What is an opera?

[Opera] A drama in which singing is the main theme and poetry, music, dance and other arts are integrated. The operas Jiang Jie and Honghu Red Guards are deeply loved by the broad masses of the people.

A form of drama that combines music, poetry, dance and other arts and focuses on singing. Modern western opera came into being in Italy at the end of16th century, and then gradually became popular all over Europe. The operas in China since the Song and Yuan Dynasties also belong to the nature of operas.

Opera is a comprehensive art that integrates music (vocal music and instrumental music), drama (script and performance), literature (poetry), dance (folk dance and ballet) and stage art. It usually consists of aria, recitation, duet, chorus, overture, interlude and dance scene. Sometimes used to speak plain English and recite. As early as in ancient Greek drama, there was chorus accompaniment, and some recitations even appeared in the form of singing; In the Middle Ages, miracle dramas with religious stories as the theme and promoting religious views were also filled with incense and continued to this day. Modern western opera, which can really be called "musical", came into being at the end of16th century and the beginning of17th century with the secularization of music culture in the Renaissance.

1. The origin of opera can be traced back to the tragedy of ancient Greece, and this art form is the root of opera art.

2. Some musical forms in the Middle Ages also laid the foundation for the emergence of opera. First, it is a religious drama at the end of 10 century. Later, it was replaced by mystery and miracle, which prevailed in14-16th century. Secondly, pastoral drama, which expresses rural life scenes by means of music, poetry and drama, has been popular until16th century and has become one of the important origins of drama.

3. Pastoral opera in Renaissance also indicates the birth of opera. Composers use the genre of pastoral to write some dramatic scenes in poems, or use a group of pastoral songs to describe some simple storylines. The latter form is called pastoral opera.

4. The most direct origin of opera is Intermedio at the end of 15. This is some allegorical drama, divine drama or pastoral drama interspersed between the scenes of comedy at that time. In the16th century, the inter-scene drama between scenes has formed a related story in the plot, and decorative melody and simple harmony accompaniment have been added.

5. Opera was finally produced in Florence, Italy at the end of 16. At that time, a group of celebrities in the cultural and artistic circles often got together in the homes of noble Baldi and Colsy. They are keen to restore ancient Greek drama and try to create a vivid art that combines poetry and music. They believe that polyphony destroys the expression of the meaning of lyrics and advocate the use of single-part melody. In practice, they found that the tones freely sung under the accompaniment of harmony can be used not only in the same poem, but also in the whole drama. Then came the earliest opera, which became an idyllic drama.

The Development and Characteristics of Early Italian Opera

Florence Opera House:

1. 1597 The first opera: Daphne, written by Leigh Nuccini and composed by Perry. Because the soundtrack of this work is only a fragment, people usually perform it at 1600, keeping it intact, with Leigh Nuccini writing the script and Perry and Caccini composing the music.

2. Characteristics of early operas: The script was based on Greek mythology, and later historical themes were added. The music part is in the form of basso continuo, and the singing part is mainly in the form of recitation. The range is not wide, the rhythm is free, accompanied by a small number of instruments, and chorus is also used.

Roman opera:

1. Representative figures and works: Roman composer Cavalerie (about 1550- 1602) created "Anima's prayer", which was staged in February 1600, laying the foundation for Roman opera. The incarnation of spirit and flesh is actually regarded as a oratorio by historians, which has the embryonic form of opera and involves religious morality.

2. Features: Pay attention to the pleasure brought by spectacular opera scenes, and add gorgeous stage design, institutional settings and ballet scenes. Each scene ends with chorus and dance.

Venice Opera House:

1. Establishment of the first opera house: Saint Cassiano1637 established the first opera house in Venice, which was the transition of opera from aristocratic salons and courts to citizens.

2. Representative figures and works: 1607, Venetian opera writer Monteverdi completed the creation of the opera Oflo, and the theme of the opera is similar to that of Leo Nuccini's Eurydice. In the play, Monteverdi, with his rich experience in pastoral and religious music creation, combined with the use of various means in the music treasure house of16th century, made Flo the first truly opera in the history of opera.

3. Features: Arias and duets are widely used in opera, paying attention to emotional expression and bel canto, and rarely using chorus. For the first time, the stringed instrument family occupied an important position, thus strengthening the expressive force of music.

Naples Opera House:

1. Develop towards opera: Naples is the last city in the development of Italian opera, which began at the end of 17 and was shaped as 18 th century Celia opera, and its influence continued until 19 th century. Often based on fictional history or heroic deeds, and because of the pursuit of bel canto, those "eunuch" singers who have both strong lung capacity of men and soft and bright timbre of women are very popular.

2. Representative figures and works: aleman Dro scarlatti (1660- 1725), a representative figure of Neapolitan music school, created free-developing arias on the basis of lyricism of vocal music, which gave Bel Canto a broad space to display. The representative figure is Teodora.

3. Characteristics (also the characteristics of opera):

1) In terms of content, ancient myths and historical legends are the theme, and the content is serious, as opposed to comedy.

2) In terms of structural form, the original five-act opera has been changed into a compact three-act structure, and comedy interludes (Intremezzo, performed at the entrance of the stage) are often interspersed between the acts. It begins with a very unique overture (fast-slow-fast three-part form), and the recitation and the aria back to the beginning alternate, rarely using duets and chorus, and there is no dance.

3) Two different recitations: one is dry recitation, which is used for long dialogues or monologues, and the solo part is only accompanied by basso continuo; The other is a recitative with accompaniment, which is good at expressing complex emotions and is also used in dramatic tension scenes. The solo was accompanied by a band.

4) Looking back at the aria: This aria is a three-part form of Aba. Composers usually stop writing the reproduced paragraph A, but only mark da capo at the end of paragraph B, which means to repeat from the beginning, pretend to "go back to the beginning" and mark Fine at the end.

[Edit this paragraph] The development of opera

/kloc-at the end of 0/7, which was the most influential in Rome? The Naples Opera School represented by scarlatti. The school did not use chorus and ballet scenes in the play, but highly developed the solo technique called "Bel Canto" by later generations. When this style of "focusing only on singers" goes to extremes, the original dramatic expression and ideological connotation of opera are almost lost. Therefore, in the 1920s of 18, the Xi opera school with daily life as its theme, humorous plot and simple music rose. The first masterpiece of Italian comic opera is the Maid as a Housewife by Paglassie (premiered at 1733), which was originally an opera interlude. 1752 was vilified by conservatives when it was staged in Paris, thus setting off the famous "Great Debate on Happy Opera" in the history of opera. Rousseau's first French comedy opera "Village Diviner" was born under the inspiration of this debate and this opera.

Italian opera was first transformed in France and combined with French national culture. Lu Li is the founder of French opera ("lyric tragedy"). He not only created a solo melody closely combined with French, but also took the lead in applying ballet scenes to opera. In Britain, purcell created the first British national opera Didong and Ignace on the basis of his mask drama tradition. In Germany and Austria, Haydn, Dietdorf, Mozart and others developed folk operas into German-Austrian national operas, including Mozart's Magic Flute. By the18th century, Gluck insisted that opera must have profound content, music and drama should be unified, and performance should be simple and natural. His thoughts and works, such as Orflo and Eurydice and Figini of Orid, had a great influence on the development of later operas.

/kloc-After the 9th century, Italian opera masters such as G Rossini, G Verdi, G Puccini, German R Wagner, French G Bizet, Russian M.I. glinka, M.P. Musorgskiy and P.N. Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky all made important contributions to the development of opera. Operas, formed in18th century, have evolved into an independent genre. It is characterized by short structure and popular music. Besides solo, duet, chorus and dance, it also uses popular English. Austrian composer Suo Beier and German composer Owen Bach are the founders of this genre.

Among the opera composers in the 20th century, Richard Strauss was a representative influenced by Wagner in the early days. After World War I, it was Berger who applied the atonality principle to opera creation. Since the 1940s, there have been: Stravinsky, prokofiev, Mi Yue, Manotti, Barbier, Orff, Janus Della, Henze, Moore and the famous British composer Britten.

[Edit this paragraph] Opera aria

Sound classification

The roles played by singers are classified according to their different skills, flexibility, strength and timbre. Male singers can be divided into bass, baritone, tenor and tenor/tenor from low to high. Female singers are divided into alto, soprano and soprano from low to high. Soprano can also be subdivided into coloratura soprano and lyric soprano. Basically, the range of male voices is lower than that of all female voices, but some falsetto tenors can sing to the range of alto. The falsetto tenor singing is more common in the roles sung by eunuchs written in ancient times.

After classification by register, some adjectives about singing are often added, such as lyric soprano, dramatic soprano, solemn soprano (soprano spinto), coloratura soprano (soprano coloratura), soprano soubrette and so on. Although these terms can't completely describe a voice, they can often classify different voices and put them into different roles. Some singers' voices will suddenly change greatly, or in their thirties or even middle age, their voices will reach a mature and brilliant state.

Utilization of sound classification

Soprano has always been the best choice for most opera heroines. But before the classical music period, the first requirement of soprano was voice control technology, not the wide range required today; At that time, the highest note of soprano often did not exceed the high note A[2 1]. The word mezzo-soprano is a relatively new concept, but many roles can be played, such as Dido in purcell's works and Bran in Wagner's Tristan and isolde. Ne)[22]. contralto can often sing fewer roles. Experts often joke that contralto can only sing "witches, bitches and pants". In recent years, many roles originally sung by contralto or eunuch have become the bag of falsetto tenor.

On the other hand, tenor has always been the protagonist in opera since the era of classical music. Many of the most challenging tenor roles come from the period of Bel Canto opera, such as Donizetti's nine consecutive high C's for the protagonist in The Daughter of the Regime. Wagner, on the other hand, asked his tenor protagonist to be heavier than the average tenor, and even made people invent a new word "Heldentenor" to describe this kind of role; The role of Italian opera is also equivalent to Wagner's request, such as Calaf in Puccini's Turandot. Bass has a long history. In the era of traditional Chinese opera, it plays a supporting role, often a funny role to entertain the audience. Bass can also play many roles, such as Leigh Porello in Mozart's Don Juan and King Vatan in Wagner's The Ring of Nibelungen. Between tenor and bass, there is a baritone, and this concept only appeared in the middle of19th century. Famous figures such as Gulmo in Mozart's Woman, and Rodeo in Don Carlo.

[Edit this paragraph] Vocal music

The vocal part of the opera includes solo, duet and chorus, and the lyrics are the lines of the characters in the play (depending on the style, they can also be said in plain English); Instrumental music usually has a prelude or overture at the beginning of the whole play, and early operas also have a dedication prelude (including vocal music). In each scene, instrumental music is not only the accompaniment of singing, but also plays a connecting role. Scenes are often interspersed, or each scene has its own prelude. Dance can also be inserted into the process of drama. The musical structure of opera can be composed of relatively independent pieces of music, or it can be a unified structure with continuous development.

The important vocal styles in opera include recitation, aria, aria, recitation, duet and chorus. Its genre style includes opera, comic opera, grand opera, operetta, operetta, musical comedy, chamber opera, musical and so on.

aria

Aria is the main aria for the protagonist to express his feelings in opera. Their music is very beautiful and the structure is relatively complete, which can show the singer's vocal skills. Therefore, we often hear them in concerts, such as the aria Sunny Days in Madame Butterfly, why is my heart so excited in La Traviata, and Lin Xiawei's aria There is a voice in my heart.

Reciting

The recitative is a paragraph in which the plot unfolds, and the story often unfolds in the recitative. At this time, there are more dialogues between characters. This passage is not suitable for chorus, so it is called recitative, which is very similar to the rhyme in Beijing opera. In Beijing Opera, Tsing Yi, Xiao Sheng or the old students all chant with exaggerated pronunciation and intonation. Although it is not very melodious, it can make Daobai easily associated with the singing before and after, which is very similar to the recitation in western operas. The early recitative of European opera is very non-singing, which is called "dry recitative". Usually, a chord is played into a tune on the clavichord, and the singer uses this tune to repeat it with many homophones. The repeated translation of this homonym into Chinese is very ugly, because there are four cadences in China's language, and we in China can't sing in a flat tone: Have you eaten today? That must sound funny. So when we encounter this kind of "dry recitation", we simply take off the rap and change it into a dialogue. But in the19th century, with the gradual melody of opera recitative, for example, when we sang operas such as La Traviata and Carmen, we translated the recitative into Chinese. With a little melody, we can find four Chinese sounds that are suitable for the melody.

An ensemble of two or more singers.

A duet is that several different characters sing at the same time according to their specific emotions and drama plots. When two people sing at the same time, it is called a duet. Sometimes, the supporting and opposing roles are organized in a work. It could be a trio, a quartet, a quintet. There are sextets in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, and even in Mozart's The Wedding of Figaro. A dozen people sing together, sometimes in groups. A group of three or five people expressed their opinions, some sympathized with Figaro, some sympathized with the count, and some looked at jokes. This composer is outstanding.

Another form is the chorus of mass scenes. As mentioned above, it can be male voice, female voice, mixed voice of men and women or children's voice according to the requirements of the plot.

Opera has stories, singing has lyrics, and lyrics are closely related to the development of music and drama. So, is it better to introduce western opera into China by translating or singing the original text to keep its "original flavor"? There have always been two opinions, each with its own merits. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Chinese opera workers made great efforts in translation when introducing western operas. There is an important problem here, that is, literary language should not only be translated well, but also conform to the rules of music when it is matched with music, so that the audience can feel comfortable and accepted. This is a knowledge and a very arduous task, and it can only be done well with the cooperation of translators with high musical literacy or translators and musicians. My personal opinion is that since the audience is here to see the play, it should be understood. When western operas are introduced into China, it is best to translate them into Chinese, so that people can easily understand the plot and drama of opera music at any time and enjoy singing and performance. At least we can let the audience in China feel that our musicians really want them to know the charm of western opera. The social fashion in recent years is that the original text is sung with Chinese subtitles. Although it can show the level of our actors singing the original text, and may be attracted by foreign agents and invited to perform abroad, as far as I know, for the audience, the acceptance of western opera is farther and the audience is narrower. Everyone will think, forget it. You don't want us to understand anyway. Besides, some actors' original text level is not high, in fact, no one can understand it

A form of drama. Composed of dramatic texts (lyrics) with music, usually accompanied by music when singing. In addition to soloists, singers, choirs and musicians, opera performances often include dancers from the beginning. For five centuries, this complex and expensive form of music, drama and entertainment has been loved by the audience. The obvious difference between it and other forms of drama is that its lines are expressed by singing instead of words; It differs from operetta, musical comedy and other musicals in the seriousness of its works, the rigor of its structure and the seriousness of its accompanying sound.

In ancient times, there were works combining poetry and drama with music. Ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides all adopted chorus in their plays. Medieval religious dramas based on the Bible, such as miracle dramas and miracle dramas, were generally accompanied by some kind of music. These and other forms of music and drama can be considered as the precursors of opera. The opera was produced in Florence, Italy at the end of 16. The first opera, Daphne, composed by Renaissance pastoral poets ottavio Rinuccini and Jacob Perry, has been lost. The earliest existing opera script Euridice is also their work. However, the works of the two fathers of opera are exploratory in genre and structure. About 10 years later, claudio monteverdi's representative opera Favras dolfi Ou came out. Among them, instrumental accompaniment has become a dramatic factor; At that time, the themes of opera were mostly Greek and Roman myths, legends and fictional historical stories.

opera house

1637, the world's first opera house, Teatro di San Cassiano, was completed in Venice and opened to the general audience, thus ending the era when opera was monopolized by royalty and nobility and greatly promoting the development of opera. Francesco Cavalli, a student of Monteverdi, is the most famous opera composer of this era. He composed about 40 operas for the Venice Opera House from 1639 to 1669, the most famous of which was Giasone. Pietro antonio Cesti, an Italian opera writer who was contemporary with Caffari, also wrote many operas, the most famous of which is Seven Nights. /kloc-After the middle of the 0/7th century, the school of Venetian opera began to decline, although there were still several talented composers, such as Galluppi, who was called the "father of opera" as usual.

Other cities in Italy, such as Rome, quickly developed their own local dramas. Different from Venice, Roman operas do not emphasize the grandeur of the stage, but prefer to dilute the tragic atmosphere of the whole play with funny episodes, and pay attention to the overture of musical instruments and the interlude movement of overture. There are also many famous opera writers in Rome, such as Virgilio Mazzocchi Marco Marazzo, who wrote the first complete comic opera Chisov sperry.

/kloc-in the 0/8th century, the Italian opera center moved to Naples, and various opera schools appeared one after another, thus affecting Italian and many foreign opera activity centers. Its focus is to make music obey the lyrics and make people understand. Lyrics writers Nuo Ze and Metastasio Pietro contributed to this. The aria of opera, especially the three-part aria, is dominant. Naples opera is simple in harmony and lighter in melody, with a gorgeous tone of Rococo style. Representative writers are Alessandro Scarlatti, porpora, Finch and Leo.

1720, Venetian Marce Marcello wrote "modern drama, also known as the foolproof method of creating and performing Italian opera" (Il teatro alla moda, O sia me todo sicuro e easible per Ben comprore ed ese guire opera italiane in musica), satirizing the growing stereotype in opera, which made the drama weak, thus causing the experiment of opera reform, but with little effect.

/kloc-in the 0/7th century, independent satirical comedy operas developed. At the beginning, it is often interspersed between opera scenes. In the process of maturity, it has restored some serious feelings of orthodox operas, thus making many cross talks mixed. The Barber of Serbia, The Wedding of Figaro and Marriage are the representative works of this period.

Opera was introduced to France 1650 years ago, and the first French opera Beaumont premiered at the opening ceremony of the Royal Conservatory of Music (now Paris Opera House) in 167 1 year. But it was not until the time when Giovanni Batista Luli lived that opera became a real French art. Italian Luli went to Paris to learn from the characteristics of French drama and ballet and created French opera. He doesn't like Italian arias and advocates short and lively songs instead. He reformed the recitation according to the recitation of the French comedy troupe and developed the French overture. Luli's style reached its peak in Jean-Philippe Ramo's operas, and his major works include hippolyte and Aric.

1627 After opera was introduced into Germany and Austria, "folk opera" rose, and a number of opera writers emerged, such as Mozart, Gandel and Beethoven. His major works include The Magic Flute, Orlando, The Wedding of Figaro, Don Juan, Federio and The World on the Moon. 1769, Ranieri de Calzabigi and Ge Luke published an important document on opera innovation: the preface of the opera Alsi. He believes that the redundant and fancy three-part aria should be abolished and replaced by simple expression and true feelings. The duty of music is to "serve poetry". Gluck's representative works include Evy Gneyn Orid of Olid and Gneyn Torid of Evy. His reform thought has a great influence.

After opera was introduced into England, it took a long time to take root in England. The first English opera was henry purcell's dido and aeneas. It breaks the boundary between recitation and song. The performance of The Beggar's Opera finally made the British audience accustomed to listening to a stage play sung in their mother tongue.

From the end of 18 century to the beginning of 19 century, French comedy opera has been greatly developed. 1752, Rousseau's one-act opera Guerre des Bouffons was staged. He wrote a score in the form of mixed music, which combined the tunes reflecting very popular romantic love with vaudeville performances, which was very French. Since then, this new mixed opera has occupied a dominant position in the opera stage in Paris and other regions. Famous playwrights include Monsigny, Gretry, Mayhur and Fran? ois-Adrian Erdi. Since Bois Erdi, French comedy opera has become more Italian, reflecting Rossini's influence. During this period, Italian opera once declined. Later, brilliant opera composers such as John Simon Mayer, Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Bei Lini created a number of world-renowned opera works such as The Barber of Serbia, Anna Bolena and Il Pirata.

Grand Opera was born in Paris in the19th century. It is a large-scale opera with international style, with historical or fictional historical stories as the theme, and the stage is full of exotic costumes, ballet and various walk-on queues. It almost abandoned the subtlety of Bel Canto and greatly expanded the orchestra itself and its role in drama. The first recognized large-scale opera was giacomo meyerbeer's Robert Le Deiab. After Meyer Bell and Fromen Tal Halevy, the grand opera began to reflect the new music trend and developed into various mixed forms. There were also French opera writers in this period, including Berlioz and Baking Bach. Their major works include Orphee, Troy and The Story of Hoffman.

German romantic opera is the pioneer of German romantic music, such as Der Freischutz. During this period, there was also the rise of operetta, which reached its peak with johann strauss's masterpiece Bat.

/kloc-The famous opera composers after the 0/9th century are: Verdi, Puccini, busoni, etc. German and Austrian Wagner, Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, Xunbaike, Berger, etc. French Cournot, Bizet, Thomas, Jules Massenet, Debussy, Ravel.

After the opera was introduced into Russia, foreign works were first performed, and then a number of outstanding opera composers such as glinka, the father of Russian opera, were produced, such as Linsky Kosakov, Bao Luoting, Modest Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and ProGao Fei.

By the middle of the 20th century, opera had almost become a museum art, mostly repeating old works and rarely being new works. Some writers believe that the future of opera lies in stage plays and other mixed opera forms that are similar to operas and bring surprises to the audience, while others believe that the future of opera lies in various operas created for performances in factories and schools.