An early program cover for the

Grand Theatre and Opera

House, Croydon, showing the
Theatre in its original form
and its owners; Messrs Batley
History of
OriginsOpera
and Linfoot, and the manager
Tom Cairn - Courtesy Chris of Opera           
Webster.  Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo
Sydney, Australia Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597) and soon
Opera House spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in
France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their
national traditions in the 17th century.  

The word opera means "work" in Italian (it is the plural of latin
opus meaning "work" or "labour") suggesting that it combines the
arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing
Yerevan, Armenian in a staged spectacle. Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest
Opera Theater composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of
(opera house) in Valencia, Spain
literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata de'
Bardi". Significantly, Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical
Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic
of the Renaissance. 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
Copenhagen Opera House as a way of "restoring" this situation. Dafne is unfortunately lost.
on Holmen Island, Denmark A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera
Vienna Opera House score to have survived to the present day. The honour of being the
first opera still
to be regularly performed, however,
goes to Claudio Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo,
composed for the court of Mantua in
1607.
Opera is an art form in which singers
and musicians perform a dramatic
work combining text (called a libretto)
Oslo Opera House and musical score. Opera is part of the
Oslo, Norway Western classical music tradition.
Opera incorporates many of the
elements of spoken theatre, such as
acting, scenery and costumes and Claudio Monteverdi
sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given
in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller
Copenhagen Opera House
Opera Poster Art Copenhagen, Denmark
musical ensemble.

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The Baroque era German-language Opera The words of an opera
Opera did not remain are known as the
The first German opera was Dafne, composed by Heinrich Schütz in
confined to court libretto
1627 (the music has not survived). Italian opera held a great sway over
audiences for long;
German-speaking countries until the late 18th century. Mozart's (literally "little book").
in 1637 the idea of a Some composers,
Singspiele, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) and Die Zauberflöte
"season" Carnival of
(1791) were an important breakthrough in achieving international notably Richard
publicly-attended
recognition for German opera. The tradition was developed in the 19th Wagner, have written
operas supported by their own libretti;
century by Beethoven with his Fidelio, inspired by the climate of the
ticket sales emerged in Venice. Monteverdi had moved to the
French Revolution. Other opera composers of the time include others have worked in
city from Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno close collaboration
Marschner, Schubert, Schumann and Lortzing, but the most significant
d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea, for the with their librettists, e.g.
figure was undoubtedly Wagner.
Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important follower
Wagner was one of the most revolutionary and controversial composers Mozart with Lorenzo
Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy. In these Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as “number opera"
in musical history. Starting under the influence of Weber and
early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the plot-driving
Meyerbeer, he gradually evolved a new concept of opera as a
elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities,
Gesamtkunstwerk (a "complete work of art"), a fusion of music, poetry passages sung in a style designed to imitate and emphasize the
sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored inflections of speech, and aria (an "air" or formal song) in which the
and painting. Opera would never be the same after Wagner and for
by Venice's Arcadian Academy which came to be associated
many composers his legacy proved a heavy burden. characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic
with the poet Metastasio, whose libretti helped crystallize the
Modernism style. Duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses
genre of opera seria, which became the leading form of Italian
are used to comment on the action. In some forms of opera, such as
opera until the end of the 18th century. Once the Metastasian Perhaps the most obvious stylistic manifestation of modernism in opera
Singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is
ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera is the development of atonality. The move away from traditional
mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic
was reserved for what came to be called Opera Buffa. tonality in opera had begun with Wagner, and in particular the Tristan
passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also
Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many chord. Composers such as Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Giacomo
referred to as arioso. During the Baroque and Classical periods,
libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of Puccini, Paul Hindemith and Hans Pfitzner pushed Wagnerian harmony
recitative could appear in two basic forms: secco (dry) recitative,
an "opera-within-an-opera." One reason for this was an attempt further with a more extreme use of chromaticism and greater use of
accompanied only by continuo, which was usually a harpsichord
to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly dissonance.
and a cello; or accompagnato (also known as strumentato) in which
wealthy, but still less cultured than the nobility, to the public Other trends the orchestra provided accompaniment. By the 19th century,
opera houses. A common trend throughout the 20th century, in both opera and general accompagnato had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a
comic opera orchestral repertoire, is the use of smaller orchestras as a cost-cutting much bigger role, and Richard Wagner revolutionised opera by
An opera or operetta with a humorous plot, generally spoken measure; the grand Romantic-era orchestras with huge string sections, abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his
dialogue, and usually a happy ending. Also called bouffe. multiple harps, extra horns, and exotic percussion instruments were no quest for what he termed "endless melody". Subsequent composers
(Performing Arts / Theatre) a play largely set to music, longer feasible. As government and private patronage of the arts have tended to follow Wagner's example, though some, such as
employing comic effects or situations with a happy ending and decreased throughout the 20th century, new works were often Stravinsky in his The Rake's Progress have bucked the trend.
in which some of the text is spoken. commissioned and performed with smaller budgets, very often resulting
in chamber-sized works, and short, one-act operas. Cinema
Another feature of 20th century opera is the emergence of contemporary Major opera houses and production companies have begun
A Synopsis historical operas. The Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon in China and Doctor broadcasting their performances to local cinemas throughout
Atomic exemplify the dramatization on stage of events in recent living
of memory. Earlier models of opera generally stuck to more distant
the United States and in many other countries. The
Metropolitan Opera, first opened in 1883, began high-
George Ade’s history, re-telling contemporary fictional stories (reworkings of popular definition television transmissions in 2006. Many of its
1902 Comic Opera plays), or mythical/legendary stories. performances are also shown live in movie theaters around the
The Metropolitan Opera reports that the average age of its patrons is world. The emergence of the Internet is also seemingly
http:// now 60. Many opera companies have experienced a similar trend, and affecting the way in which audiences consume opera. In a first
www.morolandhistory.com/ opera company websites are replete with attempts to attract a younger for the genre, in 2009 British Opera house Glyndebourne made
Articles/Comic%20Opera%20- audience. Also by the late 1930s, some musicals began to be written available online a full digital video download of Wagner’s
%20Sultan%20of%20Sulu/Sultan with a more operatic structure. Tristan und Isolde, filmed two years previously.
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