Donald Grout defines opera in his text, A Short History of Opera, as “a drama in music: a dramatic action, exhibited on stage with scenery by actors in costume, the words conveyed entirely or for the most part by singing, and the whole sustained and amplified by orchestral music” (4). A literal translation of the word opera is simply work, and although the term opera was not coined until 1634, one of the first known operas was performed in 1597 (Grout 1). Grout explains that there are two types of opera. The first type is when the main emphasis is on the music (Grout 6). Examples of this type of opera can be seen in the works of Lully and Wagner (Grout 7). The second type of opera is characterized by the music and other factors being of equal importance (Grout 6). Mozart, Bellini, and Rossini composed operas that belong to this second type of opera (Grout 7). The origins of seventeenth century opera can be traced back to Greek drama, and medieval theatre. Throughout the seventeenth century different forms of opera could be found in various countries including Italy, Germany, France, and England. To have a thorough understanding of opera it is important to locate its roots.
Greek drama is said to be “the model on which the creators of modern opera at the end of the sixteenth century based their work on” (Grout 11). There are significant differences between Greek drama and opera. For instance, the casts of Greek dramas consisted of only men (Grout 13). Also Greek dramas were not entirely sung, many parts were spoken with the majority of the singing done by the chorus (Grout 12). The function of the chorus was to convey the audience’s response (Grout 12). By the second century BCE, Greek drama went through significant changes inc...
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... England yielded to Italian taste, this is thought to be as a result of the death of Henry Purcell (Grout 135). Henry Purcell was the most important operatic composer in England and it was thought that with his passing came the hopelessness “for the future of English musical drama” (Grout 146). Italian opera maintained its position as leader throughout the Baroque era.
Opera that was seen at the end of the Baroque era came a long way from its roots in Greek drama. Even though at the end of the seventeenth century Italian opera was the most popular throughout many parts of Europe, other countries made significant contributions to opera. Opera continues to evolve to this date and Baroque opera was very different from the modern opera we see today.
Works Cited
Grout, Donald Jay. A Short History of Opera. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1965. Print.
Although the original purpose of Dido and Aeneas may have been that of court entertainment, it has become one of Purcell’s most widely acclaimed operas, as well as one of the most popular operas of the Baroque period. The first known performance of Dido and Aeneas was held at Mount Josias Priest’s Boarding School in Chelsea, England in 1689. Scholars such as Bruce Wood and Andrew Pinnock have questioned whether this performance was truly the first, or if it was a repetition of an earlier court premiere, due to the fact that John Blow’s opera Venus and Adonis was written and then debuted in 1684, around the same time as Dido and Aeneas, and they seemed to follow the same path to their first performances. B...
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.
TitleAuthor/ EditorPublisherDate James Galways’ Music in TimeWilliam MannMichael Beazley Publishers1982 The Concise Oxford History of MusicGerald AbrahamOxford University Press1979 Music in Western CivilizationPaul Henry LangW. W. Norton and Company1941 The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Classical MusicRobert AinsleyCarlton Books Limited1995 The Cambridge Music GuideStanley SadieCambridge University Press1985 School text: Western European Orchestral MusicMary AllenHamilton Girls’ High School1999 History of MusicRoy BennettCambridge University Press1982 Classical Music for DummiesDavid PogueIDG Books Worldwide,Inc1997
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...
The Baroque era contains three phases: early, middle, and late. During the early phase of Baroque, harmony became the central idea to music. The Florentine Camarata reinvigorated this style and were the ones who opposed their contemporary music. This group started in Italy and influenced composers in France. Baroque music would help create the popular form of music known as opera. Since it focuses on the soloist rather than a group of people singing simultaneously. It also focuses on the harmonic aspect of music (Palisca, 25).
I imagine in the future a new wave of opera will surface. We will see more use of robots, computers, social network, and virtual reality. We might see breakthroughs in stage design, such as a circular stage. We will see opera performed under different settings. Shows will become even more interactive, adaptable, personal, and modular. All in all, we are seeing a transformation in opera. The challenge lies in keeping the essence of the art of opera and striking a balance between modernization and preservation, so that it can continue to engage its audience yet distinguishes itself from all other types of musical performances.
Delcayre, Celine. "The Greek Chorus Dynamic in Ancient and Contemporary Theatre." Sonoma.edu. N.p., 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
...anged the way that opera was to be written in Italy, but they set the standard for the entire world and therefore their works are classic and timeless and will be performed for an extremely long time to come.
Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
Northern and Italian Baroque art were unique in their own ways but were also similar as well. While Northern Baroque Art aimed for excitement and move viewers in an emotional sense, Italian Baroque art was more detailed and captured the personality of the figure. The arts compared to one another by the use of self-portraits and the famous feature of light and dark as well. Art back in the 17th and 18th century was the center of everything and much more important back then compared to how it is now.
When approaching a performance, accomplished musicians often consider the historical context from which a piece originates. They most often think of such considerations in the application of that context as it pertains to early music that is, the Baroque era or earlier. For any era, such historical considerations are called performance practice, and may include the use of vibrato, ornamentation, dynamic levels, tempi, instrumental timbres, performance setting, and balance. Vibrato and ornamentation are two important areas of consideration that vocalists must explore when aiming to give an authentically Baroque performance.
Opera, a popular art from Italy, was popular with the immigrants as well, and unlike the music halls, it generated an appeal far beyond the Italian community. From the 1880's, when the Metropolitan Opera House opened in New York with Cleofante Capanini as it's first conductor and director, until today, the Italians have been prominent in opera in the United States and else where in the world.
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
In answering this question, I will look at the question in two ways. Firstly, I will look at the role of the chorus objectively, examining the basic role of the chorus in the play, and looking at the role of the Chorus as Sophocles would have intended the role of the Chorus to be understood. However, I will then look at how I think the Greek audience would have perceived the role of the Chorus and then how the role of the Chorus is perceived today by a 20th century and examine the key differences in the two different sets of perceptions. Finally, I will look at the importance of the role of the Chorus to a 20th century audience and a Greek audience respectively.
Greek and Elizabethan theatre, while similar in some respects, had a few large differences. The Greeks believed in a certain unity of theme, which was prevalent throughout the production. Greek plays were often drawn from myth or of historical significance, so it seems that only ki...