Opera
How Did Opera Begin
Florence, Italy in about 1600
Camerata
“The group that meets in the room”
Wanted to start a new kind of music
They combined poetry and music which led
to opera
Orfeo
Written by Italian composer Claudio
Monteverdi in 1607
Oldest opera that is still performed
The very first opera house opened in
Venice in 1637
Italian Operas
Had two kinds of music
Recitative
The characters are telling the story by
having a conversation or describing an
event
Singing that imitated the way people talk
Aria
One person is expressing his/her feeling
about what is happening
Has a more elaborate melody
French Operas
Had more ballet and instrumental
music
French composer
Jean-Baptiste Lully
English Opera
Began with masque
A combination of poetry, songs,
instrumental music, dancing, and
acting performed in the royal court.
Greatest English opera composer
was Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas
Coming to America
Came from England to South
Carolina in the early 1770s
Ballad opera
Dialogue was spoken rather than
sung, and the audience knows the
tunes
Italy in the 1700s
Opera Seria- Serious opera
Opera Buffa- Comic opera
German Opera
Singspiel
Literally means “sing speak”
Spoken dialogue rather than recitative
The Magic Flute
The most famous singspiel
By Mozart
Richard Wagner
Changed opera by having the orchestra play
continuously and the singers sing
throughout
Who writes the words
Libretto
The words to an opera
Means a “little book”
Librettist
The person who write the libretto
Decides what will happen in each scene and
what words the singers will speak or sing
Who writes the music?
Composer
Writes the music
Sometimes writes the words too
Takes the words from the librettist and sets
them to music that lets us know what the
characters are feeling and what kind of
people they are
Decides
Size of the orchestra
What instruments to use
What voices to use
How many singers
What are they based on?
Fairy Tales
Cinderella
Hansel and Gretel
Novels
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Carmen by Prosper Merimee
Events
Julius Caesar
Boris Godunov
Myths
Tristan and Isolde
Bible Stories
Amahl and the Night Visitors
What can you expect in
opera stories?
Suspense
Comedy
Madness
Love
Tragedy
Horror
War