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Musical and dramatic interest became focused on the grandiose, so-called da capo arias, which make up the bulk of these operas.

The Neapolitans cultivated opera seria, notably in the works of Alessandro Scarlatti. Italian opera seria continued to dominate the musical scene throughout the 17th and 18th cent. Two of his works, however, Les Indes galantes ( The Gallant Indies, 1735) and Castor et Pollux (1737), have music surpassing their librettos. The operas of Jean Philippe Rameau followed the tradition established by Lully, but were not as well received.

His operas were divided into five acts and a prologue. Lully introduced his audience to grand-scale entertainment: lavish stage settings and scenery in addition to ballets, choruses, and long disquisitions on love and glory.

Italian opera, the pastoral, French classical tragedy, and the ballet de cour (see ballet) were the antecedents of French opera. Officially, French opera began in 1669 with the establishment of the Académie royale de Musique, which was taken over by Jean Baptiste Lully in 1672 after the bankruptcy of its founders. Alessandro Stradella, a forerunner of the 18th-century Neapolitan school, wrote operas in this style. The recitative diminished in musical interest in favor of the aria, the chorus gave way to the virtuoso soloist, and the Renaissance interest in antiquities was superseded by a trend toward lofty scenes punctuated by comedy and parody. With the next generation of Venetian composers, headed by Marcantonio Cesti (1623–69) and Pietro Francesco Cavalli, an international style developed, and local schools disappeared. He also reflected the moods and dramatic vividness of the libretto in his music, and his work became a model for the operatic composers who followed. Monteverdi's influence was considerable, for he may be said to be responsible for the introduction of bel canto and buffo styles. In Venice, two of Monteverdi's best-known works, the early La Favola d'Orfeo ( The Tale of Orpheus, 1607) and L'Incoronazione di Poppea ( The Coronation of Poppea, 1642), were performed. In 1637 the first public opera house in the world opened in Venice, and by 1700 at least 16 more theaters were built and hundreds of operas produced. However, it was not until the appearance of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice that baroque opera reached its peak, and the art form that began as entertainment for the aristocracy became available to popular audiences. Also, the libretto included comic scenes, which had no part in earlier operas. Landi modified the strict declamatory style of the Florentines with formal devices: the recitative and aria became clearly differentiated, and more prominent use was made of choruses and instrumental form. The work that established Roman opera, Sant' Alessio, by Stefano Landi (c.1590–c.1639), appeared in 1632 it had a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX). Although fragments of Jacopo Peri's Dafne (c.1597) exist, the same composer's Euridice (1600), set to verse by Ottavio Rinuccini, is generally considered the first opera.ĭevelopment of earlier baroque opera occurred at Rome and Venice. It had both lofty and comic strains, which were in time separated into distinct genres, the opera seria (serious opera) and the opera buffa (comic opera). used myth at first and plots about historical figures later. It was their aim to promote the principle of monodic musical declamation, i.e., a single melodic line with modest accompaniment inspired by the example of ancient Greek drama accordingly, the earliest operas took their plots from mythology, the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice being one of the most popular.īecause the story hinges on the expressive power of music and solo song, the early composers referred to their work as dramma per musica, and operas of the 17th and 18th cent. It began in Florence, Italy, fostered by the camerata, a group of scholars, philosophers, and amateur musicians that included the librettist Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621) and the composers Vincenzo Galilei, Emilio del Cavaliere (c.1550–1602), Jacopo Peri, and Giulio Caccini. Although musical drama, such as The Play of Daniel (12th cent.), had previously existed, it was in the year 1600 that opera came into being.