Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: When was the first opera written?
Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata de' Bardi". Significantly, Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. Dafne, however, is lost. A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. The honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed, however, goes to Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, composed for the court of Mantua in 1607.[7] The Mantua court of the Gonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the concerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of the first actual "opera singers"; Madama Europa.[8]
McTeague is an American opera composed by William Bolcom with a libretto Arnold Weinstein and Robert Altman. The opera is based on a novel of the same name by Frank Norris (written in 1895, published in 1899) which also served as the source material for the Erich von Stroheim film "Greed" (1924). The piece was written on commission for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and first performed there on October 31, 1992.
Salawat Yulayev is an opera in three acts by the Bashkir composer Zagir Ismagilov. The libretto was written by Bayezit Bikbay, based on stories from the life of the Bashkir national hero, Salawat Yulayev. It is the first national opera written in the Bashkir language and premiered in 1955 at the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Ufa in its original four-act version.
During the years when the Gilbert and Sullivan (“G&S”) operas were being written, Richard D'Oyly Carte produced operas by other composer–librettist teams, either as curtain raisers to the G&S pieces, or to fill the theatre when no G&S piece was available. To their contemporaries, the term "Savoy Opera" referred to any opera that appeared at that theatre, regardless of who wrote it.
Nielsen's two operas are very different in style. The four-act (Saul and David), written in 1902 to a libretto by Einar Christiansen, tells the Biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David while (Masquerade) is a comic opera in three acts written in 1906 to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. "Saul and David" received a negative press when it was premiered in November 1902 and did no better when it was revived in 1904. By contrast, in November 1906 "Masquerade" was a resounding success with an exceptional run of 25 performances over its first four months. Generally considered to be Denmark's national opera, in its home country it has enjoyed lasting success and popularity, attributable to its many strophic songs, its dances and its underlying "old Copenhagen" atmosphere.
, 190, is a one-act singspiel by Franz Schubert to a libretto by Theodor Körner written for 's (1784–1814) opera of the same title that premiered in 1813 in Vienna's Theater an der Wien. Written in 1815 when Schubert was 18 years old, it was first performed on 23 September 1896, 67 years after Schubert's death, at the Dresden Court Opera.
The opera was written to celebrate the eighth birthday of Empress Maria Theresa's son Leopold and first performed at Laxenburg on 5 May 1755. "La danza" was used as the prologue to "Le grand Ballet des bergers" ("The Great Ballet of the Shepherds"), a ballet with music by Josef Starzer. Pietro Metastasio had originally written the opera's Italian-language libretto for the composer Giuseppe Bonno in 1744. He revised the text for Gluck, including two new arias. The opera may have been reprised on 30 May 1755 at Laxenburg. There is no record of any further performance until 1987, when it appeared at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
Opera reached Russia in 1731, when Empress Anna invited the Italian opera troupe to show "Calandro" by Giovanni Alberto Ristori during the celebration of her coronation in Moscow. In 1735 another Italian opera troupe led by composer Francesco Araja was invited to work in St. Petersburg. Araja spent 25 years in Russia and wrote 14 operas for the Russian Court including "Tsefal i Prokris" (1755), the first opera written in Russian to the libretto by Alexander Sumarokov.
"Stradella", CFF 229, Op.033 is an 1841 opera by César Franck to a libretto by Émile Deschamps and Émilien Pacini. It is the first of Franck's four operas. Written when he was only 19, it was never orchestrated. Its first performance took place in the late 20th century.
Goce is an opera composed by Kiril Makedonski (1925–1984) in tribute to Gotse Delchev. The work was commissioned to be the very first opera performed by the Macedonian National Opera Company. It premiered on May 24, 1954 and it is the first opera to be written in the Macedonian language.
Little is known of his artistic beginnings. The first mention of him is from 1739, when the travelling opera company of Pietro Mignotti performed his opera "Lucio Papirio ditattore" in Graz. In 1745 was Zoppis temporarily engaged as the "vice-kapellmeister" at the court of the kurfürst Clemens August in Bonn. In 1748 he came to Prague, where he joined the Locatelli ensemble. He began to cooperate with e. g. Ch. W. Gluck and G. M. Rutini. Zoppis composed his first Prague opera, "Vologeso", in 1753. A year later, in 1754, he introduced another opera - "Siroe, re di Persia". The music was written to the libretto of Pietro Metastasio. Zoppis left Prague together with Locatelli and moved to St. Petersburgh, where he conducted the local opera.
Fry's operatic compositions include "Aurelia the Vestal", "Leonora" (based on the 1838 play "The Lady of Lyons"), and "Notre-Dame of Paris" (based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo). "Leonora" was a very successful production at its premiere in 1845 and second run the following year. "Leonora" is also significant as it was the first grand opera written by an American composer. The opera was written for Ann Childe Seguin who took the title role when it opened.
As an old form of art in a new country, opera came to Canada relatively late. Although the first composition can be traced back to the seventeenth century it was not until 150 years later that Canadian opera caught up. Canadian opera became especially fashionable on Canada's 1967 Centennial year. These celebrations set off an interest in operas among Canadian composers that was never seen before. This interest in opera, among composers and audience alike, is noticeable until today. However, most Canadian works in the realm of opera are not known internationally since many of them specifically concern Canadian themes and are small in scale.
Canadian operas are typically influenced by the history of the country. Many deal with First Nations and immigration themes or concern specific historical events and figures. Canada's diversity is thus very much reflected by the operatic works of its composers.
The first opera written on Canadian soil was Joseph Quesnel's "Colas et Colinette". Written in 1788 and first performed in 1790 in Montreal, it was again produced in Quebec in 1805. The comedic opera in three acts is written in a manner that clearly shows the composer's French heritage. The characters are “stock characters” that were often found in French comedies such as Molière's and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's. The similarities between the characters but also the plots may be due to the fact, that the plays as well as operas show the morals of French society at the time.
In Latin America, opera started as a result of European colonisation. The first opera ever written in the Americas was La púrpura de la rosa, by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, although Partenope, by the Mexican Manuel de Zumaya, was the first opera written from a composer born in Latin America (music now lost). The first Brazilian opera for a libretto in Portuguese was A Noite de São João, by Elias Álvares Lobo. However, Antonio Carlos Gomes is generally regarded as the most outstanding Brazilian composer, having a relative success in Italy with its Brazilian-themed operas with Italian librettos, such as Il Guarany. Opera in Argentina developed in the 20th century after the inauguration of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires—with the opera Aurora, by Ettore Panizza, being heavily influenced by the Italian tradition, due to immigration. Other important composers from Argentina include Felipe Boero and Alberto Ginastera.
The opera, written when the composer was only 22, is his first attempt at comic opera. (It was followed in 1733 by his better-known short opera, "La serva padrona"). The first performance was on 27 September 1732, at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, Naples. A successful run was halted by a severe earthquake, which closed the theatres in Naples until the autumn of 1733. It was re-presented during the 1734 carnival season, in a version revised by the author.
In addition, a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of "Galatea" (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini's opera "La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d’Alcina", which she had written for Prince Władysław three years earlier when he was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. When Władysław became king (as Władysław IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi in the royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by Władysław.
"Il Postino" was the fifth and last of Daniel Catán's operas and the first one for which he had also written the libretto. His route to creating the work began when he first saw the 1994 film "Il Postino" and thought it would make a good opera. However, at the time he was in the midst of composing "Florencia en el Amazonas" and then received a commission from Houston Grand Opera for his fourth opera "" which premiered in 2004. After completing that work, he returned to the "Postino" project. In an interview shortly before the premiere Catán said:
It's rare that an idea I had 15 years ago resurfaces, then I take it on, because one changes so much in that time. But when I came back to this idea, in fact I was still interested in it, but for different reasons. Instead of identifying with the Mario character, with the young aspiring poet, in fact now I could see the story from the other point of view, which was of the older poet.
The Witches is a children's opera, composed by Marcus Paus and with a libretto by Ole Paus, and based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was written for Gloppen Musikkfest, and was first performed in 2008 with Tora Augestad as the eponymous Grand High Witch. The opera was written especially with Augestad in mind.
Tchaikowsky met the theatre director John O'Brien in 1968 and they agreed to attempt an opera on "The Merchant". O'Brien has noted "At first it seemed odd that [Tchaikowsky], as a Jew, would want to take Shylock on, particularly at a time when there was a feeling that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic, which is a nonsensical thing anyway." Most of the opera was written by 1978, and following discussions with the music critic Hans Keller, Tchaikowsky decided to submit it for consideration to English National Opera, then under the directorship of Lord Harewood. A playthrough of the first two acts was arranged in December 1981, with Harewood and the ENO artistic director David Pountney and conductor Mark Elder in attendance. But in March 1982 Tchaikowsky received a letter from Harewood turning the opera down. By this time Tchaikowsky was already seriously ill, and he died only three months later. His dying wish was that the opera be performed.
Maiden of the North () is an opera by Oskar Merikanto. Composed in 1898, it was the first opera composed in the Finnish language; while other Finnish operas had been written previously, they had been composed in the Swedish language instead of the native Finnish. "Maiden" was written to a libretto by Antti Rytkönen. The opera was not premiered until 1908; at the first performances, in Wiborg, the title role was taken by Mally Burjam-Bergaas, while that of Väinämöinen was sung by Abraham Ojanperä.
In addition, a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of "Galatea" (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini's opera "La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d’Alcina", which she had written for Prince Władysław three years earlier when he was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. When Władysław was king (as Władysław IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi in the royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by Władysław.
Mackenzie's operas began in 1883 with "Colomba", first produced by the Carl Rosa Company. It was a success, but his second opera "The Troubadour" (1886) was not. Francis Hueffer's libretti for both operas were written in an antiquated style that attracted much criticism. Mackenzie's other operas were a one-act opera, "The Cricket on the Hearth", first performed in 1914, "The Eve of St John" (1924), and two almost-complete operas, "The Cornish Opera" and "Le luthier".
"When the Fern Blooms" () is a folk-opera by Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych. It has three acts and was written in the mid 1970s. It was first performed on stage in 2011. The opera was also performed on on December 15, 2017 at the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The libretto of the opera was primarily inspired by the works of Nikolai Gogol, national traditions and folklore, folk ceremonies, and epic poems.
In Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth a tradition of operatic production began in Warsaw in 1628, with a performance of "Galatea" (composer uncertain), the first Italian opera produced outside Italy. Shortly after this performance, the court produced Francesca Caccini's opera "La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d’Alcina", which she had written for Prince Władysław Vasa three years earlier when he was in Italy. Another first, this is the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. "Gli amori di Aci e Galatea" by Santi Orlandi was also performed in 1628. When Władysław was king (as Władysław IV) he oversaw the production of at least ten operas during the late 1630s and 1640s, making Warsaw a center of the art. The composers of these operas are not known: they may have been Poles working under Marco Scacchi in the royal chapel, or they may have been among the Italians imported by Władysław. A "dramma per musica" (as serious Italian opera was known at the time) entitled "Giuditta", based on the Biblical story of Judith, was performed in 1635. The composer was probably Virgilio Puccitelli.
Parry's opera, "Blodwen", was first performed in Aberystwyth's Temperance Hall on 21 May 1878, although Parry did not publish it until 1888, while at Swansea. This was the first opera written by a Welsh composer and also the first opera to be performed in Welsh. The opera, with its libretto written by Richard Davies, is set during the time of the Welsh Revolt—the last attempt by the Welsh to preserve their independence.