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The Opera Portal

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work (called an opera) which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597), and was championed by Claudio Monteverdi with works such as L'Orfeo. It soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid to late 19th century is considered by some a golden age of opera, led by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. This 'golden age' developed through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism (Schoenberg and Berg), Neo-Classicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. Operas were also performed on (and written for) radio and television.

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Agrippina (HMV 6) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel, set to a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani. The opera tells the story of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, as she plots the downfall of the Roman Emperor Claudius and the installation of her son as emperor. Agrippina premiered in Venice some time in December 1709 or January 1710; the date is usually given as the 26 December 1709. The cast consisted of some of the leading singers of the time in Northern Italy, such as Antonio Carli in the lead bass role. Stars Margherita Durastanti, who had recently sung the role of Mary Magdalene in Handel's La Resurrezione; and Diamante Scarabelli, whose great success at Bologna in the 1697 pasticcio Perseo inspired the publication of a volume of eulogistic verse entitled La miniera del Diamante, also performed. Written when Handel was just 24, Agrippina was one of his first operas, and demonstrated his assimilation of the Italian style of opera, after his time spent in Rome composing Italianate cantatas and absorbing the influence of Alessandro Scarlatti, whom he had met in the city.

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Salzburg Festival

Credit: Thomas Pintaric

The Austrian city of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the home of the annual Salzburg Festival. In 2006, the festival celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth by staging all 22 of his operatic works (including two unfinished operas). All the productions were filmed and released to the general public in November 2006.

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In this month

3 May 2005 – Lorin Maazel's opera 1984 had its world premiere at London's Royal Opera House.
5 May 1726 – Handel's opera Alessandro premiered at the King's Theatre in London with the celebrated Italian castrato singer Senesino in the title role.
8 May 1895 – Henry Clifford, an opera by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
10 May 1901 – The German tenor Max Lorenz, a famous interpreter of Wagnerian roles, was born in Düsseldorf.
18 May 1910 – The French opera singer and composer Pauline Viardot (pictured) died in Paris at the age of 89.
19 May 1894 – Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, received its first UK performance with Arturo Pessina in the title role.
22 May 1813 – The composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig. Twenty years later, he was to complete his first opera, Die Feen.
25 May 1869 – The Vienna State Opera House was officially inaugurated with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

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Dmitri Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. He is best known for his satirical opera The Nose, (based on the story by Gogol) and his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, 15 of each. Since his death in 1975, reports about his true personal opinions about life in the USSR have been controversial. While he outwardly conformed with the state and was a public face for state-crafted propaganda, it is now widely known that he deeply disliked the Soviet regime —a view confirmed by his family, by private letters to Isaak Glikman, and the satirical cantata Anti-Formalist Rayok, which ridiculed the "anti-formalism" campaign in Soviet arts and was known only to his closest friends until after his death.

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If an opera cannot be played by an organ-grinder — as Puccini and Verdi's melodies were played — then that opera is not going to achieve immortality.

— Sir Thomas Beecham

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1851 – Rigoletto: "Bella figlia dell'amore"

From Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. This 1907 Victor Records recording starred Enrico Caruso, Bessie Abott, Louise Homer and Antonio Scotti.

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Did you know?

... that although Antonio Maria Bononcini's (Bononcini pictured) 1718 opera Griselda was successful, his older brother, Giovanni Bononcini, composed a more popular version in 1722?
... that the Balık sisters from Turkey are the only identical twins singing opera?
... that composer Jonathan Battishill once performed several airs from Samuel Arnold's oratorio The Prodigal Son without the sheet music, and after not hearing the work for more than 20 years?

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WikiProjects

Parent projects

WikiProject Arts • WikiProject Music • WikiProject Theatre

Main project

WikiProject Opera

Descendant projects

WikiProject Richard Wagner • WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan

Similar projects

WikiProject Classical music • WikiProject Composers

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Main topics

Opera history: Origins of opera • Italian opera • Opera in German • French opera • Opera in English • Polish opera • Russian opera • Hungarian opera • Armenian opera • Opera in Latin America

Opera genres: Azione teatrale · Ballad opera · Comédie en vaudevilles · Comédie mêlée d'ariettes · Dramma giocoso · Dramma per musica · Farsa · Festa teatrale · Género chico · Grand Opera · Music Drama · Opéra-ballet · Opera buffa · Opéra bouffe · Opéra bouffon · Opéra comique · Opéra féerie · Opera semiseria · Opera seria · Operetta · Pastorale héroïque · Romantische Oper · Savoy opera · Semi-opera · Singspiel · Spieloper · Tragédie en musique · Verismo · Zarzuela · Zeitoper

Opera terms: Aria · Aria di sorbetto · Arioso · Bel canto · Breeches role · Burletta · Cabaletta · Cadenza · Cantabile · Castrato · Cavatina · Chest voice · Claque · Coloratura · Comprimario · Convenienze · Coup de glotte · Da capo aria · Diva · Entr'acte · Fach · Falsetto · Fioritura · Gesamtkunstwerk · Head voice · Intermezzo · Kammersänger · Leitmotif · Legato · Libretto · Literaturoper · Mad scene · Maestro · Melodrama · Melodramma · Monodrama · Messa di voce · Opera house · Passaggio · Portamento · Prima donna · Prompter · Recitative · Regietheater · Répétiteur · Sitzprobe · Spinto · Sprechgesang · Squillo · Stagione · Surtitles · Tessitura · Timbre · Vibrato

Opera voices: Baritenor · Baritone · Bass · Bass-baritone · Coloratura soprano · Contralto · Countertenor · Dramatic soprano · Haute-contre · Lyric soprano · Mezzo-soprano · Soprano · Soubrette · Spinto soprano · Tenor · Tenore contraltino · Tenore di grazia

Opera lists: Opera topics • List of operas by composer • Important operas • Major opera composers • Opera librettists • Opera houses • Opera companies • Opera festivals • Opera directors • Operetta composers • Orphean operas • Zarzuela composers • Opera genres • Operas set in the Crusades • The Record of Singing • Bayreuth canon

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Opera}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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1899 poster of Mme. M. Sissieretta Jones
Adolphe-Joseph-Louis Alizard from Le Charivari
Advertisement for the music score of La Bohème, 1895
Aida poster colors fixed
Al quartiere latino, bozzetto di Adolf Hohenstein per La Bohème (1896) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000086 - Restoration
Albert Pierre-René Maignan - Jules Massenet - Ariane
Albert Reiss LOC ggbain-25651
Alexandre Charles Lecocq - Giuseppe Verdi - La forza del destino
Alexandre Fragonard - Scène de L'orage (Barbier de Séville)
Alexandre Lacauchie - Gilbert Duprez as Gaston in Verdi's Jérusalem
Alfredo Edel - Jules Massenet - Le mage
Alice Neilsen's production of Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller
Amilcare Ponchielli (before 1886) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO000794 - Restoration
Amédée Forestier - Illustrated London News - Gilbert and Sullivan - Ruddygore (Ruddigore)
Anna Fernqvist, rollporträtt - SMV - H1 122 - Restoration
Atelier Nadar - Fly scene from Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers with Jeanne Granier as Eurydice and Eugène Vauthier as Jupiter, 1887 revival, wide-angle shot
Atelier Nadar - Galli-Marié in Bizet's Carmen
Atelier Nadar - Jacques Isnardon, Vaudeville
Auguste François-Marie Gorguet - poster for the première performance of Édouard Lalo's Le roi d'Ys (1888)
Barbier, Jules, Nadar, Gallica
Boris Kustodiev - Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin - Google Art Project
Carl Nielsen c. 1908 - Restoration
Carloz Schwabe - Vincent d'Indy's Fervaal
Cavalleria Rusticana - Alfio and Turiddu embrace
Cavalleria Rusticana - Santuzza and Turiddu outside the church
Charles Gounod (1890) by Nadar
Charles Motte - Rossini et Georges IV - la soirée de Brighton
Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act 3, Scene 2 set
Charles-Antoine Cambon - La Esmeralda, Act III, Scene 1 set design (Version 2)
Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for Act V, Scene 2 of Fromental Halévy's La reine de Chypre
Charles-Antoine Cambon - Set design for the première of Rossini's Robert Bruce, Act III, Scene 3
Cherubini, Luigi - Medea - Restoration
Christine Nilsson Nadar
Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 1st scene
Colette and Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, 2nd scene
Collina presso Nagasaki, bozzetto di Alexandre Bailly, Marcel Jambon per Madama Butterfly (1906) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000079 - Restoration
Composer Rossini G 1865 by Carjat - Restoration
Célestin Nanteuil - Jules Massenet - Don César de Bazan
Dudley Hardy - Poster for His Majesty
Edmond Cavé 1844 Ingres - NY Met Museum of Art
Elliott & Fry - photograph W. S. Gilbert
Ethel Smyth
Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Guillaume Tell - 1-3. Laure Cinti-Damoreau as Mathilde, Adolphe Nourrit as Arnold Melchtal, and Nicolas Levasseur as Walter Furst
Eugène Du Faget - Costume designs for Les Huguenots - 2. Julie Dorus-Gras as Marguerite, Adolphe Nourrit as Raoul, and Cornélie Falcon as Valentine
Eugène Grasset - Jules Massenet - Werther
Falka - Weir Collection
Falstaff 3
Fausta Labia, porträtt - SMV - H5 028 - Restoration
François-Joseph Bélanger - Set design for Gluck's Alceste
Fromental Halévy, L'Éclair score cover - Restoration
Georges Rochegrosse - Henry Février - Henri Cain and Louis Payen after Victorien Sardou - Gismonda
Georges Rochegrosse - Jules Massenet - Roma
Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for Gabriel Fauré's Pénélope (1913)
Georges Rochegrosse - Poster for the prèmiere of Claude Debussy and Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande
Georges Rochegrosse's poster for Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte
Geraldine Ulmar in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado - photograph only
Giacomo Puccini (1924) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO003293 - Restoration
Gilbert Duprez & Rosine Stoltz in Donizetti's La Favorite
Giuseppe Barberis - Carlo Cornaglia - Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo at La Scala
Giuseppe Verdi, Giovanna d'Arco, Vocal Score - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, La traviata title page - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Lombardi alla prima crociata. Libretto, 1843 - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, Vocal score illustration by Roberto Focosi - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Simon Boccanegra first edition libretto for the 1881 revision of the opera - Restoration
Giuseppe Verdi, Un Ballo in maschera, Vocal score frontispiece - restoration
H. M. Brock - Gilbert and Sullivan - D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Ruddigore revival 1921
H. M. Brock - Poster for Iolanthe
H.J. Whitlock - Photograph of Arthur Sullivan
Haydée, ou Le secret Act II - Philippe Chaperon
Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, La Prise de Troie score cover - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens vocal score cover - Restoration
Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens à Carthage vocal score cover - Restoration
Henri C. R. Presseq - Camille Erlanger - Le juif polonais
Henry Atwell Thomas - Franz von Suppé - Fatinitza
Il signor Tambourossini - Delaroche
Il trovatore by Luigi Morgari
Illustrated London News - Giuseppe Verdi's Attila at Her Majesty's Theatre, London
Iolanthe piano transcriptions by Ernst Perabo
Ivor Novello
Jacques Offenbach - A. Jannin - Robinson Crusoé
Jacques Offenbach by Nadar
Jean de Paleologu - Jules Massenet - Sapho
Jeremiah Gurney - Photograph of Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
Johann Strauss II by Fritz Luckhardt
John Phillip Sousa - De Wolf Hopper - El Capitan1
Joseph Albert - Ludwig und Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Tristan und Isolde, 1865f
Jules Massenet - Le Cid 2e Acte, 3e Tableau - L'Illustration
Jules Massenet - Le Cid 3e Acte, 6e Tableau - L'Illustration
Jules Massenet by Eugène Pirou
La Juive Act 1 set 1835 - Restoration
Le comte Ory - Dubois & chez Martinet - Final scene
Lilly Walleni in Daria at Kungliga Operan 1907 - SMV - NV059
Louis Guéymard as Robert le Diable by Gustave Courbet - The Metropolitan Museum of Art 436015 (cropped)
Lucy Arbell as Queen Amahelli in Massenet's Bacchus, wide view
Lucy Arbell in Massenet's Thérèse
Lucy Arbell photographed by Paul Nadar
Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Gaetano Donizetti - Carrefour de St Jean et Paul. Dans l'Opéra Marino Faliero
Luigi Verardi after Dominico Ferri - Vincenzo Bellini - Théatre Royal Italien. Salle d'armes dans l'Opéra I Puritani
M. Browne - Herbert Railton - Sydney Grundy - Arthur Sullivan - Haddon Hall
Mademoiselle Maupin de l'Opéra (Julie d'Aubigny)
Mademoiselle Priola de l'Opéra Comique, rôle de Javotte dans "Le Roi l'a dit" de Delibes
Magna Lykseth in Tristan och Isolde at Kungliga Operan 1909 - SMV - GL164
Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
Maria Carrara Verdi, Barberina Strepponi, Giuseppe Verdi, Giuditta Ricordi, Teresa Stolz, Umberto Campanari, Giulio Ricordi, Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1900) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO003107 - Restoration
Marian Anderson
Maritana - Nov 22 1845 Illustrated London News
Max Brückner - Otto Henning - Richard Wagner - Final scene of Götterdämmerung
Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots - Décor Acte II
Michael William Balfe - Atelier Nadar
Napoli, strada Acquaquilia, bozzetto di Riccardo Salvadori per A Basso Porto (1894) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON002556
Nelly Martyl by Jean Reutlinger (Image 10715)
Paul Maurou - Poster for Edmond Audran's Gillette de Narbonne
Percy Anderson - Poster for The Duchess of Dantzic
Philippe Chaperon - Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots Act I (1896)
Philippe Chaperon - Rigoletto
Philippe Chaperon by Atelier Nadar
Pierre Gaveaux by Edmé Quenedey (1821)
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Giulietta act
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Olympia act
Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?) - Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, prologue
Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri - Eugène Cicéri - Philippe Benoist - Adolphe Jean Baptiste Bayot - Décorations de théâtre, Robert le diable, 3e act
PikiWiki Israel 13773 AIDA AT MASADA 2011
Portrait of Madame Dugazon (Louise Rosalie Lefèvre), in the title rôle of Nina (Scene V)
Poster for Burnand and Sullivan's Cox and Box - Royal Gallery of Illustration
Poster for Gilbert and Clay's Ages Ago at the Royal Gallery of Illustration
Poster for Jules Massenet's La Navarraise with Emma Calvé in the rôle of Anita
Poster for Le pardon de Ploërmel 1859
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2
Prudent-Louis Leray - Poster for the première of Georges Bizet's Carmen
Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for A Sensation Novel
Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan's The Contrabandista
Rosa Raisa (1917) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO002701 - Restoration
Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act1 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1871 Cairo - Gallica - Restored
Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act4 sc2 of Aida by Verdi 1880 Paris
Strauss, Richard - Ariadne auf Naxos - Restoration
Tavola 5, bozzetto di Gebrüder Brückner per Tannhäuser (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON011721 - Restoration, crop
Teatro Municipal de São Paulo 8
The Mikado Chappell Vocal Score cover (c.1895)
Thespis - Illustrated London News Jan 6 1872
Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom
Utopia Limited Poster
Vasta spianata presso Courtray, bozzetto di Giuseppe Palanti per Edgar (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON000128 B
Verdi conducting Aida in Paris 1880 - Gallica - Restoration
Wally (soprano), figurino di Adolf Hohenstein per La Wally (1892) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON004639 - Restoration
Wilhelm - Costume design for Arac, Gunon, and Scynthius (Princess Ida, 1884)
Édouard de Reszke by Nadar (BPL Hale Coll)
Émile Bertrand - Jules Massenet - Cendrillon poster