The Development of Opera

Opera was invented in Florence, Italy, around 1600 by a group of intellectuals, poets, and musicians, also know as the Florentine Camerata. The oldest surviving opera, L’Euridice was composed by Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri, two of the leading members of the Florentine Camerata and was composed in 1600. “Le nuove musiche” (1602) is published by the Florentine Camerata composer, Giulio Caccini.

Moving on in the Baroque era, Claudio Monteverdi was often regarded as the first true composer of opera. Not only did he compose a great number of opera seria (tragic opera), he also increased the role of ensembles and established the love duet. He was also known as the most important composer of early Italian opera. In his famous opera, “The Coronation of Poppea”was first performed in 1642. By the time he composed “The Coronation of Poppea”, public houses had already been established in major Italian cities. His famous motto is “the text is the master, the music is the servant”.

Henry Purcell is sometimes referred to by “British Orpheus” because of his compelling lyricism in his compositions.His famous opera, “Dido and Aeneas” was originally written for a performance by the students of Josias Priest School for Girls in the London suburb of Chelsea.

Handel made an important contribution to the development of Italian opera seria and composed over forty works in this genre. Handel spends half of his life composing operas until the public grew bored of it. He was afraid that his musical career would end so he put a new genre into his music: oratorio.

The most famous master of all forms of opera is W.A. Mozart. He used all three available forms of opera in his time, opera seria, opera buffa, and singspiel. He is known for his close collaboration with his librettists Some other representative opera works by Mozart include “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.”