2. Previous knowledge While the history of opera “officially” begins in the late 16 th century, the act of putting on plays as a form of entertainment dates back to __________________.

3. 1597: Dafne was the first opera ever composed. It incorporated musical instruments, including the lute, viol and harpsichord, Peri established recitatives (1), as a central part of opera. (1) melodic speech set to music 1600’s: Castrati are introduced. Young boys were castrated so their voices can attain and retain high octave levels. Numerous operas were written suited to the voice ranges of the boys. This procedure continues into the late 1800s. Alessandro Moreschi, Castrato, Ave MariaAve Maria

4. In many ways, opera was the pop music of its day, with arias being the hit songs. Its popularity spread across Europe and soon cities had purpose-built opera houses (the first was in Venice). For many years opera was viewed as an Italian form, which led to composers writing the librettos (or lyrics) of their operas in Italian

5. The first English opera was Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, premiered in 1689Dido and Aeneas The story of Dido and Aeneas is a tragic love story Before Aeneas founded Rome, he was a Trojan soldier. When Troy fell, he left with his followers in seven ships. He was shipwrecked on the shores of Carthage, the great African city ruled by Queen Dido. Dido and Aeneas fell in love, but the gods called Aeneas away to fulfill his destiny in Italy, and Dido was left heartbroken and alone. In her despair, she built a funeral pyre and committed suicide atop it. Virgil gives the story as the explanation for Rome and Carthage’s ancient grievance that culminated in the Punic Wars. In reality, there was a Queen Dido of Carthage, and she did commit suicide, but it was to avoid marrying a rival king, Iarbus.

6. It was Christoph Gluck, a German composer, who changed the face of opera, and made it more like the form we know today. With Orfeo et Eurydice, staged in 1762 in Vienna, he revolutionised the form, emphasising the drama of the piece and cutting the excess. It was a great success, and Gluck composed other operas that stuck to the same focus, influencing those who followed him, like Mozart, whose Marriage of Figaro was one of the most popular operas of its day. Combing humour with its tale, and some memorable tunes, it set the standard for opera, which he tried to outdo with Cosi Fan Tutti and The Magic Flute.

7. In the 19th century different strands of opera emerged - the Italian, German, French, Russian and even Spanish. France took it to epic heights with grand opera that included dance interludes with a full ballet company and productions that lasted four to five hours. The work of Wagner, whose Ring Cycle, a retelling of Teutonic myth, took opera to epic, extravagant proportions.

8. Wagner opera The first of Wagner's mature operas is Tristan und Isolde. often considered his masterpiece. This is followed by Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly referred to as the Ring cycle, a set of four operas based on German and Scandinavian mythology. Spanning roughly 14 hours in performance, the Ring cycle has been called the most ambitious artistic work ever made.

9. Der Ring des Nibelungen The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the dwarf Alberich from gold he stole from the Rhinemaidens in the river Rhine. Several mythic figures struggle for possession of the Ring, including Odin the king of the gods. Odin's scheme, spanning generations, drives much of the action in the story. His grandson, the hero Siegfried, wins the Ring, as Odin intended, but is eventually betrayed and slain. Finally, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Siegfried's lover and Odin's estranged daughter, returns the Ring to the Rhinemaidens. In the process, the Gods and their home, Valhalla, are destroyed.

10. In his previous operas, Wagner had tried to make minimal use of recitative and aria. For the Ring he decided to do away with them entirely and adopted a through-composed (1) style. Where each act of each opera would be a continuous piece of music with no breaks. (1) Music without repeats. Act 3: Ride of the ValkyriesRide of the Valkyries