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OPERA AND ITS HISTORY
Opera doesn’t speak to the soul. It captures it. — Advertisement for Bank of America
[Opera] is an exotic and irrational entertainment. — Samuel Johnson
What on earth has given opera its prestige in western civilization — a prestige that has outlasted so many different fashions and ways of thought? Why are people prepared to sit silently for three hours listening to a performance of which they do not understand a word [this was before Supertitles] and of which they seldom know the plot? Partly, of course, because it is a display of skill, like a football match. But chiefly, I think, because it is irrational. ‘What is too silly to be said may be sung’— well, yes; but what is too subtle to be said, or too deeply felt, or too revealing or too mysterious — these things can also be sung and only be sung.
— Kenneth Clark in Civilization
Opera is a marriage of words and music; drama that is sung, to create an extra dimension which can be emotional, theatrical and entertaining. The text is written as a libretto (“little book” in Italian), a form which can easily be set to music. Some composers write their own words, but most work with a librettist, who might create a story (Aïda), use an historical or mythical event (Idomeneo), or adapt a book, a play or a poem (Cold Sassy Tree, Faust), or use a combination of sources (Die Zauberflöte).
Literally opera is the plural of the Latin word opus, which means “work”. (Each piece written by a composer is called an opus). Opera is drama through music. The music is a partner; it does not merely accompany the drama, it contributes to it. Furthermore, an opera is staged and, compact discs notwithstanding, must be seen to be appreciated to its fullest. It is truly an audio-visual art form. A staged opera is a total collaborative effort, combining the music, the plot, and the spectacle provided by the sets, staging, costumes, and dances. Above all, it is the special sound of the human voice which makes opera the ultimate performing art form. The final result is much more than the sum of its parts. It is a total emotional experience.
The plot of an opera does not usually advance in the way a play does. During lengthy arias, in which the characters express their emotions, the action often stops and time stands still. This means the story of an opera must be much more condensed than that of a play.
Although opera as we know it started during the Italian Renaissance, its roots go back to Greek drama which explored ways of explaining and communicating the “inexplicable”. Later drama was linked to religious ritual and, still later, developed into an art form or entertainment in its own right. Music was integrated into the poetry of the drama, and plays were accompanied by strings and pipes. The words were sung or half-spoken. Dance was also part of the drama. At first there was only a single line of music (monody), but later several lines were woven together to form polyphony, creating harmonies.
In Italy, by the end of the fifteenth century, it was the custom to perform short musical dramas, with themes related to those of the main entertainment, during the intermissions of spoken plays.
These intermedi were accompanied by small orchestras and dealt with serious subjects. What comedy there was occurred in pastorals, which consisted of dialogue interspersed with songs and choruses, and dealt with simple country folk; thus the name. Poliziano’s La favola d’Orfeo of about 1472 is an example.
In 1576, a group of Florentine writers and musicians (men from Florence, Italy) formed a group known as the Camerata. (One of the members of the Camerata was Vincenzo Galilei, father of the famous scientist, Galileo Galilei.) Their purpose was to try to recreate their concept of original Greek drama, words spoken or sung to a single line of music, like our present-day recitative. A “Greek” chorus which commented on the action, was an important element. To these men the words and music formed a union. They laid down three principles:
•The text must be understood: the accompaniment must be very simple and not distract from the words.
• The words must be sung with correct and natural declamation, as if they were spoken, and must avoid the rhythms of songs.
• The melody must interpret the feeling of the text.
BAROQUE OPERA
Examples:
Monteverdi (1567-1643): Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria
Purcell (1659-1695): Dido and Æneas
Handel (1685-1759): Ariodante, Giulio Cesare
 
The first piece generally accepted as a true opera was Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, first seen in 1598, and based on a Greek myth. (This would have made the year 1998 opera’s 400th anniversary.) Although Dafne became famous throughout Europe, all but a few pages have been lost. The earliest opera for which the score survives is the 1600 Euridice, also by Peri (shown on the left costumed for one of his intermedi), and this is often called the first opera. These early performances were accompanied by a small orchestra, but the parts for the instruments were not written out separately as they are now. There was an indication of chords for the harpsichord or lower strings (the continuo); the other instruments followed the vocal line. This can be seen in the excerpt from Monteverdi's Orfeo on the right.). Like its Greek predecessor, the chorus was in unobtrusive positions throughout, commenting on and explaining the action. This chorus almost disappeared after the middle of the seventeenth century.
The earliest opera composer whose works are still regularly performed is Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). Monteverdi’s earliest opera, La favola d’Orfeo, was first performed in Mantua, Italy, in 1607, the year in which Jamestown, Virginia was settled.
These early operas were performed in private homes. The audience sat surrounding the singers and were in close contact with them, almost part of the action. The first opera house was built in Venice in 1637 and, for the first time, the general public was able to see opera. The early theatres were modeled on those of ancient Greece. Later the seats were arranged in galleries around an open area which was used for the players. This open area was later filled with seats. The stage was moved to the open end of the horseshoe and enclosed behind a proscenium arch. With this change, the audience was separated from the players, and the intimacy of the earlier productions was lost. (The present practice of producing opera movies or videos goes one step further; there is no interaction between the singers and the audience at all.) While modern theatres have fixed seats in what has become the orchestra section, until fairly recently, the chairs were movable and could be taken out so the area could be used for balls and other functions.
The earliest operas were usually based on history or mythology, such as Giulio Cesare by Handel (1685-1759), the composer of Messiah, and Monteverdi’s operas about Orpheus and Ulysses. The characters deal with political or personal conflict and the action is rarely naturalistic. Until the nineteenth century, almost every opera could be classified as an opera seria, or serios opera, or opera buffa which is literally, though not always in practice, comic opera. (See below)
Early operas attempted to amaze and stupefy the audience by fantastic stage effects. The machinery used to create these was very Early operas attempted to amaze and stupefy the audience by fantastic stage effects. The machinery used to create these was very elaborate. The only light was candlelight, yet spectacular “fires” could be produced. During the Baroque period, Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) introduced opera to the court of Louis XIV of France, writing what he called tragédie en musique. In England, Henry Purcell (1659-1995) wrote operas such as The Fairy Queen based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Dido and Æneas based on the Æneid by the Latin author Virgil. Purcell was followed by George Friedrich Handel (1685-1750) who, although born in Germany, spent most of his productive years in England. He used standard Italian opera seria forms, and his libretti are in Italian. The English equivalent of Italian opera buffa was ballad opera, exemplified by The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay (1685- 1732), set to music by Pepusch. It introduced the character Macheath, now most famous for his song “Mack the Knife” in Kurt Weill’s twentieth-century version of the story. Spain saw the advent of the zarzuela. Still popular in Spanish-speaking countries, this is beginning to be performed in the United States. The first known opera performance in the Americas was in 1701, at the viceregal court in Lima, Peru. It was La purpura de la Rosa by Torrejón y Velasco.
By the end of the Baroque period, the emphasis was on solo arias. Duets and ensembles were rare except for finales. Also during the Baroque era, a number of different opera genres developed which continued into later periods.
Baroque Opera Genres
Opera seria
The term opera seria was used for the form of opera which dealt with gods, mythical subjects, or ancient heroes. The balance between recitative and aria gradually shifted toward the aria. In opera seria, the elaborate stage effects, designed to amaze and stupify, became more restrained. Comic scenes were eliminated (see below), the style was freer and less subject to rules, and the accompaniment was simplified. The aria became the central feature; ensembles and even duets were limited. The solo singer became glorified, and audiences had to endure many excesses. Cadenzas were improvised at the drop of a hat, and singers carried their favorite arias with them, substituting them for those written by the composer, no matter what the opera. These became known as “suitcase arias”.
In spite of the serious subjects, the endings of opere serie were usually happy. Choruses were limited, often saved for the end where they added festivity to the conclusion. There were many conventions. For example each character had to have an “exit aria” every time he or she left the stage. Since women were barred from the stage in Rome and other cities, women’s parts (and many men’s parts) were taken by castrati. Their beautiful voices made them the “matinee idols” of their day and they were responsible for many of the excesses. Even where women were allowed on stage, castrati were often used because actresses were not acceptable in polite society. Opera seria assumed a certain sophistication and level of education among its audience. As an upper-class diversion, it was not as prone to censorship as its more low-brow cousin, opera buffa, and the cost of tickets was relatively high. Mozart’s Idomeneo has many of the features of an opera seria.
Opera buffa
Early opere serie often contained comic scenes. When these scenes were eliminated, a separate genre, opera buffa, emerged. Opera buffa started in Naples, then spread to Rome and further north. The city of its origin is reflected in the frequent use in opera buffa of the canzone or the canzonetta, the folk-like song associated with Naples. With its humble roots, comic opera used more ordinary language, often in local dialects, and also used many of the stock characters and situations of the Italian commedia dell’arte. Requiring less in the way of spectacular effects, it was less expensive to produce and, appealing to the lower classes, the price of admission was usually less than for opera seria. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, Italian opera buffa never used spoken dialogue. “Comic” opera is not necessarily of the slapstick variety. The term refers to the type of character and the setting, rather than the story elements. Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) is the quintessential late opera buffa, almost pure comedy, with little sentimentality. On the other hand, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (1786), which he called an opera buffa, has a psychological depth, drama and pathos not found in Rossini’s work. It is opera buffa become high art.
Except for Rossini, the nineteenth century saw the decline of opera buffa as a separate genre. Under Donizetti the characters became more like human beings than caricatures. Verdi’s Falstaff, first produced in 1893, is often spoken of as the “last opera buffa”. While comic, and a bit of a fool, Falstaff has deep emotions, and we can sympathize with him; we see the real person behind “the fat knight”.
In addition to these two main types of opera, a few other terms were used.
Dramma per musica or drama through music
The word dramma originally meant a sad story with a happy ending. The most common term for early Italian opera seria was dramma per musica referring explicitly to text written to be set to music. Mozart called Idomeneo, a dramma per musica rather than an opera seria. In contrast, dramma in musica referred to the musical setting rather than the text itself. In Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rosina tells Dr. Bartolo that her aria is from a dramma in musica.
Dramma giocosa or humorous drama
While this term does not mean exactly the same as opera buffa or comic opera, they have been used interchangeably. There is usually a very serious element in dramma giocosa. Da Ponte called Don Giovanni, which begins with a murder and ends with the main character being dragged down into hell, a dramma giocosa. Mozart, however, labeled it an opera buffa.
CLASSICAL OPERA
Examples:
Gluck (1714-1787): Orfeo ed Euridice
Cimarosa (1749-1801): Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage)
Mozart (1756-1791): Idomeneo, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte (All women do that), Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
 The Neoclassical period in history once more looked back to the clarity, reason and humanism of the Greeks. It was the age of Rousseau and the American and French Revolutions. Musical structure also matured and is most recognizable for its simplicity, clarity, and truthfulness. Italian opera grew away from the standards set by the Camerata, with illogical plots and ill-disciplined singers. The leader of the “reform” movement, which led to the classical style of the later part of the eighteenth century, was Christoph Willibald Gluck. (Marie Antoinette was a singing pupil of Gluck’s while she was still at her mother Maria Theresa’s court in Vienna and later was one of his sponsors in Paris.) Gluck wanted to “bring back music to its true function, that of supporting poetry, in order to strengthen the expression of feeling and the interest of dramatic situations without interrupting the action and chilling it by superfluous ornaments”. In Orfeo ed Euridice, he returned integrity to opera, ridding it of vocal excesses and dramatic irrelevance. Gluck was a big influence on the greatest of late eighteenth century composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the composer of Die Zauberflöte, who towered over all other musicians of the Classical Period.
Another important composer was Domenico Cimarosa, whose Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage) was performed several seasons ago by the San Diego Opera Ensemble.
During this period, the solo aria became less important; harmonic variety was achieved with the use of ensembles and choruses. The three-part da capo aria became the accepted norm. In such an aria: 1) the melody and emotion are first stated plainly; 2) in the middle section, a new thought redirects the mood. Then the original melody returns, incorporating the added tensions of the second idea; and 3) the singer then ornaments and embellishes a repeat of the first idea.
The most important librettist for opere serie of the eighteenth century was Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). Born in Italy, he studied law but preferred poetry. His reputation as a librettist grew, and he was invited to Vienna to become Court Poet. His works were usually based on those by Latin and Greek authors. While he wrote only about 27 libretti as well as oratorios and other pieces, his influence was greater than this number would suggest. Over 800 operas were written using these 27 libretti! Each was set to music by many composers; one, Artaserse, exists in almost 90 settings! (Audiences insisted on new music each season but welcomed familiar stories over and over, not unlike the many versions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, including West Side Story.) Metastasio’s operas were heard from London to Saint Petersburg and Naples, and his influence on the medium was profound. He wrote that his aim in life had been to “instruct mankind in a pleasing way”.
Opera was the medium by which people could learn and experience pleasure at the same time. Soon, Metastasian opera became a synonym for opera seria. He made little use of ensembles, preferring arias and duets set off by recitative. There were (and still are) two types of recitative; recitativo secco, accompanied only by continuo instruments, and recitativo accompagnato, which is accompanied by the orchestra.
THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
During the nineteenth century, although Italian opera was still popular in all of Europe, each country started to develop its own characteristic form. This was the period of the Romantic Movement, exemplified in Britain by the poet Lord Byron, and in France by the author Victor Hugo. Romanticism dealt with intensity of feelings, with dark themes, and with hints of the supernatural. Stage sets ran to ruined castles. In Germany, this movement was most manifest in music, especially the music of Beethoven.
By the twentieth century, as opera moved towards a strong theatrical realism, it was becoming more and more experimental, both musically and psychologically. The potential of the orchestra was innovatively explored, and more vocal and dramatic demands were placed on the singers.
ITALIAN OPERA
Examples:
Rossini (1792-1868): Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, L’italiana in Algeri
Donizetti (1797-1848): L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor
Bellini: (1801-1835): La sonnambula, Norma, I Puritani di Scozia
Verdi (1813-1901): Aïda, Macbeth, La traviata, Otello, Il ballo in maschera, Falstaff
Leoncavallo (1858-1919): Pagliacci
Puccini (1858-1924): Madama Butterfly, La bohème, Tosca, Turandot
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the emphasis was on bel canto; or ‘beautiful singing’. Bel canto refers to a style of singing which involves the use of legato (long, flowing, lyrical lines). It can be used in operas of all periods. During the same period, the trend was towards bravura and coloratura ornamentation — the story and the words were considered less important than elaborate musical effects. This type of singing is sometimes confused with bel canto. The soprano Birgit Nilsson, a famous Salome, claims Salome is a bel canto opera, even though some interpreters scream their way through it; Jane Eaglen, a noted interpreter of Wagner, who sang the role of Turandot in San Diego in 1997, uses the technique when she sings the dramatic role of Wagner’s Brünnhilde; tenor Luciano Pavarotti claims all good opera singing is bel canto.
Rossini, who wrote operas requiring bel canto, was one of the last composers to write opere serie and one of the first to use the lower-voiced mezzo-sopranos in leading roles. These roles include the men’s parts that had formerly been sung by castrati. Romantic opera in Italy is represented by Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini’s La sonnambula with their mystical undertones.
During the latter part of the nineteenth century the trend was toward large-scale spectacles, including the operas of Giuseppe Verdi such as Aïda. However, even in these, close personal relationships were portrayed, such as that between Aïda and Radamès.
Two new voices were developed:
• the robust, heroic tenor, rather than the lyric tenor
• the baritone as distinct from the bass.
Radamès in Aïda is a heroic tenor, while Tamino in Die Zauberflöte is a lyric tenor. Verdi used these voices to full advantage, and the term “Verdi baritone” came into use. Amonasro in Aïda is a Verdi baritone. Many of the operas of Verdi are examples of what is termed Grand Opera. This always has all of the words set to music, that is, with no spoken dialogue.
By the end of the nineteenth century, reaction to the operas of Wagner (see below) brought about the development of the Italian verismo operas. These tell stories of the seamier side of life among the lower classes, and the singing becomes more conversational. Raw emotions are graphically presented on stage. While there are few true verismo operas (Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is one example), the movement greatly influenced other composers such as Puccini. He softened the raw realism and emphasized the romantic and exotic, setting his love stories in places like Japan, China, Paris, and the gold country of America. He also used local touches such as authentic Japanese tunes and snatches of The Star-Spangled Banner in Madama Butterfly. La bohème is another example of such a realistic opera.
GERMAN OPERA
Examples:
Beethoven (1770-1827): Fidelio
Weber (1786-1826): Der Freischütz
Wagner (1813-1883) Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Der fliegende Höllander
Humperdinck (1854-1921): Hänsel und Gretel
Strauss (1864-1949): Salome, Electra, Der Rosenkavalier
Berg (1885-1935): Wozzeck, Lulu
Under the influence of Italian opera, the German Singspiel was born. At first this term was applied both to works which were sung throughout and those which employed spoken dialogue. Today the term refers only to the latter. Die Zauberflöte is the Viennese version of a Singspiel. More operatic in nature, it requires fully qualified opera singers. Die Zauberflöte also illustrates the genre of “magic opera”, which involves things such as elaborate scene changes, animals on stage, and the use of magical devices such as Tamino’s flute and Papageno’s bells.
Mozart wrote a few operas in German but, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, most operas in Germany and Austria had been in Italian. Beethoven wrote only one opera, Fidelio, but he was followed by Carl Maria von Weber whose Der Freischütz, complete with gloomy forests, magic bullets, and even an appearance by the devil in disguise, is the epitome of romantic opera. German opera focused on the orchestra, which became larger and used extensive brass, woodwind, and percussion. Musical form developed into being through-sung and always accompanied by the orchestra (as opposed to “number operas” in witch arias separated by recitative, and the audience is given a chance for applause after each one.)
Richard Wagner used leitmotivs or “leading motifs”, musical themes to identify characters, situations and emotions. In his “music dramas” he returned to mythological tales to experiment with the concepts of fate, belief, and sacrifice. Wagner’s orchestra is dominant. While the voices are just another orchestral part, helping to shape the drama and tell the story, he once more emphasized the importance of what was being said. Because they must be heard through the heavy orchestration, huge voices are needed to sing Wagner well. True “Wagnerian” singers are very rare. The Italian Verdi and the German Wagner were the two giants of the second half of the nineteenth century. They represented two facets of opera: Verdi, drawing on the precedents set by earlier Italians, emphasized the singer, Wagner the orchestra; Verdi wrote human dramas, Wagner myths. Verdi bemoaned the “Germanization” of Italian opera; he disliked myths, dark stages, long operas, and too much philosophizing. He composed Falstaff partly to go back to true “Italian“ opera. For his part, Wagner ignored Verdi, never referring to him by name.
The followers of Wagner include Richard Strauss, the composer of Salome and Der Rosenkavalier. His orchestra is also dominant, the music is continuous, and he used leitmotivs. He is particularly known for his mastery of orchestration and instrumental coloring. The operas of Alban Berg are very theatrical. His vocal lines use a declamatory style, with abrupt intervals, and a mixture of speaking, half-singing, and song.
FRENCH OPERA
Examples:
Berlioz (1803-1869): Les Troyens
Gounod (1818-1893): Roméo et Juliette, Faust
Bizet (1838-1875): Carmen, Les pêcheurs de perles
Massenet (1842-1912): Manon, Werther
In France, Wagner’s music was frowned on even though most composers of the period were undoubtedly influenced by him. French romantic opera is represented by Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette and Massenet’s Werther. These operas are musically lush. In particular, Gounod’s music is distinguished by the fine use of harmony and color and by sensitivity to the text. Maurice Ravel said: “The musical renewal, which took place with us [the French] towards 1880, has no more weighty precursor than Gounod”. Bizet’s Carmen introduced an element of exoticism using melodic and rhythmic vitality. Opéra comique is the French term for an opera which uses spoken dialogue. First used in the eighteenth century, it does not necessarily indicate a comedy. The theatre in which Carmen was first given was the Opéra-Comique. The original version of Bizet’s tragedy, Carmen, with spoken dialogue, is an opéra comique; it was first performed at the Opéra-Comique.
OPERA IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Opera was written in almost every European country by composers using their own national idiom. Some examples are:
The Czech Republic
Smetana (1824-1884): The Bartered Bride
DvoÍák (1841-1904): Rusalka
Janá…ek (1854-1928): Jençfa, The Cunning Little Vixen, Kát’a Kabanová
Russia
Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Eugene Onegin
Mussorgsky (1839-1881): Boris Godunov
Great Britain
Britten (1913-1975): Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, The Rape of Lucretia
American Opera in the 20th Century by Nicolas Reveles
Perhaps the biggest problem facing American operatic composers at the beginning of the 20th century was the heavy influence of European composers on the art form, particularly Richard Wagner. The Wagnerian style is apparent in the operas of composers such as John Knowles Paine (Azara, 1900), Walter Damrosch (The Scarlet Letter, 1896), George Chadwick (Judith, 1901), and Deems Taylor (The King’s Henchman, 1927 and Peter Ibbetson, 1931), whose operas were premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Metropolitan was instrumental as a producing company in keeping the dream of an indigenous American opera alive by commissioning composers such as Victor Herbert, Horatio Parker, Charles Wakefield Cadman and Howard Hanson to write operas for its 3,625 seat theatre. But none of these efforts were ultimately to bear fruit in terms of establishing a truly new, American style of opera more or less free of the thoroughly entrenched European operatic language.
The first opera to incorporate folk- and jazz-inflected music in its score was George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, 1935, which for nearly forty years was successfully kept out of the opera house, having had its first run on Broadway where it was only mildly successful. It wasn’t until Houston Grand Opera staged the piece complete in the 1970s that opera audiences began to appreciate the work for what it is: a truly ‘American’ opera, using an indigenous story, setting, language and musical style. The ‘problem’ with Porgy is that it is ultimately unauthentic in that it is an opera about the African-American experience written by white men with little first-hand information about that experience. Authentic operas by black composers such as William Grant Still (Troubled Island, A Bayou Legend, both 1941), Clarence Cameron White (Ouanga, 1932) or Scott Joplin (Treemonisha, 1911), have been largely ignored.
It is interesting to note that two of the more important early 20th century American composers of opera, Deems Taylor and Virgil Thomson, were well known and highly respected music critics. But it was Thomson who made the bigger splash with two operas, Four Saints in Three Acts, 1934, and The Mother of Us All, 1947, works that helped established American English as a singable, viable alternative to the European languages in the opera house. Regina, 1949, by Marc Blitzstein was also a leap forward in that it was a piece based upon an important American play, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.
It was after 1950 that operas by American composers began to proliferate, as academic institutions as well as opera companies began to create a welcoming atmosphere for their works. Gian Carlo Menotti, Carlisle Floyd, Robert Ward, Jack Beeson, Douglas Moore, Dominick Argento, Lee Hoiby and Leonard Bernstein were all active during this period. The fledgling New York City Opera Company was particularly involved in commissioning pieces by composers such as these, but other regional companies participated as well. Floyd’s Susannah, 1954, was an important contribution, a kind of folk opera re-telling the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders set in Appalachia. Ward’s The Crucible, 1961, Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, 1956, Copland’s The Tender Land, 1954 were all crucial to the evolution of an American operatic style. Composers who turned to American plays or stories for inspiration included Lee Hoiby, whose operatic version of Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke premiered in 1971 and Stephen Paulus, whose opera based on Dashiel Hammett’s The Postman Only Rings Twice appeared in 1982.
The 1980s and 90s brought a proliferation in more and more new works by American composers, spurred on by the NEA and other, private foundations interested in stimulating operatic growth in the United States. Through these funding organizations opera companies were able to commission pieces written for their stages. The Metropolitan premiered The Ghosts of Versailles, 1991, by John Corigliano, the first opera by an American composer to be performed there since the opening of the new house at Lincoln Center. Other works to include in this spurt of activity are Thomas Pasatieri’s Three Sisters, 1986, Dominick Argento’s The Aspern Papers, 1988, Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, 1985, and John Adams’ Nixon in China, 1988. Add to this Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, 1998, William Bolcom’s A View From the Bridge, 1999, and Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree, 2000, three great works which round off the 20th century quite nicely and show the United States as a melting pot not only of peoples, but of operatic and musical styles as well.
Within all of the works mentioned above, a myriad of different styles is represented. This is perhaps our country’s greatest contribution to the operatic art, an eclectic approach to musical drama that gives the listener the feeling that anything is possible. It is likely that out of this short list of works one or two will emerge as ‘the great American opera’. But one thing is certain: opera by American composers has been well established in the 20th century, and will continue to evolve in the 21st.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cross, Milton: The Complete Stories of the Great Operas. Doubleday, 1952
Dizikes, John: Opera in America. 1993, Yale Univ. Press
Earl of Harewood, ed.: The New Kobbé’s Complete Opera Book. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976
Grout, Donald Jay: A Short History of Opera. 1988, Columbia Univ. Press
Jellinek, George: History Through the Opera Glass. 1994, Pro. Am Music Resources
Kimball, David: Italian Opera. (1994), Cambridge
Orrey, Leslie (Rodney Milnes, ed.): A Concise History of Opera. 1987, Thames and Hudson
Parker, Roger, ed.: The Oxford History of Opera. 1996, Oxford Univ. Press
Sadie, Stanley, ed.: History of Opera. 1990, Macmillan
Sadie, Stanley, ed: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1992
Simon, Henry: One Hundred Great Operas and Their Stories. Doubleday, 1989
The Simon and Schuster Book of Opera. Simon and Schuster, 1951
For Younger Readers:
Elliot, Donald: Lamb’s Tales from Great Operas, Harvard Common Press, 1981
Rosenberg, Jan: Sing Me a Story: The Metropolitan Opera’s Book of Opera for Children, Thames and Hudson, 1989EAO
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