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Italian opera Italian opera can be divided into three for the music. Opera performances and periods, the Baroque, the Romantic and composition became the medium through the modern. The Baroque appeared first, which individual artists gained at the beginning of the seventeenth prominence and fortune so that they no century, and approximately 200 years longer depended upon court patronage. later, the Romantic. The word opera is a Among the favoured opera composers of shortened form of the Italian opera in the seventeenth century were Domenico musica (work in music); an English Gabrielli (1651-1690) and Giovanni dictionary in 1656 stated, "In Italy it Bononcini (1670-1747). Bononcini enjoyed signifies a tragedy, tragi-comedy, or immense success in Naples. His Il pastoral which is not acted after the Trionfo di Camilla (1697) made him vulgar manner, but performed by voices famous, well beyond the Italian in that way, which the Italians term, peninsula. His operas were conducted and 'recitative', being likewise adorned performed under her leadership in Vienna with scenes by perspective, and and London. extraordinary advantage by music." Romantic period Not only the term, but the art of opera, Romantic opera, which placed emphasis on came from Italy. The first opera for the imagination and the emotions began which music has survived was performed to appear in the early 19th century, and in 1600 at the wedding of Henry IV of because of its arias and music, gave France and Marie de Medici at the Pitti more dimension to the extreme emotions Palace in Florence. The opera, Euridice, which typified the theater of that era. from an Italian poem by Ottavio In addition, it is said that fine music Rinuccini, set to music by Jacopo Peri often excused glaring faults in and Giulio Caccini, recounted the story character drawing and plot lines. of Orpheus and Eurydice. The style of Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) initiated singing favored by Peri and Caccini was the Romantic period. His first success a heightened form of natural speech, was an "opera buffa" (comic opera), La dramatic recitation supported by Cambiale di Matrimonio (1810). His instrumental string music; a technique reputation still survives today through developed in Florence in the 1580s known his Barber of Seville. But he also wrote as monody. Recitation thus preceded the serious opera, Otello (1816) and development of arias, though it soon Guilliame Tell (1829). became the custom to include separate Rossini's successors in the Italian bel songs and instrumental interludes during canto were Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35), periods when voices were silent. The Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1843) and theme attracted Claudio Monteverdi Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). It was (1567–1643) who wrote his first opera, Verdi who transformed the whole nature La Favola d'Orfeo (The Fable of of operatic writing during the course of Orpheus), in 1607, which is still his long career. His first great performed. successful opera, Nabucco (1842), caught Monteverdi gave a new dramatic life to the public fancy because of the driving the instrumental music, insisting on a vigour of its music and its great strong relationship between the words choruses. Va, pensiero, one of the and the instrumental music. When it was chorus renditions, was interpreted and performed in Mantua, an orchestra of 38 gave advantageous meaning to the instruments, numerous choruses and struggle for Italian independence and to recitatives were used to make a lively unify Italy. drama. It was a far more ambitious After Nabucco, Verdi based his operas on version than those previously performed patriotic themes and many of the — more opulent, more varied in standard romantic sources: Victor Hugo recitatives, more exotic in scenery — (Ernani, 1844); Byron (Il Duo Foscari, with stronger musical climaxes which 1844); and Shakespeare (Macbeth, 1847). allowed the full scope for the Verdi was experimenting with musical and virtuosity of the singers. Opera had dramatic forms, attempting to discover revealed its first stage of maturity in things which only opera could do. In the hands of Monteverdi. 1877, he created Otello which completely In 1613, Monteverdi became the maestro replaced Rossini's opera, and which is da cappela at St. Mark's in Venice. described by critics as the finest of Though he did not write any operas Italian romantic operas with the during his tenure, he wrote elaborate traditional components: the solo arias, madrigals which were the bases for the duets and the choruses fully arias. integrated into the melodic and dramatic In 1637, the first public opera house, flow. Teatro San Cassiano, was opened in Verdi's last opera, Falstaff (1893), Venice with an enthusiastic response. broke free of conventional form The opera flourished along with familiar altogether and finds music which follows less sophisticated entertainment, the quick flowing simple words and because commedia dell'arte. Monteverdi began to of its respect for the pattern of write opera again. Unknown to him, it ordinary speech, it created a threshold was close to the end of his life. His for a new operatic era in which speech two operas, I Ritorno d'Ullise in Patria patterns are paramount. (The Return of Ullyses, 1637), and Opera had become a marriage of the arts, L'Incoronazione di Poppaea (The a musical drama, full of glorious song, Coronation of Poppaea, 1642) were met costume, orchestral music and pageantry; with great enthusiasm and survive in sometimes, without the aid of a today's world. Both operas showed a plausible story. From its conception marked increase in musical flexibility during the baroque period to the with a mixture of recitatives, solos, maturity of the romantic period, it was duets and ensembles. the medium through which tales and myths Monteverdi is said to be responsible for were revisited, history was retold and the introduction of bel canto and buffa imagination was stimulated. The strength styles. Bel canto is defined as operatic of it fell into a more violent era for singing stressing ease, purity and opera: Verismo. eveness of tone production and an agile Source: Dr. Anthony A. Abruzzese of the and precise vocal technique; buffa when PIRANDELLO LYCEUM Institute of Italian used to describe opera signifies comic American Studies, Research and Cultural complications, farcical and burlesque Disemmination. elements, the unusual and the Modern period unexpected. His works, which reflected The greatest Italian operas of the the moods and dramatic vividness of the twentieth century were written by libretto in his music, became a model Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). These for the operatic composers to follow. include Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, From this time onward, opera became and Madam Butterfly. His final opera increasingly prominent in musical life. Turandot was left incomplete. Luciano Within forty years, Venice had ten opera Berio attempted a completion of the houses. By the end of the century more work. Berio also wrote operas but none than 350 operas had been produced in the have endured on the stage. Luigi new theaters in Venice and an equal Dallapiccola (1904–1975) wrote two number by Venetian composers elsewhere operas that have stood the test of time, in Italy. Wealthy families had season Ulisse (1960–68), and Il Prigioniero tickets; inexpensive tickets brought in (1944–48, "The Prisoner"). others; foreign visitors came to Venice 1 A B C D 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110