Opera

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Jeremy Tambling (University of Hong Kong)
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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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“Opera”, Italian plural of “opus” (work), may be said to have begun when the Italian Camerata, meeting in the houses of the Florentine Giovanni de’ Bardi and Jacopo Corsi in the 1580s, began experimenting with music and drama in order to produce a work resembling ancient Greek drama. Of this group, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) emerged with

Orfeo

which was first performed in Mantua in 1607. Later operas by Monteverdi include

The Return of Ulysses

(Venice, 1641) and

The Coronation of Poppea

(Venice, 1642). At the same time, the Venetian Cavalli (1602-1676) was also developing the genre and would go on to compose 40 operas in all, of which

Giasone

(1649) is now the best known. Cavalli visited Paris in 1660, by which time French opera following an Italian style was catching on,…

2533 words

Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Opera". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=794, accessed 28 March 2024.]

794 Opera 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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