Thalia Fisher
March 28, 2009
Opera
Renaissance was the “rebirth” of the classical arts and individual thinking after a
thousand years of centralized religious dominance in all aspects of life (Mills 3-7). At the
time of the Renaissance, opera was unleashed in Western Europe. This re-creation of
Greek theatre established an outlet for numerous musicians, artists and poets. Opera was
a new innovation, which revolutionized music during this time period (Riding, Alan and
Leslie Dunton-Downer 17).
During the middle ages, the church dominated life throughout Western Europe.
The individual gained his importance only as a “member of society”(Mills 3). The church
acted like puppeteers controlling every move their “dolls” would make. All life revolved
around the church. Only a few had access or knowledge of the past (Davies 477, Mills 49).
Major events combined to bring about the evolution towards the renaissance. The
collapse of Constantinople prompted many Greek scholars to escape to Italy bringing the
language and culture of their past. New wealth of the merchants especially in the cities of
Florence and Venice made it possible for more to become educated. The advent of the
printing press made it easier for individuals to obtain and read books(Davies 477,89),
Mills 4-9). As more and more people learned to read Greek and obtain the writings of
Greek literature, the began to discover the philosophies of the Ancient Greeks,
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“…rejecting the idea that thinking must follow the old accepted traditions and authority
and more and more they began thinking as individuals and not as members of a
society”(Mills 9). This was compounded by the fact that more and more individuals were
now able to read and interpret the New Testament in Greek by themselves rather than the
following the autocratic interpretation of the church (Davies 477).
The Renaissance was a period of renewed interest in ancient Greece, its
philosophies, architecture, mythology, theatre and art. Many studied the ancient works of
Aristotle, Plato, Hesiod, and Homer. Humanism prevailed with “a fundamental shift from
the theocratic or God-centred world view of the middle ages to the anthropocentric or
man-centred view of the Renaissance (Davies 479).”People of the Renaissance glorified
the Greeks and the Romans for their artistic works which they regarded as the benchmark for evaluating all other works. They felt that they honored Ancient Greece and
Rome by emulating their classical theatre and art (Thompson 212). There was a burst of
creativity in new discoveries; science, math, literature, art, music, and architecture
(Thompson 195-196).
Opera was born out of a desire to resurrect the ancient Greek theatre. Ancient
Greek theater consisted of a story set on stage with actors and a chorus who sang and
were accompanied by instruments similar to the flute or a lyre that was similar to a
miniature harp. Early attempts at opera used many of the dramas that had been preserved
from Greek theatre. Topics were “mythological rather than mystical in origin”. Since the
ancient Greek plays had been set to music, the composers of the Renaissance wanted to
replicate this setting the words to music. The music of the Greek theatre had been lost so
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there was some disagreement as to what the appropriate music should be (Kupferberg 710).
“Why cause words to be sung by four or five voices so that they cannot be
distinguished, wrote Vincenzo Galilei, when the ancients aroused the strongest
passions by means of a single voice supported by a lyre? We must renounce
counterpoint and different kinds of instruments and return to primitive simplicity
(Kupferberg 8-9).”
Theater in the pre-opera renaissance period was divided into four main subgenres
which contributed to the creation of opera. The sacre rappresentazione were
ecclesiastical productions about stories from the Old and New Testament or about saints,
usually presented to educate the public (Kupferberg 10). Most of the writers were
anonymous. The performances were initially held in churches and convents and
subsequently preformed in courts, public locations and in certain halls (Vince 304).
Plays, typically with a mythical plot, were staged with music called intermedi, before
and between acts at special functions of the noble class. The pastorale was a play of rural
tales structured as a poem with freely interspersed songs. The madrigal was one of the
first to offer musicians a more dominant role than the poets so that music and stories
began to be intertwined. The madrigal was a polyphonic, vocal, secular piece of music
(Kupferberg 10-11).
The first opera came out of the collective work of the Camerata, a group of men in
Florence, which included musicians, poets, singers, composers and song writers who
wanted to recreate the music of ancient Greece. “The Camerata longed for music that was
more direct, more human (Kupferberg 8).” The Camerata members knew little about the
actual music of the Ancient Greeks except that they had “…a system of singing in which
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the music followed the contours of natural speech, the words were always dear and
intelligible, and the melodic line mirrored emotion of the text (Kupferberg 8).”
The music to the first “opera”, Dafne, which is an adaptation of a Greek myth about
the God Apollo and a young maiden, Daphne, was written by Jacopi Peri, a member of
the Camerata. The actual story was written as an Italian adaptation of the Greek myth by
Rinuccini, another Camerata (Kupferberg 15). There were only a few instruments used in
the production but the exact number is not known. This work was quite different than any
previous work. “Peri and Rinuccini did not quite know what to call their creation so it
was simply called opera in musica, “a work in music”(Berger 10).”
A second opera and the first that has been preserved, Euridice, with music again
written by Jacopi Peri and lyrics written by Rinuccini is one of the most famous of the
Greek myths about the love and tragedy of Orpheus and Eurodice and was performed in
1600, now considered the birth date of opera. The opera tells a tale about a man named
Orpheus, played by Peri himself, who lost his lover due to death. Orpheus negotiates with
Hadi to set her free but he must not look at her while they are traveling up from the
underworld. Unfortunately, Orpheus looks too early, causing his lover to vanish forever
(Kupferberg 15,Hamilton 107-110).
Claudio Monteverdi was already known to be a marvelous composer of madrigals and
some sacred works meant for the church. It is however the operas of Claudio Monteverdi
that are considered to be the most important in the early development of opera. In fact,
Claudio Monteverdi is celebrated as the father of opera. His first opera L’Orfeo was
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based on the same Greek myth as Euridice, and was written for the Duke of Mantua.
Only a famous piece from a second opera, L’Arianna, about a Greek princess Ariadne
remains. From 1613 until the late 1630’s, Monteverdi was commissioned at the church of
San Marco where he concentrated on religious music and madrigals. He returned to
writing opera and in 1640 produced, Il Ritorno D’Ulissse In Patria, The Return of
Ulysses, where Ulysses is disguised as an old man to so that he can face his wife
Penelope’s suitors without being detected. Later in 1643, Monteverdi presented the first
opera that was not based fully based on mythology, called L’ incoronazione di Poppea,
about Nero, Octavia, his wife, and Poppea, his lover (Berger 12-13, Kupferger 18, Riding
and Leslie Dunton-Downer 17, 55-61).
Another famous composer was Francesco Cavalli. He came to Venice when he was
14 and for a time is thought to have studied under Monteverdi. He eventually produced
about 40 operas with themes derived from ancient Greek and Roman mythology and
history. Many of his operas were about the passionate exploits of the Gods and humans.
One of his more famous operas is entitled, La Calisto, which combined two Greek myths
of love between Gods and mortals (Riding and Leslie Dunton-Downer 62-63). His
travels to Paris altered the music there and broaden the influence of Italian opera beyond
Italy (Griffiths 101, “Francesco Cavalli Biography”).
Initially, opera was performed in the palaces of the nobility with few if any
performances for the general public. In 1637, the San Cassiano, the first public theater for
opera was opened. By 1650, there were about twenty public opera houses in Venice,
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although most were small, it is clearly evident that opera was here to stay and that more
and more individuals would learn about the myths of ancient Greece and
Rome(Kupferberg 21).
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Work Cited
Berger, William. The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Opera. New York: The Berkley
Publishing Company, 2002.
Davies, Norman. Europe A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
"Francesco Cavalli Biography." Composers 1. 03 25 2008
<http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio24558.htm>.
Griffiths, Paul. A Concise History of Western Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2006.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. New York: Warner
Books, 1942.
Kupferberg, Herbert. A History Of Opera. New York: Newsweek Books, 1975.
Mills, Dorothy. Renaissance and Reformation Times. 11. New York: Putnam, 1939.
Riding, Alan, and Leslie. Duntun-Downer. Opera. New York, NY: DK Publishing, 2006.
Thompson, Stephen P.. The Renaissance. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2000.
Vince, Ronald W.. A Companion to the Medieval Theatre. New York: Greenwood Press,
1989.
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