Portal:Opera

The Opera Portal Oslo Opera House 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. More about Opera... Selected article The Fairy-Queen (Z.629) is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a Restoration spectacular. It was first performed on 2 May 1692 at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, in London by the United Company. The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Presumably the author or at least co-author of the libretto is Thomas Betterton, the manager of Dorset Garden Theatre with whom Purcell worked regularly. This assumption is based on an analysis of Betterton's stage directions. A collaboration between several playwrights is also feasible. Choreography for the various dances was provided by Josias Priest, who also worked on Dioclesian and King Arthur, and who was associated with Dido and Aeneas. Purcell did not set any of Shakespeare's text to music; instead he composed music for short masques in every act but the first. The play itself was also slightly modernized in keeping with seventeenth-century dramatic conventions, but in the main the spoken text is as Shakespeare wrote it. The masques are related to the play metaphorically, rather than literally. Many critics have stated erroneously that they bear no relationship to the play, but recent scholarship has shown that the opera, which ends with a masque featuring Hymen, the god of marriage, was actually composed for the fifteenth wedding anniversary of William and Mary. Featured picture Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan Credit: Alfred Bryan Gilbert and Sullivan created fourteen comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado, many of which are still frequently performed today. However, events around their 1889 collaboration, The Gondoliers, led to an argument and a lawsuit dividing the two. In 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation by the pair and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, Tom Chappell, stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded. This cartoon in The Entr'acte expresses the magazine's pleasure at the reuniting of D'Oyly Carte (left), Gilbert (centre), and Sullivan (right). 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. More anniversaries... Selected biography Jessie Bond (10 January 1853 – 17 June 1942) was an English singer and actress best known for creating the mezzo-soprano soubrette roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. She spent twenty years on the stage, the bulk of them with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Bond began a concert singing career in Liverpool by 1870, after which, at the age of 17, she entered into a brief, unhappy marriage. After leaving her abusive husband, she continued her concert career and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. At the age of 25, Bond began her theatrical career, creating the role of Cousin Hebe in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. After this, she created roles of increasing importance with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in a series of successful comic operas, including the title role in Iolanthe (1882), Pitti Sing in The Mikado (1885), and others. During the 1890s, she continued performing on the West End, while being courted by Lewis Ransome, a civil engineer. In 1897, at the age of 44, Bond married Ransome and left the stage. They were happily married for 25 years; however, she survived Ransome by twenty years, living to the age of 89. Selected quote Selected audio From Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, sung by Frances Alda (1919). Did you know... ... that composer Egidio Duni (pictured) was particularly influential in creating a new genre of opera which blended Italian opera elements with traditional French ones? ... that Vivaldi's opera Griselda is based on the folklore character Griselda as told by Giovanni Boccaccio in the The Decameron? ... that Anthony, Charles, Cecilia, Isabella, Sr., Isabella, Jr., Esther, Elizabeth, and Polly Young were part of an English family of musicians that included several professional opera singers and organists in the 17th and 18th centuries? WikiProjects Parent projects WikiProject Arts • WikiProject Music • WikiProject Theatre Main project WikiProject Opera Descendant projects WikiProject Richard Wagner • WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan Similar projects WikiProject Classical music • WikiProject Composers What are WikiProjects? Opera 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 Featured content Featured articles Agrippina (opera) L'Ange de Nisida L'Arianna The Bartered Bride Georges Bizet Benjamin Britten Alan Bush Carmen English National Opera Falstaff (opera) Kathleen Ferrier Gianni Schicchi Handel's lost Hamburg operas His Majesty's Theatre, London L'incoronazione di Poppea Lost operas by Claudio Monteverdi Jules Massenet Felix Mendelssohn André Messager Claudio Monteverdi Carl Nielsen Nixon in China Noye's Fludde Jacques Offenbach L'Orfeo Orpheus in the Underworld Les pêcheurs de perles Maurice Ravel Rhinemaidens Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Rinaldo (opera) Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria Gioachino Rossini The Royal Opera Bedřich Smetana Charles Villiers Stanford Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Michael Tippett Tosca Richard Wagner Featured lists List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi List of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber Good articles Marian Anderson W. H. Auden Maxim Berezovsky Helena Braun Ferruccio Busoni Richard D'Oyly Carte The Castafiore Emerald Soňa Červená Patrice Chéreau Erik Chisholm Graham Clark (tenor) Ryland Davies Doctor Ox's Experiment (opera) John Thomas Douglass Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha The Fairy-Queen Fatinitza Fire Shut Up in My Bones Éva Gauthier Johanna Geisler Stephen Gould (tenor) Grant Park Music Festival Grounded (opera) Edita Gruberová Robert Hale (bass-baritone) Cecelia Hall (mezzo-soprano) Julius Harrison Magdalena Hinterdobler Leoš Janáček Enriqueta Legorreta Berit Lindholm The Maiden in the Tower Giacomo Meyerbeer Beatriz Michelena Tamara Milashkina Nabucco Nausicaa (opera) Jessye Norman Opera in Ukraine Orfeo ed Euridice Antonio Paoli Sergei Prokofiev Maria Radner Robert le diable Gabriele Schnaut Franz Schubert Johann Strauss II Twice Through the Heart Va tacito e nascosto Giuseppe Verdi Claude Vivier Wales Millennium Centre Welsh National Opera Portia White Steuart Wilson Rachel Yakar Featured pictures 1899 poster of Mme. M. Sissieretta Jones Adolphe-Joseph-Louis Alizard from Le Charivari Advertisement for the music score of La Bohème, 1895 Aida poster colors fixed Al quartiere latino, bozzetto di Adolf Hohenstein per La Bohème (1896) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000086 - Restoration Albert Pierre-René Maignan - Jules Massenet - Ariane Albert Reiss LOC ggbain-25651 Alexandre Charles Lecocq - Giuseppe Verdi - La forza del destino Alexandre Fragonard - Scène de L'orage (Barbier de Séville) Alexandre Lacauchie - Gilbert Duprez as Gaston in Verdi's Jérusalem Alfredo Edel - Jules Massenet - Le mage Alice Neilsen's production of Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller Amilcare Ponchielli (before 1886) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO000794 - Restoration Amédée Forestier - Illustrated London News - Gilbert and Sullivan - Ruddygore (Ruddigore) Anna Fernqvist, rollporträtt - SMV - H1 122 - Restoration Atelier Nadar - Fly scene from Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers with Jeanne Granier as Eurydice and Eugène Vauthier as Jupiter, 1887 revival, wide-angle shot Atelier Nadar - Galli-Marié in Bizet's Carmen Atelier Nadar - Jacques Isnardon, Vaudeville Auguste François-Marie Gorguet - poster for the première performance of Édouard Lalo's Le roi d'Ys (1888) Barbier, Jules, Nadar, Gallica Boris Kustodiev - Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin - Google Art Project Carl Nielsen c. 1908 - Restoration Carloz Schwabe - Vincent d'Indy's Fervaal Cavalleria Rusticana - Alfio and Turiddu embrace Cavalleria Rusticana - Santuzza and Turiddu outside the church Charles Gounod (1890) by Nadar Charles Motte - Rossini et Georges IV - la soirée de Brighton Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act 3, Scene 2 set Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act III, Scene 1 set design (Version 2) Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for Act V, Scene 2 of Fromental Halévy's La reine de Chypre Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for the première of Rossini's Robert Bruce, Act III, Scene 3 Cherubini, Luigi - Medea - Restoration Christine Nilsson Nadar Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 1st scene Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 2nd scene Collina presso Nagasaki, bozzetto di Alexandre Bailly, Marcel Jambon per Madama Butterfly (1906) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000079 - Restoration Composer Rossini G 1865 by Carjat - Restoration Célestin Nanteuil - Jules Massenet - Don César de Bazan Dudley Hardy - Poster for His Majesty Edmond Cavé 1844 Ingres - NY Met Museum of Art Elliott & Fry - photograph W. S. Gilbert Ethel Smyth Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Guillaume Tell - 1-3. Laure Cinti-Damoreau as Mathilde, Adolphe Nourrit as Arnold Melchtal, and Nicolas Levasseur as Walter Furst Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Les Huguenots - 2. Julie Dorus-Gras as Marguerite, Adolphe Nourrit as Raoul, and Cornélie Falcon as Valentine Eugène Grasset - Jules Massenet - Werther Falka - Weir Collection Falstaff 3 Fausta Labia, porträtt - SMV - H5 028 - Restoration François-Joseph Bélanger - Set design for Gluck's Alceste Fromental Halévy, L'Éclair score cover - Restoration Georges Rochegrosse - Henry Février - Henri Cain and Louis Payen after Victorien Sardou - Gismonda Georges Rochegrosse - Jules Massenet - Roma Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for Gabriel Fauré's Pénélope (1913) Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for the prèmiere of Claude Debussy and Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande Georges Rochegrosse's poster for Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte Geraldine Ulmar in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado - photograph only Giacomo Puccini (1924) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO003293 - Restoration Gilbert Duprez & Rosine Stoltz in Donizetti's La Favorite Giuseppe Barberis - Carlo Cornaglia - Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo at La Scala Giuseppe Verdi, Giovanna d'Arco, Vocal Score - Restoration Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata title page - Restoration Giuseppe Verdi, Lombardi alla prima crociata. Libretto, 1843 - Restoration Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, Vocal score illustration by Roberto Focosi - Restoration Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra first edition libretto for the 1881 revision of the opera - Restoration Giuseppe Verdi, Un Ballo in maschera, Vocal score frontispiece - restoration H. M. Brock - Gilbert and Sullivan - D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Ruddigore revival 1921 H. M. Brock - Poster for Iolanthe H.J. Whitlock - Photograph of Arthur Sullivan Haydée, ou Le secret Act II - Philippe Chaperon Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration Hector Berlioz, La Prise de Troie score cover - Restoration Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens vocal score cover - Restoration Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens à Carthage vocal score cover - Restoration Henri C. R. Presseq - Camille Erlanger - Le juif polonais Henry Atwell Thomas - Franz von Suppé - Fatinitza Il signor Tambourossini - Delaroche Il trovatore by Luigi Morgari Illustrated London News - Giuseppe Verdi's Attila at Her Majesty's Theatre, London Iolanthe piano transcriptions by Ernst Perabo Ivor Novello Jacques Offenbach - A. Jannin - Robinson Crusoé Jacques Offenbach by Nadar Jean de Paleologu - Jules Massenet - Sapho Jeremiah Gurney - Photograph of Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa Johann Strauss II by Fritz Luckhardt John Phillip Sousa - De Wolf Hopper - El Capitan1 Joseph Albert - Ludwig und Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Tristan und Isolde, 1865f Jules Massenet - Le Cid 2e Acte, 3e Tableau - L'Illustration Jules Massenet - Le Cid 3e Acte, 6e Tableau - L'Illustration Jules Massenet by Eugène Pirou La Juive Act 1 set 1835 - Restoration Le comte Ory - Dubois & chez Martinet - Final scene Lilly Walleni in Daria at Kungliga Operan 1907 - SMV - NV059 Louis Guéymard as Robert le Diable by Gustave Courbet - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 436015 (cropped) Lucy Arbell as Queen Amahelli in Massenet's Bacchus, wide view Lucy Arbell in Massenet's Thérèse Lucy Arbell photographed by Paul Nadar Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Gaetano Donizetti - Carrefour de St Jean et Paul. Dans l'Opéra Marino Faliero Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Vincenzo Bellini - Théatre Royal Italien. Salle d'armes dans l'Opéra I Puritani M. Browne - Herbert Railton - Sydney Grundy - Arthur Sullivan - Haddon Hall Mademoiselle Maupin de l'Opéra (Julie d'Aubigny) Mademoiselle Priola de l'Opéra Comique, rôle de Javotte dans "Le Roi l'a dit" de Delibes Magna Lykseth in Tristan och Isolde at Kungliga Operan 1909 - SMV - GL164 Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model Maria Carrara Verdi, Barberina Strepponi, Giuseppe Verdi, Giuditta Ricordi, Teresa Stolz, Umberto Campanari, Giulio Ricordi, Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1900) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO003107 - Restoration Marian Anderson Maritana - Nov 22 1845 Illustrated London News Max Brückner - Otto Henning - Richard Wagner - Final scene of Götterdämmerung Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots - Décor Acte II Michael William Balfe - Atelier Nadar Napoli, strada Acquaquilia, bozzetto di Riccardo Salvadori per A Basso Porto (1894) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON002556 Nelly Martyl by Jean Reutlinger (Image 10715) Paul Maurou - Poster for Edmond Audran's Gillette de Narbonne Percy Anderson - Poster for The Duchess of Dantzic Philippe Chaperon - Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots Act I (1896) Philippe Chaperon - Rigoletto Philippe Chaperon by Atelier Nadar Pierre Gaveaux by Edmé Quenedey (1821) Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Giulietta act Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Olympia act Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, prologue Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri - Eugène Cicéri - Philippe Benoist - Adolphe Jean Baptiste Bayot - Décorations de théâtre, Robert le diable, 3e act PikiWiki Israel 13773 AIDA AT MASADA 2011 Portrait of Madame Dugazon (Louise Rosalie Lefèvre), in the title rôle of Nina (Scene V) Poster for Burnand and Sullivan's Cox and Box - Royal Gallery of Illustration Poster for Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago at the Royal Gallery of Illustration Poster for Jules Massenet's La Navarraise with Emma Calvé in the rôle of Anita Poster for Le pardon de Ploërmel 1859 Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2 Prudent-Louis Leray - Poster for the première of Georges Bizet's Carmen Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for A Sensation Novel Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan's The Contrabandista Rosa Raisa (1917) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO002701 - Restoration Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act1 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1871 Cairo - Gallica - Restored Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act4 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1880 Paris Strauss, Richard - Ariadne auf Naxos - Restoration Tavola 5, bozzetto di Gebrüder Brückner per Tannhäuser (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON011721 - Restoration, crop Teatro Municipal de São Paulo 8 The Mikado Chappell Vocal Score cover (c.1895) Thespis - Illustrated London News Jan 6 1872 Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom Utopia Limited Poster Vasta spianata presso Courtray, bozzetto di Giuseppe Palanti per Edgar (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000128 B Verdi conducting Aida in Paris 1880 - Gallica - Restoration Wally (soprano), figurino di Adolf Hohenstein per La Wally (1892) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON004639 - Restoration Wilhelm - Costume design for Arac, Gunon, and Scynthius (Princess Ida, 1884) Édouard de Reszke by Nadar (BPL Hale Coll) Émile Bertrand - Jules Massenet - Cendrillon poster Featured portals Portal:Opera Featured topics Operas by Claudio Monteverdi Things you can do Add {{Portal|Opera}} to the See also section of opera-related articles. 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