Portal:Opera

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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera) which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597), and was championed by Claudio Monteverdi with works such as L'Orfeo. It soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid to late 19th century is considered by some a golden age of opera, led by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. This 'golden age' developed through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in 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 (Schoenberg and Berg), Neo-Classicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. Operas were also performed on (and written for) radio and television.

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The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it opened in 1732 and served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented, and a year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building.

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La favorite

Credit: Émile Desmaisons after François-Gabriel Lépaulle; restored by Adam Cuerden

Frontispiece to the first edition vocal score of Gaetano Donizetti's La favorite which premiered in 1840. The opera's story unfolds against the background of the Moorish invasions of Spain and power struggles between church and state. At its centre is a love triangle involving the King of Castile, Alfonso XI, his mistress ('the favourite') Léonor, and her lover Fernand. The frontispiece shows Rosine Stoltz and Gilbert Duprez, the original Léonor and Fernand.

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In this month

3 November 1864 - George Alexander Macfarren's Helvellyn had its world premiere at the Covent Garden Theater in London.
12 November 1898 – Enrique Granados' opera María del Carmen had its world premiere at the Teatro de Parish in Madrid.
13 November 1868 – Gioachino Rossini, the composer of The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola, William Tell and 36 other operas, died in Paris at the age of 76.
17 November 1898 – Umberto Giordano's opera Fedora had its world premiere in Rome conducted by Giordano himself with Gemma Bellincioni in the title role.
17 November 1936 – The celebrated contralto, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, died in Los Angeles at the age of 75.
27 November 1758 – Senesino (pictured), the Italian castrato singer who created 17 leading roles in Handel's operas, died in Siena, the city of his birth, at the age of 72.
27 November 1880 – Rome's main opera house, the Teatro Costanzi (now known as the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma), was officially inaugurated with a performance of Rossini's Semiramide.
29 November 1797 – Gaetano Donizetti, the composer of Lucia di Lammermoor, La fille du régiment, and L'elisir d'amore was born in Bergamo.
30 November 1866 – The tenor and opera impresario, Andreas Dippel, was born in Kassel, Germany.

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Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity. Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of 12 and was educated at music school in Bologna. His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. Between 1810 and 1823 he wrote 34 operas that were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Naples and elsewhere. His most popular works include the comic operas L'italiana in Algeri, The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola, which brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa. He also composed opera seria works such as Otello, Tancredi and Semiramide. All of these attracted admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and instrumental colour, and dramatic form.

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Rossini, in music, is the genius of sheer animal spirits. It is a species as inferior to that of Mozart, as the cleverness of a smart boy is to that of a man of sentiment; but it is genius nevertheless. — James Henry Leigh Hunt

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"Donna non vidi mai"

From Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut, sung by Enrico Caruso in 1913.

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Did you know?

... that the majority of the more than 90 stage works composed by Thomas Arne (pictured) are now lost, probably destroyed in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808?
... that Partenope was the first opera written by an American-born composer?
... that opera singer Nell Rankin used her pet jaguar, King Tut, as a negotiating tool at the Metropolitan Opera?

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Parent projects

WikiProject Arts • WikiProject Music • WikiProject Theatre

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WikiProject Opera

Descendant projects

WikiProject Richard Wagner • WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan

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WikiProject Classical music • WikiProject Composers

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Main topics

Opera history: Origins of opera • Italian opera • Opera in German • French opera • Opera in English • Polish opera • Russian opera • Hungarian opera • Armenian opera • Opera in Latin America

Opera genres: Azione teatrale · Ballad opera · Comédie en vaudevilles · Comédie mêlée d'ariettes · Dramma giocoso · Dramma per musica · Farsa · Festa teatrale · Género chico · Grand Opera · Music Drama · Opéra-ballet · Opera buffa · Opéra bouffe · Opéra bouffon · Opéra comique · Opéra féerie · Opera semiseria · Opera seria · Operetta · Pastorale héroïque · Romantische Oper · Savoy opera · Semi-opera · Singspiel · Spieloper · Tragédie en musique · Verismo · Zarzuela · Zeitoper

Opera terms: Aria · Aria di sorbetto · Arioso · Bel canto · Breeches role · Burletta · Cabaletta · Cadenza · Cantabile · Castrato · Cavatina · Chest voice · Claque · Coloratura · Comprimario · Convenienze · Coup de glotte · Da capo aria · Diva · Entr'acte · Fach · Falsetto · Fioritura · Gesamtkunstwerk · Head voice · Intermezzo · Kammersänger · Leitmotif · Legato · Libretto · Literaturoper · Mad scene · Maestro · Melodrama · Melodramma · Monodrama · Messa di voce · Opera house · Passaggio · Portamento · Prima donna · Prompter · Recitative · Regietheater · Répétiteur · Sitzprobe · Spinto · Sprechgesang · Squillo · Stagione · Surtitles · Tessitura · Timbre · Vibrato

Opera voices: Baritenor · Baritone · Bass · Bass-baritone · Coloratura soprano · Contralto · Countertenor · Dramatic soprano · Haute-contre · Lyric soprano · Mezzo-soprano · Soprano · Soubrette · Spinto soprano · Tenor · Tenore contraltino · Tenore di grazia

Opera lists: Opera topics • List of operas by composer • Important operas • Major opera composers • Opera librettists • Opera houses • Opera companies • Opera festivals • Opera directors • Operetta composers • Orphean operas • Zarzuela composers • Opera genres • Operas set in the Crusades • The Record of Singing • Bayreuth canon

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