Chapter 20 – A Concise History of Opera and Music Drama in the 19th

In Chapter 20, we take a look at the history of opera and music drama in the 19th century. We explore how these art forms developed and how they continue to entertain audiences today.

The Early Years of Opera

Opera is a form of musical theatre that combines music, singing, and drama, and originated in Italy in the late 16th century. The first operas were performed in Florence in the early 17th century. Opera quickly spread throughout Europe, and by the 18th century, it was an established genre of theatre.

The Birth of Opera

The first known opera was Dafne, composed by Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini and performed in Florence in 1598. This work is now lost, but we know of its existence from a libretto (text) that was published in 1608. The word “opera” (italian for “work”) was first used in this context in 1639, when Alessandro Stradella wrote Il Tigrane. These early operas were more like plays with music than what we think of as opera today. They were often based on Greek or Roman myths, and the action was presented through a series of recitatives (speech-like singing) and arias (songs). There was little or no staging or scenery, and the works were usually performed without interruption.

The First Operas

The first operas were written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a period which saw the height of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque eras. Opera is a combination of music, singing, drama, and sometimes dance. The word opera means “work” in Italian. The first operas were written in Florence, Italy by a group of writers, poets, and musicians known as the Florentine Camerata. They wanted to recreate the ancient Greek form of drama, which included singing and choral poetry as well as acting.

The first opera ever written was Dafne by Jacopo Peri. It was performed in 1598 but it is no longer extant. The first opera that is still performed today is Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Gluck. It was premiered in Vienna in 1762. Gluck was influenced by the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who believed that music should express emotions instead of just following rules. This new style of opera, sometimes called “reform opera”, helped to establish opera as a serious musical genre.

The Rise of Opera

Opera is a form of musical theatre that combines a dramatic story with music, singing, and dancing. It originated in Italy in the 16th century and quickly spread to other European countries. Opera reached its peak in the 19th century with the works of German composer Richard Wagner.

The Italian School

In the early 19th century, Italian opera once again became the most popular form of opera. Numerous composers were creating works in the Italian style, which emphasized beauty of melody and sympathetic characters. The greatest exponent of Italian opera was Giuseppe Verdi, who wrote such masterpieces as “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” and “La Traviata.” Other important Italian composers of this period include Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti.

The French School

The composers of the French School, such as Jacques Offenbach, Georges Bizet, and Charles Gounod, were greatly influenced by their Italian contemporaries. However, they brought their own unique perspective to the genre, infusing it with a lightness of touch and a focus on comedy that was all their own. These French composers were also some of the first to bring realistic characters and settings to the operatic stage, making their works some of the most influential in the development of modern opera.

The German School

The German school of opera, chiefly represented by Weber and Wagner, did not gain ascendancy until after the middle of the century. It may be said to have had its beginnings in the work of Johann Adam Hiller, who wrote more than fifty operas and was music director in Leipzig from 1748 to 1769. Among his pupils were two who were to achieve international stature: Daniel Gottlob Türk, composer of fifty-six keyboard sonatas and many educational works, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and an illustrious figure in his own right.

During the years 1786–87 Weber visited Vienna, where he became acquainted with the operatic works of Mozart; these made a profound impression on him. In 1788 he accepted a position as musical director in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), where he remained until his death in 1826. It was here that he produced those works—principally operas—that brought him posthumous fame as one of the creators of German Romantic opera.

The Late Years of Opera

The Verismo Movement

The Verismo Movement in opera began in the late 1800s and continued into the early 1900s. This style of opera was characterized by its realism, often depicting working-class subjects and stories with tragic endings. The Verismo Movement was led by Italian composers such as Giacomo Puccini, whose operas La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly are some of the most famous examples of this genre.

The Wagnerian Movement

The Wagnerian Movement, founded by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883),posed a challenge to the opera tradition as it had been developing throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In his manifesto “Opera and Drama” (1851) Wagner outlined his conception of a new form of musical theater that would synthesize the music, poetry, drama, and stagecraft of opera into a unified whole. His ideas had a profound influence on the course of musical history, particularly in Germany and Austria, during the later years of the nineteenth century.

Wagner’s operas, or “music dramas” as he called them, were long, complex works with highly involved plots often inspired by medieval or mythological themes. His use of leitmotifs, or recurring musical themes associated with specific characters, places, or emotions, helped to unify the large scale structure of his works. His orchestration was also innovative, making use of unusual combinations of instruments to create new colors and textures.

While Wagner’s ideas were controversial in his own time, they exerted a significant influence on the development of opera in the later nineteenth century. Many composers sought to apply his concepts to their own works, including Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), and Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). The influence of Wagner can also be seen in the work of Richard Strauss (1864-1949) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), two major figures in twentieth-century music who were deeply influenced by his music and ideas.

The Post-Wagnerian Movement

In the years following Wagner’s death in 1883, the post-Wagnerian movement in opera and music drama took a number of different directions. Some composers, such as Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini, continued to explore Wagner’s musical and dramatic ideas, while others, such as Camille Saint-Saëns and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, moved in a more traditional direction.

The post-Wagnerian movement was also characterized by a renewed interest in nationalistic themes and styles. This was seen in the operas of composers such as Antonín Dvořák, Edvard Grieg, and Modest Mussorgsky, who drew on the folklore and music of their native countries to create works that were both distinctly national in character and yet accessible to a wider international audience.

Finally, the post-Wagnerian years saw the emergence of a number of new Opera companies and festivals dedicated to presenting works in the Wagnerian tradition. The most famous of these was the Bayreuth Festival, founded by Wagner himself in 1876. Other important companies and festivals included the Vienna State Opera (founded 1869), the Metropolitan Opera (founded 1880), and the Salzburg Festival (founded 1920).