Portal:Opera

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The Opera Portal

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera) which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597), and was championed by Claudio Monteverdi with works such as L'Orfeo. It soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid to late 19th century is considered by some a golden age of opera, led by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. This 'golden age' developed through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism (Schoenberg and Berg), Neo-Classicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. Operas were also performed on (and written for) radio and television.

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Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, located in the Haymarket, in the City of Westminster. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century, Tree produced spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premières by major playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Noel Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since World War I, the wide flat stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and the theatre has specialised in hosting musicals. The theatre was established by architect and playwright John Vanbrugh, in 1705, as the Queen's Theatre. Legally, serious drama unaccompanied by music was forbidden in all but the two London patent theatres, and so this theatre quickly became an opera house. Between 1711 and 1739, more than 25 George Frederick Handel operas premièred here. In the early 19th century, the theatre hosted the opera company that was to move to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1847, and presented the first London performances of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni. It also hosted the Ballet of her Majesty's Theatre in the mid-19th century, before returning to hosting the London premières of such famous operas as Bizet's Carmen and Wagner's Ring Cycle.

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Salvator Rosa

Credit: Salvator Rosa

A self-portrait by Salvator Rosa, an Italian Baroque painter and poet who was described as "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel". His life and adventures, along with those of Masaniello, a Neapolitan fisherman turned rebel leader, formed the basis for Antônio Carlos Gomes's 1874 opera Salvator Rosa. Its librettist, Antonio Ghislanzoni, had also written the libretto for Verdi's Aida.

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In this month

7 January 1897 – The Teatro Amazonas, an opera house in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, held its first opera performance with Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
13 January 1979 – The Australian-born soprano, Marjorie Lawrence died in Hot Springs, Arkansas, at the age of 71. She was particularly known for roles in Wagner's operas until her stage career was cut short by polio in 1941.
17 January 1901 – Pietro Mascagni's opera, Le maschere, premiered simultaneously in six Italian opera houses.
23 January 1890 – Édouard Lalo's opera, Le roi d'Ys, received its American premiere at the French Opera House in New Orleans.
22 January 1883 – Carlo Baucardé (pictured), who created the title role in Verdi's Il trovatore, died in his native Florence at the age of 58.
27 January 1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the composer of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Magic Flute, was born in Salzburg.
27 January 1901 – Giuseppe Verdi, one of Italy's greatest opera composers, died in Milan at the age of 87.
31 January 1994 – Barcelona's historic opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, was destroyed by fire.

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Eugenia Tadolini (née Savorani) (9 July 1809 – 11 July 1872) was an Italian operatic soprano. Admired for the beauty of her voice and stage presence, she was one of Donizetti's favourite singers. During her career she created over 20 leading roles, including the title roles in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan and Verdi's Alzira. She was born in Forlì and studied music there and in Bologna before making her debut in Florence in 1828. She sang in all of Italy's leading opera houses, as well as in Paris, Vienna, and London before retiring from the stage in 1852. She spent her remaining years first in Naples, where she had been the Teatro San Carlo's reigning prima donna for many years, and then in Paris, where she died of typhoid fever at the age of 63. From 1827 to 1834, she was married to the Italian composer and singing teacher, Giovanni Tadolini.

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Oh, I hate the thought of all those costumes and grease paint! When I think that characters like Kundry will now have to be dressed up, those dreadful artists' balls immediately spring into my mind. Having created the invisible orchestra, I now feel like inventing the invisible theatre!

— Richard Wagner

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"Ancora un passo"

From Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, sung by Frances Alda in 1913.

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Did you know?

...that Bernardo De Pace {pictured), an Italian immigrant, started his own opera company and eventually performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York?
...that Otar Taktakishvili's opera Mindia was based on Vazha-Pshavela's epic poem The Snake-eater and premiered in 1961, the centenary of the poet's birth?"
....that in Telemaco, one of Alessandro Scarlatti's last operas, Minerva enters in a chariot which holds a string orchestra with trumpets?

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Related portals

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WikiProjects

Parent projects

WikiProject Arts • WikiProject Music • WikiProject Theatre

Main project

WikiProject Opera

Descendant projects

WikiProject Richard Wagner • WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan

Similar projects

WikiProject Classical music • WikiProject Composers

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Main topics

Opera history: Origins of opera • Italian opera • Opera in German • French opera • Opera in English • Polish opera • Russian opera • Hungarian opera • Armenian opera • Opera in Latin America

Opera genres: Azione teatrale · Ballad opera · Comédie en vaudevilles · Comédie mêlée d'ariettes · Dramma giocoso · Dramma per musica · Farsa · Festa teatrale · Género chico · Grand Opera · Music Drama · Opéra-ballet · Opera buffa · Opéra bouffe · Opéra bouffon · Opéra comique · Opéra féerie · Opera semiseria · Opera seria · Operetta · Pastorale héroïque · Romantische Oper · Savoy opera · Semi-opera · Singspiel · Spieloper · Tragédie en musique · Verismo · Zarzuela · Zeitoper

Opera terms: Aria · Aria di sorbetto · Arioso · Bel canto · Breeches role · Burletta · Cabaletta · Cadenza · Cantabile · Castrato · Cavatina · Chest voice · Claque · Coloratura · Comprimario · Convenienze · Coup de glotte · Da capo aria · Diva · Entr'acte · Fach · Falsetto · Fioritura · Gesamtkunstwerk · Head voice · Intermezzo · Kammersänger · Leitmotif · Legato · Libretto · Literaturoper · Mad scene · Maestro · Melodrama · Melodramma · Monodrama · Messa di voce · Opera house · Passaggio · Portamento · Prima donna · Prompter · Recitative · Regietheater · Répétiteur · Sitzprobe · Spinto · Sprechgesang · Squillo · Stagione · Surtitles · Tessitura · Timbre · Vibrato

Opera voices: Baritenor · Baritone · Bass · Bass-baritone · Coloratura soprano · Contralto · Countertenor · Dramatic soprano · Haute-contre · Lyric soprano · Mezzo-soprano · Soprano · Soubrette · Spinto soprano · Tenor · Tenore contraltino · Tenore di grazia

Opera lists: Opera topics • List of operas by composer • Important operas • Major opera composers • Opera librettists • Opera houses • Opera companies • Opera festivals • Opera directors • Operetta composers • Orphean operas • Zarzuela composers • Opera genres • Operas set in the Crusades • The Record of Singing • Bayreuth canon

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Opera}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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1899 poster of Mme. M. Sissieretta Jones
Adolphe-Joseph-Louis Alizard from Le Charivari
Advertisement for the music score of La Bohème, 1895
Aida poster colors fixed
Al quartiere latino, bozzetto di Adolf Hohenstein per La Bohème (1896) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000086 - Restoration
Albert Pierre-René Maignan - Jules Massenet - Ariane
Albert Reiss LOC ggbain-25651
Alexandre Charles Lecocq - Giuseppe Verdi - La forza del destino
Alexandre Fragonard - Scène de L'orage (Barbier de Séville)
Alexandre Lacauchie - Gilbert Duprez as Gaston in Verdi's Jérusalem
Alfredo Edel - Jules Massenet - Le mage
Alice Neilsen's production of Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller
Amilcare Ponchielli (before 1886) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO000794 - Restoration
Amédée Forestier - Illustrated London News - Gilbert and Sullivan - Ruddygore (Ruddigore)
Anna Fernqvist, rollporträtt - SMV - H1 122 - Restoration
Atelier Nadar - Fly scene from Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers with Jeanne Granier as Eurydice and Eugène Vauthier as Jupiter, 1887 revival, wide-angle shot
Atelier Nadar - Galli-Marié in Bizet's Carmen
Atelier Nadar - Jacques Isnardon, Vaudeville
Auguste François-Marie Gorguet - poster for the première performance of Édouard Lalo's Le roi d'Ys (1888)
Barbier, Jules, Nadar, Gallica
Blanche Roosevelt by Napoleon Sarony
Boris Kustodiev - Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin - Google Art Project
Carl Nielsen c. 1908 - Restoration
Carloz Schwabe - Vincent d'Indy's Fervaal
Cavalleria Rusticana - Alfio and Turiddu embrace
Cavalleria Rusticana - Santuzza and Turiddu outside the church
Charles Gounod (1890) by Nadar
Charles Motte - Rossini et Georges IV - la soirée de Brighton
Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act 3, Scene 2 set
Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act III, Scene 1 set design (Version 2)
Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for Act V, Scene 2 of Fromental Halévy's La reine de Chypre
Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for the première of Rossini's Robert Bruce, Act III, Scene 3
Cherubini, Luigi - Medea - Restoration
Christine Nilsson Nadar
Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 1st scene
Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 2nd scene
Collina presso Nagasaki, bozzetto di Alexandre Bailly, Marcel Jambon per Madama Butterfly (1906) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000079 - Restoration
Composer Rossini G 1865 by Carjat - Restoration
Cover to Doris Waltz by P. Bucalossi after Alfred Cellier - Art by Nicholas Hanhart
Célestin Nanteuil - Jules Massenet - Don César de Bazan
Dudley Hardy - Poster for Basil Hood and Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia
Dudley Hardy - Poster for His Majesty
Edmond Cavé 1844 Ingres - NY Met Museum of Art
Elliott & Fry - photograph W. S. Gilbert
Ethel Smyth
Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Guillaume Tell - 1-3. Laure Cinti-Damoreau as Mathilde, Adolphe Nourrit as Arnold Melchtal, and Nicolas Levasseur as Walter Furst
Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Les Huguenots - 2. Julie Dorus-Gras as Marguerite, Adolphe Nourrit as Raoul, and Cornélie Falcon as Valentine
Eugène Grasset - Jules Massenet - Werther
Falka - Weir Collection
Falstaff 3
Fausta Labia, porträtt - SMV - H5 028 - Restoration
François-Joseph Bélanger - Set design for Gluck's Alceste
Fromental Halévy, L'Éclair score cover - Restoration
Georges Rochegrosse - Henry Février - Henri Cain and Louis Payen after Victorien Sardou - Gismonda
Georges Rochegrosse - Jules Massenet - Roma
Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for Gabriel Fauré's Pénélope (1913)
Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for the prèmiere of Claude Debussy and Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande
Georges Rochegrosse's poster for Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte
Geraldine Ulmar in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado - photograph only
Giacomo Puccini (1924) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO003293 - Restoration
Gilbert Duprez & Rosine Stoltz in Donizetti's La Favorite
Giuseppe Barberis - Carlo Cornaglia - Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo at La Scala
Giuseppe Verdi, Giovanna d'Arco, Vocal Score - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata title page - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Lombardi alla prima crociata. Libretto, 1843 - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, Vocal score illustration by Roberto Focosi - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra first edition libretto for the 1881 revision of the opera - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Un Ballo in maschera, Vocal score frontispiece - restoration
H. M. Brock - Gilbert and Sullivan - D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Ruddigore revival 1921
H. M. Brock - Poster for Iolanthe
H.J. Whitlock - Photograph of Arthur Sullivan
Haydée, ou Le secret Act II - Philippe Chaperon
Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, La Prise de Troie score cover - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens vocal score cover - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens à Carthage vocal score cover - Restoration
Henri C. R. Presseq - Camille Erlanger - Le juif polonais
Henry Atwell Thomas - Franz von Suppé - Fatinitza
Il signor Tambourossini - Delaroche
Il trovatore by Luigi Morgari
Illustrated London News - Giuseppe Verdi's Attila at Her Majesty's Theatre, London
Iolanthe piano transcriptions by Ernst Perabo
Ivor Novello
Jacques Offenbach - A. Jannin - Robinson Crusoé
Jacques Offenbach by Nadar
Jean de Paleologu - Jules Massenet - Sapho
Jeremiah Gurney - Photograph of Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
Johann Strauss II by Fritz Luckhardt
John Phillip Sousa - De Wolf Hopper - El Capitan1
Joseph Albert - Ludwig und Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Tristan und Isolde, 1865f
Jules Massenet - Le Cid 2e Acte, 3e Tableau - L'Illustration
Jules Massenet - Le Cid 3e Acte, 6e Tableau - L'Illustration
Jules Massenet by Eugène Pirou
La Juive Act 1 set 1835 - Restoration
Le comte Ory - Dubois & chez Martinet - Final scene
Lilly Walleni in Daria at Kungliga Operan 1907 - SMV - NV059
Louis Guéymard as Robert le Diable by Gustave Courbet - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 436015 (cropped)
Lucy Arbell as Queen Amahelli in Massenet's Bacchus, wide view
Lucy Arbell in Massenet's Thérèse
Lucy Arbell photographed by Paul Nadar
Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Gaetano Donizetti - Carrefour de St Jean et Paul. Dans l'Opéra Marino Faliero
Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Vincenzo Bellini - Théatre Royal Italien. Salle d'armes dans l'Opéra I Puritani
M. Browne - Herbert Railton - Sydney Grundy - Arthur Sullivan - Haddon Hall
Mademoiselle Maupin de l'Opéra (Julie d'Aubigny)
Mademoiselle Priola de l'Opéra Comique, rôle de Javotte dans "Le Roi l'a dit" de Delibes
Magna Lykseth in Tristan och Isolde at Kungliga Operan 1909 - SMV - GL164
Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
Maria Carrara Verdi, Barberina Strepponi, Giuseppe Verdi, Giuditta Ricordi, Teresa Stolz, Umberto Campanari, Giulio Ricordi, Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1900) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO003107 - Restoration
Marian Anderson
Maritana - Nov 22 1845 Illustrated London News
Max Brückner - Otto Henning - Richard Wagner - Final scene of Götterdämmerung
Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots - Décor Acte II
Michael William Balfe - Atelier Nadar
Napoli, strada Acquaquilia, bozzetto di Riccardo Salvadori per A Basso Porto (1894) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON002556
Nelly Martyl by Jean Reutlinger (Image 10715)
Paul Maurou - Poster for Edmond Audran's Gillette de Narbonne
Percy Anderson - Poster for The Duchess of Dantzic
Philippe Chaperon - Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots Act I (1896)
Philippe Chaperon - Rigoletto
Philippe Chaperon - Set design for Act V in the première of Victorin Joncières' Dimitri
Philippe Chaperon by Atelier Nadar
Pierre Gaveaux by Edmé Quenedey (1821)
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Giulietta act
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Olympia act
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, prologue
Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri - Act III set design for the première production of Daniel Auber's Gustave III
Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri - Eugène Cicéri - Philippe Benoist - Adolphe Jean Baptiste Bayot - Décorations de théâtre, Robert le diable, 3e act
PikiWiki Israel 13773 AIDA AT MASADA 2011
Portrait of Madame Dugazon (Louise Rosalie Lefèvre), in the title rôle of Nina (Scene V)
Poster for Burnand and Sullivan's Cox and Box - Royal Gallery of Illustration
Poster for Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago at the Royal Gallery of Illustration
Poster for Jules Massenet's La Navarraise with Emma Calvé in the rôle of Anita
Poster for Le pardon de Ploërmel 1859
Poster for The Lucky Star (1899) by Dudley Hardy
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2
Prudent-Louis Leray - Poster for the première of Georges Bizet's Carmen
Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for A Sensation Novel
Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan's The Contrabandista
Rosa Raisa (1917) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO002701 - Restoration
Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act1 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1871 Cairo - Gallica - Restored
Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act4 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1880 Paris
Souvenir advertisement for Princess Ida by Alice Havers - Page 1
Souvenir program for the première production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience - Cover
Strauss, Richard - Ariadne auf Naxos - Restoration
Tavola 5, bozzetto di Gebrüder Brückner per Tannhäuser (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON011721 - Restoration, crop
Teatro Municipal de São Paulo 8
The Mikado Chappell Vocal Score cover (c.1895)
Thespis - Illustrated London News Jan 6 1872
Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom
Utopia Limited Poster
Vasta spianata presso Courtray, bozzetto di Giuseppe Palanti per Edgar (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000128 B
Verdi conducting Aida in Paris 1880 - Gallica - Restoration
Wally (soprano), figurino di Adolf Hohenstein per La Wally (1892) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON004639 - Restoration
Wilhelm - Costume design for Arac, Gunon, and Scynthius (Princess Ida, 1884)
Édouard de Reszke by Nadar (BPL Hale Coll)
Émile Bertrand - Jules Massenet - Cendrillon poster