Opera in France
Opera in Italian means “works”, and is a combination of music, dance, and drama (acting). Back
then opera use to be confined to only people in court. Originally opera was invented in Italy, the
tradition follows in france, except is it sung in French. Although Jean-Baptiste Lully was Italian,
he established an academy of music in France took in opera in 1672. One of the earliest operas
written was “Dafne” by Jacopo Peri, it was written around 1597. Baroque French opera was
elaborated by Rameau in 1760. Opera was not kept a secret, in 1637; the idea of a carnival came
into mind and tickets were starting to be sold in Venice. In “early” (17th century), comedy was
started to be blended into Baroque opera, not only was opera just for entertainment, but it is also
educational and sent out strong messages to the audience. In the first half of the 19th century,
French opera was influenced by Bel Canto style and other Italians. French opera with spoken
dialogue is considered to be opera comique even though it necessarily it’s a comedy.
Opera is important to France because it’s part of its culture. Without opera, France seems like its
missing a puzzle piece, since France is considered to be an important place of music and art. If
France famous for its music, then opera is important to, since opera falls under the category of
music. Opera is known in France to be one of the most popular forms of music, and without it,
France wouldn’t be so famous without opera being recognized.
French opera is one of the most important traditions in Europe. Today it is used as entertainment,
or it is also an activity to do at a party. Opera is considered to be an art, and today it is known
world-wide. Basically opera today is used as it was before. It gave out messages and also was a
form of entertainment, but today it’s more modern, and is using more electronics to help make a
more entertaining show.
A similar topic that we have in American culture would be both opera, and musicals. Opera in
American is used as entertainment as but the only difference is that it’s in English. Musicals are
similar to opera because it tells a story, and use music as well, and the performers speak or tell
their story by singing. The difference between musicals and opera is that opera can be a little less
modern than today’s musicals. Although opera is imagined as boring, and dull, it can be any type
of genre, same goes for musicals.
I chose opera because I really didn’t think it was interesting and I didn’t like it at first, but now
that I know more about, it seems interesting and I consider going to see one. This topic interests
me because I had some knowledge about how France was known for its opera, but I didn’t know
the origin and the history. I wanted to know about the history and the origin of how my topic
came to be. I also found why it is important to France, and it was interesting to know why.