Before
opera, entertainments of instrumental music, singing, dances, and speeches were
presented in celebration for the court called "Intermezzos". They had
fantastic stage effects, costumes, singing, and dancing, and would have wild,
entertaining themes. Music, however, soon became used for more than just the
ceremonies, as it was noticed that, “music could express mood, define
character, and enliven dramatic situations, sometimes more eloquently than
verbal expression alone,” (Sorabella). In
1597, the Florentine Camerata, a board of artists living in Florence, Italy,
decided to revive classic Greek theatre by incorporating music. Around this time, the first opera, Dafne,
composed by Jacopo Peri, was performed with the actors singing throughout the
entire production. From here, opera progressed to more elaborate stories, but
often kept the “fable in music” idea. Opera remained for the high class, but
with the death of the duke of Mantua, it was made accessible to the public
instead of just the wealthy. Opera now began to stray from its classic
storyline of Greek history and became more about bel canto music and dancing,
and with pieces like Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, virtuosos and technical
skills of the performers were highlighted. Opera also spread to England and
Germany in the 1700s through composers like Handel. The spread sparked Gluck’s
emotional operatic reform, saying it should “aim for ‘simplicity, truth and naturalness'
and should 'serve poetry by expressing the drama of the plot, without
unnecessary interruption or superfluous ornament',” (Gascoigne). The focus was now tell a story, rather than
just represent the technique in dancing and singing. In 1787, Mozart furthered
the traditional boundaries even more. Pieces like The Marriage of Figaro, which
was “indeed something new in opera, combining comedy and passion in a
heightened intensity, through the genius of Mozart's music, while yet remaining
in close touch with recognizable everyday reality,” (Gascoigne). His stories of
strange rituals, romance, and rough comedy became popular with people of all
classes.
The
Romantic period strayed from the “at home” feeling and relatabilty of classical
opera to an interest in the exotic, historical, and irrational. Sets became
bigger, costumes more elaborate, effects more lavish, and casts larger. Romance
was still a popular theme, but in operas like Bizet’s Carmen, it had a
different Spanish flavor that appealed to his French audience. With these
operas, "the passion, violence, and impropriety so prominently featured in
opera ran contrary to the ideals of contemporary bourgeois society, and artists'
portrayals of spectators, particularly women, watching from the privacy of
their boxes suggest the constraints placed upon them as well as the attraction
of opera's cathartic subject matter," (Sorabella). Wagner unified these complex
storylines in his operas in which drama, staging, music, and dancing would all
be parts of the whole. In the romantic years, opera became the ultimate art
form for all genders, nations, and people. From the beginning to now, opera has
prized itself on its balance of music, drama, and dance, and has exemplified
the culture and the people to whom it belongs.
