Opera became an extremely important genre during the nineteenth century. During the first half of the century, Paris was the operatic capital of Europe. Because of the increased wealth and interest of the new middle class, a new form of opera was developed, grand opera. This genre concentrated on spectacle, often sacrificing drama and music for special effects.

     Giacomo Meyerbeer, a native of Germany who studied and worked in Italy before he moved to France, introduced this style to Paris. Two of his most successful works were Les Huguenots and Le Prophète. The Italian composer Rossini also contributed to grand opera with Guillaume Tell (William Tell).

     Another form of opera that was quite popular was opéra comique (comic opera). These operas were lighter works that often used spoken dialogue in place of recitative. The music and plot were much simpler, too. Not all of these works were comic in the modern sense of comedy. Some, like Bizet’s Carmen, were dramatic, true-to-life works.

     Evolving from opéra comique later in the century was another form called lyric opera. One of the finest operas of this style was Gounod’s Faust. At first it had spoken dialogue, which was later changed to recitative, moving it from the opéra comique style to the lyric.

     In the nineteenth century, opera was about the only genre being cultivated in Italy. The traditions of opera buffa and opera seria were still maintained, but had been influenced somewhat by French grand opera. One of the finest early nineteenth-century examples of  opera  buffa was Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) based on a play by Beaumarchais (the same playwright whose work Mozart used for his opera The Marriage of Figaro).

     Rossini developed a lyric style of writing for his arias that came to be called the bel canto style. He emphasized beauty and purity of tone along with a fluid vocal technique. This style was adapted by several other important Italian opera composers, including Donizetti and Bellini.

     Perhaps the greatest of the nineteenth-century Italian composers was Giuseppi Verdi. Born into a poor family in the village of Busetto, Italy, Verdi came to prominence through a combination of talent, perseverance, and good fortune. Although he had an adequate early musical training, he was denied admission to the Milan Conservatory.

He continued private study, and in 1839, at the age of twenty-six, he completed his first opera, Oberto.

     This opera was a success and led to two more in rapid succession. The third opera, Nabucco, had a story line that paralleled what was happening in Italian politics at the time: the desire for freedom from foreign rule. Nabucco was a musical as well as political triumph. Verdi was hailed as a patriot and champion of the Italian quest for independence. Verdi continued to be quite productive, composing one popular opera after another. There was a sixteen-year creative hiatus from about 1877 until 1893 and the production of Otello. That same year Verdi composed his last opera, Falstaff, also based on a Shakespeare play. This was his only mature comic opera and one of the finest Italian operas in the comic style.

     Finally, toward the end of the nineteenth century, a movement toward naturalism and realism took place in Italian literature. This movement, called verismo (reality) was taken up by opera composers too, most notably Giacomo Puccini. Puccini, like J. S. Bach, came from a long line of musicians. And unlike his countryman Verdi, Puccini was accepted to the Milan Conservatory, where he received a scholarship. 

     Puccini’s first opera, Le Villi, was produced in 1884 and was an instant success, but based on a Slavonic legend, not reality. His first real triumph in this new style was Manon Lescaut, which made him famous throughout Italy. His next opera, La Bohème (The bohemian girl) brought him international fame.   

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. French grand opera was attractive to the middle-class audience, which was not altogether musically sophisticated. You might want to compare this trend with the current-day penchant for action movies. Spectacles like car chases, explosions, daring stunts, and so forth often take precedence over plot, character, and dialogue.

2. Rossini’s Barbiere, produced in 1816, was an initial failure but eventually came to be admired. Beethoven and Verdi were among its admirers. Today it ranks among the greatest comic operas. A good point of discussion is to mention briefly the way audiences receive works. Who is the final arbiter of a work’s quality: the general public? critics? historians? Think back to Bach and his reception as a composer.

3. Verdi was a man of his times in numerous ways. He was interested in politics, being elected to the Italian parliament for a time. He also incorporated patriotic themes into several operas. He was also an extremely productive composer. Between 1844 and 1850 he composed almost one dozen operas. During the period 1851 to 1853 he composed three of his finest, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata.

4. Puccini became somewhat obsessed by Manon Lescaut. He worked on it for at least three years, going through six librettists before being satisfied with the book. This work, taken from a novel by Abbe Prevost, had already been used by Massenet in his opera Manon. Puccini’s difficulty lay in trying to distance himself from Massenet’s work.

FURTHER QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. What elements of verismo opera are present in “Che gelida manina”?

2. How does a versimo opera such as La Boheme compare with earlier lyric operas or other styles of the nineteenth century?

3. Explain to your students that it is important to learn the plots of operas before attending the performance. Students who don’t understand the language or who get distracted by supertitle translations can follow the action and music better when they understand the overall story.

4. You might want to talk to your students about the problems inherent in translating a musical text from one language to another.