This period also saw the rise of castrati-male singers who were castrated as boys to preserve their soprano voices.

One of the greatest composers of Italian Baroque opera was a German who lived most of his life in London- Georg Frideric Handel (1685–1759). From that beginning, two types of opera began to emerge: opera seria, or stately, formal and dignified pieces to befit the royalty that attended and sponsored them, and opera buffa, or comedies.īy the Baroque era (1600–1750), opera had taken Europe by storm and was a spectacular, expensive affair full of florid arias and ornate stage sets with moving parts. Enter Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), who composed Dafne (1597), which many consider to be the first opera. All play their part in the history of opera, the art form that brings together all the arts in a lavish combination of emotion and spectacle.In Florence, a small group of artists, statesmen, writers and musicians known as the Florentine Camerata decided to recreate the storytelling of Greek drama through music.

There is love, there is murder, there are shepherds and nymphs, gypsies and queens, an earthquake and a poisonous snake. Along the way we encounter duelling composers, superstar castratos, abandoned heroines driven mad by passion and swashbuckling heroes striving for elusive high notes. From Monteverdi’s Orfeo to Harrison Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus, by way of Handel and Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, Puccini and Stravinsky, Discover Opera surveys the entire history of this extravagant yet intimate art form. Once the sport of kings and princes, it now provides the soundtrack of our lives, its best-loved tunes heard on football terraces, in films and advertisements, and even at the opera house.

Formats: iPad/iPhone (enhanced), Kindle, Nook, Koboįor 400 years, opera has illuminated the innermost recesses of human existence.

Classical opera music