66: A brief overview of opera

The form that defines the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque is the opera. The first operas were written right around the turn of the 16th-17th centuries (“Dafne” in 1598), and the earliest one still performed regularly followed soon after (“Orfeo” from 1607). Operas are, at their cores, plays where music, both played by instruments and sung by actors and actresses in costume, tells the story, rather than purely spoken word (like something by Shakespeare, for instance).


It was born out of a desire in Florence to recreate the ancient Greek theatrical tradition, but to add an Italian musical character to it.  Over time, much has changed about opera (and what counts as one has greatly expanded). Most of history’s great composers (and some much-less-than-savory characters) are very famous for their operatic works: Handel, Verdi, Mozart, and Wagner, to name a few.

Opera is important in history since it represents the turning point after which organized music is no longer the exclusive purview of the Church, as a means of worship and/or of conveying Scripture—it now exists in the secular world, to tell secular stories, to a secular audience.

Some operas are so important historically, or so well-known, that they’ll most certainly get their own articles devoted to them in the future.

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