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Literally, "serious opera". Dominant style of opera in the 18th century, not only in Italy but throughout Europe (except France). Rigorously formal works using texts, mainly based on ancient history, by poet-librettists led by Metastasio. Patronized by the court and the nobility. Star singers were often castrati.
The history of opera has a relatively short duration within the context of the history of music in general: it appeared in 1597, when the first opera, Dafne, by Jacopo Peri, was created. Since then it has developed parallel to the various musical currents that have followed one another over time up to the present day, generally linked to the ...
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] and aria (an "air" or formal song) in which the characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic style. Vocal duets, trios ...
Opera buffa – Genre of opera characterized by light, humorous, and often satirical themes. Opera seria – Genre of opera with serious, often tragic themes. Semi-opera – Genre that blends spoken drama with musical interludes and elaborate staging. Oratorio – Large composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists, typically based on a ...
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera), which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score. [1] Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. While the scale of opera can be larger or smaller—there are many different genres of opera—performance typically involves ...
The Italian word opera means "work", both in the sense of the labor done and the result produced. The Italian word in turn derives from the Latin opera.Opera is also the Latin plural of opus, with the same root, but the word opera was a singular Latin noun in its own right, and according to Lewis and Short, in Latin "opus is used mostly of the mechanical activity of work, as that of animals ...
"The Standard Repertoire of Grand Opera 1607–1969", a list included in Norman Davies's Europe: a History (Oxford University Press, 1996; paperback edition Pimlico, 1997). ISBN 0-7126-6633-8. Operas appearing in the chronology by Mary Ann Smart in The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera (Oxford University Press, 1994). ISBN 0-19-816282-0.
Guillaume Tell might initially have been a failure but together with a work from the previous year, Auber's La muette de Portici, it ushered in a new genre which dominated the French stage for the rest of the century: grand opera. This was a style of opera characterised by grandiose scale, heroic and historical subjects, large casts, vast ...