The Opera Music Book You Need to Read

The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most popular and well-loved musicals of all time. If you’re a fan of the music, then you need to read this book.

The Different Types of Opera Music

If you’re passionate about opera music, then you need to read this book. It covers all the different types of opera music, from Baroque to Contemporary. You’ll learn about the different characteristics of each type of opera music, and how to identify them. This book is a must-read for any opera music enthusiast.

Grand Opera

The first grand opera was Aida, composed by Giuseppe Verdi in 1871 to a French libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. It was commissioned by the Cairo Opera House and had its premiere there on Christmas Eve of the same year.

Grand opera is usually performed in large opera houses with a full orchestra and a chorus. The sets and costumes are often lavish and the action is usually set in exotic locations or historical periods.

The plots of grand operas are typically dramatic, often involving tragic events such as death or betrayal. The music is also dramatic, with extended musical passages and complex harmonies.

Grand opera is one of the most demanding forms of opera for both singers and musicians. The singers must have strong voices that can project over a large orchestra, and the musicians must be able to play intricate passages with accuracy and feeling.

Comic Opera

Comic opera is a type of opera that is light-hearted and often funny. The most famous examples of comic opera are Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore. Other examples include Così fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, and The Marriage of Figaro.

Serious Opera

Serious opera, sometimes called grand opera, is a story told mostly through music with some spoken dialogue. The action usually covers a large span of time and is set in different locations. The operas in this category are often based on historical events or myths. They almost always include a love story as well as some other emotional conflict. Famous examples of serious operas include Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata and Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The Different Opera Composers

While there are many great opera music books out there, this is the one you need to read. It covers all the different opera composers, their works, and what made them so great. If you’re looking to learn about opera music, then look no further than this book.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

One of the most influential composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created a string of operas that continue to be performed today. His works are credited with ushering in the Classical era and lifting opera out of the Baroque period.

Mozart’s first opera, La finta semplice, was produced when he was just 12 years old. Although it was not successful, it did prove his capability as an composer and helped him gain acceptance into the Salzburg court. Among his most famous works are The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte.

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, and developed a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioachino Rossini, whose works significantly influenced him. By his 30s, he had become one of the preeminent opera composers in history.

In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the musical world by returning to opera composing at the age of 49 with Ernani in 1844, followed by Attila in 1846. His next operas, including Macbeth (1847), Treatise on Harmony (1853), and Simon Boccanegra (1857), were well received but did not achieve lasting popularity.

With painstaking attention to detail in both music and libretto, Verdi achieved success with his next opera, A Masked Ball (1859), which was based on a Scribe libretto already set by Daniel Auber and Fromental Halévy. La forza del destino followed in 1862; Nabucco marked his return to historical subjects in 1842 during which he also wrote I vespri siciliani and Giovanna d’Arco; Don Carlos was produced in Paris in 1865 but revised for a version in Italian two years later; The Two Foscari dates from 1844; The Force of Destiny from 1862; and Aida from 1871 written for performance at Cairo’s newly opened Opera House for the opening of the Suez Canal as well as demands for such works outside Europe at this time by impresarios exploring new markets such as South America where La traviata proved successful in 1853.

Verdi’s penultimate work, Otello premièred in 1887 to huge success building again on Shakespearian source material after Macbeth with its libretto by Arrigo Boito who also provided that for his last opera Falstaff first performed at La Scala Milan in 1893 when Verdi was 80 years old – thus becoming one of only a handful of composers writing operas into their dotage includingMonteverdi who wrote The Coronation of Poppaea when he was 65.

Richard Wagner

Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and polemicist, primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subordinate to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex harmonic language, which explored chromaticism and dissonance to a previously unheard-of extent. Unlike most operas, Wagner’s Avant-garde style incorporated Orchestral colouring with leitmotifs to help convey drama while his use of chromaticism was innovative at the time. Wagner had much success in his lifetime; though initially despised by many critics (including some who otherwise recognised him as one of that century’s supreme talents), he came to be extremely influential, particularly in 20th-century opera.

The Different Opera Singers

There are many different types of opera singers, each with their own unique voices. Some opera singers are sopranos, others are tenors, and still others are basses. Each type of opera singer has a different range of notes that they can sing.

Maria Callas

Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI (/ˈkæləs/; Greek: Μαρία Κάλλας [maˈri.a ˈkalas]; born Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou (Greek: Μαρία Άννα Σοφία Κεχαγιοπούλου); 2 December 1923 – 16 September 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire spanned Italian opera seria, classical French opera, Greek and Roman mythology operas, as well as operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.

Callas was born in New York City but raised in Greece. Forced to deal with the prevailing prejudice that professional singers were people of low morals, she took an enormous personal risk in 1925 when she allowed herself to be presented on the stage as a serious artist for the first time in a concert performance of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in Athens. Public approval quickly followed and within a year she was invited to open La Scala’s 1926–1927 season with Tosca opposite Beniamino Gigli. She sang approximately 60 roles there during the course of her career.

In 1953 Callas made her debut at London’s Royal Opera House in La traviata opposite Giuseppe di Stefano, a fellow Tosca co-star from La Scala several years earlier. In 1957 she appeared as Norma opposite Mariano Stabile in Bellini’s opera at La Fenice; this performance caused such a sensation that she was immediately invited back to sing another Norma later that season. After appearing in a few more productions at La Fenice (notably Madama Butterfly), she gave her last two performances there as Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata in 1959 and 1960.

Luciano Pavarotti

Pavarotti was an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century.

Placido Domingo

Plácido Domingo is a Spanish operatic tenor, conductor and arts administrator who has sung 145 different roles in 4783 performances of 427 operas. He has performed 149 different roles in the recorded repertoire and is particularly known for his versatility in the bel canto repertoire. He has sung more than 600 complete roles, including many rarely performed ones.

The Different Opera Houses

Opera is a genre of music that is enjoyed by people all around the world. It can be traced back to the early 1600s, and has evolved over time. Today, there are different opera houses all over the world that offer different types of opera.

The Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit organization Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, 97 companies presented operas in major cities throughout the world.

The Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an Austrian opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance revival venue was the first major building on the Ringstrasse, the city’s new boulevard outside the medieval city walls. It was built between 1861 and 1869 by the court architect August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll.

The Vienna State Opera is one of the busiest opera houses in the world, performing 50 to 60 operas as well as around 270 ballet and other dance performances annually. The opera house produces its own annual festival, Wiener Festwochen (“Vienna Week”) running from late May to early June, with a programme celebrating contemporary work alongside premieres of classic operas.

The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is located in the Covent Garden area of London, England. The theatre opened on 7 December 1847 with a performance of Don Giovanni. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. It has also presented a number of other operatic and ballet performances throughout its history.