Essay About Opera

Even though many find opera unintelligible, overwhelming, and boring, opera continues to be a popular form of storytelling. People love the drama and the musical masterpieces written by well-known French, Italian, and German composers. The addition of beautiful costumes and eye-catching scenery make opera an attractive form of entertainment. However, even with all these positive elements, many avoid opera like the plague. The goal of this paper is to help eliminate these negative opinions by educating the opera challenged, to love, or at least tolerate the fine art of opera.

Opera comes from the Italian word for “musical works”. It achieves the Baroque goal of combining all of the arts. Music and drama along with costume design and staging help to make opera an art to be both seen and heard. The history of opera has imitated the “current trends” of music and drama during the era it was composed. New developments in architecture and painting have been seen in set designs and opera houses throughout Europe. “A feature unique to opera, however, is the power of music, particularly that written for the several registers of the human singing voice.”(www.metmuseum.org) The actor’s voice range portrays the character’s emotion. For example, if the character is afraid or excited their voice tone goes up. If they are serious or authoritative their voice goes down to a lower pitch.

The origin of opera was born in seventeenth century Italy. Wealthy Italian nobles had these “musical works” presented in their piazzas or courtyards. During this time extravagant entertainments, such as fireworks and other amazing effects along with music, singing, dancing and speeches were presented at regal weddings or to welcome important guests. These pre-op...

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Some opera authorities feel Wagner did more than any other composers to change music and drama. Even though his life and music produce passions unlike any other composer’s, his works are both hated and loved by some. However, even those who hate his work have to admit they are great.

Learning more about an opera and its composer can help make a performance more understandable. By learning what was going on at the time the opera was written will help a person to understand certain elements of the opera. Just remember opera is a musical way of telling a story. If you read the story ahead of time, it will help you follow what is going on. Educating oneself will make the unintelligible, overwhelming, and boring, more bearable. So, just sit back enjoy the beautiful costumes, eye-catching scenery and music. Congratulations! You have graduated Opera 101!