Baroque Opera

Opera in Rome

Rome became the city for opera following the development of opera in Florence and Mantua. Roman opera came under the patronage of the Barberini family. Opera in Rome placed emphasis on spectacular display and virtuosity in singing. La morte d'Orfeo by Stefano Landi and his opera Sant'Alessio were two of the early operas performed in the Holy City. Cavalli's Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo (not an opera) was the first dramatic work all in music to be performed in Rome.

Opera in Venice

Opera in Venice got a boost when the first public opera house opened in 1637, Teatro di San Cassiano. Venetian operas were then written for a paying public. The Venetian audience saw opera with tuneful melodies, clear formal structures, direct and vivid musical characterization and sharp contrasts of mood. "Librettos were expected to provide for visual attractions, and poets often blamed the weaknesses of their dramas on this convention" (Palisca 1968, 121). Scene changes and all kinds of machines were used to delight the eye in spectacular stage effects. Composers of opera in Venice included Monteverdi and his successors Cavalli and Antonio Cesti.

Opera in France

Opera in France was formed by the influence of Italian opera and as a strong reaction against Italian opera.
French opera as a continuous institution began only in 1671. . . . the French held for many years that their language was not suited to recitative, which is the foundation of musical drama. . . . They preferred their drama unadulterated and regarded music in the theatre as only an auxiliary to dancing and spectacle. (Grout 1965, 122)
Dancing and spectacle would continue to play an important role in French opera into the 20th century.

The founder of the French school of opera was an Italian, Jean-Baptiste Lully, working for Louis XIV. Lully created the model recitative for the French language and established other conventions, including the French Overture.

Opera in England

The history of English opera is not as grand as that of other countries. "English national opera succumbed to Italian taste soon after 1700. The untimely death of its master, Henry Purcell, is symbolic of its own fate" (Grout 1965, 135). Two works represent virtually the entire repertory of English opera, Venus and Adonis (1684) by John Blow and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1689).