The Song Planner

Opera / Classical Vocal Drama

familyStarted c. 1598Peak 1607–1926Last big hit still active

Opera / Classical Vocal Drama is staged classical storytelling through sung roles, orchestra, text, acting, sets, and theatrical time. Its sound joins heightened vocal projection, recitative or speech-like delivery, arias, ensembles, choruses, orchestral commentary, leitmotifs, and dramatic pacing, making emotion physically larger than ordinary speech.

History

Opera began in late Renaissance Florence and Mantua as humanist attempts to revive ancient sung drama, then spread through Monteverdi's expressive recitative, Venetian public theaters, French court spectacle, Neapolitan opera seria and buffa, Mozart's ensemble drama, 19th-century bel canto, grand opera, Wagnerian music drama, Verdi's political theater, verismo realism, and modern chamber and contemporary opera. Opera houses in Venice, Naples, Paris, Vienna, London, Milan, Bayreuth, New York, and beyond turned singers into international stars and made classical drama a durable fusion of music, literature, design, and social ceremony.

Defining artists

Essential listening

  • Bellini: Norma, Casta diva — Maria CallasSpotifyYouTube
  • Puccini: Turandot, Nessun dorma — Luciano PavarottiSpotifyYouTube
  • Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, Il dolce suono — Joan SutherlandSpotifyYouTube
  • Verdi: Otello, Niun mi tema — Plácido DomingoSpotifyYouTube
  • Verdi: Aida, O patria mia — Leontyne PriceSpotifyYouTube
  • Wagner: Die Walküre, Ride of the Valkyries — Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & James LevineSpotifyYouTube
← Explore Classical / Orchestral

Sources

  • Grove Music Online
  • The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Metropolitan Opera archives