The Théâtre Feydeau ( pronounced [teɑtʁ fɛdo] ), a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence (later to become Louis XVIII ), and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur . It began performing in the Salle des Tuileries , located in the north wing of the Tuileries Palace , then moved to the Salle des Variétés at the Foire Saint-Germain , and beginning in 1791, settled into its own custom-built theatre, the Salle Feydeau located on the rue Feydeau. The company was renamed Feydeau after the royal family was arrested during the French Revolution .
68-554: The company first presented Italian opera by composers such as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi , Giuseppe Sarti , and Giovanni Paisiello and later French plays , vaudevilles , and opéras comiques , as well as symphonic concerts, and was especially famous for the quality of its orchestra and realistic stagings. The Italian Luigi Cherubini was the house composer, but the French composers Jean-François Le Sueur , François Devienne , and Pierre Gaveaux were also closely associated with
136-414: 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
204-548: 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
272-683: A piece of land on the rue Feydeau was selected. Despite its proximity to the Salle Favart, home of the Opéra-Comique , and objections by Jean Sylvain Bailly , the mayor of Paris, permission was granted in April. The new theatre on the rue Feydeau was built in just over six months in a neoclassical style to the designs by the architects Jacques Legrand and Jacques Molinos and had a capacity of 1700–1900. These designers were not too concerned with
340-416: A protected vestibule" or entrance hall between an outer door and the main part of the building. These features, along with the statues on the outside of the lobby, were novel and attracted a lot of attention. The lobby was highly ornate and was where Legrand and Molnios focused a lot of their attention. The theatre was lit by candlelight and by hanging chandeliers. There were seats in the pit as well as lining
408-403: 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
476-554: 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
544-401: 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
612-481: 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
680-405: 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
748-402: 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
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#1732786923722816-514: 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
884-440: 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
952-434: 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
1020-511: 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
1088-688: 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
1156-529: 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
1224-644: The Third Enjoys ) is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Giuseppe Sarti . The libretto was after Carlo Goldoni 's Le nozze ( The Marriage ). One aria from this opera, "Come un agnello", is famously quoted by Mozart at the end of Don Giovanni . It was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 14 September 1782. It became very successful, being produced under different names, in different languages, and in numerous European cities. For instance, it
1292-531: The Théâtre Feydeau. The first important French work was Cherubini 's Lodoïska , which was premiered on 18 July 1791. This was followed by more French operas by Cherubini, as well as operas by French composers, including Devienne's Les visitandines (7 July 1792); Le Sueur's La caverne (16 February 1793), Paul et Virginie (13 January 1794), and Télémaque (10 May 1796); and Gaveaux's Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal (19 February 1798). The last
1360-714: The Théâtre de Monsieur was opened for the King's brother and was at the Tuileries Palace, the King allowed the performers to live at the palace. While most theatres of the time were only permitted to do one kind of drama, the Théâtre de Monsieur performed French drama, opéra comique, vaudeville, and Italian opera buffa. On 6 October 1789 Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette moved to the Tuileries Palace after being forced to leave Versailles for Paris by rioters . It
1428-419: 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
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#17327869237221496-410: 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
1564-639: 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
1632-613: The company from 1795 to 1799, but he also took on the management of two other theatres, the Théâtre de la République and the Théâtre de l'Odéon , and becoming overextended closed the Théâtre Feydeau on 12 April 1801. However, the Opéra-Comique, the Feydeau's chief rival, was also forced to close on 20 July 1801, and it was soon decided to merge the two companies under the name Opéra-Comique, which occurred on 16 September 1801. Since
1700-530: The company. In 1801 the Théâtre Feydeau merged with, and took the name of its chief rival, the Opéra-Comique . Except for a brief period from July 1804 to July 1805, when the merged company performed at the Salle Favart, it continued to perform at the Salle Feydeau until 1829, when it moved to a new theatre, the Salle Ventadour . The Salle Feydeau was demolished shortly thereafter. The company
1768-443: The composer conducting, but Pasquale Anfossi 's I viaggiatori felici was less highly regarded, on account of both its music and its libretto, with the exception of inserted numbers composed by Cherubini, who took a bow at the insistence of the audience. The sixteen-year-old violinist Pierre Rode played a concerto by Viotti between the acts of Giuseppe Sarti 's Le gelosie villane on 18 October. The company continued to perform in
1836-512: 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
1904-484: 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
1972-437: 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
2040-415: 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
2108-457: 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
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2176-519: 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
2244-468: 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
2312-431: 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
2380-514: The heroine Clairette Angot sings "Didn't you know Mademoiselle Lange , the great actress of the Feydeau?", thus mentioning the Théâtre Feydeau more than forty years after its demolition. Italian opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language . Opera was in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in
2448-427: The history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers, including Handel , Gluck and Mozart . Works by native Italian composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Rossini , Bellini , Donizetti , Verdi and Puccini , are amongst the most famous operas ever written and today are performed in opera houses across the world. Dafne by Jacopo Peri
2516-543: 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)
2584-593: 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: Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode ( While Two Dispute,
2652-408: 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
2720-645: 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
2788-435: 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
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2856-444: The practicality of the theatre space, but more with the splendor of the theatre. It was a rectangular building that was curved on the side of the lobby at the front. On the curved front were seven massive windows that let natural light into the lobby. In between these windows were statues that were the same height as the windows. The architects also included "carriage entrances at ground level that allowed theatre goers to disembark inside
2924-411: 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
2992-614: The previous Opéra-Comique's Salle Favart needed repairs, the merged company performed at the Salle Feydeau. Except for a short period from 23 July 1804 to 4 July 1805, when it performed at the Salle Favart and the Salle Olympique, it continued using the Salle Feydeau until 12 April 1829, after which the Salle Feydeau was demolished, and the new Opéra-Comique moved to a newly built theatre, the Salle Ventadour , opening there on 20 April 1829. In La fille de Madame Angot , an opéra-comique by Charles Lecocq put on on 4 December 1872,
3060-488: 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
3128-518: 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
3196-603: The royal theatres were revoked on 13 January 1791. The company was now free to present French opéras comiques , competing more directly with the nearby Opéra-Comique company at the Salle Favart. Upon the Royal Family's return to Paris on 24 June 1791, after its unsuccessful flight and arrest in Varennes, the Théâtre de Monsieur was officially renamed Théâtre Français & Italien de la rue Feydeau, but by July this had been shortened to Théâtre de la rue Feydeau, or simply
3264-436: 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
3332-417: The sides of the theatre. There were three balconies and two different standing areas. There were also boxed seats next to the stage. Several "design flaws of the original plan would continue to haunt the theatre's administration." The proscenium "extended beyond the stage in such a way that it obstructed the view of the stage for most of the side loges". Bad sight lines were a problem with the original design of
3400-411: 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
3468-517: 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
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#17327869237223536-424: 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
3604-442: 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
3672-485: The theatre at the Saint-Germain fairground until 31 December 1790. For the new theatre, a site just east of the north end of the Tuileries Palace, formerly occupied by the "Stables of Monsieur", was first considered. This location was thought advantageous, even at this late date, because the royal family could reach it without having to go out-of-doors. Several other sites were also considered, but by February 1790,
3740-406: The theatre. The audience structure caused poor sound reverberations. There were two different remodeling projects, one in 1798 and one in 1801. The opening there took place on 6 January 1791, when Sarti's 3-act comic opera Le nozze di Dorina was presented. Up to 1791 the repertory had consisted primarily of Italian opera, with additional music added by Cherubini, but the exclusive privileges of
3808-494: 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
3876-484: 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
3944-477: 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
4012-480: 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
4080-599: Was decided that the Théâtre de Monsieur would have to find new quarters, and that a new theatre would be built, but in the interim, the company would perform in the Salle des Variétés at the Saint-Germain Fair . The company's last performance at the Tuileries was on 23 December, and it opened at the Salle des Variétés on 10 January 1790. Piccini 's La buona figliuola was warmly received on 3 February 1790 with
4148-514: Was founded on 26 January 1789 by Marie-Antoinette 's coiffeur Léonard-Alexis Autier and the violinist and composer Giovanni Battista Viotti and at first used the Salle des Tuileries, which had previously been the Salle des Machines, but had been greatly modified and reduced in size by the architects Jacques-Germain Soufflot and Ange-Jacques Gabriel for the Paris Opera in 1763. Since
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#17327869237224216-405: 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
4284-419: 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
4352-461: Was performed as Le nozze di Dorina , with inserted arias by Giovanni Battista Viotti , for the opening of the Théâtre de Monsieur in Paris on 6 January 1791. The work also used music composed by Pasquale Anfossi , Antonio Salieri , and Stephen Storace in addition to the composer himself. The opera has a story similar to Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (1786) involving complex intrigues between
4420-459: 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 ,
4488-408: 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 is accompanied by
4556-514: Was the model for Beethoven's Fidelio . In general, opera alternated evenings with spoken drama, presented by a separate company of actors. The theatre became one of the meeting-places for counter-revolutionaries . Like many theatres of the Revolutionary period, it was frequently banned. However, it re-opened for good on 2 April 1796, becoming one of the most appreciated theatres in Paris. Talma produced there from 1798. Sagaret directed
4624-410: 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
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