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74-414: Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. Peri's works, however, did not arise out of a creative vacuum in the area of sung drama. An underlying prerequisite for the creation of opera proper was the practice of monody . Monody is the solo singing/setting of a dramatically conceived melody, designed to express the emotional content of the text it carries, which

148-414: A Medici wedding, the occasions for the most spectacular and internationally famous intermedi of the previous century, was probably a crucial development for the new form, putting it in the mainstream of lavish courtly entertainment. Another popular court entertainment at this time was the " madrigal comedy ", later also called "madrigal opera" by musicologists familiar with the later genre. This consisted of

222-446: A laurel tree which Apollo then makes a crown of, this becoming the symbol of poetry, music, and freedom. Dafne is scored for a much smaller ensemble than Claudio Monteverdi 's slightly later operas, namely, a harpsichord , a lute , a viol , an archlute , and a triple flute. Drawing on a new development at the time, Peri established recitatives , melodic speech set to music, as a central part of opera. Peri's musical language

296-548: A permanent imprint upon the history of opera, however, was Gluck. Gluck tried to achieve a "beautiful simplicity". This is illustrated in the first of his "reform" operas, Orfeo ed Euridice , where vocal lines lacking in the virtuosity of (say) Handel's works are supported by simple harmonies and a notably richer-than-usual orchestral presence throughout. Gluck's reforms have had resonance throughout operatic history. Weber, Mozart and Wagner, in particular, were influenced by his ideals. Mozart, in many ways Gluck's successor, combined

370-553: A series of madrigals strung together to suggest a dramatic narrative, but not staged. There were also two staged musical "pastoral"s, Il Satiro and La Disperazione di Fileno , both produced in 1590 and written by Emilio de' Cavalieri . Although these lost works seem only to have included arias , with no recitative , they were apparently what Peri was referring to, in his preface to the published edition of his Euridice , when he wrote: "Signor Emilio del Cavalieri, before any other of whom I know, enabled us to hear our kind of music upon

444-401: A significant influence on the development of comic opera. This was a type of musical drama initially considered as a condensed version of a longer comic opera, but over time it became a genre in its own right. It was characterised by: vocal virtuosity; a more refined use of the orchestra; the great importance given to the production; the presence of misunderstandings and surprises in the course of

518-421: A specific passage can be ornamented in several different ways, according to the precise emotion that the singer wishes to convey; it also includes effusive praise for the style and amusing disdain for the work of more conservative composers of the period. The introduction is also important in the history of music theory, as it contains the first attempt to describe the figured bass of the basso continuo style of

592-481: A superb sense of drama, harmony, melody, and counterpoint to write a series of comedies, notably The Marriage of Figaro , Don Giovanni , and Così fan tutte (in collaboration with Lorenzo Da Ponte ) which remain among the most-loved, popular and well-known operas today. But Mozart's contribution to opera seria was more mixed; by his time it was dying away, and in spite of such fine works as Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito , he would not succeed in bringing

666-405: A threshold for a new operatic era in which speech patterns are paramount. Opera had become a marriage of the arts, a musical drama, full of glorious song, costume, orchestral music and pageantry; sometimes, without the aid of a plausible story. From its conception during the baroque period to the maturity of the romantic period, it was the medium through which tales and myths were revisited, history

740-402: A type that attempted to imitate Petrarch and his Trecento followers, another element of the period's tendency toward a desire for restoration of principles it associated with a mixed-up notion of antiquity. The solo madrigal, frottola, villanella and their kin featured prominently in the intermedio or intermezzo, theatrical spectacles with music that were funded in the last seventy years of

814-421: Is accompanied by a relatively simple sequence of chords rather than other polyphonic parts. Italian composers began composing in this style late in the 16th century, and it grew in part from the long-standing practice of performing polyphonic madrigals with one singer accompanied by an instrumental rendition of the other parts, as well as the rising popularity of more popular, more homophonic vocal genres such as

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888-416: Is brief, and located at the very end of the introduction. It is even indicated by Caccini as a "note"; an aside or addendum to the main purpose. It is important to observe, however, that the first explanation of this practice is in the context of an essay about vocal expression and intelligibility. Indeed, it was largely the aim of textual intelligibility that led to the development of this musical style, and to

962-572: Is buried in the church of St. Annunziata . The stile recitativo , as the newly created style of monody was called, proved to be popular not only in Florence, but elsewhere in Italy. Florence and Venice were the two most progressive musical centers in Europe at the end of the 16th century, and the combination of musical innovations from each place resulted in the development of what came to be known as

1036-560: Is often considered the first published collection of monodies, it was actually preceded by the first collection by Domenico Melli published in Venice in March 1602 ( stile veneto , in which the new year began on 1 March). In fact, the collection was Caccini's attempt, evidently successful, to situate himself as the inventor and codifier of monody and basso continuo. Although the collection was not published until July 1602, Caccini's dedication of

1110-419: Is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera . The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini , based on an earlier intermedio created in 1589, "Combattimento di Apollo col serpente Pitone," and set to music by Luca Marenzio , survives complete. The opera is considered to be the first "modern music drama." The mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri , but at least two of

1184-514: The Pitti Palace in Florence . The opera, Euridice , with a libretto by Rinuccini, set to music by Peri and Giulio Caccini , recounted the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The style of singing favored by Peri and Caccini was a heightened form of natural speech, dramatic recitative supported by instrumental string music. Recitative thus preceded the development of arias, though it soon became

1258-476: The Seconda pratica . Caccini writes: Note that I have been accustomed, in all places that have come from my pen, to indicate with numbers over the bass part the thirds and the sixths – major when there is a sharp, minor when a flat – and likewise when sevenths or other dissonances are to be made in the inner voices as an accompaniment. It remains only to say that ties in the bass part are used thusly by me: after

1332-440: The frottola and the villanella . In these latter two genres, the increasing tendency was toward a more homophonic texture, with the top part featuring an elaborate, active melody, and the lower ones (usually these were three-part compositions, as opposed to the four-or-more-part madrigal) a less active supporting structure. From this, it was only a small step to fully-fledged monody. All such works tended to set humanist poetry of

1406-434: The 16th century by the opulent and increasingly secular courts of Italy's city-states. Such spectacles were usually staged to commemorate significant state events: weddings, military victories, and the like, and alternated in performance with the acts of plays. Like the later opera, an intermedio featured the aforementioned solo singing, but also madrigals performed in their typical multi-voice texture, and dancing accompanied by

1480-511: The Barberini. Among the composers who worked in this period were Luigi Rossi , Michelangelo Rossi , Marco Marazzoli , Domenico and Virgilio Mazzocchi , Stefano Landi . Since the 1630s, the subject of the works changed greatly: those of the pastoral tradition and Arcadia, it is preferable that the poems of chivalry, usually Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso , or those taken from hagiography and Christian commedia dell'arte . With

1554-489: The Baroque style. Caccini's achievement was to create a type of direct musical expression, as easily understood as speech, which later developed into the operatic recitative , and which influenced numerous other stylistic and textural elements in Baroque music. Caccini's most influential work was a collection of monodies and songs for solo voice and basso continuo , published in 1602, called Le nuove musiche . Although it

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1628-688: The Italian Lully). This set the pattern until well into the 19th century: the Italian tradition was the international one and its leading exponents (e.g. Handel, Hasse, Gluck and Mozart) were often not natives of Italy. Composers who wanted to develop their own national forms of opera generally had to fight against Italian opera. Thus, in the early 19th century, both Carl Maria von Weber in Germany and Hector Berlioz in France felt they had to challenge

1702-612: The Medici. On one occasion, he informed the Grand Duke Francesco of two lovers in the Medici household— Eleonora , the wife of Pietro de' Medici , who was having an illicit affair with Bernardino Antinori —and his informing led directly to Eleonora's murder by Pietro. His rivalry with both Emilio de' Cavalieri and Jacopo Peri seems to have been intense: he may have been the one who arranged for Cavalieri to be removed from his post as director of festivities for

1776-529: The Romantic period. His first success was an "opera buffa" (comic opera), La cambiale di matrimonio (1810). His reputation still survives today through his Barber of Seville (1816), and La Cenerentola (1817). But he also wrote serious opera, Tancredi (1813) and Semiramide (1823). Rossini's successors in the Italian bel canto were Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35), Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) and Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). It

1850-404: The [initial] chord, one should play again only the notes [of the harmony] indicated [and not the bass note again], this being (if I am not mistaken) most fitting to the proper usage of the archlute (and easiest way to manage and play it), granted that this instrument is more suitable for accompanying the voice, especially the tenor voice, than any other. This passage is often overlooked, because it

1924-643: The ancient world who formed the Florentine Camerata , the group which gathered at the home of Count Giovanni de' Bardi , and which was dedicated to recovering the supposed lost glory of ancient Greek dramatic music. With Caccini's abilities as a singer, instrumentalist, and composer added to the mix of intellects and talents, the Camerata developed the concept of monody —an emotionally affective solo vocal line, accompanied by relatively simple chordal harmony on one or more instruments—which

1998-419: The art form back to life again. Romantic opera, which placed emphasis on the imagination and the emotions began to appear in the early 19th century, and because of its arias and music, gave more dimension to the extreme emotions which typified the theater of that era. In addition, it is said that fine music often excused glaring faults in character drawing and plot lines. Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) initiated

2072-409: The beginning of bel canto ("beautiful singing") style, and more attention to vocal elegance than to dramatic expression; (3) less use of choral and orchestral music; (4) complex and improbable plots; (5) elaborate stage machinery; and (6) short fanfarelike instrumental introductions, the prototypes of the later overture. Opera took an important new direction when it reached the republic of Venice . It

2146-638: The city, performing works for a paying public during the Carnival season. The opera houses employed a very small orchestra to save money. A large part of their budget was spent on attracting the star singers of the day; this was the beginning of the reign of the castrato and the prima donna (leading lady). The chief composer of early Venetian opera was Monteverdi, who had moved to the republic from Mantua in 1613, with later important composers including Francesco Cavalli , Antonio Cesti , Antonio Sartorio , and Giovanni Legrenzi . Monteverdi wrote three works for

2220-453: The collection to Signor Lorenzo Salviati is dated February 1601, in the stile fiorentino , when the new year began on 25 March. This likely explains why the collection is often dated to 1601. Moreover, he explicitly positions himself as the inventor of the style when describing it in the introduction. He writes: Having thus seen, as I say, that such music and musicians offered no pleasure beyond that which pleasant sounds could give – solely to

2294-457: The composers Carlo Francesco Pollarolo and the enormously prolific Alessandro Scarlatti . During the 18th century artistic and cultural life in Italy was heavily influenced by the aesthetic and poetic ideals of the members of the Accademia dell'Arcadia . The Arcadian poets introduced many changes to serious music drama in Italian, including: By far the most successful librettist of the era

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2368-484: The court of Mantua . Monteverdi insisted on a strong relationship between the words and music. When Orfeo was performed in Mantua , an orchestra of 38 instruments, numerous choruses and recitatives were used to make a lively drama. It was a far more ambitious version than those previously performed — more opulent, more varied in recitatives, more exotic in scenery — with stronger musical climaxes which allowed

2442-437: The custom to include separate songs and instrumental interludes during periods when voices were silent. Both Dafne and Euridice also included choruses commenting on the action at the end of each act in the manner of Greek tragedy. The theme of Orpheus, the demi-god of music, was understandably popular and attracted Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) who wrote his first opera , L'Orfeo (The Fable of Orpheus), in 1607 for

2516-415: The days of the intermezzo. Operas were now divided into two or three acts, creating libretti for works of a substantially greater length, which differed significantly from those of the early 18th century in the complexity of their plots and the psychology of their characters. These now included some serious figures instead of exaggerated caricatures and the operas had plots which focused on the conflict between

2590-457: The drama. Opera seria had its weaknesses and critics; a taste for embellishment on behalf of the superbly trained singers, and the use of spectacle as a replacement for dramatic purity and unity drew attacks. Francesco Algarotti 's Essay on the Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Christoph Willibald Gluck 's reforms. He advocated that opera seria had to return to basics and that all

2664-519: The early years of the 18th century was the comic genre of opera buffa born in Naples and it began to spread throughout Italy after 1730. Opera buffa was distinguished from opera seria by numerous characteristics: In the second half of the 18th century comic opera owed its success to the collaboration between the playwright Carlo Goldoni and the composer Baldassare Galuppi . Thanks to Galuppi, comic opera acquired much more dignity than it had during

2738-467: The enormous influence of the Italian Rossini . By the end of the 17th century some critics believed that a new, more elevated form of opera was necessary. Their ideas would give birth to a genre, opera seria (literally "serious opera"), which would become dominant in Italy and much of the rest of Europe until the late 18th century. The influence of this new attitude can be seen in the works of

2812-576: The eponymous nymph , Daphne , takes its inspiration from Ovid and his narrative poetry , " Metamorphoses ," a work in wide usage within the operas composed within the Florentine, Mantuan, and Roman operatic spheres. According to Rinunccini's libretto, Apollo saves mankind by shooting Python , and soon pushes Cupid into an archery contest to see who's the better shot. As a way to get back at him, Cupid shoots him and makes him fall in love with Daphne. In order to get away from Apollo, Daphne turns into

2886-431: The full scope for the virtuosity of the singers. Opera had revealed its first stage of maturity in the hands of Monteverdi. L'Orfeo also has the distinction of being the earliest surviving opera that is still regularly performed today. Within a few decades opera had spread throughout Italy. In Rome , it found an advocate in the prelate and librettist Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX). Rospigliosi's patrons were

2960-543: The increased number of characters, the Roman operas became very dramatic, and had several twists. With these came along a new method of fixing the lines of the recitative, better suited to the various situations that arose from the rich storyline and that was closer to speech, full of parenthetical at the expense of the paratactic style that had so characterized the first Florentine works. The principal characteristics of Venetian opera were (1) more emphasis on formal arias; (2)

3034-544: The inner parts on the instrument to express some effect – these being of little other value). The introduction to this volume is probably the most clearly written description of the performance of monody, what Caccini called affetto cantando (passionate singing), from the time (a detailed discussion of the affetto cantando performance style can be found in Toft, With Passionate Voice , pp. 227–40). Caccini's preface includes musical examples of ornaments—for example how

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3108-512: The last two being left unfinished. In 1926 and in 2002 Franco Alfano and Luciano Berio respectively attempted a completion of Turandot , and in 1994 Lorenzo Ferrero completed the orchestration of the third version of La rondine . Berio himself wrote two operas, Un re in ascolto and Opera . Ferrero likewise has composed several operas including Salvatore Giuliano , La Conquista , and his 2011 Risorgimento! Other 20th-century Italian opera composers are: Dafne Dafne

3182-408: The most celebrated example of the form. Cavalli's reputation caused Cardinal Mazarin to invite him to France in 1660 to compose an opera for King Louis XIV 's wedding to Maria Teresa of Spain. Italian opera had already been performed in France in the 1640s to a mixed reception and Cavalli's foreign expedition ended in disaster. French audiences did not respond well to the revival of Xerse (1660) and

3256-465: The music of the common practice period . Caccini wrote music for three operas — Euridice (1600), Il rapimento di Cefalo (1600, excerpts published in the first Nuove musiche ), and Euridice (1602), though the first two were collaborations with others (mainly Peri for the first Euridice ). In addition he wrote the music for one intermedio ( Io che dal ciel cader farei la luna ) (1589). No music for multiple voices survives, even though

3330-645: The next generation: Francesco Cavalli , Giovanni Legrenzi , Antonio Cesti and Alessandro Stradella . In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of Galatea (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini 's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d’Alcina , which she had written for Prince Władysław Vasa three years earlier when he

3404-600: The opera having been composed the year prior. The opera was later performed in 1599 at the Palazzo Pitti and at the Palazzo Guicciardini Corsi Salviati no later than January of the same year, but dates of performances are under scholastic debate. As an attempt to revive Greek drama , it was a long way off from what the ancient Greeks would have recognized as dramatic art. The opera's story regarding Apollo falling in love with

3478-435: The operas consisted of three acts, unlike the earlier operas which normally had five. The bulk of the versification was still recitative, however at moments of great dramatic tension there were often arioso passages known as arie cavate . Under Monteverdi's followers, the distinction between the recitative and the aria became more marked and conventionalised. This is evident in the style of the four most successful composers of

3552-411: The present instrumentalists. They were lavishly staged, and led the scenography of the second half of the 16th century. The intermedi tended not to tell a story as such, although they occasionally did, but nearly always focused on some particular element of human emotion or experience, expressed through mythological allegory. The staging in 1600 of Peri's opera Euridice as part of the celebrations for

3626-488: The public theatres: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640), Le nozze d'Enea con Lavinia (1641, now lost) and, most famously, L'incoronazione di Poppea (1642). The subjects of the new operas by Monteverdi and others were generally drawn from Roman history or legends about Troy, in order to celebrate the heroic ideals and noble genealogy of the Venetian state. However they did not lack for love interest or comedy. Most of

3700-470: The records from Florence indicate he was involved with polychoral music around 1610. He was predominantly a composer of monody and solo song accompanied by a chordal instrument (he himself played harp ), and it is in this capacity that he acquired his immense fame. He published two collections of songs and solo madrigals , both titled Le nuove musiche , in 1602 ( new style ) and 1614 (the latter as Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle ). Most of

3774-518: The royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by Władysław. A dramma per musica (as serious Italian opera was known at the time) entitled Giuditta , based on the Biblical story of Judith , was performed in 1635. The composer was probably Virgilio Puccitelli. Cavalli's operas were performed throughout Italy by touring companies with tremendous success. In fact, his Giasone

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3848-436: The same name , and which is described by critics as the finest of Italian romantic operas with the traditional components: the solo arias, the duets and the choruses fully integrated into the melodic and dramatic flow. Verdi's last opera, Falstaff (1893), broke free of conventional form altogether and finds music which follows quick flowing simple words and because of its respect for the pattern of ordinary speech, it created

3922-551: The secretary to Count Bardi. According to his own writings, his music and singing met with an enthusiastic response. However, Rome, the home of Palestrina and the Roman School , was musically conservative, and music following Caccini's stylistic lead was relatively rare there until after 1600. Caccini's character seems to have been less than perfectly honorable, as he was frequently motivated by envy and jealousy, not only in his professional life but for personal advancement with

3996-400: The sense of hearing, since they could not move the mind without the words being understood – it occurred to me to introduce a kind of music in which one could almost speak in tones, employing in it (as I have said elsewhere) a certain noble negligence of song, sometimes passing through several dissonances while still maintaining the bass note (save when I wished to do it the ordinary way and play

4070-653: The six surviving fragments are by Jacopo Corsi . Dafne was first performed during Carnival of 1598 (1597 old style ) at the Palazzo Corsi. Most of Peri's music has been lost, despite its popularity and fame in Europe at the time of its composition, but the 455-line verse libretto was published and survives. Florence's ruling Medici family was sufficiently taken with Dafne to allow Peri's next work, Euridice , to be performed as part of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV 's wedding celebrations in 1600. The opera

4144-411: The social classes as well as including self-referential ideas. Goldoni and Galuppi's most famous work together is Il filosofo di campagna (1754). The collaboration between Goldoni and another famous composer Niccolò Piccinni produced with La Cecchina (1760) another new genre: opera semiseria . This had two buffo characters, two nobles and two "in between" characters. The one-act farsa had

4218-460: The son of the carpenter Michelangelo Caccini; he was the older brother of the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Caccini . In Rome he studied the lute , the viol and the harp , and began to acquire a reputation as a singer. In the 1560s, Francesco de' Medici , Grand Duke of Tuscany, was so impressed with his talent that he took the young Caccini to Florence for further study. By 1579, Caccini

4292-517: The specially composed Ercole amante (1662), preferring the ballets that had been inserted between the acts by a Florentine composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully , and Cavalli swore never to compose another opera. Cesti was more fortunate when he was asked to write an opera for the Habsburg court in Vienna in 1668. Il pomo d'oro was so grandiose that the performance had to be spread over two days. It

4366-422: The stage". Other pastoral plays had long included some musical numbers; one of the earliest, Fabula di Orfeo  [ de ; fr ; it ] (1480) by Poliziano had at least three solo songs and one chorus. The music of Dafne is now lost, except for the 455 line verse libretto. The first opera for which music has survived was performed in 1600 at the wedding of Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici at

4440-442: The standard romantic sources: Friedrich Schiller ( Giovanna d'Arco , 1845; I masnadieri , 1847; Luisa Miller , 1849); Lord Byron ( I due Foscari , 1844; Il corsaro , 1848); and Victor Hugo ( Ernani , 1844; Rigoletto , 1851). Verdi was experimenting with musical and dramatic forms, attempting to discover things which only opera could do. In 1887, he created Otello which completely replaced Rossini's opera of

4514-489: The various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. Several composers of the period, including Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta , attempted to put these ideals into practice. In 1765 Melchior Grimm published "Poème lyrique" , an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos . The first to really succeed and to leave

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4588-523: The wedding of Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici in 1600 (an event which caused Cavalieri to leave Florence in fury), and he also seems to have rushed his own opera Euridice into print before Peri's opera on the same subject could be published, while simultaneously ordering his group of singers to have nothing to do with Peri's production. After 1605, Caccini was less influential, though he continued to take part in composition and performance of sacred polychoral music. He died in Florence , and

4662-483: Was Pietro Metastasio and he maintained his prestige well into the 19th century. He belonged to the Arcadian Academy and was firmly in line with its theories. A libretto by Metastasio was often set by twenty or thirty different composers and audiences came to know the words of his dramas by heart. In the 17th century comic operas were produced only occasionally and no stable tradition was established. Only in

4736-477: Was Verdi who transformed the whole nature of operatic writing during the course of his long career. His first great successful opera, Nabucco (1842), caught the public fancy because of the driving vigour of its music and its great choruses. " Va, pensiero ", one of the chorus renditions, was interpreted and gave advantageous meaning to the struggle for Italian independence and to unify Italy. After Nabucco , Verdi based his operas on patriotic themes and many of

4810-609: Was a conglomeration of his contemporaries and the experimentation with the invocation of human speech in music through recitative and musical prosody. For Peri, he strove to replicate the flow and musicality of speech in his writing, while contemporaries Emilio de' Cavalieri and Giulio Caccini sought different but similar compositional goals. As a result, the music written for the opera may have been co-written with help from Caccini but contemporary research does not support this. Giulio Caccini Giulio Romolo Caccini (also Giulio Romano ) (8 October 1551 – buried 10 December 1618)

4884-510: Was a revolutionary departure from the polyphonic practice of the late Renaissance. In the last two decades of the 16th century, Caccini continued his activities as a singer, teacher and composer. His influence as a teacher has perhaps been underestimated, since he trained dozens of musicians to sing in the new style, including the castrato Giovanni Gualberto Magli , who sang in the first production of Monteverdi 's first opera Orfeo . Caccini made at least one further trip to Rome, in 1592, as

4958-480: Was a tremendous success and marked the beginning of Italian operatic dominance north of the Alps. In the late 17th century, German and English composers tried to establish their own native traditions but by the early 18th century they had given ground to imported Italian opera, which became the international style in the hands of composers such as Handel . Only France resisted (and her operatic tradition had been founded by

5032-470: Was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre of opera , and one of the most influential creators of the new Baroque style. He was also the father of the composer Francesca Caccini and the singer Settimia Caccini . Little is known about his early life, but he is thought to have been born in Rome ,

5106-457: Was here that the first public opera house, the Teatro di San Cassiano , was opened in 1637 by Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli. Its success moved opera away from aristocratic patronage and into the commercial world. In Venice, musical drama was no longer aimed at an elite of aristocrats and intellectuals and acquired the character of entertainment. Soon many other opera houses had sprung up in

5180-419: Was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. Gli amori di Aci e Galatea by Santi Orlandi was also performed in 1628. When Władysław was king (as Władysław IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi in

5254-459: Was retold and imagination was stimulated. The strength of it fell into a more violent era for opera: verismo , with Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo . Some of the greatest Italian operas of the 20th century were written by Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). These include Manon Lescaut , La bohème , Tosca , Madama Butterfly , La fanciulla del West , La rondine and Turandot ,

5328-500: Was singing at the Medici court. He was a tenor , and he was able to accompany himself on the viol or the archlute ; he sang at various entertainments, including weddings and affairs of state, and took part in the sumptuous intermedi of the time, the elaborate musical, dramatic, visual spectacles which were one of the precursors of opera. Also during this time he took part in the movement of humanists, writers, musicians and scholars of

5402-410: Was the most popular opera of the 17th century, though some critics were appalled at its mixture of tragedy and farce. Cavalli's fame spread throughout Europe. One of his specialties was giving his heroines " ground bass laments ". These were mournful arias sung over a descending bass line and they had a great influence on Henry Purcell , whose "When I am laid in earth" from Dido and Aeneas is probably

5476-465: Was written for an elite circle of humanists in Florence , the Florentine Camerata , between 1594 and 1597, with the support, and possibly the collaboration, of the composer and patron Jacopo Corsi . However, the first confirmed, non-public, performance of the work for Don Giovanni de' Medici was held in 1597 thanks to Marco da Gagliano . On Peri's own account, the opera seems to have been performed during three carnival celebrations (1595–1598), with

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