Opera combines both music and theatrical performance. This symbiosis of the two directions makes the opera not only an amazing genre, but also attracts more and more fans. If opera is so popular to this day, it will be interesting to know who and when invented this direction.
The operatic genre is a mistake of the Italians
Opera appeared during the Renaissance in Italy. There are many assumptions about who laid the foundation for the development of the opera genre. One theory says that the opera, then called "musical drama", appeared by mistake.
In the 15th century, Italians showed great interest in the culture of ancient Rome and Greece, as, in fact, the whole world. But especially many Italian cultural experts were interested in the ancient drama. Studying the originals of the tragedies, they noticed that the Greeks put special signs over the words in the text. As a result, the Italians assumed that these signs are like modern notes, and the actors playing the roles in the tragedies uttered the words in chant.
As historians later found out, this did not quite correspond to the truth, since there is no hint of the Greeks singing their speeches in the performances. Signs were placed so that the actor understood what words to emphasize.
But at that moment it did not matter any more, since it was decided that now, in order to imitate ancient culture, it is necessary to write music that could express all feelings and enable the actors to sing the words.
Musical drama
The opera genre has developed dynamically since the 16th century. If you analyze today's opera and operas staged a couple of centuries ago, you can see a huge difference between these works. In this regard, it is very difficult to determine which of the 16th century performances became the first opera. According to the surviving documents, scientists have found an indication that the first performance with musical accompaniment was staged according to the ancient Greek myth of the god Apollo, and it is called "Daphne".
However, the first musical and dramatic work has not survived to this day, but the second opera, which is called "Eurydice", has survived. The composer of both operas was an Italian named Jacopo Peri.
Although these two tragedies are the founders of the opera genre, they cannot be called operas in the sense that we are used to seeing behind the term. And the very name "opera" did not exist then. The Italians themselves used the word "opera" as "composition", and the staged tragedies were called "musical drama." In reality, these were ordinary productions with musical numbers between acts.
First opera
The very first opera that fits the modern definition was the tragedy "Orpheus" by composer Claudio Monteverdi. In 1615, his last edition of the score was published, which consisted of up to 40 instruments. These instruments did not just play music between acts, but convey the characters of the characters and scenes.
In the 17th century, opera was forgotten as soon as Monteverdi died. They remembered her only after 200 years. Despite the fact that the opera "Orpheus" has its own characteristics, which distinguishes it from later works of the same genre, the performances were staged in accordance with the author's idea, keeping all the amendments and recommendations.
