An Overview of Opera and Opera History 2/17/16 Everything you ever wanted to know about … Opera Elements of opera …In 30 minutes! • Music (singing and instruments) •Elements of opera • Drama (text and characters in a plot) •Opera types • Spectacle (scenery, costumes, props) •Opera History • Dance (sometimes) •Voice types • Usually a proscenium art form Thriller • Supertitles Robert Swedberg Associate Professor of Music University of Michigan Types of opera Opera terminology • Libretto • Leitmotif • Grand opera • Aria • Comprimario • Chamber opera • Recitative • Prompter • Opera buffa • Overture • Verismo • Operetta – Singspiel – Zarzuela • Conductor / Director • Chromaticism • Broadway musical • Coloratura • Prima Donna • Cadenza • Lyric or dramatic • Bel Canto voices • Pants Role • Pit and Proscenium Robert Swedberg ([email protected]) 1 An Overview of Opera and Opera History 2/17/16 Voice types Renaissance and Baroque opera • Soprano 1600: Birth of opera: Jacopo Peri's DAFNE. Created by a Florentine group called the Camerata • Mezzo-soprano • 1642: Claudio Monteverdi's • Contralto L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA • 1689: Henry Purcell's • Tenor DIDO AND AENEAS. • Baritone • 1711: George Frederic Handel’s • Bass RINALDO. • 1728: John Gay's • Castrato THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. • Counter-tenor Classical Opera Romantic and Bel Canto opera • 1816: Gioachino Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA 1774: Christoph Gluck's ORPHEUS AND EURIDICE. • 1814: Ludvig von Beethoven's Opera is transformed, shed of many abuses. FIDELIO. • 1782: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's • 1831: Vincenzo Bellini's THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO. LA SONNAMBULA. • 1832: Gaetano Donizetti’s • 1786: Mozart's THE MARRIAGE L’ ELISIR D’AMORE OF FIGARO. • 1790: Cosi fan Tutte • 1791: Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE. Robert Swedberg ([email protected]) 2 An Overview of Opera and Opera History 2/17/16 Late Romantic opera • 1856: Wagner's Impressionism & Atonality • 1896: Puccini’s Boheme TRISTAN UND ISOLDE. LA BOHEME. trailer • 1871: Verdi's AIDA • 1902: Claude Debussy's PELLEAS ET MELISANDE. • 1875: Georges Bizet’s CARMEN. • 1904: Puccini’s • 1876: Wagner's MADAMA BUTTERFLY. DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN. • 1905: Richard Strauss's • 1879: Peter Illych Tchaikovsky's SALOME. EUGENE ONEGIN. • 1925: Alban Berg's WOZZECK. • 1926: Puccini's TURANDOT. American and British opera • 1928: Kurt Weill's Neo-classicism & Minimalism THE THREEPENNY OPERA. • 1951: Stravinsky's • 1934: Virgil Thomson's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS. • 1971: Leonard Bernstein's MASS. • 1935: George Gershwin's • 1980: Philip Glass’s PORGY AND BESS. SATYAGRAHA. • 1945: Benjamin Britten's • 1987: John Adam’s PETER GRIMES. NIXON IN CHINA. • 1947: Gian Carlo Menotti's • 1998: Mark Adamo’s THE MEDIUM. LITTLE WOMEN • 2000: Jake Heggie’s DEAD MAN WALKING. Robert Swedberg ([email protected]) 3 An Overview of Opera and Opera History 2/17/16 21st Century Opera • 2002: Philip Glass’ GALILEO GALILEI. • 2003: Osvaldo Golijov’s AINADAMAR. • 2004: Thomas Ades’ THE TEMPEST. • 2004: William Bolcom’s A WEDDING. • 2005: John Adam’s DOCTOR ATOMIC. Così fan Tutte • 2007: Ian Ricky Gordon’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH. • 2008: Howard Shore’s THE FLY. University Opera Theatre • 2009: André Previn’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER Mar. 24-27, 2016 Bo h eme trailer • 2010: Daniel Catán Il POSTINO Atomic Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre • 2015: Gordon Getty’s FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER Robert Swedberg ([email protected]) 4.