178-470: Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini ( Italian: [vinˈtʃɛntso salvaˈtoːre karˈmɛːlo franˈtʃesko belˈliːni] ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings . A central figure of the bel canto era, he was admired not only by the public, but also by many composers who were influenced by his work. His songs balanced florid embellishment with
356-411: A Senecan tragedy on a subject from Gian Giorgio Trissino 's Italia liberata – Gravina's favourite epic. It was called Giustino , and was printed in 1713; forty-two years later, Metastasio told his publisher that he would willingly suppress this juvenilia . Caroprese died in 1714, leaving Gravina his heir; and in 1718 Gravina also died. Metastasio inherited a fortune of 15,000 scudi. At a meeting of
534-605: A Monastery , and War and Peace ; as well as Dmitri Shostakovich in The Nose and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District , Edison Denisov in L'écume des jours , and Alfred Schnittke in Life with an Idiot and Historia von D. Johann Fausten . Czech composers also developed a thriving national opera movement of their own in the 19th century, starting with Bedřich Smetana , who wrote eight operas including
712-573: A cello; or accompagnato (also known as strumentato ) in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. Over the 18th century, arias were increasingly accompanied by the orchestra. By the 19th century, accompagnato had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Wagner revolutionized opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what Wagner termed "endless melody". Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagner 's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his The Rake's Progress have bucked
890-506: A complex web of leitmotifs , recurring themes often associated with the characters and concepts of the drama, of which prototypes can be heard in his earlier operas such as Der fliegende Holländer , Tannhäuser and Lohengrin ; and he was prepared to violate accepted musical conventions, such as tonality , in his quest for greater expressivity. In his mature music dramas, Tristan und Isolde , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal , he abolished
1068-475: A concern for expressive recitative which matched the contours of the French language. In the 18th century, Lully's most important successor was Jean-Philippe Rameau , who composed five tragédies en musique as well as numerous works in other genres such as opéra-ballet , all notable for their rich orchestration and harmonic daring. Despite the popularity of Italian opera seria throughout much of Europe during
1246-569: A deceptively simple approach to lyric setting . Born to a musical family in Sicily, he distinguished himself early and earned a scholarship to study under several noted musicians at Naples' Real Collegio di Musica . There he absorbed elements of the Neapolitan School 's style and was inspired by performances of Donizetti's and Rossini's operas, among others, in more modern idioms. He wrote his first opera, Adelson e Salvini (1825), for
1424-406: A fee which was sufficient for him to be able to make his living solely by composing music, and this new work became an even greater success than Il pirata had been. As for singers, it appears there was some doubt about the tenor, but that Henriette Méric-Lalande, Luigi Lablache (or Tamburini), would be available. In consultation with Romani as to the subject, it was agreed that it would be based on
1602-528: A good organist in some village. It was during these early years at the Collegio that Bellini met Francesco Florimo with whom he had a lifetime of correspondence. Other fellow students—who were to become opera composers—included Francesco Stabile and the Ricci brothers— Luigi and Federico —as well as Saverio Mercadante who, by this time, was a graduate student. Another person to whom the young student/composer
1780-413: A guest in her home and to whom he had become music tutor. As their affair became obvious to her parents, they were forbidden to see each other. Bellini was determined to obtain the parents' permission for them to marry, and some writers regard this as the propelling reason for his writing his first opera. The impetus to write this opera came about in late summer of 1824, when his primo maestrino status at
1958-589: A hearing. Berlioz's epic masterpiece Les Troyens , the culmination of the Gluckian tradition, was not given a full performance for almost a hundred years. In the second half of the 19th century, Jacques Offenbach created operetta with witty and cynical works such as Orphée aux enfers , as well as the opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann ; Charles Gounod scored a massive success with Faust ; and Georges Bizet composed Carmen , which, once audiences learned to accept its blend of Romanticism and realism, became
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#17327913538932136-557: A highly musical family. His grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia Bellini, had studied at the conservatory in Naples and, in Catania from 1767 forward, had been an organist and teacher, as had Vincenzo's father, Rosario. An anonymous twelve-page hand-written history, held in Catania's Museo Civico Belliniano , states that he could sing an aria by Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months, that he began studying music theory at two years of age and
2314-499: A highly varied body of operatic works, often with libretti by the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Other composers who made individual contributions to German opera in the early 20th century include Alexander von Zemlinsky , Erich Korngold , Franz Schreker , Paul Hindemith , Kurt Weill and the Italian-born Ferruccio Busoni . The operatic innovations of Arnold Schoenberg and his successors are discussed in
2492-447: A hitherto brilliant career". Several reasons have been put forward: Lippmann and McGuire note, it was because "Bellini showed too little enthusiasm for the undertaking". Another writer attributes it to Parma's traditional love of and favouritism towards the music of Rossini , while yet another notes that a combination of the composer being constantly seen in cafes around the city (when it was assumed that he should have been composing) and
2670-458: A large variety of works for stage. Perhaps, the most famous Iranian opera is Rostam and Sohrab by Loris Tjeknavorian premiered not until the early 2000s. Chinese contemporary classical opera , a Chinese language form of Western style opera that is distinct from traditional Chinese opera , has had operas dating back to The White-Haired Girl in 1945. In Latin America, opera started as
2848-507: A major bass-baritone of the time. But rehearsals did not progress without some difficulties, as both Weinstock and Galatopoulos recount: it appears that Bellini found Rubini, while singing beautifully, to be lacking expressiveness: he was urged to "throw yourself with all your soul into the character you are representing" and to use [your] body, "to accompany your singing with gestures", as well as to act with [your] voice. It appears that Bellini's exhortations bore fruit, based on his own account of
3026-435: A member of a class which he taught: the older man appears to have recognised Bellini's potential and treated his student like a son, giving him some firm advice: If your compositions "sing", your music will most certainly please. ... Therefore, if you train your heart to give you melody and then you set it forth as simply as possible, your success will be assured. You will become a composer. Otherwise, you will end up being
3204-515: A new phrase. This fashion of opera directed opera from Verdi, onward, exercising tremendous influence on his successors Giacomo Puccini , Richard Strauss , and Benjamin Britten . After Verdi, the sentimental "realistic" melodrama of verismo appeared in Italy. This was a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni 's Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo 's Pagliacci that came to dominate
3382-528: A new seriousness to the genre, which had never been wholly "comic" in any case. Another phenomenon of this period was the 'propaganda opera' celebrating revolutionary successes, e.g. Gossec's Le triomphe de la République (1793). By the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for Italian bel canto , especially after the arrival of Rossini in Paris . Rossini's Guillaume Tell helped found
3560-483: A nineteenth-century peak of Polish national opera . In the 20th century, other operas created by Polish composers included King Roger by Karol Szymanowski and Ubu Rex by Krzysztof Penderecki . The first known opera from Turkey (the Ottoman Empire ) was Arshak II , which was an Armenian opera composed by an ethnic Armenian composer Tigran Chukhajian in 1868 and partially performed in 1873. It
3738-775: A result of European colonisation. The first opera ever written in the Americas was 1701's La púrpura de la rosa , by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco , a Peruvian composer born in Spain; a decade later, 1711's Partenope , by the Mexican Manuel de Zumaya , was the first opera written from a composer born in Latin America (music now lost). The first Brazilian opera for a libretto in Portuguese was A Noite de São João , by Elias Álvares Lobo . However, Antônio Carlos Gomes
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#17327913538933916-519: A revival and a setback. The collaboration with Romani on Il pirata began in May 1827 and, by August, the music was being written. By then, the composer was aware that he was to write music for his favourite tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini and the soprano was to be Henriette Méric-Lalande . Both singers had starred in Bianca in the original 1826 production. The strong cast also included Antonio Tamburini ,
4094-535: A second full Ordinary in G Minor, both of which probably date from 1823. There are two settings of the Salve Regina (one in A Major for solo soprano and organ, the other in F Minor for choir and orchestra), but these are less accomplished and may date from the first year of study after leaving Catania, 1820. His brief two-movement Oboe Concerto in E-flat from 1823 also survives and has been recorded by no less than
4272-702: A second opera for La Scala. At around the same time, Bellini reported to Florimo that he had been approached by Merelli about writing an inaugural opera for the soon-to-be completed Teatro Ducale (now the Teatro Regio ) in Parma which was due to open during the following year on 12 May 1829. Initially, the opera was to be Carlo di Borgogna , but composer and librettist decided to tackle "a drama so ... hallowed as Voltaire 's Zaïre ", but this proved to be more challenging for Romani than first imagined. With this opera, Bellini encountered "the first serious setback of
4450-522: A separate French tradition was founded by the Italian-born French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully at the court of King Louis XIV . Despite his foreign birthplace, Lully established an Academy of Music and monopolised French opera from 1672. Starting with Cadmus et Hermione , Lully and his librettist Quinault created tragédie en musique , a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's operas also show
4628-734: A speech-inflected style, and self-contained arias . The 19th century saw the rise of the continuous music drama . Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri 's mostly lost Dafne , produced in Florence in 1598) especially from works by Claudio Monteverdi , notably L'Orfeo , and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Heinrich Schütz in Germany, Jean-Baptiste Lully in France, and Henry Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in
4806-469: A superb sense of drama, harmony, melody, and counterpoint to write a series of comic operas with libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte , notably Le nozze di Figaro , Don Giovanni , and Così fan tutte , which remain among the most-loved, popular and well-known operas. 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
4984-566: Is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers . Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts , such as acting , scenery , costume , and sometimes dance or ballet . The performance is typically given in an opera house , accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble , which since
5162-622: Is generally regarded as the most outstanding Brazilian composer, having a relative success in Italy with its Brazilian-themed operas with Italian librettos, such as Il Guarany . Opera in Argentina developed in the 20th century after the inauguration of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires—with the opera Aurora , by Ettore Panizza , being heavily influenced by the Italian tradition, due to immigration. Other important composers from Argentina include Felipe Boero and Alberto Ginastera . Perhaps
5340-629: Is most famous for his Italian comic operas , especially The Marriage of Figaro ( Le nozze di Figaro ), Don Giovanni , and Così fan tutte , as well as Die Entführung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio ), and The Magic Flute ( Die Zauberflöte ), landmarks in the German tradition. The first third of the 19th century saw the high point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini , Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini all creating signature works of that style. It also saw
5518-487: Is the first opera score to have survived until the present day. However, the honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed goes to Claudio Monteverdi 's L'Orfeo , composed for the court of Mantua in 1607. The Mantua court of the Gonzagas , employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the concerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of
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5696-830: Is the shift away from long, suspended melodies, to short quick mottos, as first illustrated by Giuseppe Verdi in his Falstaff . Composers such as Strauss, Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky adopted and expanded upon this style. Operatic modernism truly began in the operas of two Viennese composers, Arnold Schoenberg and his student Alban Berg , both composers and advocates of atonality and its later development (as worked out by Schoenberg), dodecaphony . Schoenberg's early musico-dramatic works, Erwartung (1909, premiered in 1924) and Die glückliche Hand display heavy use of chromatic harmony and dissonance in general. Schoenberg also occasionally used Sprechstimme . The two operas of Schoenberg's pupil Alban Berg, Wozzeck (1925) and Lulu (incomplete at his death in 1935) share many of
5874-660: The Berlin Philharmonic . Bellini's involvement in Zingarelli's class took place over the 1822/23 school year. By January 1824, after passing examinations in which he did well, he attained the title primo maestrino , requiring him to tutor younger students and allowing him a room of his own in the collegio and visits to the Teatro di San Carlo on Thursdays and Sundays, where he saw his first opera by Rossini, Semiramide . While Weinstock gives an account of how he
6052-530: The English Restoration , foreign (especially French) musicians were welcomed back. In 1673, Thomas Shadwell 's Psyche , patterned on the 1671 'comédie-ballet' of the same name produced by Molière and Jean-Baptiste Lully . William Davenant produced The Tempest in the same year, which was the first musical adaption of a Shakespeare play (composed by Locke and Johnson). About 1683, John Blow composed Venus and Adonis , often thought of as
6230-487: The Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano on 16 February declaring it to be a: clamorous success..[with] the poet [serving] the composer well, and the composer could not have served the singers better; all competed to render themselves pleasing to the public, and succeeded in such a way as to be applauded greatly. Three days later, the same publication praised the quality of the music, describing Bellini as "a modern Orpheus" for
6408-493: The Mass Ordinary : one in D Major, the other in G Major, both of which survive and have been commercially recorded. He was ready for further study. For well-off students, this would include moving to Naples. While his family wasn't wealthy enough to support that lifestyle, Bellini's growing reputation could not be overlooked. His break came when Stefano Notabartolo, the duca di San Martino e Montalbo and his duchess, became
6586-599: The Sinfonietta and the Glagolitic Mass . Spain also produced its own distinctive form of opera, known as zarzuela , which had two separate flowerings: one from the mid-17th century through the mid-18th century, and another beginning around 1850. During the late 18th century up until the mid-19th century, Italian opera was immensely popular in Spain, supplanting the native form . In Russian Eastern Europe, several national operas began to emerge. Ukrainian opera
6764-504: The cantatas which belong to this period, and the canzonetta Ecco quel fiero istante , which he sent to his friend Farinelli, rank among the most popular of his productions. It was clear, as Vernon Lee has phrased it, that "what ailed him was mental and moral ennui ". In 1755 the Countess Althann died, and Metastasio's social contacts were reduced to the gatherings round him in the bourgeois house of his friend Nicolo Martines ,
6942-430: The castrato Farinelli , making a spectacular début, it won the most enthusiastic applause. The Roman prima donna, Marianna Bulgarelli , who played Venus in this opera, spared no pains until she had discovered its author. Bulgarelli persuaded the poet to give up the law, and promised to secure for him fame and independence if he would devote his talents to the musical drama. In her house Metastasio became acquainted with
7120-577: The dramatist Sir William Davenant produced The Siege of Rhodes . Since his theatre was not licensed to produce drama, he asked several of the leading composers ( Lawes , Cooke , Locke , Coleman and Hudson ) to set sections of it to music. This success was followed by The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658) and The History of Sir Francis Drake (1659). These pieces were encouraged by Oliver Cromwell because they were critical of Spain. With
7298-462: The libretto (meaning "small book"). Some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti; others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e.g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte . 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, and aria (an "air" or formal song) in which
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7476-467: The "modern-day" approaches of composers such as Rossini . The young student's first teacher was Giovanni Furno , with whom "he studied exercises in harmony and accompaniment"; another, from whom he learned counterpoint , was the composer of over 50 operas, Giacomo Tritto , but whom he found to be "old fashioned and doctrinaire". However, the artistic director of the school was the opera composer, Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli . By 1822/23, Bellini had become
7654-471: The 1640s. His most important follower Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy. In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by the Arcadian Academy , which came to be associated with the poet Metastasio , whose libretti helped crystallize
7832-451: The 17th century. In the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe (except France), attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel . Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. The most renowned figure of late 18th-century opera is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who began with opera seria but
8010-557: The 18th century another genre was gaining popularity in France: opéra comique . This was the equivalent of the German singspiel , where arias alternated with spoken dialogue. Notable examples in this style were produced by Monsigny , Philidor and, above all, Grétry . During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, composers such as Étienne Méhul , Luigi Cherubini and Gaspare Spontini , who were followers of Gluck, brought
8188-464: The 19th century in Russia, there were written such operatic masterpieces as Rusalka and The Stone Guest by Alexander Dargomyzhsky , Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky , Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin , Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky , and The Snow Maiden and Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . These developments mirrored
8366-562: The 20th century for his innovative works. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa , which was premiered in 1904 in Brno . The success of Jenůfa (often called the " Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen ,
8544-547: The 20th century, English opera began to assert more independence, with works of Ralph Vaughan Williams and in particular Benjamin Britten , who in a series of works that remain in standard repertory today, revealed an excellent flair for the dramatic and superb musicality. More recently Sir Harrison Birtwistle has emerged as one of Britain's most significant contemporary composers from his first opera Punch and Judy to his most recent critical success in The Minotaur . In
8722-616: The Arcadian Academy, he recited an elegy to his patron, and then settled down to enjoy his wealth. Metastasio was now twenty. During the last four years he had worn the costume of abbé, having taken the minor orders without which it was then useless to expect advancement in Rome. His romantic history, personal beauty, charming manners and distinguished talents made him fashionable. Within two years he had spent his money and increased his reputation. He decided to apply himself seriously to
8900-582: The Baroque period, Italian opera never gained much of a foothold in France, where its own national operatic tradition was more popular instead. After Rameau's death, the Bohemian-Austrian composer Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater focus on the drama. At the same time, by the middle of
9078-586: The Beach ), Mark Adamo , John Corigliano ( The Ghosts of Versailles ), Robert Moran , John Adams ( Nixon in China ), André Previn and Jake Heggie . Many contemporary 21st century opera composers have emerged such as Missy Mazzoli , Kevin Puts , Tom Cipullo , Huang Ruo , David T. Little , Terence Blanchard , Jennifer Higdon , Tobias Picker , Michael Ching , Anthony Davis , and Ricky Ian Gordon . Opera
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#17327913538939256-481: The Conservatory—when it nominated a sufficiently talented student—to require that student to write a cantata or one-act opera to be presented on a gala evening in one of the theatres. After Zingarelli used his influence to secure this honour for his promising student, Bellini was able to obtain agreement that he could write a full-length opera and, furthermore, that the libretto did not have to be written by Tottola,
9434-718: The Czech national spirit, as were some of his choral works. By far the most successful of the operas is Rusalka which contains the well-known aria "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" ("Song to the Moon"); it is played on contemporary opera stages frequently outside the Czech Republic . This is attributable to their uneven invention and libretti, and perhaps also their staging requirements – The Jacobin , Armida , Vanda and Dimitrij need stages large enough to portray invading armies. Leoš Janáček gained international recognition in
9612-490: The Fernando to be Giovanni David . As Bellini reports, he had problems with Tosi wanting changes to be made to a cavatina and a stretta in one scene, but he stuck to his own opinion, proving to be correct when he reported the audience's reaction to Florimo: "the public was very happy with the entire opera, particularly with the second act". Overall, the first performance was even greater than it had been in Naples, and
9790-532: The House of Savoy. Romani wrote to Florimo in Naples and told him that he had taken on the re-construction of the libretto, with the result that "out of the whole of Bianca , the only pieces entirely unchanged are the big duet and the romanza ; everything else is altered, and about half of it is new", Bellini then re-arranged the music to suit the singers' voices, now knowing that the Bianca was to be Adelaide Tosi and
9968-771: The London stage from the mid-19th century into the 1870s. London's Daily Telegraph agreed, describing The Yeomen of the Guard as "a genuine English opera, forerunner of many others, let us hope, and possibly significant of an advance towards a national lyric stage". Sullivan produced a few light operas in the 1890s that were of a more serious nature than those in the G&;S series, including Haddon Hall and The Beauty Stone , but Ivanhoe (which ran for 155 consecutive performances, using alternating casts—a record until Broadway's La bohème ) survives as his only grand opera . In
10146-550: The Marchese Don Antonio Pignatelli (later His Serene Highness Prince of Belmonte ). In 1722, while Naples was under Austrian rule, the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine had to be celebrated with more than ordinary honours, and the viceroy asked Metastasio to compose a serenata for the occasion. Metastasio accepted, but kept his authorship secret. He wrote "Gli orti esperidi", which was set to music by Nicola Porpora , and sung by Porpora's pupil,
10324-557: 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 the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet , and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. In 1765 Melchior Grimm published " Poème lyrique ", an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos . Several composers of
10502-481: The Roman coteries. Metastasio soon found himself competing with the most celebrated improvvisatori of his time in Italy. However, his days full of study and evenings devoted to improvising poetry took a toll on Pietro's health. Gravina, making a business trip to Calabria , exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples , then placed him in the care of his kinsman Gregorio Caroprese at Scaléa. In country air and
10680-721: The San Carlo or one of the other royal theatres, the Teatro Fondo. Following the presentation of Adelson e Salvini and while he was in Milan, Bellini—requesting help from Florimo—began to make some revisions, shortening the opera to two acts in the hope that it might be given stagings by Domenico Barbaja , the Intendant at the Teato di San Carlo since 1809. But little is known about exactly how much Bellini or Florimo contributed to
10858-449: The acting and spirit one could wish for." Following Romani's recovery, the delivery of the libretto arrived piecemeal, but Bellini set to work again; progress was slow. By 7 January 1829, with Romani having recovered and set off for Venice to fulfill a contract, the composer was "almost up to the 2nd act". Filippo Cicconetti, in his 1859 biography, gives an account of Bellini's working methods, explaining how he set texts to music always with
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#173279135389311036-551: The acts of stage plays, operas in the new comic genre of intermezzi , which developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and 1720s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria. They became so popular, however, that they were soon being offered as separate productions. Opera seria was elevated in tone and highly stylised in form, usually consisting of secco recitative interspersed with long da capo arias. These afforded great opportunity for virtuosic singing and during
11214-485: The advent of grand opera typified by the works of Daniel Auber and Giacomo Meyerbeer as well as Carl Maria von Weber 's introduction of German Romantische Oper (German Romantic Opera). The mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Giuseppe Verdi in Italy and Richard Wagner in Germany. The popularity of opera continued through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss in
11392-517: The approval of the King, who broke the custom of there being no applause at a performance attended by royalty. It was also attended by Donizetti who enthusiastically wrote to Simon Mayr : "It is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, especially as it is his first opera." Bellini's music was highly regarded, with the Giornale delle Due Sicilie on 13 June noting that "[several of the arias and duets] are some of
11570-457: The art form back to life again. The bel canto opera movement flourished in the early 19th century and is exemplified by the operas of Rossini , Bellini , Donizetti , Pacini , Mercadante and many others. Literally "beautiful singing", bel canto opera derives from the Italian stylistic singing school of the same name. Bel canto lines are typically florid and intricate, requiring supreme agility and pitch control. Examples of famous operas in
11748-522: The audience's reactions to the first performance, as well as the reaction of the Gazzetta privilegiata di Milano of 2 December which noted that this opera "introduced us to Rubini's dual personality as a singer and actor". The reviewer continued to declare that this duality had never been expressed in other operas in which he had performed. The premiere, given on 17 October 1827, was "an immediate and then an increasing, success. By Sunday, December 2, when
11926-454: The beauty of his melodies. Reporting to Romani, who was still in Venice, Bellini gave an account of the success: "the thing went as we never had imagined it. We were in seventh heaven. With [this letter] receive my gratitude more than ever ..." Others wrote equally enthusiastic reports, with abundant praise being given to the singers as well. However, there were detractors who criticised both
12104-411: The bel canto style include Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola , as well as Bellini's Norma , La sonnambula and I puritani and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor , L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale . Following the bel canto era, a more direct, forceful style was rapidly popularized by Giuseppe Verdi , beginning with his biblical opera Nabucco . This opera, and
12282-422: The best virtuosi in every capital, and there was not a literary academy of note which had not conferred on him the honour of membership. Strangers of distinction passing through Vienna made a point of paying their respects to the old poet at his lodgings at Kohlmarkt . But his poetry was intended for a certain style of music – for the music of omnipotent vocalists, of exceedingly skilled sopranos and castrati. When
12460-402: The building formerly occupied by the nuns of San Sabastiano, was run by the government and there, students, who wore a semi-military uniform, were obliged to live under a tight daily regimen of classes in principal subjects, in singing and instrumental coaching, plus basic education. Their days were long, going from early morning mass at 5:15 am to finally ending by 10 pm. Although beyond
12638-517: The case of the latter. He traveled abroad and wrote I puritani after a visit to London. Its successful premiere (1835, Théâtre-Italien ) capped an illustrious international career. Bellini died at the age of 33 in Puteaux , France. Verdi praised Bellini's expansive melodies as unequaled, while Wagner, who was rarely complimentary, was captivated by Bellini's expressive integration of music and text. Liszt and Chopin were also admirers, though Berlioz
12816-459: The characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic style. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. In some forms of opera, such as singspiel , opéra comique , operetta , and semi-opera , the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as arioso . The terminology of
12994-411: The chief composers of the day, and performed in the chief towns of Italy. But meanwhile Bulgarelli was growing older; she had ceased to sing in public; and the poet increasingly felt his dependence upon her kindness irksome. He gained 300 scudi for each opera; this pay, though good, was precarious and he longed for some fixed engagement. In September 1729 he received the offer of the post of court poet to
13172-410: The circle of opera fans. Since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on (and written for) these media. Beginning in 2006, a number of major opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. Since 2009, complete performances can be downloaded and are live streamed . The words of an opera are known as
13350-537: The conservatory resulted in an assignment to compose an opera for presentation in the institute's teatrino . This became Adelson e Salvini , an opera semi-seria (half-serious) to a libretto by the Neapolitan Andrea Leone Tottola , who had written the one for Donizetti's La zingara . Adelson was first given sometime between mid-January and mid-March 1825, and featured an all-male cast of fellow students. It proved to be so popular among
13528-598: The conservatory, and his next, Bianca e Fernando (1826), on a Teatro di San Carlo -affiliated commission for promising students. He also became close friends with his peer and first biographer, Francesco Florimo . Bellini then went to Milan to compose for La Scala , where the success of Il pirata (1827) established his short but significant career. He wrote many celebrated operas, ascending to triumphal heights with I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830, La Fenice ), La sonnambula (1831, Teatro Carcano ), and Norma (1831, La Scala), though not until later performances in
13706-428: The course of a few weeks he adopted him. Felice Trapassi was glad to give his son the chance of a good education and introduction into society. Gravina hellenized the boy's name Trapassi into Metastasio, and intended his adopted son to be a jurist like himself. He therefore made the boy learn Latin and law. At the same time he cultivated his literary gifts, and displayed the youthful prodigy both at his own house and in
13884-407: The court theatre. He was ashamed of her and tired of her, and wrote dissuading her from the projected visit. The tone of his letters alarmed and irritated her. She seems to have set out from Rome, but died suddenly upon the road. All we know is that she left him her fortune after her husband's life interest in it had expired, and that Metastasio, overwhelmed with grief and remorse, immediately renounced
14062-408: The distinction between aria and recitative in favour of a seamless flow of "endless melody". Wagner also brought a new philosophical dimension to opera in his works, which were usually based on stories from Germanic or Arthurian legend. Finally, Wagner built his own opera house at Bayreuth with part of the patronage from Ludwig II of Bavaria , exclusively dedicated to performing his own works in
14240-506: The drama is understated, enigmatic and completely un-Wagnerian. Other notable 20th-century names include Ravel , Dukas , Roussel , Honegger and Milhaud . Francis Poulenc is one of the very few post-war composers of any nationality whose operas (which include Dialogues des Carmélites ) have gained a foothold in the international repertory. Olivier Messiaen 's lengthy sacred drama Saint François d'Assise (1983) has also attracted widespread attention. In England, opera's antecedent
14418-558: The early 19th century has been led by a conductor . Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of Western classical music , and Italian tradition in particular. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres , including some that include spoken dialogue such as Singspiel and Opéra comique . In traditional number opera , singers employ two styles of singing: recitative ,
14596-577: The early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia . The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism ( Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg ), neoclassicism ( Igor Stravinsky ), and minimalism ( Philip Glass and John Adams ). With the rise of recording technology , singers such as Enrico Caruso and Maria Callas became known to much wider audiences that went beyond
14774-427: The emergence of the separate but closely related art of musical theatre in the late 19th century. Sullivan wrote only one grand opera, Ivanhoe (following the efforts of a number of young English composers beginning about 1876), but he claimed that even his light operas constituted part of a school of "English" opera, intended to supplant the French operettas (usually performed in bad translations) that had dominated
14952-418: The fact that Romani had included a long explanation of the difficulties of adapting Voltaire in the printed libretto provided to all operagoers. The librettist was critical of his own work: "the style should have been more careful, and that here and there, certain repetitions of phrases and concepts should have been edited out". At the same time, he stated that, with music composed to those verses now in place, "I
15130-529: The first actual "opera singers", Madama Europa . Opera did not remain confined to court audiences for long. In 1637, the idea of a "season" (often during the carnival ) of publicly attended operas supported by ticket sales emerged in Venice . Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea , for the Venetian theatre in
15308-672: The first decade of the 21st century, the librettist of an early Birtwistle opera, Michael Nyman , has been focusing on composing operas, including Facing Goya , Man and Boy: Dada , and Love Counts . Today composers such as Thomas Adès continue to export English opera abroad. Also in the 20th century, American composers like George Gershwin ( Porgy and Bess ), Scott Joplin ( Treemonisha ), Leonard Bernstein ( Candide ), Gian Carlo Menotti , Douglas Moore , and Carlisle Floyd began to contribute English-language operas infused with touches of popular musical styles. They were followed by composers such as Philip Glass ( Einstein on
15486-461: The first true English-language opera. Blow's immediate successor was the better known Henry Purcell . Despite the success of his masterwork Dido and Aeneas (1689), in which the action is furthered by the use of Italian-style recitative, much of Purcell's best work was not involved in the composing of typical opera, but instead, he usually worked within the constraints of the semi-opera format, where isolated scenes and masques are contained within
15664-456: The following January he was equally successful and, to fulfill his obligations to write music for Catania – a condition of his scholarship – he sent a Messa di Gloria in A Minor for soloists, choir and orchestra, which was performed the following October. Besides this melodious work, his output from these study years in Naples included two other settings of the Mass: a full Ordinary in E Minor and
15842-431: The form and style that would dominate opera throughout the twentieth century. Rather than long, suspended melodies, Falstaff contains many little motifs and mottos, that, rather than being expanded upon, are introduced and subsequently dropped, only to be brought up again later. These motifs never are expanded upon, and just as the audience expects a character to launch into a long melody, a new character speaks, introducing
16020-541: The genre of opera seria , which became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the 18th century. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buffa . Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera". One reason for this
16198-452: The golden age of opera seria the singer really became the star. The role of the hero was usually written for the high-pitched male castrato voice, which was produced by castration of the singer before puberty , which prevented a boy's larynx from being transformed at puberty. Castrati such as Farinelli and Senesino , as well as female sopranos such as Faustina Bordoni , became in great demand throughout Europe as opera seria ruled
16376-410: The greatest French grand opera , Don Carlos , and ending his career with two Shakespeare-inspired works, Otello and Falstaff , which reveal how far Italian opera had grown in sophistication since the early 19th century. These final two works showed Verdi at his most masterfully orchestrated, and are both incredibly influential, and modern. In Falstaff , Verdi sets the pre-eminent standard for
16554-431: The greatest composers of the day: Johann Adolph Hasse , Giovanni Battista Pergolesi , Alessandro Scarlatti , Leonardo Vinci , Leonardo Leo , Francesco Durante , and Benedetto Marcello , all of whom would later set his plays to melody. Here too he studied the art of singing, and learned to appreciate the style of such men as Farinelli. Metastasio wrote quickly and his plays were enhanced by being set to music and sung by
16732-660: The greatest singers of the day. . Metastasio lived with Bulgarelli and her husband in Rome. Moved by an affection half maternal, half romantic, and by admiration for his talent, she adopted him more passionately even than Gravina had done. She took the whole Trapassi family – father, mother, brother, sisters – into her own house. She fostered the poet's genius and pampered his caprices. Under her influence he wrote in rapid succession Didone abbandonata , Catone in Utica , Ezio , Alessandro nell' Indie , Semiramide riconosciuta , Siroe and Artaserse . These dramas were set to music by
16910-625: The growth of Russian nationalism across the artistic spectrum, as part of the more general Slavophilism movement. In the 20th century, the traditions of Russian opera were developed by many composers including Sergei Rachmaninoff in his works The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini , Igor Stravinsky in Le Rossignol , Mavra , Oedipus rex , and The Rake's Progress , Sergei Prokofiev in The Gambler , The Love for Three Oranges , The Fiery Angel , Betrothal in
17088-416: The income produced from his compositions, for which he was able to ask higher than usual fees. Upon his arrival, he met Antonio Villa of La Scala and composer Saverio Mercadante whose new opera, Il Montanaro was in rehearsal. The latter introduced him to Francesco and Marianna Pollini (an older couple, the husband a retired professor of piano, the wife a better-than-amateur musician) who immediately took
17266-452: The internationally popular The Bartered Bride . Smetana's eight operas created the bedrock of the Czech opera repertory, but of these only The Bartered Bride is performed regularly outside the composer's homeland. After reaching Vienna in 1892 and London in 1895 it rapidly became part of the repertory of every major opera company worldwide. Antonín Dvořák 's nine operas, except his first, have librettos in Czech and were intended to convey
17444-561: The intimacy of the Countess Althann [ it ] , sister-in-law of his old patroness the Princess Belmonte Pignatelli. She had lost her husband, and had some while occupied the post of chief favourite to the emperor. Metastasio's liaison with her became so close that it was believed they had been privately married. Bulgarelli tired of his absence, and asked Metastasio to get her an engagement at
17622-526: The late 18th century. Nevertheless, native forms would develop in spite of this influence. In 1644, Sigmund Staden produced the first Singspiel , Seelewig , a popular form of German-language opera in which singing alternates with spoken dialogue. In the late 17th century and early 18th century, the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg presented German operas by Keiser , Telemann and Handel . Yet most of
17800-609: The leadership Zacharia Paliashvili , who fused local folk songs and stories with 19th-century Romantic classical themes. The key figure of Hungarian national opera in the 19th century was Ferenc Erkel , whose works mostly dealt with historical themes. Among his most often performed operas are Hunyadi László and Bánk bán . The most famous modern Hungarian opera is Béla Bartók 's Duke Bluebeard's Castle . Stanisław Moniuszko 's opera Straszny Dwór (in English The Haunted Manor ) (1861–64) represents
17978-493: The legacy. This disinterested act plunged the Bulgarelli-Metastasio household at Rome into confusion. Bulgarelli's widower married again. Metastasio's brother, Leopoldo Trapassi, and his father and sister, were thrown upon their own resources. As time advanced, the life which Metastasio led at Vienna, together with the climate, told on his health and spirits. From about the year 1745 onward he wrote little, though
18156-484: The libretti for six of Bellini's operas which followed, in addition to about 100 libretti written for the major composers of the day, up to and including Verdi. As has been observed, "no other Italian opera composer of the time showed such an attachment to a single librettist" and although Romani was known to treat composers poorly, he evidently had great respect for Bellini, even acceding to his requests for revisions. For his part, Bellini admired "the sonorous and elegance of
18334-438: The major German composers of the time, including Handel himself, as well as Graun , Hasse and later Gluck , chose to write most of their operas in foreign languages, especially Italian. In contrast to Italian opera, which was generally composed for the aristocratic class, German opera was generally composed for the masses and tended to feature simple folk-like melodies, and it was not until the arrival of Mozart that German opera
18512-499: The most daring and revolutionary. In it, Verdi blurs the distinction between the aria and recitative as it never before was, leading the opera to be "an unending string of duets". La traviata was also novel. It tells the story of courtesan, and it includes elements of verismo or "realistic" opera, because rather than featuring great kings and figures from literature, it focuses on the tragedies of ordinary life and society. After these, he continued to develop his style, composing perhaps
18690-578: The most laudable pieces of new music heard in recent times at the [San Carlo]." However, there were reservations about Gilardoni's contribution. Within nine months, in February/March 1827, Domenico Barbaja offered Bellini a commission for an opera to be presented in the autumn of 1827 at La Scala in Milan, of which between 1821 and 1832, Barbaja was also part of the management. Bellini spent 1827 to 1833 mostly in Milan, never holding any official position within an opera company and living solely from
18868-542: The most obvious stylistic manifestation of modernism in opera is the development of atonality . The move away from traditional tonality in opera had begun with Richard Wagner , and in particular the Tristan chord . Composers such as Richard Strauss , Claude Debussy , Giacomo Puccini , Paul Hindemith , Benjamin Britten and Hans Pfitzner pushed Wagnerian harmony further with a more extreme use of chromaticism and greater use of dissonance. Another aspect of modernist opera
19046-414: The most popular of all opéra comiques. Jules Massenet , Camille Saint-Saëns and Léo Delibes all composed works which are still part of the standard repertory, examples being Massenet's Manon , Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila and Delibes' Lakmé . Their operas formed another genre, the opéra lyrique , combined opéra comique and grand opera. It is less grandiose than grand opera, but without
19224-417: The most significant figure was undoubtedly Wagner . Wagner was one of the most revolutionary and controversial composers in musical history. Starting under the influence of Weber and Meyerbeer , he gradually evolved a new concept of opera as a Gesamtkunstwerk (a "complete work of art"), a fusion of music, poetry and painting. He greatly increased the role and power of the orchestra, creating scores with
19402-578: The music conservatory in Naples at an age well past that required for admission and took an examination in which his compositions were assessed, he was placed in the beginners' class. After 1816, Bellini began living with his grandfather, from whom he received his first music lessons. Soon after, the young composer began to write compositions. Among them were the nine Versetti da cantarsi il Venerdi Santo , eight of which were based on texts by Metastasio . By 1818 Bellini had independently completed several additional orchestral pieces and at least two settings of
19580-458: The musical stage in England. The only exceptions were ballad operas , such as John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera (1728), musical burlesques , European operettas , and late Victorian era light operas , notably the Savoy operas of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan , all of which types of musical entertainments frequently spoofed operatic conventions; these genres contributed significantly to
19758-568: The new intendente of the province of Catania. They encouraged the young man to petition the city fathers for a stipend to support his musical studies. This was successfully achieved in May 1819 with unanimous agreement for a four-year pension to allow him to study at the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano in Naples. Thus, he left Catania in July carrying letters of introduction to several powerful individuals, including Giovanni Carafa who
19936-482: The new genre of grand opera , a form whose most famous exponent was another foreigner, Giacomo Meyerbeer . Meyerbeer's works, such as Les Huguenots , emphasised virtuoso singing and extraordinary stage effects. Lighter opéra comique also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands of Boïeldieu , Auber , Hérold and Adam . In this climate, the operas of the French-born composer Hector Berlioz struggled to gain
20114-497: The normal age for admission, Bellini had submitted ten pieces of music for consideration; these clearly demonstrated his talent, although he did need to do remedial work to correct some of his faulty technique. The focus of study was on the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart , with the emphasis put upon the Italian classical era composers such as Pergolesi and Paisiello , rather than
20292-548: The novel L'étrangère ( Il solitario ) of 1825 by Charles-Victor Prévot, vicomte d'Arlincourt, and planned for the premiere on the opening night of the season on 26 December. However, by 20 September, Bellini told Florimo that he did not think the performance could take place as scheduled due to Romani being ill. In addition, he was concerned about who would sing the tenor role when he had been unable to obtain Rubini's release from his Naples contract. Berardo Calvari (known as Winter)
20470-586: The ones that would follow in Verdi's career, revolutionized Italian opera, changing it from merely a display of vocal fireworks, with Rossini's and Donizetti's works, to dramatic story-telling. Verdi's operas resonated with the growing spirit of Italian nationalism in the post- Napoleonic era, and he quickly became an icon of the patriotic movement for a unified Italy. In the early 1850s, Verdi produced his three most popular operas: Rigoletto , Il trovatore and La traviata . The first of these, Rigoletto , proved
20648-468: The opera and its composer: its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys did not please all. 45 years later it was stated that "Bellini's style was abstruse, discontinuous, distorted, and lacking in distinction, that it alternated among the serio and the buffo and the semi-serio ..." Zaira was the opera which came into being following discussions with Barbaja in Milan in June 1828 for
20826-543: The opera was given a total of 21 times. However, critical reaction was not as positive as that of the audience: "The second act is a long bore" stated L'Eco di Milano , although the Gazzetta di Genova was more helpful, noting "the more we listen to the style of the music, the more we appreciate its merit". Bellini remained in Genoa until 30 April and then returned to Milan, but with no specific opportunity in place. His initial opposition to Comelli-Rubini being allowed to reprise
21004-403: The operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart —focusing more on psychology and less on virtuoso singing—came into vogue, a new style of libretto was needed (Mozart did use an old Metastasio libretto for his renowned opera La clemenza di Tito , but, it was substantially re-written for the purpose). The demise of castrato singing meant that Metastasio's operas dropped out of
21182-479: The operas of Mozart , who wrote in Vienna near the century's close. Leading Italian-born composers of opera seria include Alessandro Scarlatti , Antonio Vivaldi and Nicola Porpora . Opera seria had its weaknesses and critics. The 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
21360-549: The other dominating force in English opera at this time was George Frideric Handel , whose opera serias filled the London operatic stages for decades and influenced most home-grown composers, like John Frederick Lampe , who wrote using Italian models. This situation continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including in the work of Michael William Balfe , and the operas of the great Italian composers, as well as those of Mozart, Beethoven, and Meyerbeer, continued to dominate
21538-572: The period, including Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta , attempted to put these ideals into practice. The first to succeed however, was Gluck. Gluck strove to achieve a "beautiful simplicity". This is evident in his first reform opera, Orfeo ed Euridice , where his non-virtuosic vocal melodies are supported by simple harmonies and a richer orchestra 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
21716-430: The piano at three. By the age of five, he could apparently play "marvelously". The document states that Bellini's first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old and "at seven he was taught Latin, modern languages, rhetoric, and philosophy". Bellini's biographer Herbert Weinstock regards some of these accounts as no more than myths, not being supported from other, more reliable sources. Additionally, he makes
21894-670: The poet's verses" While in Milan, "[Bellini] quickly gained an entrée into higher social circles", although he also stayed for months at a time with friends, the Cantù and the Turina families. It was with Giuditta Turina that he began an affair in 1828 during the premiere performances of Bianca e Fernando in Genoa. The four years in Northern Italy between 1827 and 1831 produced four great masterpieces, Il pirata , I Capuleti e i Montecchi , La sonnambula , and Norma , along with
22072-444: The point in regard to Bellini's apparent knowledge of languages and philosophy: "Bellini never became a well-educated man". Another biographer, Stelios Galatopoulos, discusses the information presented in the précis and accepts some of the evidence for early compositions but expresses skepticism regarding the young Bellini's child prodigy status. He mentions that Bellini never became a "proficient" piano player and, when he later went to
22250-411: The premiere, a date that was—in theory— unchangeable. In fact, it had to be changed due to the inability of Lalande to arrive in time for sufficient rehearsal. Both composer and librettist were somewhat dilatory, delaying work as much and as long as possible. Count Sanvitale's request on 17 April, asking "to let me know the reasons why our copyists are kept idle", did not receive much of response to satisfy
22428-454: The quiet of the southern seashore Metastasio's health revived. Gravina decided that he should never improvise again, but should be reserved for nobler efforts, when, having completed his education, he might enter into competition with the greatest poets. Metastasio responded to his patron's wishes. At the age of twelve he translated the Iliad into octave stanzas; and two years later he composed
22606-511: The quintessential designer of these productions, and this style was to dominate the English stage for three centuries. These masques contained songs and dances. In Ben Jonson 's Lovers Made Men (1617), "the whole masque was sung after the Italian manner, stilo recitativo". The approach of the English Commonwealth closed theatres and halted any developments that may have led to the establishment of English opera. However, in 1656,
22784-526: The repertory. Metastasio's poetry is emotional, lyrical, and romantic. His chief dramatic situations are expressed by lyrics for two or three voices, embodying the several contending passions of the agents brought into conflict by the circumstances of the plot. The total result is not pure literature, but literature fit for musical effect. Language in Metastasio's hands is musical, lucid, and songlike, perhaps due to his experience as an improvisatory poet. He
22962-569: The revisions, and Weinstock asserts that no performances were ever given after 1825, but in March 1829, we find Bellini writing to Florimo that "I have written you the changes that you should make in Adelson ". In the summer or early autumn of 1825 Bellini began work on what was to become his first professionally produced opera. A contract between the Conservatory and the royal theatres obliged
23140-503: The role of Imogene in Il pirata for performances in Naples (as she had done in Vienna—but successfully) was proved to be wrong, since she did sing well there and received general approval. But this issue had caused complications in his relationship with Barbaja, who controlled both theatres, and when he visited Milan in June, he offered Bellini the opportunity to choose between Naples and Milan as
23318-485: The role of Imogene—Rubini's wife, Adelaide Comelli-Rubini, about whom Bellini had initial misgivings, although it appears that she acquitted herself very well. By this time, Bellini had begun to achieve international fame. After Il pirata , Bellini remained in Milan with the hope of securing another commission. One came from Genoa via Bartolomeo Merelli on 13 January 1828 for a new opera for presentation on 7 April. However, without knowing which singers would be engaged, he
23496-750: The same characteristics as described above, though Berg combined his highly personal interpretation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique with melodic passages of a more traditionally tonal nature (quite Mahlerian in character) which perhaps partially explains why his operas have remained in standard repertory, despite their controversial music and plots. Schoenberg's theories have influenced (either directly or indirectly) significant numbers of opera composers ever since, even if they themselves did not compose using his techniques. Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjɛːtro metaˈstaːzjo] ),
23674-544: The score, convinced Conti to introduce him, and [Florimo] reports that Bellini's reaction was that he was "a truly beautiful, big man, and his noble countenance—sweet, but at the same time majestic—arouses affection as well as respect." Increasingly, Bellini did better and better in his studies: in January 1820 he passed his examinations in theory, and was successful enough to gain an annual scholarship, which meant that his stipend from Catania could be used to help his family. In
23852-513: The season ended, it had been sung to fifteen full houses". For Rubini, "it marked the defining performance for the tenor", and the newspaper reviews which followed all agreed with the composer's own assessment. After its Milanese debut, the opera received very successful performances in Vienna in February 1828 and also in Naples three months later. Both productions starred Rubini, Tamburini, and—in
24030-745: The secretary to the papal Nuncio in Vienna. He sank rapidly into the habits of old age; and, though he lived till the year 1782, he was very inactive. He died on 12 April, bequeathing his whole fortune of some 130,000 florins to the six children of Nicolo Martines . He had survived all his Italian relatives. Throughout the forty years of his career in Vienna, in the course of which Metastasio eventually outlived his own originality and creative powers, his fame went on increasing. In his library he counted as many as forty editions of his own works. They had been translated into French, English, German, Spanish, and modern Greek. They had been set to music over and over again by every composer of distinction. They had been sung by
24208-568: The section on modernism . During the late 19th century, the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II , an admirer of the French -language operettas composed by Jacques Offenbach , composed several German-language operettas, the most famous of which was Die Fledermaus . Nevertheless, rather than copying the style of Offenbach, the operettas of Strauss II had distinctly Viennese flavor to them. In rivalry with imported Italian opera productions,
24386-419: The sense "composition in which poetry, dance, and music are combined" in 1639; the first recorded English usage in this sense dates to 1648. Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the " Camerata de' Bardi ". Significantly, Dafne
24564-614: The spoken dialogue of opèra comique . At the same time, the influence of Richard Wagner was felt as a challenge to the French tradition. Many French critics angrily rejected Wagner's music dramas while many French composers closely imitated them with variable success. Perhaps the most interesting response came from Claude Debussy . As in Wagner's works, the orchestra plays a leading role in Debussy's unique opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) and there are no real arias, only recitative. But
24742-401: The stage in every country except France. Farinelli was one of the most famous singers of the 18th century. Italian opera set the Baroque standard. Italian libretti were the norm, even when a German composer like Handel found himself composing the likes of Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare for London audiences. Italian libretti remained dominant in the classical period as well, for example in
24920-525: The structure of a spoken play, such as Shakespeare in Purcell's The Fairy-Queen (1692) and Beaumont and Fletcher in The Prophetess (1690) and Bonduca (1696). The main characters of the play tend not to be involved in the musical scenes, which means that Purcell was rarely able to develop his characters through song. Despite these hindrances, his aim (and that of his collaborator John Dryden )
25098-428: The student body that it was performed every Sunday for a year. With that achievement behind him, it is believed that the young Bellini, who had been away from home for six years, set out for Catania to visit his family. However, some sources attribute the visit to 1824, others to 1825. However, it is known that he was back in Naples by the summer or early autumn of 1825 in order to fulfill a contract to write an opera for
25276-593: The style he wanted. Opera would never be the same after Wagner and for many composers his legacy proved a heavy burden. On the other hand, Richard Strauss accepted Wagnerian ideas but took them in wholly new directions, along with incorporating the new form introduced by Verdi. He first won fame with the scandalous Salome and the dark tragedy Elektra , in which tonality was pushed to the limits. Then Strauss changed tack in his greatest success, Der Rosenkavalier , where Mozart and Viennese waltzes became as important an influence as Wagner. Strauss continued to produce
25454-967: The technique of his peculiar art in its minutest details. The experience gained at Naples and Rome, quickened by the excitement of his new career at Vienna, enabled him almost instinctively, and as it were by inspiration, to hit the exact mark aimed at in the opera. The libretto Adriano in Siria was used by more than 60 other composers in the 18th and early 19th century: Antonio Caldara (1732), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1734), Francesco Maria Veracini (1735), Baldassare Galuppi (1740), Carl Heinrich Graun (1746), Johann Adolph Hasse (1752), Johann Christian Bach (1765), Luigi Cherubini (1782) and in Adriano in Siria (Mysliveček) from 1776. In Vienna Metastasio met with no marked social success. His plebeian birth excluded him from aristocratic circles. To make up in some measure for this comparative failure, he enjoyed
25632-406: The theatre at Vienna , succeeding Pietro Pariati , with a stipend of 3,000 florins. This he at once accepted. Bulgarelli unselfishly sped him on his way to glory. She took charge of his family in Rome and he set off for Austria . In the early summer of 1730, Metastasio settled at Vienna in an apartment in the so-called 'Michaelerhaus'. This date marks a new period in his artistic activity. Between
25810-583: The theatre's management. Eventually, both men got down to work and finished on time, although the premiere was delayed by four days. The general impression given by reports in the press was that, overall, the music was weak, although some numbers and the trio were liked. However, for the most part, the singers were applauded, even if the composer received little. The opera received eight performances, followed by some poorly received ones in Florence in 1836, and then it disappeared until 1976. Opera Opera
25988-482: The theatres' official dramatic poet. However, as Intendant of the San Carlo, "Barbaja was the chief beneficiary: 'With a small investment he found among those young men the one who would lead him to large profits'" notes Florimo. The young composer chose Domenico Gilardoni , a young writer who then prepared his first libretto, which he named Bianca e Fernando , based on an 1820 play, Bianca e Fernando alla tomba di Carlo IV, Duca d'Agrigento and set in Sicily. However,
26166-467: The title Bianca e Fernando had to be changed, because Ferdinando was the name of the heir to the throne , and no form of it could be used on a royal stage. After some delays caused by King Francesco I forcing postponement, the opera—now named Bianca e Gernando —was given its premiere performance at the Teatro di San Carlo on 30 May 1826, Prince Ferdinando's name day. It was very successful, helped by
26344-534: The trend. The changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below . The Italian word opera means "work", both in the sense of the labour done and the result produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin word opera , a singular noun meaning "work" and also the plural of the noun opus . According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the Italian word was first used in
26522-453: The various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below . During both the Baroque and Classical periods , recitative could appear in two basic forms, each of which was accompanied by a different instrumental ensemble: secco (dry) recitative, sung with a free rhythm dictated by the accent of the words, accompanied only by basso continuo , which was usually a harpsichord and
26700-498: The venue for his next opera. For the composer, the decision hung on the availability of singers for each of the houses, especially because Rubini was contracted to sing only in Naples. However, by 16 June, he had decided on the location to be Milan, and then signed a contract to write a new opera for the Carnival season for a fee of one thousands ducati, compared to 150 ducati for his first opera. For La straniera , Bellini received
26878-403: The words in front of him in order to see how inspired to compose he might become. When it came time to compose the final aria Or sei pago, ol ciel tremendo , the librettist's words gave him no inspiration at all and, at their next meeting, Romani agreed to re-write the text. Returning within half an hour, the second version left Bellini equally cold—as did a third draft. Finally, when asked what it
27056-455: The work of his profession. He migrated to Naples, and entered the office of an eminent lawyer named Castagnola, who exercised severe control over his time and energies. While slaving at the law, Metastasio in 1721 composed an epithalamium , and probably also his first musical serenade, Endimione ( Endymion ), on the occasion of the marriage of his patroness Donna Anna Francesca Ravaschieri Pinelli di Sangro (later 6th Principessa di Belmonte) to
27234-399: The world's opera stages with such popular works as Giacomo Puccini 's La bohème , Tosca , and Madama Butterfly . Later Italian composers, such as Berio and Nono , have experimented with modernism . The first German opera was Dafne , composed by Heinrich Schütz in 1627, but the music score has not survived. Italian opera held a great sway over German-speaking countries until
27412-529: The years 1730 and 1740 his finest dramas, Adriano in Siria , Demetrio , Issipile , Demofoonte , Olimpiade , Clemenza di Tito , Achille in Sciro , Temistocle and Attilio Regolo , were produced for the imperial theatre. Some of them had to be composed for special occasions, with almost incredible rapidity: Achille in eighteen days, Ipermestra in nine. Poet, composer, musical copyist and singer did their work together in frantic haste. Metastasio understood
27590-525: The young man under their wing. In addition, Bellini was introduced to the librettist Felice Romani , who proposed the subject of the composer's first project, Il pirata , to which the young man willingly agreed especially when he realised that the story "provided several passionate and dramatic situations.. [and]..that such Romantic characters were then an innovation on the operatic stage." A strong professional relationship with Romani began from that time; he became Bellini's primary creative partner, providing
27768-508: Was Tsefal i Prokris by the Italian composer Francesco Araja (1755). The development of Russian-language opera was supported by the Russian composers Vasily Pashkevich , Yevstigney Fomin and Alexey Verstovsky . However, the real birth of Russian opera came with Mikhail Glinka and his two great operas A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842). After him, during
27946-425: Was "clearly captivated by the music of Rossini [and] put Rossini on a pedestal", he relates that, returning from Semiramide Bellini was unusually quiet and then "suddenly exclaimed to his companions, 'Do you know what I think? After Semiramide , it's futile for us to try and achieve anything!'" But a tougher challenge confronted the young composer: how to win the hand of young Maddalena Fumarolis, whom he had met as
28124-428: Was able to match its Italian counterpart in musical sophistication. The theatre company of Abel Seyler pioneered serious German-language opera in the 1770s, marking a break with the previous simpler musical entertainment. Mozart 's Singspiele , Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) and Die Zauberflöte (1791) were an important breakthrough in achieving international recognition for German opera. The tradition
28302-449: Was able to move beyond the Italian influences and create his own unique and distinctly English voice. His modernized ballad opera, Love in a Village (1762), began a vogue for pastiche opera that lasted well into the 19th century. Charles Burney wrote that Arne introduced "a light, airy, original, and pleasing melody, wholly different from that of Purcell or Handel, whom all English composers had either pillaged or imitated". Besides Arne,
28480-511: Was an Italian poet and librettist , considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti. Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi , had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the Via dei Cappellari . The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro
28658-409: Was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still not as cultured as the nobility, to the public opera houses . These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte , a long-flourishing improvisatory stage tradition of Italy. Just as intermedi had once been performed in between
28836-539: Was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama , part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance . The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. Dafne , however, is lost. A later work by Peri, Euridice , dating from 1600,
29014-714: Was brought to Russia in the 1730s by the Italian operatic troupes and soon it became an important part of entertainment for the Russian Imperial Court and aristocracy . Many foreign composers such as Baldassare Galuppi , Giovanni Paisiello , Giuseppe Sarti , and Domenico Cimarosa (as well as various others) were invited to Russia to compose new operas, mostly in the Italian language . Simultaneously some domestic musicians of Ukrainian origin like Maxim Berezovsky and Dmitry Bortniansky were sent abroad to learn to write operas. The first opera written in Russian
29192-526: Was developed by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) whose most famous work Zaporozhets za Dunayem (A Cossack Beyond the Danube) is regularly performed around the world. Other Ukrainian opera composers include Mykola Lysenko ( Taras Bulba and Natalka Poltavka ), Heorhiy Maiboroda , and Yuliy Meitus . At the turn of the century, a distinct national opera movement also began to emerge in Georgia under
29370-483: Was developed in the 19th century by Beethoven with his Fidelio (1805), inspired by the climate of the French Revolution . Carl Maria von Weber established German Romantic opera in opposition to the dominance of Italian bel canto . His Der Freischütz (1821) shows his genius for creating a supernatural atmosphere. Other opera composers of the time include Marschner , Schubert and Lortzing , but
29548-756: Was fully staged in 1945 in Armenia. The first years of the Soviet Union saw the emergence of new national operas, such as the Koroğlu (1937) by the Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov . The first Kyrgyz opera, Ai-Churek , premiered in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre on 26 May 1939, during Kyrgyz Art Decade. It was composed by Vladimir Vlasov , Abdylas Maldybaev and Vladimir Fere . The libretto
29726-466: Was introduced was Gaetano Donizetti whose ninth opera—which had been a great success in Rome—was given at the Teatro di San Carlo . About 50 years later, Florimo gave an account of the meeting of the two men: "Carlo Conti [one of Bellini's tutors] said to Bellini and me, "Go and hear Donizetti's La zingara , for which my admiration increases at every performance." After hearing the opera, Bellini acquired
29904-527: Was less enthusiastic. Most musicologists now assess Bellini positively, though some question the quality of his work. Many of his operas, including Pirata , Capuleti , Sonnambula , Norma , and Puritani are regularly performed at major opera houses throughout the world. Born in Catania , at the time part of the Kingdom of Sicily , the eldest of seven children in the family, he became a child prodigy within
30082-403: Was not permitted to go back over what already had been done; and poetry and music were finished in less than a month". This short period of time compares to the months which, for example, it took Bellini to write Il pirata . In fact, Bellini arrived in Parma on 17 March giving him 56 days before the opening, but he then learned that some of the singers would only arrive 14 days before the date of
30260-400: Was rejected because audiences had disliked him the previous July when he appeared in both a Pacini and a Donizetti opera at La Scala. Fortunately, having received good reports of the young tenor Domenico Reina , he was able to secure his services, describing him in a letter to Florimo as "one who will want to do himself honour; everyone tells me that his voice is beautiful, and that he has all
30438-424: Was that he was seeking, Bellini replied: "I want a thought that will be at one and the same time a prayer, an imprecation, a warning, a delirium ...". A fourth draft was quickly prepared: "Have I entered into your spirit?" asked the librettist—and he was embraced by the young composer. Rehearsals began in early January with the premiere planned for 14 February 1829; it was an immediate and resounding success with
30616-464: Was the intendente of the Real Collegio as well as being in charge of the city's royal theatres. The young Bellini was to live in Naples for the following eight years. The Conservatorio di San Sebastiano (as it had been named when the original Real Collegio di Musica, established in 1806 and then renamed as such in 1808) had moved to more spacious facilities close to the church of Gesù Novo and
30794-535: Was the 17th-century jig . This was an afterpiece that came at the end of a play. It was frequently libellous and scandalous and consisted in the main of dialogue set to music arranged from popular tunes. In this respect, jigs anticipate the ballad operas of the 18th century. At the same time, the French masque was gaining a firm hold at the English Court, with even more lavish splendour and highly realistic scenery than had been seen before. Inigo Jones became
30972-418: Was the first English composer to experiment with Italian-style all-sung comic opera, with his greatest success being Thomas and Sally in 1760. His opera Artaxerxes (1762) was the first attempt to set a full-blown opera seria in English and was a huge success, holding the stage until the 1830s. Although Arne imitated many elements of Italian opera, he was perhaps the only English composer at that time who
31150-470: Was the younger son. Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina , famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy , and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro his protégé ; in
31328-415: Was to establish serious opera in England, but these hopes ended with Purcell's early death at the age of 36. Following Purcell, the popularity of opera in England dwindled for several decades. A revived interest in opera occurred in the 1730s which is largely attributed to Thomas Arne , both for his own compositions and for alerting Handel to the commercial possibilities of large-scale works in English. Arne
31506-406: Was unwilling to commit at that time, but remained in hope of something definite from La Scala for the autumn. When no alternatives appeared, he accepted Genoa's offer in February, but it was then too late to write anything new. He immediately proposed a revival and re-working of Bianca e Gernando , this time with the original title Bianca e Fernando , there being no royal by the name of Fernando in
31684-549: Was written by Joomart Bokonbaev, Jusup Turusbekov, and Kybanychbek Malikov. The opera is based on the Kyrgyz heroic epic Manas . In Iran, opera gained more attention after the introduction of Western classical music in the late 19th century. However, it took until mid 20th century for Iranian composers to start experiencing with the field, especially as the construction of the Roudaki Hall in 1967, made possible staging of
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