Opera Page 1

Opera

The theatre lights dim and the orchestra plays. The curtains swing back to reveal a stage
full of people. They start to sing! You are at your first opera, and the sounds and sights are
spectacular. But what is opera all about?

Opera is a kind of drama in which the words are set to music and sung. It is performed on
a stage in a theatre, often with lavish scenery and costumes. An orchestra usually
accompanies the singers. The members of the orchestra sit in the orchestra pit, below and
slightly in front of the stage. A conductor directs both the orchestra and the singers.
Sometimes an opera also includes dancing, such as ballet.

Many operas tell very dramatic and emotional stories. Some are tragic, ending with the
death of the hero or heroine. Famous examples of tragic operas include La Bohème (The
Bohemian) and Madame Butterfly, both by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Others
are comic, and end happily. A famous example is The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart.

THE ELEMENTS OF OPERA

The words of an opera are called the libretto. Sometimes the composer of the music also writes the
libretto. Sometimes different people write the libretto and the music. The composer often marks a
particularly important or dramatic moment in an opera by writing an aria or a duet. An aria is a song
for one voice, accompanied by the orchestra. A duet is for two voices. Through the words and music
of an aria or duet, a composer can express the thoughts and feelings of the people who are singing.

Sometimes, three, four or more people sing different lines at the same time on stage. This is called
an ensemble. The different characters may sing the same words, or they may sing different words,
often expressing disagreement or conflict. Many operas also have a chorus. The chorus sings
together as a group. In some operas the chorus plays a large part and sings complicated music. In
others, the chorus does very little.

Characters can speak some parts of the libretto. These spoken lines allow the composer to give the
audience information about the plot between arias, ensembles and choruses. In many operas,
recitative does the same job. Instead of speaking, characters sing the words in a style that follows
the patterns of normal speech. Recitative has a simple accompaniment.

Many operas start with a short orchestral introduction, called the overture. The orchestra usually
plays the overture before the curtain goes up to reveal the stage. The overture is often made up of
some of the tunes that will appear later in the opera.

OPERA SINGERS

Opera singers are divided according to the range of their voices. This means how high or low they
can sing. The highest female voice is the soprano and the lowest is the contralto. The mezzo-soprano
sings in a range between soprano and contralto. The highest male voice is the tenor and the lowest is
the bass. The baritone sings in a range between tenor and bass.

There are different types of voice within each range. The coloratura soprano has a light and flexible
voice, while the lyric soprano has a very clear, beautiful voice. The dramatic soprano has a full and
powerful voice. There are also lyric and dramatic tenor voices. The German Heldentenor (“heroic
tenor”) has a rich, powerful voice. There are three classes of bass voice. The basso cantante is the
highest in the range. The basso buffo has a deep, flexible voice and sings comic parts. The basso
profundo has a very deep, powerful voice.

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Over the centuries, composers have come to associate different types of voice with certain parts in
an opera. Heroes and heroines are usually tenors and sopranos. Villains, sorcerers and figures of
power and majesty are usually basses.

THE HISTORY OF OPERA

Opera started in Italy in the late 16th century when a group of scholars, poets and musicians tried to
recreate the drama of the ancient Greeks. They decided that the ancient Greek actors had spoken
their lines in a style that was half singing and half speaking. They copied this style to write the first
operas, using recitative with a simple accompaniment from a small orchestra.

The new style was taken up by the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. In his first opera Orfeo
(1607) he expanded the orchestra, and in his last opera The Coronation of Poppaea (1642) he
introduced short arias at moments of great emotion. Opera quickly became popular in Italy, and in
other parts of Europe.

Two types of Italian opera developed in the 18th century. Opera seria (“serious opera”) usually had a
tragic or heroic story. A feature of opera seria was the da capo aria, in which the first part is followed
by a contrasting section. To finish the aria the first part is then sung again from the beginning (“da
capo” means “from the head” in Italian). Opera buffa (“comic opera”) used comic stories, often with
speech rather than recitative.

Around the second half of the 18th century, people started to object to the long arias and far-fetched
plots of most Italian opera. There was a move to reform opera by using the music to make the plot
and the characters more believable. In Germany, Christoph Willibald Gluck started this reform with
his Orfeo and Euridice (1762). It was continued by Mozart with his masterpieces The Marriage of
Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and Così Fan Tutte (1790).

The Romantic movement started in the late 18th century, and emphasized the emotions. The
greatest romantic opera composer in Italy was Giuseppe Verdi. His operas include Aïda (1871), which
includes scenes of great spectacle. In Germany, Richard Wagner was the major opera composer of
the 19th century. He developed a new style of opera with continuous orchestral writing and with
musical themes for different characters or ideas that were heard throughout an opera. His work
includes Tristan and Isolde (1865) and the four operas of The Ring of the Nibelung.

The 20th century was a time of experimentation in opera. The German composer Richard Strauss
explored new sounds in his one-act operas Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909). Arnold Schoenberg
and Alban Berg, two Austrian composers, continued experimenting with the music of opera, often
with grim stories as their subject matter.

In Britain, Benjamin Britten wrote successful operas such as Peter Grimes (1945) and Billy Budd
(1951). Michael Tippett also had success with The Midsummer Marriage (1952) and The Knot Garden
(1969). In America, Minimalism became popular in the 1980s. This music emphasizes repetition and
shifts of rhythm. It can be heard in the work of Philip Glass and John Adams. Glass’s Akhnaten
(1984) and Adams’s Nixon in China (1987) were both major successes.

Did you know?

• Many operas have very tragic plots. In La Bohème, the heroine Mimi
dies of consumption-as does Violetta, the courtesan in La Traviata. In
Aïda, the Ethiopian princess Aïda is buried alive in an Egyptian tomb.
• Although Beethoven is regarded as one of the greatest composers the
world has ever known, he wrote only one opera-Fidelio.
• The famous Australian opera star Dame Nellie Melba was so popular

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Opera Page 3

that famous chefs made dishes to honour her, including 'Melba toast',
which is very thin crisp toast, and the pudding known as 'Peach Melba'.
Nellie Melba was not even her real name-she was born Helen Porter
Mitchell and took her name from her birthplace, Melbourne.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.