Opera: Opera (opera) is a synthesis that integrates music (vocal and instrumental music), drama (script and performance), literature (poetry), dance (folk dance and ballet), stage art, etc. Sexual art usually consists of arias, recitatives, duets, choruses, overtures, intermezzos, dance scenes, etc. (sometimes spoken and recited). As early as ancient Greek dramas, there were chorus accompaniments, and some recitations even appeared in the form of singing. In the Middle Ages, miracle plays based on religious stories and promoting religious views were also popular and continued. But modern Western opera, which can truly be called "musical drama", came into being with the secularization of music culture during the Renaissance in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
The origin of opera
It is generally believed that European opera originated at the end of the 16th century. The first opera recognized in the West is "Daphne" (also translated as "Daphne"), which was produced under the influence of humanism in an attempt to restore the spirit of ancient Greek drama. It was written by O. Rinuccini and composed by J. Perry. With J. Corsi, it was performed in the court of Count G. Bardi in Florence in 1597 (some say it was completed in 1594). Due to the loss of the original manuscript of the play, some people also believe that it was performed in 1600 to celebrate the wedding of Henry IV. He wrote "Euridice" as the earliest Western opera. Due to the public's popularity with opera, the world's first opera house was built in Venice in 1637.
The development of opera
At the end of the 17th century, the Neapolitan opera school represented by Asia 6?1 Scarlatti had the greatest influence in Rome. This music school did not use chorus and ballet scenes in the play, but highly developed the solo singing technique known as "Bel Canto" in later generations. When this style of "singing work first" goes to extremes, the opera's original dramatic expressiveness and ideological connotation are almost lost. As a result, in the 1720s, the comic opera genre, which was based on daily life, had humorous plots and simple music, emerged. The first example of Italian comic opera is Pagolesi's "The Housewife" (premiered in 1733). The play was originally an interlude of a serious opera. When it was performed in Paris in 1752, it was He was slandered by conservatives, thus setting off the famous "Comic Opera Controversy" in the history of opera. The first comic opera in France, "The Soothsayer" written by Rousseau, was born under the inspiration of this debate and this opera.
Italian opera was the first to be transformed in France and combined with French national culture. Lully was the founder of French opera ("lyrical tragedy"). In addition to creating solo melodies that were closely integrated with French, he also pioneered the use of ballet scenes in opera. In England, Purcell created Britain's first national opera, Didon and Aeneas, based on the country's masquerade tradition. In Germany and Austria, folk operas were developed into German and Austrian national operas by Haydn, Dietersdorf, Mozart and others. Representative works include Mozart's "The Magic Flute". By the 18th century, Gluck, aiming at the mediocrity and superficiality of operas in Naples at that time, insisted that operas must have profound content, music and drama must be unified, and the performance should be simple and natural. His ideas and works such as "Orfeo and Eurydice" and "Iphigenes in Olyd" had a great influence on the development of opera in later generations.
After the 19th century, Italy’s G. Rossini, G. Verdi, G. Puccini, Germany’s R. Wagner, France’s G. Bizet, Russia’s M.I. Glinka, Opera masters such as M.P. Mussorgsky and P.N. Tchaikovsky have made important contributions to the development of opera. "Opera" (operettta, meaning: little opera), which was formed in the 18th century, has evolved and developed into an independent genre. Its characteristics are: short structure, popular music, in addition to solo, duet, chorus, and dance, it also uses spoken language. The Austrian composer Sobey and the French composer Offen Bach, originally from Germany, are the founders of this genre.
Among the opera composers of the 20th century, the early representative figure was Richard Strauss ("Salome", "Den Rosenkavalier") who was influenced by Wagner; Berg ("Wozzeck") who applied the principle of atonality in opera creation; since the 1940s: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Milhaud, Manotti, Barbier, Orff, Janastella, Henze, More and the famous British composer Britten, etc.