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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 aria『Ombra mai fù』(originally written for the soprano castrato Caffarelli) from George Frideric Handel's Serse (1738) gained popularity in the 19th century, and proved enduringly popular, being adapted to many voice types and as a popular instrumental piece ("Handel's Largo"). This 1920 recording by tenor Enrico Caruso is one of his last.
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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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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
List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi List of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber
Marian Anderson W. H. Auden 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
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