opera: Characteristics
Characteristics
The libretto may be serious or comic, although neither form necessarily excludes elements of the other. Opera differs from operetta in its musical complexity and usually in its subject matter. It differs also from oratorio, which is customarily based on a religious subject and is performed without scenery, costumes, or stage action. Although both opera and operetta may have spoken dialogue, in opera the dialogue usually has musical accompaniment, such as the harpsichord continuo in the operas of Mozart and Rossini.
Often, the music in opera is continuous, with set pieces such as solos, duets, trios, quartets, etc., and choral pieces, all designed to dramatize the action and display the particular vocal skills of the principal singers. For example, the last act trio from Gounod's
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Twentieth-Century Opera
- Russian Opera
- Verdi and the Late Nineteenth Century in Italy
- Early-Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera
- The Development of French Grand Opera and Opéra Comique
- The Romantic Movement in Germany
- Opera in the Nineteenth Century
- German and Austrian Opera in the Eighteenth Century
- The Development of English Opera
- Italian Opera of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Early French Opera
- The Baroque in Rome and Venice
- Florentine Beginnings
- Early Opera
- Characteristics
- Bibliography
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