Opera is a form ofWestern theatre in whichmusic is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken bysingers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between acomposer and alibrettist[1] and incorporates a number of theperforming arts, such asacting,scenery,costume, and sometimesdance orballet. The performance is typically given in anopera house, accompanied by anorchestra or smallermusical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by aconductor. Althoughmusical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another.[2]
The words of an opera are known as thelibretto (meaning "small book"). Some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti; others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e.g. Mozart withLorenzo Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as "number opera", consists of two modes of singing:recitative, the plot-driving passages sung in a style designed to imitate and emphasize the inflections of speech,[4] andaria (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 assingspiel,opéra comique,operetta, andsemi-opera, 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 asarioso. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detailbelow.[5]
During both theBaroque andClassical 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 bybasso continuo, which was usually aharpsichord and a cello; oraccompagnato (also known asstrumentato) 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 followWagner's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in hisThe Rake's Progress have bucked the trend. The changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detailbelow.
The Italian wordopera means "work", both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin wordopera, a singular noun meaning "work" and also the plural of the nounopus. According to theOxford English Dictionary, 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.[6]
Dafne byJacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literateFlorentinehumanists who gathered as the "Camerata de' Bardi". Significantly,Dafne was an attempt to revive the classicalGreek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of theRenaissance. 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 toClaudio Monteverdi'sL'Orfeo, composed for the court ofMantua in 1607.[7] The Mantua court of theGonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of theconcerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of the first actual "opera singers",Madama Europa.[8]
Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a "season" (often during thecarnival) of publicly attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged inVenice. Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas,Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria andL'incoronazione di Poppea, for the Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important followerFrancesco 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 theArcadian Academy, which came to be associated with the poetMetastasio, whoselibretti helped crystallize the genre ofopera 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 calledopera buffa. 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 publicopera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from thecommedia 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 ofintermezzi, which developed largely inNaples 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 ofsecco recitative interspersed with longda capo arias. These afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during the golden age ofopera seria the singer really became the star. The role of the hero was usually written for the high-pitched malecastrato voice, which was produced bycastration of the singer beforepuberty, which prevented a boy'slarynx from being transformed at puberty. Castrati such asFarinelli andSenesino, as well as femalesopranos such asFaustina Bordoni, became in great demand throughout Europe asopera 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 likeHandel found himself composing the likes ofRinaldo andGiulio Cesare for London audiences. Italianlibretti remained dominant in theclassical period as well, for example in the operas ofMozart, who wrote inVienna near the century's close. Leading Italian-born composers of opera seria includeAlessandro Scarlatti,Antonio Vivaldi andNicola Porpora.[9]
Illustration for the score of the original Vienna version ofOrfeo ed Euridice
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'sEssay on the Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration forChristoph Willibald Gluck's reforms. He advocated thatopera seria had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal),ballet, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. In 1765Melchior Grimm published "Poème lyrique", an influential article for theEncyclopédie onlyric and operalibrettos.[10][11][12][13][14] Several composers of the period, includingNiccolò Jommelli andTommaso Traetta, attempted to put these ideals into practice. The first to succeed however, was Gluck.Gluck 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 byLorenzo Da Ponte, notablyLe nozze di Figaro,Don Giovanni, andCosì fan tutte, which remain among the most-loved, popular and well-known operas. But Mozart's contribution toopera seria was more mixed; by his time it was dying away, and in spite of such fine works asIdomeneo andLa clemenza di Tito, he would not succeed in bringing the art form back to life again.[15]
Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized byGiuseppe Verdi, beginning with his biblical operaNabucco. 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 ofItalian nationalism in the post-Napoleonic 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,Il trovatore andLa 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 it includes elements ofverismo or "realistic" opera,[16] 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 Frenchgrand opera,Don Carlos, and ending his career with twoShakespeare-inspired works,Otello andFalstaff, 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. InFalstaff, Verdi sets the pre-eminent 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 successorsGiacomo Puccini,Richard Strauss, andBenjamin Britten.[17]
The Queen of the Night in an 1815 production of Mozart'sDie Zauberflöte
The first German opera wasDafne, composed byHeinrich Schütz 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 Staden produced the firstSingspiel,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 inHamburg presented German operas byKeiser,Telemann andHandel. Yet most of the major German composers of the time, including Handel himself, as well asGraun,Hasse and laterGluck, 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.[19] The theatre company ofAbel Seyler pioneered serious German-language opera in the 1770s, marking a break with the previous simpler musical entertainment.[20][21]
Brünnhilde throws herself on Siegfried's funeral pyre in Wagner'sGötterdämmerung
Wagner was one of the most revolutionary and controversial composers in musical history. Starting under the influence ofWeber andMeyerbeer, he gradually evolved a new concept of opera as aGesamtkunstwerk (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 ofleitmotifs, recurringthemes often associated with the characters and concepts of the drama, of which prototypes can be heard in his earlier operas such asDer fliegende Holländer,Tannhäuser andLohengrin; and he was prepared to violate accepted musical conventions, such astonality, in his quest for greater expressivity. In his mature music dramas,Tristan und Isolde,Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,Der Ring des Nibelungen andParsifal, 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 fromGermanic orArthurian legend. Finally, Wagner builthis own opera house atBayreuth with part of the patronage fromLudwig 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 scandalousSalome and the dark tragedyElektra, in which tonality was pushed to the limits. Then Strauss changed tack in his greatest success,Der Rosenkavalier, where Mozart and Viennesewaltzes became as important an influence as Wagner. Strauss continued to produce a highly varied body of operatic works, often with libretti by the poetHugo von Hofmannsthal. Other composers who made individual contributions to German opera in the early 20th century includeAlexander von Zemlinsky,Erich Korngold,Franz Schreker,Paul Hindemith,Kurt Weill and the Italian-bornFerruccio Busoni. The operatic innovations ofArnold Schoenberg and his successors are discussed in the section onmodernism.[22]
During the late 19th century, the Austrian composerJohann Strauss II, an admirer of theFrench-languageoperettas composed byJacques Offenbach, composed several German-language operettas, the most famous of which wasDie Fledermaus.[23] Nevertheless, rather than copying the style of Offenbach, the operettas of Strauss II had distinctlyViennese flavor to them.
In rivalry with imported Italian opera productions, a separate French tradition was founded by the Italian-born French composerJean-Baptiste Lully at the court ofKing Louis XIV. Despite his foreign birthplace, Lully established anAcademy of Music and monopolised French opera from 1672. Starting withCadmus et Hermione, Lully and his librettistQuinault createdtragédie en musique, a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's operas also show a concern for expressiverecitative which matched the contours of the French language. In the 18th century, Lully's most important successor wasJean-Philippe Rameau, who composed fivetragédies en musique as well as numerous works in other genres such asopéra-ballet, all notable for their rich orchestration and harmonic daring. Despite the popularity of Italianopera 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.[24] After Rameau's death, the Bohemian-Austrian composerGluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s.[25] 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 Germansingspiel, where arias alternated with spoken dialogue. Notable examples in this style were produced byMonsigny,Philidor and, above all,Grétry. During theRevolutionary andNapoleonic period, composers such asÉtienne Méhul,Luigi Cherubini andGaspare 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.Gossec'sLe triomphe de la République (1793).
By the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for Italianbel canto, especially after the arrival ofRossini inParis. Rossini'sGuillaume Tell helped found the new genre ofgrand opera, a form whose most famous exponent was another foreigner,Giacomo Meyerbeer. Meyerbeer's works, such asLes Huguenots, emphasised virtuoso singing and extraordinary stage effects. Lighteropéra comique also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands ofBoïeldieu,Auber,Hérold andAdam. In this climate, the operas of the French-born composerHector Berlioz struggled to gain a hearing. Berlioz's epic masterpieceLes 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 createdoperetta with witty and cynical works such asOrphée aux enfers, as well as the operaLes Contes d'Hoffmann;Charles Gounod scored a massive success withFaust; andGeorges Bizet composedCarmen, which, once audiences learned to accept its blend ofRomanticism and realism, became the most popular of all opéra comiques.Jules Massenet,Camille Saint-Saëns andLéo Delibes all composed works which are still part of the standard repertory, examples being Massenet'sManon, Saint-Saëns'Samson et Dalila and Delibes'Lakmé. Their operas formed another genre, theopéra lyrique, combinedopéra comique and grand opera. It is less grandiose than grand opera, but without the spoken dialogue ofopèra comique. At the same time, the influence ofRichard 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 fromClaude Debussy. As in Wagner's works, the orchestra plays a leading role in Debussy's unique operaPelléas et Mélisande (1902) and there are no real arias, only recitative. But the drama is understated, enigmatic and completely un-Wagnerian.
In England, opera's antecedent was the 17th-centuryjig. This was an afterpiece that came at the end of a play. It was frequentlylibellous 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 Frenchmasque 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. InBen Jonson'sLovers Made Men (1617), "the whole masque was sung after the Italian manner, stilo recitativo".[27] The approach of theEnglish Commonwealth closed theatres and halted any developments that may have led to the establishment of English opera. However, in 1656, thedramatist SirWilliam Davenant producedThe Siege of Rhodes. Since his theatre was not licensed to produce drama, he asked several of the leading composers (Lawes,Cooke,Locke,Coleman andHudson) to set sections of it to music. This success was followed byThe Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658) andThe History of Sir Francis Drake (1659). These pieces were encouraged byOliver Cromwell because they were critical of Spain. With theEnglish Restoration, foreign (especially French) musicians were welcomed back. In 1673,Thomas Shadwell'sPsyche, patterned on the 1671 'comédie-ballet' of the same name produced byMolière andJean-Baptiste Lully.William Davenant producedThe Tempest in the same year, which was the first musical adaption of aShakespeare play (composed by Locke and Johnson).[27] About 1683,John Blow composedVenus and Adonis, often thought of as the first true English-language opera.
Blow's immediate successor was the better knownHenry Purcell. Despite the success of his masterworkDido 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 thesemi-opera format, where isolated scenes and masques are contained within the structure of a spoken play, such asShakespeare in Purcell'sThe Fairy-Queen (1692) and Beaumont and Fletcher inThe Prophetess (1690) andBonduca (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 collaboratorJohn 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[28] in opera occurred in the 1730s which is largely attributed toThomas 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 beingThomas and Sally in 1760. His operaArtaxerxes (1762) was the first attempt to set a full-blownopera 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 wasGeorge Frideric Handel, whoseopera serias filled the London operatic stages for decades and influenced most home-grown composers, likeJohn Frederick Lampe, who wrote using Italian models. This situation continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including in the work ofMichael 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 wereballad operas, such asJohn Gay'sThe Beggar's Opera (1728), musicalburlesques, Europeanoperettas, and lateVictorian eralight operas, notably theSavoy operas ofW. S. Gilbert andArthur Sullivan, all of which types of musical entertainments frequently spoofed operatic conventions; these genres contributed significantly to the emergence of the separate but closely related art ofmusical theatre in the late 19th century. Sullivan wrote only one grand opera,Ivanhoe (following the efforts of a number of young English composers beginning about 1876),[27] 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'sDaily Telegraph agreed, describingThe 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".[29] Sullivan produced a few light operas in the 1890s that were of a more serious nature than those in the G&S series, includingHaddon Hall andThe Beauty Stone, butIvanhoe (which ran for 155 consecutive performances, using alternating casts—a record until Broadway'sLa bohème) survives as his onlygrand opera.
In the 20th century, English opera began to assert more independence, with works ofRalph Vaughan Williams and in particularBenjamin Britten, who in a series of works that remain in standard repertory today, revealed an excellent flair for the dramatic and superb musicality. More recentlySir Harrison Birtwistle has emerged as one of Britain's most significant contemporary composers from his first operaPunch and Judy to his most recent critical success inThe Minotaur. In the first decade of the 21st century, the librettist of an early Birtwistle opera,Michael Nyman, has been focusing on composing operas, includingFacing Goya,Man and Boy: Dada, andLove Counts. Today composers such asThomas Adès continue to export English opera abroad.[30]
Czech composers also developed a thriving national opera movement of their own in the 19th century, starting withBedřich Smetana, who wroteeight operas including the internationally popularThe Bartered Bride. Smetana's eight operas created the bedrock of the Czech opera repertory, but of these onlyThe 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'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 isRusalka which contains the well-known aria "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" ("Song to the Moon"); it is played on contemporary opera stages frequently outside theCzech Republic. This is attributable to their uneven invention and libretti, and perhaps also their staging requirements –The Jacobin,Armida,Vanda andDimitrij 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 operaJenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 inBrno. The success ofJenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") atPrague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such asKáťa Kabanová andThe Cunning Little Vixen, theSinfonietta and theGlagolitic Mass.
Spain also produced its own distinctive form of opera, known aszarzuela, 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 thenative form.
The key figure of Hungarian national opera in the 19th century wasFerenc Erkel, whose works mostly dealt with historical themes. Among his most often performed operas areHunyadi László andBánk bán. The most famous modern Hungarian opera isBéla Bartók'sDuke Bluebeard's Castle.
The first known opera fromTurkey (theOttoman Empire) wasArshak II, which was anArmenian opera composed by an ethnic Armenian composerTigran Chukhajian in 1868 and partially performed in 1873. It was fully staged in 1945 in Armenia.
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 theRoudaki Hall in 1967, made possible staging of a large variety of works for stage. Perhaps, the most famous Iranian opera isRostam and Sohrab byLoris Tjeknavorian premiered not until the early 2000s.
In Latin America, opera started as a result of European colonisation. The first opera ever written in the Americas was 1701'sLa púrpura de la rosa, byTomás de Torrejón y Velasco, a Peruvian composer born in Spain; a decade later, 1711'sPartenope, by the MexicanManuel 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 wasA Noite de São João, byElias 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 asIl Guarany. Opera in Argentina developed in the 20th century after the inauguration ofTeatro Colón in Buenos Aires—with the operaAurora, byEttore Panizza, being heavily influenced by the Italian tradition, due to immigration. Other important composers from Argentina includeFelipe Boero andAlberto Ginastera.
Perhaps the most obvious stylistic manifestation of modernism in opera is the development ofatonality. The move away from traditional tonality in opera had begun withRichard Wagner, and in particular theTristan chord. Composers such asRichard Strauss,Claude Debussy,Giacomo Puccini,[38]Paul Hindemith,Benjamin Britten andHans 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 byGiuseppe Verdi in hisFalstaff. Composers such as Strauss, Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky adopted and expanded upon this style.
Arnold Schoenberg in 1917; portrait byEgon Schiele
Operatic modernism truly began in the operas of two Viennese composers,Arnold Schoenberg and his studentAlban 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) andDie glückliche Hand display heavy use of chromatic harmony and dissonance in general. Schoenberg also occasionally usedSprechstimme.
The two operas of Schoenberg's pupil Alban Berg,Wozzeck (1925) andLulu (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.
However, operatic modernism's use of atonality also sparked a backlash in the form ofneoclassicism. An early leader of this movement wasFerruccio Busoni, who in 1913 wrote the libretto for his neoclassicalnumber operaArlecchino (first performed in 1917).[40] Also among the vanguard was the RussianIgor Stravinsky. After composing music for theDiaghilev-produced balletsPetrushka (1911) andThe Rite of Spring (1913), Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism, a development culminating in his opera-oratorioOedipus 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, includingRenard (1916: "a burlesque in song and dance") andThe 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 ofMelodrama. Well after his Rimsky-Korsakov-inspired worksThe Nightingale (1914), andMavra (1922), Stravinsky continued to ignoreserialist technique and eventually wrote a full-fledged 18th-century-stylediatonic number operaThe Rake's Progress (1951). His resistance to serialism (an attitude he reversed following Schoenberg's death) proved to be an inspiration for many[who?] other composers.[41]
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 ofBenjamin Britten's operas are scored for as few as 13 instrumentalists;Mark Adamo's two-act realization ofLittle 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, andDoctor Atomic byJohn Adams,Dead Man Walking byJake Heggie,Anna Nicole byMark-Anthony Turnage, andWaiting for Miss Monroe[42] byRobin de Raaff 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.
TheMetropolitan Opera in the US (often known as the Met) reported in 2011 that the average age of its audience was 60.[43] Many opera companies attempted to attract a younger audience to halt the larger trend of greying audiences forclassical music since the last decades of the 20th century.[44] Efforts resulted in lowering the average age of the Met's audience to 58 in 2018, the average age atBerlin State Opera was reported as 54, andParis Opera reported an average age of 48.[45]New York Times criticAnthony Tommasini has suggested that "companies inordinately beholden to standard repertory" are not reaching younger, more curious audiences.[46]
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.[47]
A subtle type of sound electronic reinforcement calledacoustic 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 asound reinforcement system for acoustic enhancement and for subtle boosting of offstage voices, child singers, onstage dialogue, and sound effects (e.g., church bells inTosca or thunder effects in Wagnerian operas).[49]
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.
Singers and the roles they play are classified byvoice type, based on thetessitura,agility, power andtimbre of their voices. Male singers can be classified byvocal range asbass,bass-baritone,baritone,baritenor,tenor andcountertenor, and female singers ascontralto,mezzo-soprano andsoprano. (Men sometimes sing in the "female" vocal ranges, in which case they are termedsopranist or countertenor. The countertenor is commonly encountered in opera, sometimes singing parts written forcastrati—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 thebasso buffo who often must be a specialist inpatter as well as a comic actor. This is carried out in detail in theFach system of German speaking countries, where historically opera and spokendrama were often put on by the samerepertory 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 anddeuxieme dugazon, were named after successive stages in the career ofLouise-Rosalie Lefebvre (Mme. Dugazon). Other terms originating in the star casting system of theParisian theatres arebaryton-martin andsopranofalcon.
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 acastrato. The current emphasis on a wide vocal range was primarily an invention of theClassical period. Before that, the vocal virtuosity, not range, was the priority, with soprano parts rarely extending above a highA (Handel, for example, only wrote one role extending to a highC), though the castratoFarinelli was alleged to possess a topD (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'sDido and Aeneas to such heavyweight roles as Brangäne in Wagner'sTristan 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, andbritches" 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 thebel canto era, such asDonizetti's sequence of 9 Cs above middle C duringLa fille du régiment. With Wagner came an emphasis on vocal heft for his protagonist roles, with this vocal category described asHeldentenor; this heroic voice had its more Italianate counterpart in such roles as Calaf in Puccini'sTurandot. Basses have a long history in opera, having been used inopera 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 inDon Giovanni to the nobility of Wotan inWagner'sRing Cycle, to the conflicted King Phillip of Verdi'sDon Carlos. In between the bass and the tenor is the baritone, which also varies in weight from say, Guglielmo in Mozart'sCosì fan tutte to Posa in Verdi'sDon Carlos; the actual designation "baritone" was not standard until the mid-19th century.
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 acastrato, and by the 18th century, when Italian opera was performed throughout Europe, leading castrati who possessed extraordinary vocal virtuosity, such asSenesino andFarinelli, became international stars. The career of the first major female star (orprima 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 withFaustina Bordoni andFrancesca 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 anhaute-contre (a high tenor), of whichJoseph Legros (1739–1793) was a leading example.[50]
Before the 1700s, Italian operas used a smallstring orchestra, but it rarely played to accompany the singers. Opera solos during this period were accompanied by thebasso continuo group, which consisted of theharpsichord, "plucked instruments" such aslute and a bass instrument.[51] 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 orchestralritornello to mark the end of a singer's solo.[51] 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 asDomenico Sarro,Leonardo Vinci,Giambattista Pergolesi,Leonardo Leo, andJohann Adolph 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.[51]
The orchestra has also provided an instrumentaloverture before the singers come onstage since the 1600s.Peri'sEuridice opens with a brief instrumentalritornello, andMonteverdi'sL'Orfeo (1607) opens with atoccata, in this case a fanfare for mutedtrumpets. TheFrench overture as found inJean-Baptiste Lully's operas[52] consist of a slow introduction in a marked "dotted rhythm", followed by a lively movement infugato 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 inHenry Purcell'sDido and Aeneas.Handel also uses the French overture form in some of his Italian operas such asGiulio Cesare.[53]
In Italy, a distinct form called "overture" arose in the 1680s, and became established particularly through the operas ofAlessandro Scarlatti, and spread throughout Europe, supplanting the French form as the standard operatic overture by the mid-18th century.[54] It uses three generallyhomophonicmovements: 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 thegigue orminuet, 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.[54]
In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as thesinfonia.[55] Fisher also notes the termSinfonia 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".[55] 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.). Theorchestration 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 theRing Cycle, the orchestra often played the recurrent musical themes orleitmotifs, a role which gave a prominence to the orchestra which "...elevated its status to that of aprima donna".[56] Wagner's operas were scored with unprecedented scope and complexity, adding morebrass instruments and huge ensemble sizes: indeed, his score toDas Rheingold calls for sixharps. 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."[57]
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 theconcertmaster, 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 ofmusic director became termed theconductor, 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 theorchestra pit and the singers on stage.
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 asLucia di Lammermoor orDon Carlos are today deemed canonical in both their French and Italian versions.[58]
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.[59] 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-sopranoDolora 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."[60]
In the 1980s, supertitles (sometimes calledsurtitles) began to appear. Although supertitles were first almost universally condemned as a distraction,[61] today many opera houses provide either supertitles, generally projected above the theatre'sproscenium 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 the language well (for example, aRAI 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.
Outside the US, and especially in Europe, most opera houses receive public subsidies from taxpayers.[66] 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.[67] In 2005, La Scala received 25% of Italy's total state subsidy of €464 million for the performing arts.[68] In the UK,Arts Council England provides funds toOpera North, theRoyal Opera House,Welsh National Opera, andEnglish National Opera. Between 2012 and 2015, these four opera companies along with theEnglish National Ballet,Birmingham Royal Ballet andNorthern 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.[69] In February 2015, concerns over English National Opera's business plan led to the Arts Council placing it "under special funding arrangements" in whatThe Independent termed "the unprecedented step" of threatening to withdraw public funding if the council's concerns were not met by 2017.[70] 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."[71]
A milestone for opera broadcasting in the U.S. was achieved on 24 December 1951, with the live broadcast ofAmahl and the Night Visitors, an opera in one act byGian Carlo Menotti. It was the firstopera specifically composed for television in America.[72] Another milestone occurred in Italy in 1992 whenTosca 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.[73]
Major opera companies have begun presenting their performances in local cinemas throughout the United States and many other countries. The Metropolitan Opera began aseries of livehigh-definition video transmissions to cinemas around the world in 2006.[74] 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 sameHD digital cinema projectors used for majorHollywood films.[75] European opera houses andfestivals includingThe Royal Opera in London,La Scala in Milan, theSalzburg Festival,La Fenice in Venice, and theMaggio Musicale in Florence have also transmitted their productions to theaters in cities around the world since 2006, including 90 cities in the U.S.[76][77]
The emergence of the Internet has also affected the way in which audiences consume opera. In 2009 the BritishGlyndebourne Festival Opera offered for the first time an online digital video download of its complete 2007 production ofTristan und Isolde. In the 2013 season, the festivalstreamed all six of its productions online.[78][79] In July 2012, the firstonline community opera was premiered at theSavonlinna Opera Festival. TitledFree 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 theWreckamovie 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.[80]
^Some definitions of opera: "dramatic performance or composition of which music is an essential part, branch of art concerned with this" (Concise Oxford English Dictionary); "any dramatic work that can be sung (or at times declaimed or spoken) in a place for performance, set to original music for singers (usually in costume) and instrumentalists" (Amanda Holden,Viking Opera Guide); "musical work for the stage with singing characters, originated in early years of 17th century" (Pears' Cyclopaedia, 1983 ed.).
^Comparable art forms from various other parts of the world, many of them ancient in origin, are also sometimes called "opera" by analogy, usually prefaced with an adjective indicating the region (for example,Chinese opera). These independent traditions are not derivative of Western opera but are rather distinct forms ofmusical theatre. Opera is also not the only type of Western musical theatre: in the ancient world,Greek drama featured singing and instrumental accompaniment; and in modern times, other forms such as themusical have appeared.
^Parker 1994, ch. 5, 8,9;Viking Opera Guide entry on Verdi.
^Man and Music: the Classical Era ed.Neal Zaslaw (Macmillan, 1989), pp. 242–247, 258–260;Parker 1994, pp. 58–63, 98–103. Articles on Hasse, Graun and Hiller inViking Opera Guide.
^Francien Markx, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Cosmopolitanism, and the Struggle for German Opera, p. 32, BRILL, 2015, ISBN9004309578
^Thomas Bauman, "New directions: the Seyler Company" (pp. 91–131), in North German Opera in the Age of Goethe, Cambridge University Press, 1985
^General outline for this section fromParker 1994, chapters 1–3, 6, 8 and 9, andThe Oxford Companion to Music; more specific references from the individual composer entries inThe Viking Opera Guide.
^General outline for this section fromParker 1994, chapters 1–4, 8 and 9; andThe Oxford Companion to Music (10th ed., 1968); more specific references from the individual composer entries inThe Viking Opera Guide.
^TheDaily Telegraph's review ofYeomen stated, "The accompaniments... are delightful to hear, and especially does the treatment of the woodwind compel admiring attention. Schubert himself could hardly have handled those instruments more deftly. ...we have a genuine English opera, forerunner of many others, let us hope, and possibly significant of an advance towards a national lyric stage." (quoted at p. 312 in Allen, Reginald (1975).The First Night Gilbert and Sullivan. London: Chappell & Co. Ltd.).
^Parker 1994, ch. 1, 3, 9.The Viking Opera Guide articles on Blow, Purcell and Britten.
^Rubin, Don; Chua, Soo Pong; Chaturvedi, Ravi; Majundar, Ramendu; Tanokura, Minoru, eds. (2001). "China".World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre – Asia/Pacific. Vol. 5. p. 111.Western-style opera (also known as High Opera) exists alongside the many Beijing Opera groups. ... Operas of note by Chinese composers includeA Girl With White Hair written in the 1940s,Red Squad in Hong Hu andJiang Jie.
^Zicheng Hong,A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature, 2007, p. 227: "Written in the early 1940s, for a long timeThe White-Haired Girl was considered a model of new western-style opera in China."
^Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, vol. 2, p. 145, Lily Xiao Hong Lee, A. D. Stefanowska, Sue Wiles (2003) "... of the PRC,Zheng Lücheng was active in his work as a composer; he wrote the music for the Western-style operaCloud Gazing."
^abcJohn Spitzer. (2009). Orchestra and voice in eighteenth-century Italian opera. In: Anthony R. DelDonna and Pierpaolo Polzonetti (eds.)The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera. pp. 112–139. [Online]. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^Burrows, Donald (2012).Handel. Oxford University Press. p. 178.ISBN978-0-19-973736-9.Archived from the original on 3 July 2023. Retrieved7 September 2018.
Silke Leopold, "The Idea of National Opera, c. 1800",United and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800, ed.Tim Blanning andHagen 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.ISBN978-1-884822-79-7
Rous, Samuel Holland (1919).The Victrola Book of the Opera. Stories of The Operas with Illustrations.... Camden, New Jersey: Victor Talking Machine Company.View atInternet Archive.
Simon, Henry W.:A Treasury of Grand Opera, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1946.
Valls, María Antonia (1989).Hitos de la Música Universal y Retratos de sus Grandes Protagonistas. (Illustrated byWilli Glasauer). Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores.
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