Opera In Italian Opera

Opera In Italy:

Opera is a musical art from that began in Florence in the late 1500’s. It was based on a number of performance genres such as Greek drama, Monody which are poems that are sung by solo vocalist with a single instrument accompanying them and the last madrigals, this is a cappella singing (music sung with only voices) where there are 3-6 vocalists harmonising.

Opera in the 16th Century:

This period was where the foundation of opera was developed. Cristofano Malvezzi (1547- 1599) was a maestro of ‘Di cappella” at the cathedral and he wrote madrigals and numerous intermezzi for the medici family’s entertainment. The Medici Family controlled Florence throughout most of the Renaissance, they played a large part in the patronage of the arts and the political development of the city of Florence. He created the first monody, a forerunner of the aria and essentially the beginning of opera.

17th Century Opera:

This period is known as the birth of Opera! The earliest known operatic composition is Dafne by Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) it was written in 1597. Peri was born in Rome but he relocated to florence to

This was in response to the popularity of the Neapolitan invention, opera buffa (comic opera), that had spread throughout Italy during the mid 1700s. Opera Seria aimed for simplicity of style, classical themes, poetic ideals and life affirming values. Christoph Willibald Gluck a german composer then later simplified opera seria in an attempt to avoid the traditional vocal embellishments and emphasis on spectacle. He advocated that the music must be subservient to the drama. Weber, Mozart and Wagner were all influenced by his approach. Mozart wrote a series of comedies, including Così Fan Tutte, The Marriage of Figaroand Don Giovanni (with Lorenzo Da Ponte) which remain among the popular operas today, but he was less successful when writing opera