Dictionary of Music - Birding America

270 operahouse was opened. The goal of pleasing a payingaudience had profound effects on the form. Operasbecame longer and productions more lavish; theplots became more involved, more characters wereintroduced, and comic portions were inserted toliven the performance. A new singing style, BELCANTO, came into being, and audiences flocked tohear the popular virtuoso singers of the moment. Asa result, the aria became all-important, and recitative,choruses, instrumental parts, and the dramaitself were neglected. Operas in this style are nowcalled number operas, the “numbers,” chiefly ariasand duets, being loosely connected by recitatives,choruses, and instrumental interludes. By 1700 thistype of opera was immensely popular throughoutItaly and had been introduced in most of the majorcountries of Europe, where it was accepted in varyingdegrees. Although the Florentine composers hademphasized text over music, their successors hadreversed this emphasis. To them, sweetly singingmelody was the paramount object, and in general itremained so in Italian opera for the next two hundredyears, in the hands of such composers asBellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini.In France, which already had a tradition of classicaldrama (the lofty plays of Corneille and Racine) aswell as a form of theater combining music and action(the ballet), it required simply a fusion of the two tocreate opera. It was Jean-Baptiste Lully who accomplishedjust that, taking elements from both to create anew form called tragédie lyrique (“lyrical tragedy”).This form, with its great emphasis on drama andinclusion of instrumental and chorus numbers, dominatedFrench opera until the Italian influence madeitself strongly felt during the nineteenth century.England, which also had its own stage form, theMASQUE, was slower to accept opera, although itsgreatest seventeenth-century composer, Henry Purcell,produced one example of lasting quality, Didoand Aeneas. In the eighteenth century, however, theEnglish public turned to Italian opera with gusto. Italiancomposers who came to England were imitatedmore or less faithfully by native English composers.Italian composers also brought their own works toGermany and held posts in various important Germancities. Their style was copied with few changes bysuch German composers as Johann Adolph Hasse(1699–1783) and Reinhard Keiser (1674–1739).SOME IMPORTANT OPERASTitle Composer Libretto by Sections DateAbduction from the Seraglio, The(see ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL, DIE)Adriana Lecouvreur Francesco Cilèa Arturo Colautti 4 acts 1902Africaine, L’ Giacomo Meyerbeer Eugène Scribe 5 acts 1865Agrippina George Frideric Handel Vincenzio Grimani 3 acts 1709Aida Giuseppe Verdi Antonia Ghislanzoni and 4 acts 1871composerAlbert Herring Benjamin Britten Eric Crozier 3 acts 1947Alceste Christoph Willibald Gluck Ranieri di Calzabigi 3 acts c.1767;rev. 1776Amahl and the Night Visitors Gian Carlo Menotti composer 1 act 1951Amore dei tre Re, L’ (“The Love Italo Montemezzi Sem Benelli 3 acts 1913of Three Kings”)Andrea Chénier Umberto Giordano Luigi Illica 4 acts 1896Anthony and Cleopatra Samuel Barber Franco Zeffirrelli 3 acts 1966Arabella Richard Strauss Hugo von Hofmannsthal 3 acts 1933Ariadne auf Naxos Richard Strauss Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1 act and 1912;prologue rev. 1916