledermaus''. Nevertheless, rather than copying the style of Offenbach, the operettas of Strauss II had distinctly Vienna, Viennese flavor to them.


French opera

In rivalry with imported Italian opera productions, a separate French tradition was founded by the Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully at the court of Louis XIV, King Louis XIV. Despite his foreign birthplace, Lully established an Académie Royale de Musique, Academy of Music and monopolised French opera from 1672. Starting with ''Cadmus et Hermione'', Lully and his librettist Philippe Quinault, Quinault created ''tragédie en musique'', a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's operas also show a concern for expressive
recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat ...
which matched the contours of the French language. In the 18th century, Lully's most important successor was Jean-Philippe Rameau, who composed five ''tragédies en musique'' as well as numerous works in other genres such as ''opéra-ballet'', all notable for their rich orchestration and harmonic daring. Despite the popularity of Italian opera seria throughout much of Europe during the Baroque period, Italian opera never gained much of a foothold in France, where its own national operatic tradition was more popular instead. After Rameau's death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Paris, Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater focus on the drama. At the same time, by the middle of the 18th century another genre was gaining popularity in France: '' opéra comique''. This was the equivalent of the German singspiel, where arias alternated with spoken dialogue. Notable examples in this style were produced by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, Monsigny, François-André Danican Philidor, Philidor and, above all, André Grétry, Grétry. During the French Revolution, Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic period, composers such as Étienne Méhul, Luigi Cherubini and Gaspare Spontini, who were followers of Gluck, brought a new seriousness to the genre, which had never been wholly "comic" in any case. Another phenomenon of this period was the 'propaganda opera' celebrating revolutionary successes, e.g. François-Joseph Gossec, Gossec's ''Le triomphe de la République'' (1793). By the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for Italian bel canto, especially after the arrival of Rossini in Paris. Rossini's ''Guillaume Tell'' helped found the new genre of
grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...
, a form whose most famous exponent was another foreigner, Giacomo Meyerbeer. Meyerbeer's works, such as ''Les Huguenots'', emphasised virtuoso singing and extraordinary stage effects. Lighter ''opéra comique'' also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands of Boïeldieu, Daniel Auber, Auber, Ferdinand Hérold, Hérold and Adolphe Adam, Adam. In this climate, the operas of the French-born composer Hector Berlioz struggled to gain a hearing. Berlioz's epic masterpiece ''Les Troyens'', the culmination of the Gluckian tradition, was not given a full performance for almost a hundred years. In the second half of the 19th century, Jacques Offenbach created operetta with witty and cynical works such as ''Orphée aux enfers'', as well as the opera ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann''; Charles Gounod scored a massive success with ''Faust (opera), Faust''; and Georges Bizet composed ''Carmen'', which, once audiences learned to accept its blend of Romanticism and realism, became the most popular of all opéra comiques. Jules Massenet, Camille Saint-Saëns and Léo Delibes all composed works which are still part of the standard repertory, examples being Massenet's ''Manon'', Saint-Saëns' ''Samson and Delilah (opera), Samson et Dalila'' and Delibes' ''Lakmé''. Their operas formed another genre, the Opera Lyrique, combined opera comique and grand opera. It is less grandiose than grand opera, but without the spoken dialogue of opera comique. At the same time, the influence of Richard Wagner was felt as a challenge to the French tradition. Many French critics angrily rejected Wagner's music dramas while many French composers closely imitated them with variable success. Perhaps the most interesting response came from Claude Debussy. As in Wagner's works, the orchestra plays a leading role in Debussy's unique opera ''Pelléas et Mélisande (opera), Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1902) and there are no real arias, only recitative. But the drama is understated, enigmatic and completely un-Wagnerian. Other notable 20th-century names include Maurice Ravel, Ravel, Paul Dukas, Dukas, Albert Roussel, Roussel, Arthur Honegger, Honegger and Darius Milhaud, Milhaud. Francis Poulenc is one of the very few post-war composers of any nationality whose operas (which include ''Dialogues of the Carmelites, Dialogues des Carmélites'') have gained a foothold in the international repertory. Olivier Messiaen's lengthy sacred drama ''Saint François d'Assise'' (1983) has also attracted widespread attention.


English-language opera

In England, opera's antecedent was the 17th-century ''jig''. This was an afterpiece that came at the end of a play. It was frequently libellous and scandalous and consisted in the main of dialogue set to music arranged from popular tunes. In this respect, jigs anticipate the ballad operas of the 18th century. At the same time, the French masque was gaining a firm hold at the English Court, with even more lavish splendour and highly realistic scenery than had been seen before. Inigo Jones became the quintessential designer of these productions, and this style was to dominate the English stage for three centuries. These masques contained songs and dances. In Ben Jonson's ''Lovers Made Men'' (1617), "the whole masque was sung after the Italian manner, stilo recitativo".From Webrarian.com's
''Ivanhoe (opera), Ivanhoe'' site.
The approach of the English Commonwealth closed theatres and halted any developments that may have led to the establishment of English opera. However, in 1656, the dramatist Sir William Davenant produced ''The Siege of Rhodes''. Since his theatre was not licensed to produce drama, he asked several of the leading composers (Henry Lawes, Lawes, Henry Cooke (composer), Cooke, Matthew Locke (composer), Locke, Charles Coleman (composer), Coleman and George Hudson (composer), Hudson) to set sections of it to music. This success was followed by ''The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru'' (1658) and ''The History of Sir Francis Drake'' (1659). These pieces were encouraged by Oliver Cromwell because they were critical of Spain. With the English Restoration, foreign (especially French) musicians were welcomed back. In 1673, Thomas Shadwell's ''Psyche (Locke), Psyche'', patterned on the 1671 'comédie-ballet' of the same name produced by Molière and Jean-Baptiste Lully. William Davenant produced ''The Tempest'' in the same year, which was the first musical adaption of a Shakespeare play (composed by Locke and Johnson). About 1683, John Blow composed ''Venus and Adonis (opera), Venus and Adonis'', often thought of as the first true English-language opera. Blow's immediate successor was the better known Henry Purcell. Despite the success of his masterwork ''Dido and Aeneas'' (1689), in which the action is furthered by the use of Italian-style recitative, much of Purcell's best work was not involved in the composing of typical opera, but instead, he usually worked within the constraints of the
semi-opera The terms "semi-opera", "dramatic opera" and "English opera" were all applied to Restoration entertainments that combined spoken plays with masque-like episodes employing singing and dancing characters. They usually included machines in the manne ...
format, where isolated scenes and masques are contained within the structure of a spoken play, such as Shakespeare in Purcell's ''The Fairy-Queen'' (1692) and Beaumont and Fletcher in ''The Prophetess'' (1690) and ''Bonduca'' (1696). The main characters of the play tend not to be involved in the musical scenes, which means that Purcell was rarely able to develop his characters through song. Despite these hindrances, his aim (and that of his collaborator John Dryden) was to establish serious opera in England, but these hopes ended with Purcell's early death at the age of 36. Following Purcell, the popularity of opera in England dwindled for several decades. A revived interest in opera occurred in the 1730s which is largely attributed to Thomas Arne, both for his own compositions and for alerting Handel to the commercial possibilities of large-scale works in English. Arne was the first English composer to experiment with Italian-style all-sung comic opera, with his greatest success being ''Thomas and Sally'' in 1760. His opera ''Artaxerxes (opera), Artaxerxes'' (1762) was the first attempt to set a full-blown opera seria in English and was a huge success, holding the stage until the 1830s. Although Arne imitated many elements of Italian opera, he was perhaps the only English composer at that time who was able to move beyond the Italian influences and create his own unique and distinctly English voice. His modernized ballad opera, ''Love in a Village'' (1762), began a vogue for pastiche opera that lasted well into the 19th century. Charles Burney wrote that Arne introduced "a light, airy, original, and pleasing melody, wholly different from that of Purcell or Handel, whom all English composers had either pillaged or imitated". Besides Arne, the other dominating force in English opera at this time was George Frideric Handel, whose ''opera serias'' filled the London operatic stages for decades and influenced most home-grown composers, like John Frederick Lampe, who wrote using Italian models. This situation continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including in the work of Michael William Balfe, and the operas of the great Italian composers, as well as those of Mozart, Beethoven, and Meyerbeer, continued to dominate the musical stage in England. The only exceptions were ballad operas, such as John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), musical Victorian burlesque, burlesques, European operettas, and late Victorian era light operas, notably the Savoy Operas of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, all of which types of musical entertainments frequently spoofed operatic conventions. Sullivan wrote only one grand opera, ''Ivanhoe (opera), Ivanhoe'' (following the efforts of a number of young English composers beginning about 1876), but he claimed that even his light operas constituted part of a school of "English" opera, intended to supplant the French operettas (usually performed in bad translations) that had dominated the London stage from the mid-19th century into the 1870s. London's ''Daily Telegraph'' agreed, describing ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' as "a genuine English opera, forerunner of many others, let us hope, and possibly significant of an advance towards a national lyric stage". Sullivan produced a few light operas in the 1890s that were of a more serious nature than those in the G&S series, including ''Haddon Hall (opera), Haddon Hall'' and ''The Beauty Stone'', but ''Ivanhoe (opera), Ivanhoe'' (which ran for 155 consecutive performances, using alternating casts—a record until Broadway's ''La bohème'') survives as his only
grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...
. In the 20th century, English opera began to assert more independence, with works of Ralph Vaughan Williams and in particular Benjamin Britten, who in a series of works that remain in standard repertory today, revealed an excellent flair for the dramatic and superb musicality. More recently Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Harrison Birtwistle has emerged as one of Britain's most significant contemporary composers from his first opera ''Punch and Judy (opera), Punch and Judy'' to his most recent critical success in The Minotaur (opera), The Minotaur. In the first decade of the 21st century, the librettist of an early Birtwistle opera, Michael Nyman, has been focusing on composing operas, including ''Facing Goya'', ''Man and Boy: Dada'', and ''Love Counts''. Today composers such as Thomas Adès continue to export English opera abroad. Also in the 20th century, American composers like George Gershwin (''Porgy and Bess''), Scott Joplin (''Treemonisha''), Leonard Bernstein (''Candide (operetta), Candide''), Gian Carlo Menotti, Douglas Moore, and Carlisle Floyd began to contribute English-language operas infused with touches of popular musical styles. They were followed by composers such as Philip Glass (''Einstein on the Beach''), Mark Adamo, John Corigliano (''The Ghosts of Versailles''), Robert Moran,
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
(''Nixon in China''), André Previn and Jake Heggie. Many contemporary 21st century opera composers have emerged such as Missy Mazzoli, Kevin Puts, Tom Cipullo, Huang Ruo, David T. Little, Terence Blanchard, Jennifer Higdon, Tobias Picker, Michael Ching, and Ricky Ian Gordon.


Russian opera

Opera was brought to Russia in the 1730s by the Italian operatic wikt:troupe, troupes and soon it became an important part of entertainment for the Russian Imperial Court and aristocracy. Many foreign composers such as Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Paisiello, Giuseppe Sarti, and Domenico Cimarosa (as well as various others) were invited to Russia to compose new operas, mostly in the Italian language. Simultaneously some domestic musicians like Maksym Berezovsky and Dmitry Bortniansky were sent abroad to learn to write operas. The first opera written in Russian was ''Tsefal i Prokris'' by the Italian composer Francesco Araja (1755). The development of Russian-language opera was supported by the Russian composers Vasily Pashkevich, Yevstigney Fomin and Alexey Verstovsky. However, the real birth of Russian opera came with Mikhail Glinka and his two great operas ''A Life for the Tsar'' (1836) and ''Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera), Ruslan and Lyudmila'' (1842). After him, during the 19th century in Russia, there were written such operatic masterpieces as ''Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky), Rusalka'' and ''The Stone Guest (Dargomyzhsky), The Stone Guest'' by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, ''Boris Godunov (opera), Boris Godunov'' and ''Khovanshchina'' by Modest Mussorgsky, ''Prince Igor'' by Alexander Borodin, ''Eugene Onegin (opera), Eugene Onegin'' and ''The Queen of Spades (opera), The Queen of Spades'' by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and ''The Snow Maiden'' and ''Sadko (opera), Sadko'' by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. These developments mirrored the growth of Russian nationalism across the artistic spectrum, as part of the more general Slavophilism movement. In the 20th century, the traditions of Russian opera were developed by many composers including Sergei Rachmaninoff in his works ''The Miserly Knight'' and ''Francesca da Rimini (Rachmaninoff), Francesca da Rimini'', Igor Stravinsky in ''The Nightingale (opera), Le Rossignol'', ''Mavra'', ''Oedipus rex (opera), Oedipus rex'', and ''
The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...
'', Sergei Prokofiev in ''The Gambler (Prokofiev), The Gambler'', ''The Love for Three Oranges'', ''The Fiery Angel (opera), The Fiery Angel'', ''Betrothal in a Monastery'', and ''War and Peace (Prokofiev), War and Peace''; as well as Dmitri Shostakovich in ''The Nose (opera), The Nose'' and ''Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera), Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'', Edison Denisov in ''L'écume des jours (opera), L'écume des jours'', and Alfred Schnittke in ''Life with an Idiot'' and ''Historia von D. Johann Fausten (opera), Historia von D. Johann Fausten''.


Czech opera

Czech composers also developed a thriving national opera movement of their own in the 19th century, starting with Bedřich Smetana, who wrote List of operas by Bedřich Smetana, eight operas including the internationally popular ''The Bartered Bride''. Smetana's eight operas created the bedrock of the Czech opera repertory, but of these only ''The Bartered Bride'' is performed regularly outside the composer's homeland. After reaching Vienna in 1892 and London in 1895 it rapidly became part of the repertory of every major opera company worldwide. Antonín Dvořák, Antonín Dvořák's nine operas, except his first, have librettos in Czech and were intended to convey the Czech national spirit, as were some of his choral works. By far the most successful of the operas is ''Rusalka (opera), Rusalka'' which contains the well-known aria "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" ("Song to the Moon"); it is played on contemporary opera stages frequently outside the Czech Republic. This is attributable to their uneven invention and libretti, and perhaps also their staging requirements – ''The Jacobin'', ''Armida (Dvořák), Armida'', ''Vanda (opera), Vanda'' and ''Dimitrij (opera), Dimitrij'' need stages large enough to portray invading armies. Leoš Janáček gained international recognition in the 20th century for his innovative works. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera ''Jenůfa'', which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of ''Jenůfa'' (often called the "Moravia, Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as ''Káťa Kabanová'' and ''The Cunning Little Vixen'', the Sinfonietta (Janáček), Sinfonietta and the ''Glagolitic Mass''.


Other national operas

Spain also produced its own distinctive form of opera, known as zarzuela, which had two separate flowerings: one from the mid-17th century through the mid-18th century, and another beginning around 1850. During the late 18th century up until the mid-19th century, Italian opera was immensely popular in Spain, supplanting the native form. In Russian Eastern Europe, several national operas began to emerge. Ukrainian opera was developed by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) whose most famous work ''Zaporozhets za Dunayem'' (A Cossack Beyond the Danube) is regularly performed around the world. Other Ukrainian opera composers include Mykola Lysenko (''Taras Bulba (opera), Taras Bulba'' and ''Natalka Poltavka (opera), Natalka Poltavka''), Heorhiy Maiboroda, and Yuliy Meitus. At the turn of the century, a distinct national opera movement also began to emerge in Georgia (country), Georgia under the leadership Zacharia Paliashvili, who fused local folk songs and stories with 19th-century Romantic music, Romantic classical themes. The key figure of Hungarian national opera in the 19th century was Ferenc Erkel, whose works mostly dealt with historical themes. Among his most often performed operas are ''Hunyadi László (opera), Hunyadi László'' and ''Bánk bán''. The most famous modern Hungarian opera is Béla Bartók's ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle''. Stanisław Moniuszko's opera ''The Haunted Manor, Straszny Dwór'' (in English ''The Haunted Manor'') (1861–64) represents a nineteenth-century peak of Polish opera, Polish national opera. In the 20th century, other operas created by Polish composers included ''King Roger'' by Karol Szymanowski and ''Ubu Rex'' by Krzysztof Penderecki. The first known opera from Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) was ''Arshak II (opera), Arshak II'', which was an Armenian opera composed by an ethnic Armenian composer Tigran Chukhajian in 1868 and partially performed in 1873. It was fully staged in 1945 in Armenia. The first years of the Soviet Union saw the emergence of new national operas, such as the ''Koroğlu (opera), Koroğlu'' (1937) by the Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov. The first Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz opera, ''Ai-Churek'', premiered in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre on 26 May 1939, during Kyrgyz Art Decade. It was composed by Vladimir Vlasov, Abdylas Maldybaev and Vladimir Fere. The libretto was written by Joomart Bokonbaev, Jusup Turusbekov, and Kybanychbek Malikov. The opera is based on the Kyrgyz heroic epic ''Epic of Manas, Manas''. In Iran, opera gained more attention after the introduction of Western classical music in the late 19th century. However, it took until mid 20th century for Iranian composers to start experiencing with the field, especially as the construction of the Roudaki Hall in 1967, made possible staging of a large variety of works for stage. Perhaps, the most famous Iranian opera is Rostam and Sohrab (opera), Rostam and Sohrab by Loris Tjeknavorian premiered not until the early 2000s. Chinese contemporary classical opera, a Chinese language form of Western style opera that is distinct from traditional Chinese opera, has had operas dating back to ''The White Haired Girl'' in 1945. In Latin America, opera started as a result of European colonisation. The first opera ever written in the Americas was ''La púrpura de la rosa'', by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, although ''Partenope (Zumaya), Partenope'', by the Mexican Manuel de Zumaya, was the first opera written from a composer born in Latin America (music now lost). The first Brazilian opera for a libretto in Portuguese was ''A Noite de São João'', by Elias Álvares Lobo. However, Antônio Carlos Gomes is generally regarded as the most outstanding Brazilian composer, having a relative success in Italy with its Brazilian-themed operas with Italian librettos, such as ''Il Guarany''. Opera in Argentina developed in the 20th century after the inauguration of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires—with the opera ''Aurora (opera), Aurora'', by Ettore Panizza, being heavily influenced by the Italian tradition, due to immigration. Other important composers from Argentina include Felipe Boero and Alberto Ginastera.


Contemporary, recent, and modernist trends


Modernism

Perhaps the most obvious stylistic manifestation of modernism in opera is the development of atonality. The move away from traditional tonality in opera had begun with Richard Wagner, and in particular the Tristan chord. Composers such as Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy,
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten and Hans Pfitzner pushed Wagnerian harmony further with a more extreme use of chromaticism and greater use of dissonance. Another aspect of modernist opera is the shift away from long, suspended melodies, to short quick mottos, as first illustrated by Giuseppe Verdi in his ''
Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
''. Composers such as Strauss, Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky adopted and expanded upon this style. Operatic modernism truly began in the operas of two Viennese composers, Arnold Schoenberg and his student Alban Berg, both composers and advocates of atonality and its later development (as worked out by Schoenberg), dodecaphony. Schoenberg's early musico-dramatic works, ''Erwartung'' (1909, premiered in 1924) and ''Die glückliche Hand'' display heavy use of chromatic harmony and dissonance in general. Schoenberg also occasionally used Sprechstimme. The two operas of Schoenberg's pupil Alban Berg, ''Wozzeck'' (1925) and ''Lulu (opera), Lulu'' (incomplete at his death in 1935) share many of the same characteristics as described above, though Berg combined his highly personal interpretation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique with melodic passages of a more traditionally tonal nature (quite Mahlerian in character) which perhaps partially explains why his operas have remained in standard repertory, despite their controversial music and plots. Schoenberg's theories have influenced (either directly or indirectly) significant numbers of opera composers ever since, even if they themselves did not compose using his techniques. Composers thus influenced include the Englishman Benjamin Britten, the German Hans Werner Henze, and the Russian Dmitri Shostakovich. ( Philip Glass also makes use of atonality, though his style is generally described as minimalist music, minimalist, usually thought of as another 20th-century development.) However, operatic modernism's use of atonality also sparked a backlash in the form of neoclassicism. An early leader of this movement was Ferruccio Busoni, who in 1913 wrote the libretto for his neoclassical
number opera A number opera (; ) is an opera consisting of individual pieces of music ('numbers') which can be easily extracted from the larger work."Number opera" in ''New Grove''. They may be numbered consecutively in the score, and may be interspersed with r ...
''Arlecchino (opera), Arlecchino'' (first performed in 1917). Also among the vanguard was the Russian Igor Stravinsky. After composing music for the Diaghilev-produced ballets ''Petrushka (ballet), Petrushka'' (1911) and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913), Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism, a development culminating in his opera-oratorio ''Oedipus rex (opera), Oedipus Rex'' (1927). Stravinsky had already turned away from the modernist trends of his early ballets to produce small-scale works that do not fully qualify as opera, yet certainly contain many operatic elements, including ''Renard (Stravinsky), Renard'' (1916: "a burlesque in song and dance") and ''Histoire du soldat, The Soldier's Tale'' (1918: "to be read, played, and danced"; in both cases the descriptions and instructions are those of the composer). In the latter, the actors declaim portions of speech to a specified rhythm over instrumental accompaniment, peculiarly similar to the older German genre of ''Melodrama''. Well after his Rimsky-Korsakov-inspired works ''The Nightingale (opera), The Nightingale'' (1914), and ''Mavra'' (1922), Stravinsky continued to ignore serialism, serialist technique and eventually wrote a full-fledged 18th-century-style diatonic number opera ''
The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...
'' (1951). His resistance to serialism (an attitude he reversed following Schoenberg's death) proved to be an inspiration for many other composers.


Other trends

A common trend throughout the 20th century, in both opera and general orchestral repertoire, is the use of smaller orchestras as a cost-cutting measure; the grand Romantic-era orchestras with huge string sections, multiple harps, extra horns, and exotic percussion instruments were no longer feasible. As government and private patronage of the arts decreased throughout the 20th century, new works were often commissioned and performed with smaller budgets, very often resulting in chamber-sized works, and short, one-act operas. Many of Benjamin Britten's operas are scored for as few as 13 instrumentalists; Mark Adamo's two-act realization of ''Little Women (opera), Little Women'' is scored for 18 instrumentalists. Another feature of late 20th-century opera is the emergence of contemporary historical operas, in contrast to the tradition of basing operas on more distant history, the re-telling of contemporary fictional stories or plays, or on myth or legend. ''The Death of Klinghoffer'', ''Nixon in China'', and ''Doctor Atomic'' by
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
, ''Dead Man Walking (opera), Dead Man Walking'' by Jake Heggie, and ''Anna Nicole'' by Mark-Anthony Turnage exemplify the dramatisation onstage of events in recent living memory, where characters portrayed in the opera were alive at the time of the premiere performance. The Metropolitan Opera in the US (often known as the Met) reported in 2011 that the average age of its audience was 60. Many opera companies attempted to attract a younger audience to halt the larger trend of greying audiences for classical music since the last decades of the 20th century. Efforts resulted in lowering the average age of the Met's audience to 58 in 2018, the average age at Berlin State Opera was reported as 54, and Paris Opera reported an average age of 48. ''New York Times'' critic Anthony Tommasini has suggested that "companies inordinately beholden to standard repertory" are not reaching younger, more curious audiences. Smaller companies in the US have a more fragile existence, and they usually depend on a "patchwork quilt" of support from state and local governments, local businesses, and fundraisers. Nevertheless, some smaller companies have found ways of drawing new audiences. In addition to radio and television broadcasts of opera performances, which have had some success in gaining new audiences, broadcasts of live performances to movie theatres have shown the potential to reach new audiences.


From musicals back towards opera

By the late 1930s, some Musical theatre, musicals began to be written with a more operatic structure. These works include complex polyphonic ensembles and reflect musical developments of their times. ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), influenced by jazz styles, and ''Candide (operetta), Candide'' (1956), with its sweeping, lyrical passages and farcical parodies of opera, both opened on Broadway theatre, Broadway but became accepted as part of the opera repertory. Popular musicals such as ''Show Boat'', ''West Side Story'', ''Brigadoon'', ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd'', ''Passion (musical), Passion'', ''Evita (musical), Evita'', ''The Light in the Piazza (musical), The Light in the Piazza'', ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Opera'' and others tell dramatic stories through complex music and in the 2010s they are sometimes seen in opera houses. ''The Most Happy Fella'' (1952) is quasi-operatic and has been revived by the New York City Opera. Other Rock musical, rock-influenced musicals, such as ''The Who's Tommy, Tommy'' (1969) and ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1971), ''Les Misérables (musical), Les Misérables'' (1980), ''Rent (musical), Rent'' (1996), ''Spring Awakening (musical), Spring Awakening'' (2006), and ''Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812'' (2012) employ various operatic conventions, such as through-composed, through composition, recitative instead of dialogue, and leitmotifs.


Acoustic enhancement in opera

A subtle type of sound electronic reinforcement called acoustic enhancement is used in some modern concert halls and theatres where operas are performed. Although none of the major opera houses "...use traditional, Broadway-style sound reinforcement, in which most if not all singers are equipped with radio microphones mixed to a series of unsightly loudspeakers scattered throughout the theatre", many use a sound reinforcement system for acoustic enhancement and for subtle boosting of offstage voices, child singers, onstage dialogue, and sound effects (e.g., church bells in ''Tosca'' or thunder effects in Wagnerian operas).


Operatic voices

Operatic vocal technique evolved, in a time before electronic amplification, to allow singers to produce enough volume to be heard over an orchestra, without the instrumentalists having to substantially compromise their volume.


Vocal classifications

Singers and the roles they play are classified by voice type, based on the tessitura, vocal weight, agility, power and timbre of their voices. Male singers can be classified by vocal range as bass (voice type), bass, bass-baritone, baritone, baritenor, tenor and countertenor, and female singers as contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano. (Men sometimes sing in the "female" vocal ranges, in which case they are termed sopranist or countertenor. The countertenor is commonly encountered in opera, sometimes singing parts written for castrati—men neutered at a young age specifically to give them a higher singing range.) Singers are then further classified by size—for instance, a soprano can be described as a lyric soprano, coloratura, soubrette, spinto, or dramatic soprano. These terms, although not fully describing a singing voice, associate the singer's voice with the roles most suitable to the singer's vocal characteristics. Yet another sub-classification can be made according to acting skills or requirements, for example the ''basso buffo'' who often must be a specialist in Patter song, patter as well as a comic actor. This is carried out in detail in the ''Fach'' system of German speaking countries, where historically opera and spoken drama were often put on by the same repertory company. A particular singer's voice may change drastically over his or her lifetime, rarely reaching vocal maturity until the third decade, and sometimes not until middle age. Two French voice types, ''premiere dugazon'' and ''deuxieme dugazon'', were named after successive stages in the career of Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre (Mme. Dugazon). Other terms originating in the star casting system of the Paris Opera#See also, Parisian theatres are ''Jean-Blaise Martin, baryton-martin'' and soprano ''Cornélie Falcon, falcon''.


Historical use of voice parts

:''The following is only intended as a brief overview. For the main articles, see soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, bass (voice type), bass, countertenor and castrato''. The soprano voice has typically been used as the voice of choice for the female protagonist of the opera since the latter half of the 18th century. Earlier, it was common for that part to be sung by any female voice, or even a castrato. The current emphasis on a wide vocal range was primarily an invention of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Before that, the vocal virtuosity, not range, was the priority, with soprano parts rarely extending above a high A (musical note), A ( Handel, for example, only wrote one role extending to a high C (musical note), C), though the castrato Farinelli was alleged to possess a top D (musical note), D (his lower range was also extraordinary, extending to tenor C). The mezzo-soprano, a term of comparatively recent origin, also has a large repertoire, ranging from the female lead in Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas'' to such heavyweight roles as Brangäne in Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' (these are both roles sometimes sung by sopranos; there is quite a lot of movement between these two voice-types). For the true contralto, the range of parts is more limited, which has given rise to the insider joke that contraltos only sing "witches, bitches, and breeches role, britches" roles. In recent years many of the "trouser roles" from the Baroque era, originally written for women, and those originally sung by castrati, have been reassigned to countertenors. The tenor voice, from the Classical era onwards, has traditionally been assigned the role of male protagonist. Many of the most challenging tenor roles in the repertory were written during the ''bel canto'' era, such as Donizetti's sequence of 9 Cs above middle C during ''La fille du régiment''. With Wagner came an emphasis on vocal heft for his protagonist roles, with this vocal category described as ''Heldentenor''; this heroic voice had its more Italianate counterpart in such roles as Calaf in Puccini's ''Turandot''. Basses have a long history in opera, having been used in ''opera seria'' in supporting roles, and sometimes for comic relief (as well as providing a contrast to the preponderance of high voices in this genre). The bass repertoire is wide and varied, stretching from the comedy of Leporello in '' Don Giovanni'' to the nobility of Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner's ''Ring Cycle,'' to the conflicted King Phillip of Verdi's ''
Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...
''. In between the bass and the tenor is the baritone, which also varies in weight from say, Guglielmo in Mozart's ''Così fan tutte'' to Posa in Verdi's ''Don Carlos''; the actual designation "baritone" was not standard until the mid-19th century.


Famous singers

Early performances of opera were too infrequent for singers to make a living exclusively from the style, but with the birth of commercial opera in the mid-17th century, professional performers began to emerge. The role of the male hero was usually entrusted to a castrato, and by the 18th century, when Italian opera was performed throughout Europe, leading castrati who possessed extraordinary vocal virtuosity, such as Senesino and Farinelli, became international stars. The career of the first major female star (or prima donna), Anna Renzi, dates to the mid-17th century. In the 18th century, a number of Italian sopranos gained international renown and often engaged in fierce rivalry, as was the case with
Faustina Bordoni Faustina Bordoni (30 March 1697 – 4 November 1781) was an Italian mezzo-soprano. In Hamburg, Germany, the Johann Adolph Hasse Museum is dedicated to her husband and partly to Bordoni. Early career She was born in Venice and brought up unde ...
and Francesca Cuzzoni, who started a fistfight with one another during a performance of a Handel opera. The French disliked castrati, preferring their male heroes to be sung by an haute-contre (a high tenor), of which Joseph Legros (1739–1793) was a leading example. Though opera patronage has decreased in the last century in favor of other arts and media (such as musicals, cinema, radio, television and recordings), mass media and the advent of recording have supported the popularity of many famous singers including Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso, Amelita Galli-Curci, Kirsten Flagstad, Mario Del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, Risë Stevens, Alfredo Kraus, Franco Corelli, Montserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson, Nellie Melba, Rosa Ponselle, Beniamino Gigli, Jussi Björling, Feodor Chaliapin, Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Marilyn Horne, Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and The Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras).


Changing role of the orchestra

Before the 1700s, Italian operas used a small string orchestra, but it rarely played to accompany the singers. Opera solos during this period were accompanied by the basso continuo group, which consisted of the harpsichord, "plucked instruments" such as lute and a bass instrument.John Spitzer. (2009). Orchestra and voice in eighteenth-century Italian opera. In: Anthony R. DelDonna and Pierpaolo Polzonetti (eds.) Cambridge Companions to Music, The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera. pp. 112–139. [Online]. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The string orchestra typically only played when the singer was not singing, such as during a singer's "...entrances and exits, between vocal numbers, [or] for [accompanying] dancing". Another role for the orchestra during this period was playing an orchestral ritornello to mark the end of a singer's solo. During the early 1700s, some composers began to use the string orchestra to mark certain aria or recitatives "...as special"; by 1720, most arias were accompanied by an orchestra. Opera composers such as Domenico Sarro, Leonardo Vinci, Giambattista Pergolesi, Leonardo Leo, and Johann Adolf Hasse added new instruments to the opera orchestra and gave the instruments new roles. They added wind instruments to the strings and used orchestral instruments to play instrumental solos, as a way to mark certain arias as special. The orchestra has also provided an instrumental overture before the singers come onstage since the 1600s. Jacopo Peri, Peri's '' Euridice'' opens with a brief instrumental ritornello, and Claudio Monteverdi, Monteverdi's ''
L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...
'' (1607) opens with a toccata, in this case a fanfare for muted trumpets. The French overture as found in Jean-Baptiste Lully's operas consist of a slow introduction in a marked "dotted rhythm", followed by a lively movement in fugato style. The overture was frequently followed by a series of dance tunes before the curtain rose. This overture style was also used in English opera, most notably in Henry Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas''. Handel also uses the French overture form in some of his Italian operas such as
Giulio Cesare ''Giulio Cesare in Egitto'' (; , HWV 17), commonly known as ''Giulio Cesare'', is a dramma per musica (''opera seria'') in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nic ...
. In Italy, a distinct form called "overture" arose in the 1680s, and became established particularly through the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, and spread throughout Europe, supplanting the French form as the standard operatic overture by the mid-18th century.Fisher, Stephen C. 2001. "Italian Overture." ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (musicologist), John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers. It uses three generally homophony, homophonic Movement (music), movements: fast–slow–fast. The opening movement was normally in duple metre and in a major key; the slow movement in earlier examples was short, and could be in a contrasting key; the concluding movement was dance-like, most often with rhythms of the gigue or minuet, and returned to the key of the opening section. As the form evolved, the first movement may incorporate fanfare-like elements and took on the pattern of so-called "sonatina form" (sonata form without a development section), and the slow section became more extended and lyrical. In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as the ''sinfonia''.Fisher, Stephen C. 1998. "Sinfonia". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', four volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. Fisher also notes the term ''Sinfonia avanti l'opera'' (literally, the "symphony before the opera") was "an early term for a sinfonia used to begin an opera, that is, as an overture as opposed to one serving to begin a later section of the work". In 19th-century opera, in some operas, the overture, ''Vorspiel'', ''Einleitung'', Introduction, or whatever else it may be called, was the portion of the music which takes place before the curtain rises; a specific, rigid form was no longer required for the overture. The role of the orchestra in accompanying the singers changed over the 19th century, as the Classical style transitioned to the Romantic era. In general, orchestras got bigger, new instruments were added, such as additional percussion instruments (e.g., bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, etc.). The orchestration of orchestra parts also developed over the 19th century. In Wagnerian operas, the forefronting of the orchestra went beyond the overture. In Wagnerian operas such as Der Ring des Nibelungen, the Ring Cycle, the orchestra often played the recurrent musical themes or leitmotifs, a role which gave a prominence to the orchestra which "...elevated its status to that of a prima donna". Wagner's operas were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity, adding more brass instruments and huge ensemble sizes: indeed, his score to ''Das Rheingold'' calls for six harps. In Wagner and the work of subsequent composers, such as Benjamin Britten, the orchestra "often communicates facts about the story that exceed the levels of awareness of the characters therein." As a result, critics began to regard the orchestra as performing a role analogous to that of a literary narrator." As the role of the orchestra and other instrumental ensembles changed over the history of opera, so did the role of leading the musicians. In the Baroque era, the musicians were usually directed by the harpsichord player, although the French composer Lully is known to have conducted with a long staff. In the 1800s, during the Classical period, the first violinist, also known as the concertmaster, would lead the orchestra while sitting. Over time, some directors began to stand up and use hand and arm gestures to lead the performers. Eventually this role of music director became termed the conductor, and a podium was used to make it easier for all the musicians to see him or her. By the time Wagnerian operas were introduced, the complexity of the works and the huge orchestras used to play them gave the conductor an increasingly important role. Modern opera conductors have a challenging role: they have to direct both the orchestra in the orchestra pit and the singers on stage.


Language and translation issues

Since the days of Handel and Mozart, many composers have favored Italian as the language for the libretto of their operas. From the Bel Canto era to Verdi, composers would sometimes supervise versions of their operas in both Italian and French. Because of this, operas such as ''
Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...
'' or ''
Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...
'' are today deemed canonical in both their French and Italian versions. Until the mid-1950s, it was acceptable to produce operas in translations even if these had not been authorized by the composer or the original librettists. For example, opera houses in Italy routinely staged Wagner in Italian. After World War II, opera scholarship improved, artists refocused on the original versions, and translations fell out of favor. Knowledge of European languages, especially Italian, French, and German, is today an important part of the training for professional singers. "The biggest chunk of operatic training is in linguistics and musicianship", explains mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick. "[I have to understand] not only what I'm singing, but what everyone else is singing. I sing Italian, Czech, Russian, French, German, English." In the 1980s, supertitles (sometimes called surtitles) began to appear. Although supertitles were first almost universally condemned as a distraction, today many opera houses provide either supertitles, generally projected above the theatre's proscenium arch, or individual seat screens where spectators can choose from more than one language. TV broadcasts typically include subtitles even if intended for an audience who knows well the language (for example, a RAI broadcast of an Italian opera). These subtitles target not only the hard of hearing but the audience generally, since a sung discourse is much harder to understand than a spoken one—even in the ears of native speakers. Subtitles in one or more languages have become standard in opera broadcasts, simulcasts, and DVD editions. Today, operas are only rarely performed in translation. Exceptions include the English National Opera, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, and Opera South East, which favor English translations. Another exception are opera productions intended for a young audience, such as Humperdinck's ''Hansel and Gretel (opera), Hansel and Gretel'' and some productions of Mozart's ''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...
''.


Funding

Outside the US, and especially in Europe, most opera houses receive public subsidies from taxpayers. In Milan, Italy, 60% of La Scala's annual budget of €115 million is from ticket sales and private donations, with the remaining 40% coming from public funds. In 2005, La Scala received 25% of Italy's total state subsidy of €464 million for the performing arts. In the UK, Arts Council England provides funds to Opera North, the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, and English National Opera. Between 2012 and 2015, these four opera companies along with the English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet accounted for 22% of the funds in the Arts Council's national portfolio. During that period, the Council undertook an analysis of its funding for large-scale opera and ballet companies, setting recommendations and targets for the companies to meet prior to the 2015–2018 funding decisions. In February 2015, concerns over English National Opera's business plan led to the Arts Council placing it "under special funding arrangements" in what ''The Independent'' termed "the unprecedented step" of threatening to withdraw public funding if the council's concerns were not met by 2017. European public funding to opera has led to a disparity between the number of year-round opera houses in Europe and the United States. For example, "Germany has about 80 year-round opera houses [as of 2004], while the U.S., with more than three times the population, does not have any. Even the Met only has a seven-month season."


Television, cinema and the Internet

A milestone for opera broadcasting in the U.S. was achieved on 24 December 1951, with the live broadcast of ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'', an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti. It was the first List of television operas, opera specifically composed for television in America.Obituary: Gian Carlo Menotti
''The Daily Telegraph'', 2 February 2007. Accessed 11 December 2008
Another milestone occurred in Italy in 1992 when ''Tosca'' was broadcast live from its original Roman settings and times of the day: the first act came from the 16th-century Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle at noon on Saturday; the 16th-century Palazzo Farnese was the setting for the second at 8:15 pm; and on Sunday at 6 am, the third act was broadcast from Castel Sant'Angelo. The production was transmitted via satellite to 105 countries. Major opera companies have begun presenting their performances in local cinemas throughout the United States and many other countries. The Metropolitan Opera began a Metropolitan Opera Live in HD, series of live high-definition video transmissions to cinemas around the world in 2006. In 2007, Met performances were shown in over 424 theaters in 350 U.S. cities. ''La bohème'' went out to 671 screens worldwide. San Francisco Opera began prerecorded video transmissions in March 2008. As of June 2008, approximately 125 theaters in 117 U.S. cities carry the showings. The HD video opera transmissions are presented via the same Digital cinema, HD digital cinema projectors used for major Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films. European opera houses and List of opera festivals, festivals including the Royal Opera, London, Royal Opera in London, La Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Festival, La Fenice in Venice, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Maggio Musicale in Florence have also transmitted their productions to theaters in cities around the world since 2006, including 90 cities in the U.S. The emergence of the Internet has also affected the way in which audiences consume opera. In 2009 the British Glyndebourne Festival Opera offered for the first time an online digital video download of its complete 2007 production of ''Tristan und Isolde''. In the 2013 season, the festival Live streaming, streamed all six of its productions online. In July 2012, the first online community opera was premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Titled ''Free Will'', it was created by members of the Internet group Opera By You. Its 400 members from 43 countries wrote the libretto, composed the music, and designed the sets and costumes using the Wreckamovie web platform. Savonlinna Opera Festival provided professional soloists, an 80-member choir, a symphony orchestra, and the stage machinery. It was performed live at the festival and streamed live on the internet.Partii, Heidi (2014)
"Supporting Collaboration in Changing Cultural Landscapes"
pp. 208–209 in Margaret S Barrett (ed.) ''Collaborative Creative Thought and Practice in Music''. Ashgate Publishing.


See also

* Lists of operas, including a Lists of operas#General, general list as well as by Lists of operas#By theme, theme, by Lists of operas#By country, country, by Lists of operas#By medium, medium, and by Lists of operas#By venue, venue * List of fictional literature featuring opera * Opera management * Radio opera


References


Notes

Sources * * See also Google Book
partial preview


Further reading

* ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992), 5,448 pages, is the best, and by far the largest, general reference in the English language. * ''The Viking Opera Guide'', edited by Amanda Holden (writer), Amanda Holden (1994), 1,328 pages, * ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera'', ed. Roger Parker (1994) * ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, * ''Opera, the Rough Guide'', by Matthew Boyden et al. (1997), 672 pages, * ''Opera: A Concise History'', by Leslie Orrey and Rodney Milnes, World of Art, Thames & Hudson * * John Louis DiGaetani, DiGaetani, John Louis: ''An Invitation to the Opera'', Anchor Books, 1986/91. . * Dorschel, Andreas, 'The Paradox of Opera', ''The Cambridge Quarterly'' 30 (2001), no. 4, pp. 283–306. (print). (electronic). Discusses the aesthetics of opera. * Silke Leopold, "The Idea of National Opera, c. 1800", ''United and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800'', ed. T. C. W. Blanning, Tim Blanning and Hagen Schulze (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 19–34. * MacMurray, Jessica M. and Allison Brewster Franzetti: ''The Book of 101 Opera Librettos: Complete Original Language Texts with English Translations'', Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 1996. * Howard Mayer Brown, "Opera", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. 2001. Oxford University Press * Rous, Samuel Holland (1919). ''The Victrola Book of the Opera. Stories of The Operas with Illustrations...''. Camden, New Jersey: Victor Talking Machine Company
View
at Internet Archive. * Simon, Henry W.: ''A Treasury of Grand Opera'', Simon and Schuster, New York, 1946.
"Opera"
Herbert Weinstock and Barbara Russano Hanning, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' *


External links


Comprehensive opera performances database
Operabase
Opera-Inside
opera and aria guides, biographies, history
StageAgent – synopses and character descriptions for most major operas



Vocabulaire de l'Opéra



HistoricOpera – historic operatic images

"America's Opera Boom"
By Jonathan Leaf, ''The American (magazine), The American'', July/August 2007 Issue
Opera~Opera article archives
* {{Authority control Opera, Musical forms Italian inventions Drama Theatre Vocal music Singing