Opera, is a formal medium of theatre that coneys its dramatic essence through the fusion of words and action, among other theatrical elements with music says author Burton D. Fisher (A History of Opera, 14). Opera is an art form with such a rich history and memorable music. Well, at least where Italian opera is concerned. Italy was and has been in the limelight concerning Opera since its genesis. In the 17th century, Italy set greek dramas, especially the tale of Orpheus, to music (A History of Opera, 17) and from there the Italians evolved such a distinctive art form and cornered the market on its popularity. With the development of the aria and beautiful text painting, Italian opera is one of a kind. But what about the other national …show more content…
First came the Reformation Drama, although not much is known other than the fact it was sacred, and used hymns in its works. This was then followed by the Jesuit Drama, which were dramatic retellings of bible stories, and/or became comedic and extended on the personification of sins and saints (Warrack, 7). These specific types of theatrical endeavors followed the early forms of Italy, including “showing the importance of music to confirm the religious message…” (Warrack, 8). This is most likely due to the fact that Italian composers were widely welcomed in German courts, which allowed the love of Opera, or the Italian form of it anyway was able to blossom (Hanning, 257). Then came Singspiel, or to be put simply, a play with music, which appears right around the time of the Florentine Camerata in Italy (Warrack, 2). Singspiel, is probably the closest relative to opera in this time period. It was often comedic and sometimes included spoken dialogue. Its characters centered more on middle class, average joe type characters than nobility or mythology as per the Italian standard which was considered more serious (Lee, German Opera: Composers, Singers & Music). This distinct style sustains itself all the way through to Mozart in 1791 with his composition Die Zauberflöte or more commonly known as The Magic Flute (loc.gov, A Night at the …show more content…
Composer Heinrich Schütz composes a version of the Florentine libretto Dafne translated by Martin Opitz, (Grout, German Baroque Opera, 576). This had been prepared for the wedding of a daughter to Elector Georg I, who had made use of his connections with the Florentine Court and obtained a copy of the opera composed by Jacopo Peri (Warrack, 18). Shütz’s rendition, whose music has, unfortunately, been lost over the years (Baroque Brilliance, goethe.de), has undergone a lot of scrutiny about whether or not it is actually the first German opera. According to Grout: “…it has been conjectured that Shütz merely used the music of Italian composers…” (German Baroque Opera, 576). Warrack also states that “the music is lost…may even have consisted of an arrangement of Peri’s music to suit the framework…” (Warrack, 19). If these claims are to be believed than this means that the oldest surviving piece of original German opera would be Sigmund Gottlieb’s Seelwig composed in 1644 although to the best of anyones knowledge it was never performed (Grout, German Baroque Opera,
The Venetian School lasted from the mid 1500s to the early 1600s. It was created by a group of composers who worked in Venice. What’s so significant about this school is that it marked the end of the Renaissance and the start of the Baroque period. It produced some of the most famous musical events that influenced those in other countries immensely. There were many emerging instrumental forms during this time period. Beginning with the Concerto Grosso, it was a form of music that involved one large group of instruments and a small group of instruments. Together they had a complementary effect in which one might play by itself or they both might play together. A Sonata da camera has a similar concept, but instead is split into three or four musical compositions.
In his day, Johann Adolph Hasse was at the forefront of Italian opera. Although he composed a fair amount of sacred works, he is best known for his operatic output. He was widely popular throughout Italy and Germany, and was commissioned by courts and opera houses throughout Europe. His performances were attended by cultural figures at the time, as well as some of the biggest names in common-era music today. In his later life, styles changed and so Hasse’s acclaim diminished after his death. But generations later, he was re-established as a figurehead and icon of classic ancient Italian opera, a designation he possesses even today.
The music of the Baroque period was focused on having music be a tool of communication to its listeners; conveying an arousal of emotions. Composers of this time thought to use this tool to have this effect or one similar to it to correctly match music from the Roman time period. One composer that goes by the name of Georg Phillip Telemann. He was a German composer born in 1681, he was known as one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era, “At the age of just ten years old he was able to play four different instruments and had written arias, motets and instrumental works”(Norton Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, 756). As well as learning many skills at a young age, his fame grew immensely in Germany becoming a very famous composer and was even assigned four times as much space as the famous J.S. Bach in some contemporary dictionaries. Telemann composed in all varieties of forms and styles, from Italian-style concertos to French-style overture suites and quartets. The Sonata in F minor was one of his pieces that was played at the concert. The piece first given appearance in 1728 in a German musical periodical; though it was originally written for a bassoon and continuo the piece was altered by the performers to be played with a bass trombone and piano. One way that an individual could tell it is a piec...
Eastern Washington University Department of Music presented a program of Opera works by Giacomo Puccini, Aron Copland, W.A. Mozart, John Dowland, Franz Shubert, Maurice Ravel, and Robert Schumann on Friday, March 7, 6:30 p.m., in the Music Building, Recital Hall. These Opera works were sung by Senior Recitalist, Alexandra Rannow.
The first composition, "Miserere Mei, Deus", was produced by Gregorio Allegri in 1638. I learned this, as I read along with the well-thought-out program that was given. As we, the audience, looked up to the vocalists, we were entranced by the consuming sound. The room filled with a vibrant melody, in which the harmonization and tone color was spectacular. The emotion conveyed throughout the room was one of absorption and delight. During this piece, the sopranos hit such high notes, that I was astounded. Being a person who participates in concert choir, I understand the level of commitment and talent it takes to reach those notes and stay in tune. This ...
Christmas and Opera did not merely seem to correlate, but understanding where the two events derived from can help one to understand the similarities and differences between them. The development of Christmas was different from the creation of opera because the working class was controlling the other social classes for profit. Whereas for opera, the different social classes unified to keep opera as entertainment and not a social event. Another difference came within the writing and context throughout the article and the presentation of information conveyed by the author. Yet the events share the similarity of both being refined and reinvented.
Mahler's early career was spent at a serious of regional opera houses (Hall in 1880, Laibach in 1881, Olmutz in 1882, Kassel in 1883, Prague in 1885, Liepzig in 1886-8, Budapest from 1886-8, and Hamburg from 1891-7), a normal career path, until he arrived as head of the Vienna Opera in 1897. Mahler ended some of the more slovenly performance pra...
I can say with absolute certainty that I have always been intrigued by and totally enamored with cultures that were different from my own. I believe this is because I fancy myself to be an imaginative dreamer that has always wished for changes to take place in the world so that it may one day become the way it was supposed to be when the creator of the universe imagined it all those centuries ago.
From the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance, there was a movement from vocal music to a combination of vocal and instrumental music (Brown, 1976). There are seven categories of instrumental music: 1) vocal music played by instruments, 2) settings of pre-existing melodies, 3) variation sets, 4) ricercars, fantasias, and canzonas, 5) preludes, preambles, and toccatas for solo instruments, 6) dance music, and 7) songs composed specifically for lute and solo voice (Brown, 1976). Italy dominated the stage for instrumental music at this time, and it was not until the last decades of the sixteenth century that English instrumental music became popular (Brow...
Although there are many different titles of shows and ways of performing Opera, on the whole the customer knows, when attending a performance, what to expect.
Other societal practice during romanticism is the Romantic Opera. In comparison to the classical and baroque opera, romantic opera has a continuous flow of music in each scene and soon, people pay less attention to tenors and pays equal attention to choruses. To name a few of many composers for romantic operas, Wagner and Bizet are known for their works for romantic opera during the romantic era. Romantic music is also influenced by folk music, tunes, rhythms and themes as many romantic composers wrote nationalist music, which is inspired from folk dances and songs, during the romantic period (http://absoluteastronomy.com). Another factor that contributed to romantic music in defining its traits is the instrumentation.
Around the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the seventeenth, the Baroque form of music started in Italy. Italy, the famous city the renaissance started, was able to produce a brand new style of music wealthy in feeling, however less convoluted than a lot of the previous renaissance music that was focused towards the north (One example is France and the Netherlands also come into play). New ideas, like interaction between the assorted instruments in an orchestra, became current, in contrast to the monophony of previous years. While new instruments were being assimilated into orchestras and compositions became more and more instrumental, interaction had an increasing new role within the new baroque music. Monteverdi, one of the famous composers, was a pioneer within the field of music at this point. His new operas contained several instances on interaction and abrupt contrasts in feeling. Because the seventeenth century progressed, base components in music became more and more vital because the new thorough bass plan came to fruition. Within the ‘basso continuo’, as the bass was termed, soprano and alto voices within the music would be composed on a
The composer who was first able to bridge the cosmopolitan gap between French and Italian styles of opera was Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). He was born in Germany, studied in Italy, and became famous in France. In the 1750s, a reform movement began in Italy. The primary aims of this movement were to find ways to speed up the action by smoothing the distinction between aria and recitative, and adding depth to the orchestral color.
over the top. Most zarzuelas include a good amount of comedy, many times with comedic love affairs, and happy endings are a standard that is kept. Although, Calderón, the writer of the first Zarzuela, defined the show this way: “It’s not a comedy, just a little fable at the manner of Italy, where there is singing and acting.” Zarzuela’s differences from opera are no mistake, opera was already around for half a century when zarzuela emerged, and it was still expanding. But many Spanish people didn’t care for recitative. It was considered something affected, unnatural: “if you speak, you speak, but if you sing, you sing.” This can be considered a main clash found between opera and zarzuela, Italy and Spain.
Opera, in its simplest definition, is a form of the stage production that where the story is told primarily with music and singing that originated in Florence, Italy. Alternatively phrased as “Musical drama.” It incorporates acting, instruments and occasionally ballet. A song sung in an opera as a solo is called an “Aria” and a song sung in pairs is called a “Dueto” Every line is sung, including the most ordinary ones. Costumes are glitzy and dramatic to draw attention to the actors. Musicians are placed in an orchestra pit in a lowered area in front of the stage. It is placed there to provide the highest quality sound, and for timed music. Lighting is often utilized in the telling of a story. E.g, a performance of Don Giovanni. White light