What is Opera?
Have you ever been to an Opera? Do you
know What an Opera is? Opera is an art form consisting
of a dramatic stage performance set to music.
The drama is presented using the typical
elements of theater such as scenery, costumes, and
acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto,
are sung rather than spoken. The singers are accompanied
by a musical ensemble ranging from a small instrumental
ensemble to a full symphonic.
Traditional opera consists of two modes
of singing: recitative, the dialogue and plot-driving
passages often sung in a non-melodic style characteristic
of opera, and aria, during which the movement of the
plot often stops and the music and the singers focus
on one topic using full voice. Short sung passages
are also referred to as arioso. Each type
of singing is accompanied by musical instruments.
Singers and the roles they play are
classified according to their vocal ranges. A particular
singer's classifications change drastically over his
or her lifetime, rarely reaching vocal maturity until
well past middle age. Male singers are classified
as bass, bass-baritone, baritone, tenor and countertenor.
Female singers are classified, as contralto, mezzo-soprano
and soprano. Each of these classifications has subcategories,
(German, fach), such as lyric soprano, coloratura,
soubrette, spinto, and dramatic soprano,
which associate the singer's voice with the roles
most suitable to the vocal timbre and quality and
its range, or tessitura.
Sociology of
opera
All art forms have a social context,
and opera likewise cannot exist in a vacuum. A string
quartet exists in manuscript and printed score, and
a truly musical person, playing one part, or seated
at a keyboard, can hear the intent of the music, but
the printed score for an opera must be realized in
a production, even a slender one, for its impact.
Thus there exists a "sociology of opera" which would
be as interesting to general social historians (who
are unaware of it, on the whole) as it is to opera
buffs. Operas have always been written with a specific
audience in mind, whether more aristocratic or more
popular, expressing their local prejudices and expectations,
and even taking account of the vocal character of
certain singers' voices. Operas have also been affected
behind the scenes, by opera house politics and sometimes
government censors. But the idea that there is a canon
of operas, an opera repertory that is reflected in
a "List of famous operas," for example, is a late
entry in the sociology of opera.
